Aegean Airlines - Star Alliance Aegean Miles + Bonus Star Alliance

Trip Report Aegean Airlines Gold elite status progress

a plane parked on the tarmac

I spent this past week flying from Amsterdam to Sofia, Bulgaria to Warsaw and Gdansk, Poland primarily as a way to pick up two Aegean Airlines Miles+Bonus Silver elite qualification flight segments in this Star Alliance member frequent flyer program.

Qualification Tier Points for Aegean Miles + Bonus Silver elite are 12,000 Tier Points + 2 Aegean flight segments or 24,000 Tier Points without Aegean flights. I knocked out the two Aegean flight segments on a $110 ticket Sofia, Bulgaria SOF – Athens, Greece – Warsaw, Poland. My next ticketed flight on SAS will meet the Tier Points qualification for Silver elite.

Aegean Silver Tier Points 3-2-17

My Aegean Miles + Bonus Tier Points earned so far are from one Stockholm-Copenhagen-San Francisco flight earning 1 tier point per flight mile and San Francisco – London LHR on United Airlines for this current trip earning 0.5 tier points per flight mile. These flights were the outbound portions of round trip tickets and I will make the return flights in summer 2017, but there is also a high probability I will earn the 2,500 or so tier points I need for Silver elite before my summer flight.

Sofia, Bulgaria

Sofia as a destination had a two-fold rationale. Firstly, I had never been to the city and I read it was a cheap travel destination. While in Sofia I saw a travel survey showing Sofia as the cheapest destination of 84 cities globally. 

Secondly, the cost and convenience of airline tickets to and from Sofia. A nonstop Ryanair flight from Eindhoven EIN, Netherlands for $50.62 with a paid seat and checked bag included was easy to access from Amsterdam. Sofia was also one of the few 2-segment Aegean routes I found at a low price that did not force an overnight stay in Athens and fit my dates of travel.

Basically, I had three hours in Athens between flights on my first time in Greece. Once I have Silver elite after my next SAS flight, then I will need 4 flight segments and 24,000 Tier Points to move up to Gold elite. Aegean Gold members receive Star Alliance Gold member benefits including lounge benefits on international flights. United Airlines flights in the USA will be considered international flights as an Aegean Gold elite member. I plan to tour Greece later this year when I map out my next four Aegean flight segments for Miles + Bonus Gold elite.

Olympic Airlines Sofia SOF – Athens ATH

Getting to Sofia Airport the other morning was a little more challenging than I anticipated. I arrived at the Lion’s Bridge Metro Station in Sofia at 8:30am morning rush hour. The first train to the Serdika city center tram line intersection came and there was no way I could even squeeze into a car with my carry-on and small backpack.

The next train had just enough space for me. By the time the train arrived at Sofia Airport, some dozen stops later, only three passengers remained in the cars.

Olympic Air

Olympic Airlines is Aegean’s subsidiary carrier.

Sofia Airport

Sofia SOF Airport

Relaxed in the lounge at Sofia Airport in the one of two I could access with my Diner’s Club card. The other was primarily Star Alliance. I arrived at the gate 30 minutes before flight time. At ten minutes before flight time there was still no gate agent. Finally, a gate agent started processing passengers about five minutes before flight time to load us on a bus to the Olympic Airlines plane.

The flight passed over lots of snow capped mountains and then the blue sea of islands dotted with coastal towns appeared. Suddenly I was feeling the desire to see Greece. Unfortunately, I had an aisle seat and I was on the wrong side of the aircraft to spot the Acropolis as we passed by Athens heading inland to the airport.

At aircraft touchdown, in a move I have not seen in many years, if ever, six or eight people jumped out of their seats and started taking luggage out of the overhead bins as the plane was still taxiing along the runway. The flight attendant announcement got the passengers back into their seats.

Due to coming from Bulgaria, I had to go through passport control and my passport was stamped with a Greece entry visa.

I exited out the airport doors and stood on Greece terra firma breathing in the sea air, a familiar smell to me from my Pacific Ocean home.

Athens ATH

Have I or haven’t I been to Greece?

Normally I would not qualify an airport transit as having been to a country. I have passed through Narita Airport Tokyo more than a dozen times, but I have never had a Japan stamp in my passport and I have never been outside immigration control zones of the airport.

I have a Greece passport stamp, I was outside the airport terminal, where I ate Greek pizza lunch, I photographed a statue in front of the terminal from the 4th century BC and I drank two Greek Alfa beers.

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer.â€

– Frank Zappa

Alfa Beer

Alfa Beer.

Athens ATH statue

After walking around 30 minutes outside, I headed back inside through security. My Diner’s Club entry to the lounge at Athens Airport was rejected due to the USA co-brand MasterCard label. That was a first for me and I was not going to pay 37 EUR to sit in a lounge for a couple hours.

I found a spot with an outlet and logged into free Athens Airport wifi to catch up on the news.

Athens ATH runway

I forgot to take any photos of the Aegean plane. I did take some notes on the flight attendants uniforms, similar to the dress for the Olympic Airlines crew. Four flight attendants were all young women, hair pulled back tight in a bun, deep red lipstick and lots of make-up. They wore sleeveless black tops with red aprons during inflight service. Drinks were generous with two passes of the alcohol cart and an additional pass through with coffee and tea and a meal service of pasta and meatballs.

Two rows in front of me were five young Greek women who probably took about 100 selfies during the 2 hour 20 minute flight to Warsaw with all kinds of different poses and seat rearrangement.

Even more astounding was seeing a dozen or so passengers jumping out of their seats on touchdown in Warsaw as we were still speeding down the runway. There was no getting these passengers back in their seats as the plane taxied to the gate.

