Star Alliance Gold gets you lounge access and priority boarding on any airline in the alliance, and Aegean has long sold the cheapest route to it. From 5 November 2026 it asks three times the flying. The requirement in force on the day you qualify is the one you get, so a status run, a trip flown for the tier rather than to go anywhere, is worth finishing before that date.
What changes
| Until 4 November 2026 | From 5 November 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Gold, the flights-plus-miles route | 4 Aegean or Olympic flights and 12,000 status miles | 12 Aegean or Olympic flights and 18,000 status miles |
| Silver, pure tier miles | 35,000 | 36,000 |
| Gold, pure tier miles | 70,000 | 72,000 |
Status miles are the miles that count toward a tier, a separate pot from the miles you spend on award tickets. A Platinum tier arrives above Gold.
Twelve Aegean or Olympic flights is not a weekend in Athens. The old four meant two cheap round trips inside Greece plus enough partner flying for 12,000 miles.
What is left
- Turkish Miles&Smiles Elite, at 40,000 status miles in twelve months, or a status match: Turkish grants you the rank you hold at another airline, for four months, and for a year after one international flight
- Miles & More Senator, the same card from the Lufthansa group, at 2,000 Points of which 1,000 must be Qualifying Points that only the group's own airlines pay, about 1,954 euros flown efficiently
- Aegean Gold on the new terms, if you fly Aegean anyway
The cheap door into Star Alliance Gold is closing, and what is left costs more flying or more money: what airline status costs prices both.