Aegean Miles + Bonus United Mileage Plus

Aegean Miles+Bonus Business Class awards compared to United Mileage Plus

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In a few months, after my next two trips to Europe on SAS Scandinavian Airlines to Stockholm and return from Oslo, and after ‘Aegean Together’ pooling with my wife’s Aegean Miles+Bonus miles, I will have about 130,000 redeemable miles for Miles+Bonus award travel.

I spent a few hours looking at award charts and figuring out where I see value with my Aegean miles.

Here are some sample award travel tickets in Business Class and for some of these tickets I compared the same award ticket booked through United Mileage Plus. While award ticket fees are comparable between Aegean award tickets and United award tickets for different Star Alliance carriers, there are significant discrepancies in the miles required.

Aegean has award tickets for fewer miles for many flights in different regions of the world.

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Aegean Miles+Bonus Star Alliance award chart
San Francisco to Lisbon Business Class award
Aegean 45,000 miles; United 70,000 miles one way

Aegean Miles+Bonus 45,000 miles + €4.95 one way

TAP Portugal TP236 nonstop Feb 6, 2020

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United Airlines Star Alliance award chart for USA to Europe is 70,000 miles in Business Class for a Saver Award.

San Francisco to Lisbon Business Class award one way

Aegean Miles+Bonus 70,000 miles + $5.60 one way

TAP Portugal TP236 nonstop Feb 6, 2020

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San Francisco to London Business Class award
Aegean 45,000 miles; United 70,000 miles one way

Aegean Miles+Bonus Business Class Award

Scandinavia SAS  SFO-Copenhagen-London LHR

Wed April 3    45,000 miles + €17.42 one way

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United Mileage Plus Business Class Award

Scandinavia SAS  SFO-Copenhagen-London LHR

Wed April 3    70,000 miles + $94.70 one way

I did not see the same SAS flight itinerary on United Mileage Plus I saw on Aegean Miles+Bonus.

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Bogota, Colombia to Buenos Aires, Argentina Business Class Award
Aegean 21,000 miles; United 45,000 miles one way

Aegean Airlines charges 21,000 miles one way for travel anywhere in Central and South America given the limitation of only two flight segments allowed on an award ticket.

Avianca Airlines Business Class one way AV 87 Bogota BOG – Buenos Aires EZE

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Bogota to Buenos Aires 21,000 miles +€59.52 Business Class one way

United Airlines Mileage Plus charges 40,000 miles for this same Business Class ticket between Northern South America and Southern South America flying Avianca nonstop.

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United Mileage Plus Bogota to Buenos Aires 40,000 miles +$67.50 Business Class one way
Tokyo, Japan to Singapore Business Class Award 
Aegean 21,000 miles; United 45,000 miles one way

Sat April 6 Aegean Business Class award 21,000 miles + €77 

ANA Tokyo-Shanghai NRT-PVG NH921

Singapore Airlines Shanghai-Singapore PVG-SIN SQ825

Invalid request error occurred.
Aegean Miles+Bonus NRT-PVG NH921/PVG-SIN SQ825 21K+€77 Business Class one way

Sat April 6 Tokyo-Singapore United Airlines Mileage Plus Business Class Award

45,000 miles + $120.80 one way award

For some reason, United Mileage Plus website can’t return search results including Singapore Airlines flights [magnify image below by clicking on it to read United Mileage Plus note on Singapore Airlines]. Many of the award tickets I found searching Aegean Miles+Bonus in Asia-Pacific region were Singapore Airlines award flights in Business Class.

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United Mileage Plus Tokyo to Singapore Business Award ANA/Juneyao 45,000 miles+$120.80.
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Tokyo-Shanghai ANA, Shanghai-Singapore Juneyao Business Award 45,000 miles+$120.80.
London LHR to KRT Khartoum, Sudan  Aegean 25,000 miles; United 55,000 miles

Aegean Miles+Bonus Business Class award

Sat June 15 London LHR – Addis Ababa ADD – Khartoum, Sudan KRT

25,000 miles + €256.26 one way Ethiopian Airlines

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United Mileage Plus Business Class award = no availability online.

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United Mileage Plus has no award availability online for LHR-KRT

Ultimately I may not even use our Aegean Miles+Bonus miles for Business Class award tickets despite their relatively low cost miles compared to United Airlines Mileage Plus. My ultimate concern is getting from point A to point B on the date I need and an economy ticket might be far more valuable to me than a business class splurge.

No denying however that there are some good value award travel flight deals using Aegean Miles+Bonus miles for business class award tickets between many cities around the world.

4 Comments

  • Jules March 18, 2019

    While I agree there can be more value booking certain Star alliance flights using Aegean miles vs United miles, it should be noted that taxes/fees are always very high on Lufthansa/SWISS flights with Aegean. In addition, United allow for multiple connections on one-way flights and the excursionist perk applies for round-trip flights.

  • Levy Flight March 19, 2019

    Helpful article, thank you. How is award availability when comparing the two? I tend to book less than 6 weeks before travel. Cheers!

  • Ric Garrido March 19, 2019

    @Jules – Miles&More Airlines do have much higher fees.

    Multiple connections on one-way flights is an advantage of Mileage Plus awards. The excursionist benefit is probably less of a factor since three one way flights with Aegean might be less than a United round trip award with a free extra leg.

    Excursionist perk explained – https://thepointsguy.com/guide/maximize-united-excursionist-perk/

    @Levy – Although I have redeemed nearly 2 million United Mileage Plus miles over the years, I have not had United Mileage Plus miles in several years and not too familiar with availability trends.

  • Jules March 22, 2019

    @Levy Flight:
    I collect both Aegean and United miles and always compare availability when booking Star Alliance award flights. In general, I find that United seems to have more availability which is why I use both.

    @Ric:
    You make a good point that the United Excursionist perk may not be a significant advantage due to the overall lower mileage requirement for Aegean. Also, one additional advantage worth mentioning about Aegean is that their calendar allows one to book flights more than 337 days out.

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