Aegean Miles & Bonus is one of the most lucrative Star Alliance frequent flyer programs. Awards booked through them across Star Alliance partner airlines require fewer miles than in most other programs. So when they’re giving away 5000 redeemable miles just for signing up by December 1 those miles actually get you much closer to an award than you’d think.

This new member signup offer also includes 1000 elite qualifying miles, which is great because that’s a good start towards Silver,

To reach the Silver Tier, all you need to do is fly Aegean or Olympic Air at least twice and earn 12,000 Tier Miles within 12 months or collect a total 24,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with.

While Aegean did devalue the Miles & Bonus award chart last fall, it’s still offering good value. For instance one-way business class between the U.S. and Europe is 55,000 miles; first class is 75,000 just miles (fuel surcharges apply, where applicable).

After british midland was acquired by British Airways, Aegean status matched bmi Gold members with their own Star Alliance Gold. I took advantage of that match. It used to be that Aegean status was permanent (once you earned status, you kept it). Sadly that’s no longer the case. However while the program talks about needing to keep accounts active to avoid miles expiration, the rules for this are vague and I’ve yet to hear from anyone that’s had their accounts go dormant or miles actually expire.

Terms and conditions:

• The offer is valid for new Miles+Bonus registrations or Basic account upgrades that will take place from 20.11.2020 (12:00am, Greece time) up until 01.12.2019 (23:59, Greece time) through aegeanair.com and the Aegean app.
  
• The 5,000 miles refer only to award miles.
  
• Upon registration completion, the member gets 1,000 tier miles.
  
• The extra award miles will be automatically credited to the Miles+Bonus account upon completion of the Miles+Bonus registration.

Yes, the ending year of the offer is a typo.

(HT: YHBU)