News and Notes from Around the Interweb:
- Jet Airways JetPrivilege is offering 2500 miles just for signing up.
- Lufthansa’s Miles&More has an award sale.
- American Airlines pilots seem to agree with Bob Crandall: they believe that they and US Airways pilots need to come to agreement with management on new contract terms before a merger. And that’s no uncomplicated matter, since US Airways own pilots haven’t managed to do that with each other since the airline combined with America West.
- Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus is going to quarterly (rather than annual) expiration of miles unused after three years and changing the qualifying period for status (.pdf).
Gary.
I would like to know since both Turkish Airlines and Thai Airways elite status is good for 2 years, which program is better on to go for. It seems like with Thai to get siliver you need only 10K in 1 year or 15K in 2 years and for gold it is 50K/1 year or 80K/2 year. On the other hand with Turkish, for Gold (which I have now) it is 25K/1 year or 37.5K/2 year to retain it and you can purchase 10K of elite status miles. With Thai, the highest level (Gold) you do get comp upgrade vouchour from Econ to Business on any Thai flight but with Turkish the upgrade vouchours is only at their highest level (Diamond) which is by getting 80K/year miles. I am confused which one to pursue going forward.
Will await your reply.
@Raj Panjabi, neither. Go with Aegean if it’s about reaching *A gold.
What are the fuel charges on Lufthansa’s Miles&More?
womp. Re: Jet. I just filled out the long entry form only to get “Connection failure. Please try after some time.”
Huh?
@Zz – I’m not sure, but I think they’re significant. But, if you’re willing to pay them, M&M has better access to LH/LX first than partner airlines do.
Zz – WOW!! Only 4K to be *A Silver and 16K to be *A Gold on Aegean. That better than Thai, Turkish and the ex *A carrier BMI’s program (16K for Silver and 38K for Gold). I have just joined Aegean FF program. My only concern is I hope Aegean does not go out of business due to what is going on in Greece with the Euro crises.
@Raj Panjabi, yes Greece is a concern, but has been for the last 4 years and so far “so good”. Just get to Gold within a year and the status should last for 3 years. Since u just signed up u got 2000 miles that count towards status. Only 18k left to go (or 2k+16k)! Make sure you book in the right fare class and it shouldn’t be too difficult.
Zz–Thanks for the info. I did not see anywhere on the website that the elite gold status is valid for 3 years. I guess once you achieve it will be mentioned in the package. Also was not aware the 2000 sign up miles counted towards elite status.
I have a trip from LAX-LHR on Air New Zealand in 2 month in coach and the miles that Aegean will award me is 70% of actual. I would like to know that before achieving Gold I will hit Blue level just by flight the LAX-LHR outbound portion of my trip. What happens when I reach Blue..can I continue from the 6K(4K for getting to Blue level + 2K signup miles) level to 16K or do I have to start from 0 miles and then achieve 16K.
Will await your reply.
@Raj Panjabi – the card says 3 years expiry, the terms and conditions of the program say one you earn status it’s yours to keep as long as you have activity in your account every 3 years. I don’t expect these rules to last but for now the status is supposed to be permanent as long as the account remains active.
@Zz – fuel surcharges match what would be charges on equivalent paid ticket (=high for many routes)
Gary..thank you for the reply and information. I have one more question..I understand that before reaching Gold level, you will reach Blue level with Aegean Airlines. If someone reaches Blue Elite level, does his/her status/tier miles reset to 0 and start overs towards Gold Status or can he/she continue onwards to achieving Gold Status?
No reset, reset happens every 12 months, so if you do 20k (including signup bonus) within 12 months then that’s Gold
if one isn’t planning on flying Jet Airways (or any airline with a sign up bonus) within the time frame of miles expiration, is it really worth it to sign up? or just wait til the next year when an even bigger sign up bonus may present itself? Let’s assume that one will NOT fly the airline in the next year and not incur any mileage earning expenses on Jet Airways partners.