If you’re a loyal Aegean flyer or one of the many Star Alliance travellers who’ve long used Miles+Bonus as a clever shortcut to elite status, brace yourself. Aegean has just announced sweeping changes to its Miles+Bonus programme, and they’re not the kind that make status-chasers smile. From 5 November 2026, qualifying for – or even keeping – Gold will become significantly tougher, while a brand-new Platinum tier looms above it.
A 12-month transition before the hammer drops
Aegean says there’ll be a “transition period of at least 12 months” so members have time to adjust before the new rules take full effect. For most existing Golds, renewals before late 2026 will still use the current thresholds. But from 5 November 2026 onwards, renewals and upgrades will be governed by the new, much stricter criteria.
The big change: Gold gets harder – much harder
The headline shift is simple: Aegean wants more of your flying to be on its own metal. Until now, Gold could be earned with just 4 flights on Aegean or Olympic Air plus enough miles – 24,000 tier miles to upgrade from Silver or 12,000 to retain. The alternative was 70,000 miles on any Star Alliance carrier.
From 2026, the rules become considerably harsher. To retain or upgrade to Gold, members must achieve one of the following within a rolling 12-month period:
- 32 flights exclusively on Aegean or Olympic Air
- 18,000 tier miles plus 12 flights on Aegean or Olympic Air
- 72,000 tier miles in total
In other words, the minimum Aegean/Olympic flight requirement jumps significantly from 4 to 12, and in some cases you’ll need 32 flights entirely on Aegean metal. For anyone based outside Greece who relied on long-haul Star Alliance flights to maintain Gold, that’s a huge leap. Instead of 1 return trip to Thessaloniki via Athens, you’d need to do it 3 times. The flights can still be in any cabin class. Read our Aegean A320 Athens to London Business Class Review Review
Aegean says these changes are intended to “recognise our frequent flyers travelling within Greece and abroad, while offering greater flexibility for tier retention and upgrade.” Translated: if you mostly fly Lufthansa, TAP or Swiss, you’ll now need to make a dozen detours through Athens each year to stay in their good books.
Enter Platinum: a new top tier with unknown perks
From the same date, Aegean will introduce a Platinum tier as part of the Miles+Bonus changes, promising “a world of exclusive benefits and services to our most frequent travellers.” To reach it, you’ll need 72,000 tier miles and 32 flights with Aegean or Olympic Air in the past 12 months.
The maths is suspiciously similar to the new Gold thresholds – which raises an obvious question: if Platinum now sits above Gold, what exactly happens to Gold’s benefits?
The missing fine print: what does Gold actually mean now?
And here’s where things get murky. Aegean’s official FAQs and announcement page detail the qualification thresholds at length but go silent on the benefits. Nowhere does it explicitly say whether Gold will continue to confer full Star Alliance Gold privileges – priority check-in, extra baggage, and global lounge access – or whether those will shift to the new Platinum level.
Until now, Miles+Bonus Gold has been equivalent to Star Alliance Gold, giving Aegean a cult following among mileage experts because it was one of the easiest paths to alliance-wide perks. If that equivalence were to change, it would be a seismic downgrade for members who’ve long viewed Aegean as the “friendly back door” to Star Alliance status.
For now, Aegean is keeping its cards close. The company simply says it is “enriching the benefits of Silver and Gold tiers” without specifying what that actually means. It’s equally silent on whether any perks will be downgraded or shifted to Platinum.
What Miles+Bonus members should do
The current qualification rules remain in place until at least late 2026, giving everyone a year’s breathing room. If your renewal date falls before then, you’ll re-qualify under today’s friendlier rules. But after November 2026, expect a steep climb – especially if you don’t often fly Aegean itself.
For now, the smart move is to lock in Gold while it’s still achievable, and wait for Aegean Miles+Bonus to clarify what any “Gold” and “Platinum” changes will actually mean in practice. Because if history tells us anything about frequent flyer “enhancements”, it’s that silence usually isn’t golden.
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