Aegean Miles+Bonus offering 100% bonus on miles purchases (but what’s the point?)

When Aegean Miles+Bonus last held a Black Friday miles sale, there was good reason to get excited.

A 100% bonus was on offer, which at the prevailing exchange rates meant buying miles at 1.96 SG cents each. That let you redeem a round-trip Business Class ticket from Singapore to Japan or South Korea for ~S$820 plus taxes and surcharges. It was a fantastic deal.

Aegean is running another Black Friday deal this year, and once again it’s a 100% bonus. This time round, however, the sale should be greeted with a resounding “meh”.

First, the brass tacks. From now till 1 December 2019, 6 a.m SGT, Miles+Bonus members will receive a 100% bonus on any miles purchased. Aegean normally charges €25 per 1,000 miles, so you’re effectively buying miles at 1.88 SG cents each (slightly lower than last year, on account of exchange rate movements). 

Miles+Bonus members can buy up to 30,000 miles (pre-bonus) in a year if they haven’t had any activity in their account in the past year. If they have, they can buy up to 50,000 miles (pre-bonus). 

Is it worth buying Aegean Miles+Bonus miles?

Earlier this week, Aegean Miles+Bonus unceremoniously devalued its award chart, without notice.

The new award chart gutted the value of Singapore to Japan Business Class awards, which went from 42,000 to 65,000 miles overnight. Singapore to Europe was also hit, albeit not as hard. 

The increase in mileage requirements more than offset the depreciation of the Euro, so net-net your trip to Japan has become 50% more expensive. Black Friday sales ain’t what they used to be, eh? 

If you really wanted to buy miles for Business Class travel to Japan, you have the following options:

Therefore, I really can’t see any good case for buying Aegean Miles+Bonus, at least if you’re flying out of Singapore. Remember: you’re still on the hook for fuel surcharges with Miles+Bonus, which further sours the deal. 

The other annoying thing is you can’t search for Miles+Bonus award space if you don’t have sufficient miles in your account, so someone with a zero balance would be playing award space roulette- buying miles before ascertaining that award space exists. 

Edit: see the comments for a workaround. Thanks guys!

What card should I use?

I wouldn’t recommend getting into Miles+Bonus if you’re fresh to the program. However, if you’re still holding on to miles in your account, this could be an opportunity to top-up your balance (and subsequently cash out your miles and exit the program). 

Miles+Bonus transactions are processed by Aegean Airlines, meaning they’ll code as foreign currency airline spend. Here are the cards that will give the highest miles return:

	Earn Rate	Cap	Remarks
OCBC 90N Card Apply here	4 mpd	None	Until 29 Feb 2020
UOB Visa Signature Apply here	4 mpd	S$2K/statement period	Min spend S$1K per statement period
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply here	4 mpd	S$2K/month
SCB Visa Infinite Apply here	3 mpd	None	Min spend S$2K per statement period
BOC Elite Miles  Apply here	3 mpd	None
DBS Altitude Visa/ AMEX Apply here	3 mpd	S$5K/month

Conclusion

Despite the lack of notice, I think we can all be thankful that Aegean devalued first, then held a miles sale. It’d be quite something if they did it the other way round (like what Alaska did with Emirates awards in 2016). 

That said, there’s very little reason for anyone in Singapore to get into Miles+Bonus at this point in time. If you’ve got some orphaned miles in your account, consider using this sale to top them up. Otherwise, steer clear.