Passengers pushed their way from the back to the front of the plane. I don’t know if this is normal for Aegean Airlines, or if I was traveling on flights with people who had never flown before.

Poland Border Guards Document Inspection

Another first was finding a team of Poland Border Guards on the ramp inspecting every passenger’s identification documents with magnified eye lenses before being allowed to exit the plane gangway.

Normally a two flight segment in economy class does not offer much to remember. I’ll have another four Aegean/Olympic flights later this year to get a better sense of the airline parent for my new elite status.

And next time I pass this way, I will plan to venture out of the airport and into the streets of the real Greece.

10 Comments

  • Charlie March 2, 2017

    Nice post! If you make it up to Thessaloniki, let me know and I can at least hit the airport to say “hi!”
    At least requalifying for Gold with Aegean is pretty easy! It is great incentive to never let it go for sure! 🙂

  • GN March 2, 2017

    Enjoyed your post!

    I am based in Budapest and have Aegean Gold. In January I did BUD-ATH-BRU-ATH-BUD to get the four segments that renewed my Gold status another year. Of course I also has a TATL flight earlier in he year!

    We will be in Sofia over the summer so really enjoyed reading about your positive experiences.

  • P T March 2, 2017

    Love your reports. Sofia now intrigues me. Good to know about free wifi in ATH as I’ll be passing through there a couple of times this Fall.

  • Jason Brandt Lewis March 2, 2017

    @Ric —> TANGENTAL TOPIC: Why go for Gold on Aegean Airlines?

    This is where some Frequent Flier blogs leave me behind. Since you have a blog entitled “Loyalty Traveler,” can I presume you are loyal to Aegean? How does having elite status in *this* Star Alliance member airline benefit you more than having it on United? (You are based in Monterey, CA, where United dominates passenger service, and they have a major hub at nearby SFO.)

    No blogger that I can recall has ever detailed why something like this would make sense. Granted, having a pre-existing FF account with “Airline X” will make it significantly easier to transfer miles from (e.g.) Chase, Citi, or Amex in order to then book an award seat, but why not accrue your status on United? Or Lufthansa, or some other carrier with a more extensive route network?

    What am I missing?

  • Ric Garrido March 2, 2017

    @Jason – As a US resident I have to spend $6,000 to earn United Mileage Plus Gold;

    50,000 PQM or 60 PQS (and $6,000)

    https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/premier/qualify.aspx

    I have spent less than $900 to earn Aegean Silver and I can earn Aegean Gold for another $1,000 to $1,200 in airline tickets. $2,000 to earn Aegean Gold is within my airline spend.

    In addition to having to spend $6,000 to earn United PQD for elite qualification, that has to be United Airlines ticket spend. Other Star Alliance member airline tickets do not count for Mileage Plus elite PQD. That is very restrictive.

    Most of my Star Alliance flights in past year are SAS flights from Stockholm. I can buy a $400 round trip ticket from Stockholm to San Francisco and tickets have been down to $500 for SFO to Stockholm. One ticket earns over 12,000 Tier Points in Aegean Miles+Bonus.

    Two SAS tickets between Stockholm and California ($800 to $1,000) and 4 Aegean flight segments for under $200 will get me to Aegean Gold in 2017 with similar benefits to United Mileage Plus Gold. Status lasts 2 years.

  • Ric Garrido March 2, 2017

    @Charlie – Theesaloniki was nearly my destination due to the Hyatt Regency low reward night rate. I ended picking Sofia due to having a hotel suite booked at Ramada Sofia for $24 a night + 3,000 Wyndham Rewards points. Then a customer service agent mistakenly canceled my reservation the same day the changes went through Wyndham Rewards making suites and high category rooms no longer available.

    Good news is I was recredited my 9,000 points as compensation for the agent’s error, so I stayed in Ramada Sofia for 3 nights in a standard room for 135 BGN ($73 USD). I spent 12 to 14 hours each day out and about the city, so not getting the suite was not a big deal for this hotel stay.

    Corfu caught my eye as a Greece destination after watching the Aegean flight Greece tourism videos. I would like to go from Corfu to Albania, Montenegro and Croatia this year.

    I’ll reach out to you if Thessaloniki figures in my route.

  • Ric Garrido March 2, 2017

    @GN – Budapest was another routing that worked out for my dates, but I have been to Budapest before. Might get back there this summer.

    @PT – I’ll have more on the tourist sights of Sofia from my 2 hour Free Sofia walking tour. That requires more research on places I photographed. I will do that next week when I get back to California.

  • Jason Brandt Lewis March 2, 2017

    @Ric –> I understand that United Gold is a PITA — or at least, expensive to achieve and maintain — as are all AA and DL, too. I guess my main thought was that a) you would fly United more than any other Star Alliance airline, which is apparently not the case, and/or b) that another airline with a larger route network, such as Lufthansa (or perhaps even SAS), would be more desirable.

    I have multiple FF accounts, but try to focus my earning status on but one or two airlines. then again, I’m not flying as a part of my job, so . . .

  • Chris March 2, 2017

    Hi Ric, thanks to your post last fall about nesting trips on SAS and flying A3 segments, I qualified for Silver after only one Premium Economy flight LAX-ARN on SAS with two segments on Aegean/Olympic ARN-ATH-CHQ (Crete). Within 24 hours of landing in Chania I was notified by Aegean of my Silver staus (while still in Crete!), got my 4 lounge passes and two upgrade coupons on my Miles+Bonus account, which I was able to use for return travel (CHQ-ATH-BRU). They have a great soft product at the front of the plane!!! Will get my Gold this spring when I return in my nested SAS itinerary from LAX and a final pair of A3 flights (ARN-ATH-LHR). Easy peasy thanks to your guidance!

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