Aegean Makes Elite Status Harder To Earn As Of 2023

Aegean Airlines’ Miles+Bonus frequent flyer program has historically been one of the most attractive Star Alliance frequent flyer programs, and one of the best programs for earning Star Alliance Gold status. Well, some major changes are coming to status qualification as of this summer.

Aegean Miles+Bonus elite qualification changes 2023

Thanks to the global alliances, it’s not uncommon to have elite status with an airline you don’t actually frequently fly with. After all, there are pros and cons to different programs, and with reciprocal elite perks across airlines in an alliance, there are some arbitrage opportunities.

Aegean Miles+Bonus has historically been one of the most generous programs for earning Star Alliance Gold status, even if you never fly with Aegean. Unfortunately that will soon be changing.

Aegean isn’t changing elite requirements for those who fly a minimum number of segments per year on Aegean (two for Silver status, four for Gold status), but rather is greatly increasing elite requirements for those who only earn elite status through partners.

Here’s the old system of Aegean elite qualification, which applies through May 31, 2023:

• To earn Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least twice per year and earn 12,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 24,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly
• To retain Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least twice per year and earn 8,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 16,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly
• To upgrade from Silver to Gold status, you need to fly Aegean at least four times per year and earn 24,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 48,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly
• To retain Gold status, you first need to retain Silver status, and then you need to fly Aegean at least four times per year and earn 12,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 24,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly

Here’s the new system of Aegean elite qualification, which kicks in as of June 1, 2023:

• To earn Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least twice per year and earn 12,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 35,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly
• To retain Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least twice per year and earn 8,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 35,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly
• To upgrade from Silver to Gold status, you need to fly Aegean at least four times per year and earn 24,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 70,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly
• To retain Gold status, you first need to retain Silver status, and then you need to fly Aegean at least four times per year and earn 12,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 70,000 elite miles, regardless of which airline you fly

As you can tell, the increases in qualification requirements here are drastic. For example, the Gold partner requalification requirement is increasing from 24,000 miles to 70,000 miles, representing a ~190% increase. Ouch.

What’s Aegean’s motive for this change?

For those exclusively earning elite status through Aegean, this isn’t just a minor increase to qualification requirements, but rather it’s quite drastic. Aegean is more or less saying that if you don’t take two or four flights per year with the airline, you should credit to a different program. That’s of course totally fair, and Aegean is hardly alone in having a requirement like this.

I suspect that Aegean is hoping to generate some incremental revenue from additional flight bookings. Those who are loyal to Aegean Miles+Bonus but don’t actually fly with Aegean might now have a reason to visit Greece and fly with Aegean. A frequent flyer program is largely about generating incremental business for the airline, and encouraging people to actually fly with the airline is one way to do that.

Second of all, I suspect that Aegean has crunched the numbers, and has simply decided that customers exclusively crediting flights from other airlines aren’t profitable to the airline anymore. Aegean gets some amount of revenue from partner carriers for the flights that are credited to Miles+Bonus, but then there are costs as well. Aegean is on the hook when you use your status to access partner lounges, and of course there’s the cost when you actually go to redeem your miles.

Bottom line

Aegean Miles+Bonus isn’t the Star Alliance sweet spot program that it once was. As of mid-2023, the program will be significantly increasing elite requirements for those who don’t credit a minimum number of Aegean flights to the program.

That’s fair enough, as it seems Aegean Miles+Bonus is no longer interested in being the Star Alliance program for those who exclusively fly with other airlines.

What do you make of these Aegean Miles+Bonus changes?