Aegean Airlines Miles+Bonus may seem like an obscure frequent flyer program. But there are two reasons why this Star Alliance loyalty program may be worth getting to know.

Why Aegean Miles+Bonus?

Firstly, Aegean’s frequent flyer program makes it relatively easy to earn Star Alliance Gold status. This is especially the case if you can take at least four flights per year with Aegean Airlines or Olympic Air. Both of these airlines are based in Greece.

The other reason is that Aegean Airlines offers some great value redemptions across the Star Alliance network.

For example, I just redeemed 12,500 Aegean miles and €36.11 (~AU$59) in taxes to fly Avianca from San Salvador to Buenos Aires – a journey of more than 6,000km crossing most of South America. The cash fare would have been over $700.

Most Australians probably don’t have a stash of miles sitting in an Aegean Miles+Bonus account. But Aegean Airlines sells miles, and you can even sometimes get a discount or bonus miles during special promotions.

Aegean miles can be redeemed for flights on any Star Alliance airline including Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, United and Turkish Airlines. Buying miles during a promotion and then redeeming for premium cabin flights can be a clever way to save money and travel in style. So it’s worth taking some time to learn about the Aegean Miles+Bonus program.

Aegean Airlines is not the only Star Alliance carrier to sell miles. You could also buy United miles, buy Air Canada Aeroplan miles or purchase Avianca LifeMiles, and redeem those for flights on Star Alliance airlines. But it could make sense to instead buy Aegean miles for specific types of redemptions – especially longer flights within a single geographical zone.

How to buy Aegean Miles+Bonus miles

You can buy Aegean Miles+Bonus miles on the Aegean Airlines website. When buying miles online, they will usually credit to your account instantly.

It costs €25 (~AU$41) per thousand to buy Aegean miles at full price.

Aegean Airlines typically runs promotions on buying miles around once or twice per year. A typical offer is a 25% discount or up to 50% bonus miles (which are basically the same thing).

There is an annual purchase limit of 30,000 Aegean miles, excluding bonus miles. This increases to 50,000 award miles if you’ve credited at least one flight to your Miles+Bonus account. It means Aegean Miles+Bonus is probably not the ideal program if you wish to redeem for lots of long-haul Business and First Class flights.

Transferring points from Marriott Bonvoy to Aegean Miles+Bonus

Another way to collect Aegean miles in Australia (other than by flying with Star Alliance airlines, of course) could be to transfer points across from Marriott Bonvoy.

Marriott Bonvoy is a hotel loyalty program that partners with American Express. You can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy. From there, you can convert your Marriott Bonvoy points into Aegean Miles+Bonus miles. You can even get a 25% bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points that you transfer to Aegean.

Marriott Bonvoy also sells miles directly to members, with various bonuses available from time to time. And of course, you can earn Marriott Bonvoy points by staying at affiliated hotels.

How to redeem Aegean Miles+Bonus miles

You can use Aegean Miles+Bonus miles to book flights on any Star Alliance airline:

You can make most Star Alliance award bookings on the Aegean Airlines website. That said, we’d recommend using the United or Air Canada websites to find Star Alliance award availability. Once you’ve found available flights, go to the Aegean website to book.

You can also book Aegean awards over the phone, The English-speaking Miles+Bonus call centre staff are refreshingly helpful.

Aegean award charts

The Aegean Miles+Bonus award charts are region-based. Here’s the Star Alliance award chart:

The Aegean award charts list the miles required for round-trip awards. One-way bookings are permitted and cost half the miles of a return award booking.

This page of the Aegean website defines the countries/states included in each region.

Aegean does not appear to pass on fuel surcharges for awards with most airlines.

The best value is on long intra-zone redemptions

The Aegean award pricing presents some interesting opportunities for two reasons:

1. The award regions are extremely large and include a lot of countries.
2. Most intra-zone redemptions are priced relatively low.

You can probably see where we’re going with this. Longer flights that are considered to be within a single zone are very good value, especially when you buy Aegean miles and redeem for Star Alliance flights in Business or First Class!

Most intra-zone awards cost 12,500 miles in Economy or 21,000 miles in Business Class. During a 50% bonus miles promotion, it would cost €350 (~AU$575) to purchase the 21,000 miles required for a Business Class ticket.

Here are some examples of intra-zone redemptions that cost 21,000 miles in Business Class:

• Bogota to Sao Paulo with Avianca
• Amman to Dubai with Turkish Airlines
• Auckland to Perth with Air New Zealand
• Vancouver to New York or Cancun with Air Canada
• Lagos to Mauritius with South African Airways
• Seychelles to Cape Town with Ethiopian Airlines

This article from 2018 explains Aegean’s South America sweet spot in more detail. Although that article may be from a while ago, the trick still works.

Unfortunately, redemptions within Asia are a bit more expensive.

Award routing rules

Unfortunately, Aegean Miles+Bonus does have some award routing rules that can restrict what you’re able to do with their miles:

• Maximum of two flight sectors per one-way booking
• No stopovers (over 24 hours) are allowed
• Mixed-class bookings are not permitted
• Premium Economy awards are not available

Also beware that, in the past, Aegean has increased the cost of some award flights without notice. This last happened in 2019.

Want to learn more about buying points for cheap premium cabin flights?

Australian Frequent Flyer offers comprehensive Training Courses that teach the tricks of the trade in an easy-to-understand format. This includes an entire course on buying points for discounted premium travel, which is available to AFF Platinum members. View course →

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Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.