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

Atlas yawned.

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.

New Miles+Bonus award chart

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. 

Round-trip Business ClassOld ChartNew ChartDevaluation
Far East to Far East42,00065,00055%
Far East to Europe110,000130,00018%
Far East includes China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam. You can see the full listing of Aegean’s geographical groupings here.

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? 

Round-trip Business Class2018 Black Friday Sale2019 Black Friday SalePrice Increase
Singapore to Japan~S$820~S$1,220+50%
Singapore to Europe~S$2,160~S$2,440+13%

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

MethodMiles Req.CostRemarks
Buy EVA Air miles via Citi PayAll50K~$625-835Fuel surcharges apply. Timings not ideal- overnight stay in TPE required
Buy KrisFlyer miles via one of these methods (assume 1.14-2 cpm)94K
Promo: 65.8K
~S$1,072-1,880
Promo: ~S$750-1,316
No fuel surcharges. Spontaneous Escapes awards only released one month before travel.
Buy LifeMiles at 150% bonus 72K
Promo: 62K
~$1,296
Promo: ~S$1,116
No fuel surcharges. Promo awards must be booked by 10 Dec
Buy Aegean Miles+Bonus at 100% bonus65K~S$1,220Fuel surcharges apply
Buy Alaska Mileage Plan at 50% bonus50K~S$1,345No fuel surcharges

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 RateCapRemarks
OCBC 90N Card
Apply here
4 mpdNoneUntil 29 Feb 2020
UOB Visa Signature
Apply here
4 mpdS$2K/statement periodMin spend S$1K per statement period
DBS Woman’s World Card
Apply here
4 mpdS$2K/month 
SCB Visa Infinite
Apply here
3 mpdNoneMin spend S$2K per statement period
BOC Elite Miles 
Apply here
3 mpdNone 
DBS Altitude Visa/ AMEX
Apply here
3 mpdS$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. 

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

Similar Articles

Comments

5 COMMENTS

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
freedom

regarding not being able to search without enough miles, the little trick is to search the route, which shows 30-day ccalendar, then click the route and uncheck 30-day, you can continue and see the miles and cash charges required.

Alex

Hi Aaron,
I think we can search for the award ticket even if we have 0miles in our account. You have to uncheck the show 30 days on the right panel after you have select your departure and returning date.
Hope this helps.

Spk

Thanks for the detailed analysis.
Does anyone know of changes to Turkish miles program recently?

CREDIT CARD SIGN UP BONUSES

Advertisment

Featured Deals

Advertisment

Follow us

7,110FansLike
10,408FollowersFollow

TAGS