Last year, I earned Aegean Airlines Gold status after flying only 19,000 miles on Star Alliance partners. Since Aegean is in Star Alliance, that meant I got Star Alliance Gold for 3+ years (I earned the status in July 2012 and my membership card expires December 2015).
I actually had enough miles for an intra-region one-way business class award. Since Aegean charges fuel surcharges on awards, I couldn’t be too creative with it. Something came up and I needed to book a speculative flight from Los Angeles to New York City somewhat last minute. I’m finished with elite qualification for this year so I looked to using miles. To my surprise, United had one flight with business class available on the premium service LAX-JFK route for just about the exact time I needed!
I could have used 25,000 United miles or 17,000 Lufthansa miles, but I really wanted to use 21,000 Aegean miles since their routing rules and uses for me are a bit more restrictive. Their sweet spot for Americans is actually to the Caribbean (since the Caribbean is a part of North America according to them) but I don’t have any upcoming plans to head there. Plus I really just wanted to liquidate these miles.
Using Skype, I called the call center in Greece around 7:30am in Athens. I immediately got an agent who spoke perfect English and priced out the itinerary easily. Since it was a partner booking and since I was using a US credit card, the agent kept me on hold for a while to double check that the reservation was properly ticketed. It was during this time that their incredibly catchy hold music played on a loop:
I mean, it’s at least more pleasant than Turkish Airlines’ hold music on loop, right?? And at least the “there” refrain isn’t overused like United’s phone line post-merger (we fly there! … and there! … and there! … and THERE!).
Turns out, in fact, that the song was made especially for an Aegean Airlines ad campaign. I don’t know what they’re saying (it’s all Greek to me!), but I like it! By George, I kind of want to go to Greece just to fly them! 😉
And for those interested, I’ll soon be posting a guide to Aegean Airlines’ Miles & Bonus program. Sit tight for that!
