10 Best Aegean Miles Redemption

As promised, here is my 10 Best Aegean Miles Redemption: From flying 7 hours in Business Class for rate of Economy in other programmes, 20 hours in First Class at the rate of a single Long Haul Business Class, Aegean Miles+Bonus presents us with some unique miles redemption possibilities with outsized value.

Aegean Miles Redemption Basics

Aegean is a member of Star Alliance, and as a reminder you can redeem your miles to fly with any of these 26 different carriers:

and here are the crucial rates that apply for Aegean Miles Redemption bookings via the Miles+Bonus programme:

These rates are based on return journey, so one-way would be half those rates.

Key Features of Aegean Airlines Miles+Bonus

The Pros

+ Simple region based award chart
+ Low change & cancellation fees. They charge 20 Euros.
+ Generous categorisation of some countries in the same region allowing you to get creative!
+ Can book all partner awards online now ( if available off-course !)
+ Sometimes you can book same day Awards ( Again if available !)

The Cons

– Punitive rates if your itinerary requires more than 1 stop per way one-way. (Aegean never used to even show/make booking these multi-stop itineraries possible, now it does but rates go drastically higher! )
– No stop-overs allowed
– All fuel/surcharges are passed on from partner carrier i.e Lufthansa awards come with high prices!
– Mixed class are not allowed unlike LifeMiles or Singapore Krisflyer Miles
– Miles are relatively harder to earn unless flying Star Alliance

My 10 Best Aegean Miles Redemption

So what would I personally consider to be the best air ticket redemptions? I realize to some extent this can be very personal to where you are based or would normally travel to/from. You might expect I will have a Europe/London centric view, but have thrown in some exciting ones for the adventurous round the world trippers anyhow!

Without further ado, here goes:

1. Fly Business Class Between Europe and the Middle East ( 30k Miles ) here you can book Swiss Business Class from Zurich to Dubai/Muscat or Austrian from Vienna-Dubai or Lufthansa from Frankfurt-Dubai/KSA/ etc
2. Fly Business Class Within Central & Southern Africa ( 21k miles ) You can fly Ethiopian Airlines from Addis Ababa to Johannesburg for a 5 hour flight in flat bed Business seat with. You can also fly South African from Johannesburg to Port Lous/Kenya in Business.
3. Flying Business Class Within South & Central America ( 21k miles ) You can fly routes like San Jose to Sao Paulo or Panama all way to Chile with Avianca Or Copa Airlines with under $40 of tax/surcharges. We are talking between 8-10 hours in luxury for what would amount to being cheaper than economy prices!
4. Fly One-way on United’s Transcontinental Business Class ( 21k Miles )Newark (EWR) – Los Angeles (LAX) one-way in United Polaris class + ~5 Euros in taxes and charges
   Newark (EWR) – San Francisco (SFO) one-way in United Polaris class  + ~5 Euros in taxes and charges
5. Fly Business Class One-way Within the Far East ( 32,500 Miles )
   Tokyo (HND/NRT) – Jakarta (CGK) one-way in ANA business class + ~220 Euros in taxes and fees
   Tokyo (HND/NRT) – Singapore (SIN) one-way in ANA business class for + ~200 Euros in taxes and fees
6. Fly Air Canada Business Class Between Canada and South America ( 45k Miles)
   Toronto (YYZ) – São Paulo (GRU) one-way in Air Canada Signature class for + ~210 Euros in taxes and charges
7. Fly Turkish Airlines Business From Europe/Istanbul to North/South America ( 55,000 Miles ) i.e
   Istanbul – Sao Paulo (GRU)/Rio (GIG) /Panama (PTY) are all over 12 hour flights
8. Fly Thai First Class from Bangkok to Tokyo for ( 45k Miles )
   Technically you can also fly some Singapore Airlines First Class on this region too from Singapore to Tokyo but it’s very rare SQ ever release First Class flights to partner airlines. I have seen some from Singapore to Hong Kong however.
9. Fly up to 20 Hours in Lufthansa First Class From North America to South Africa ( 75k Miles ) +~460 Euros tax/charges. Strangely enough if you wanted to fly just Europe to South Africa that is also 75,000 + ~255 Euros
10. Fly 2 ANA First Class Products from London To Hawaii via Japan ( 100k Miles ) From London to Tokyo you will be in the fancy new The Suite product on 777 and onwards to Honolulu on an equally impressive First Class Suite on a very unique A380!

While this is mostly a problem with other programmes, beware you can occasionally see phantom award seats via Aegean. Recently I saw Lufthansa First Class award to a destination that Lufthansa does not have First Class !

How To Acquire Aegean Miles

As I mentioned Aegean Miles are not as easy to come by as some other airline currencies. Given the lack of credit cards that earn Aegean Miles for most people. Your best bet is to earn through Star Alliance carriers including Aegean itself.

However, if you do stay in Marriot hotels and have been saving up Marriot Bonvoy points you can convert them to Aegean at a rate of 3:1.

Aegean does also sell miles starting with 1000 miles for 25 Euros. Occasionally they have sales where you get a bonus but this is rare and has not happened in last 18 months at all that I am aware of!

Overall Thoughts

Whilst more on the niche side, I think Aegean is a fantastic programme with some great value Aegean Miles Redemptions. I value Aegean Miles quite highly and would say they are the second most valuable airline currency out there after Alaska. Personally I’d value Aegean Miles at a 1.5p benchmark. Though often get more than 4p for my redemptions!

The biggest gripe I have here is not specific to Aegean, it is the general lack of award availability across all airlines. Since travel demand has skyrocketed post covid, airlines are struggling with capacity still and therefore, award availability have been a victim of this. I really hope this changes in 2024 as airlines get back to normal capacity.

People have mixed experience of dealing with Aegean Customer service but I have always found them very responsive and quick even on the normal customer service lines, and they are even quicker on the Gold status member lines! There can be a slight language barrier with some call centre staff but I find them very efficient and pleasant to deal with.

Did I miss anything here or do you know of a hidden sweat spot that I have not covered? If so please share in the comments below!