Best way to GET & RETAIN Star Alliance Gold

[Faze]

I started a post on the best way for people based in UK/Europe to retain Star Alliance Gold, and for me the obvious programme seemed Aegean just due to them being more generous with Tier earnings rate as well as low thresholds to retain status compared to the other Star programmes I could see: https://www.wanderupfront.com/star-alliance-gold-with-aegean/

The 4 Aegean flight sectors seem easy enough to find for under £200, but the possibility for getting the rest of Tier point can seem hugely variable in terms of cost factor

Wanted to do some digging around and did found some PE flights to Asia for just under £800 which would cross the line for the Tier miles required.

So in all under £1000 spend for retaining Gold. Does not seem bad at all.

Anyone found/know any cheaper ways?

[John]

Retaining is easy with A3 but it’s very difficult to get to gold from scratch now. Doing two trips (7 or 8 flights) to eastern Europe with A3 may even be easier/cheaper than going to Asia if you don’t mind travelling in winter when it’s cheap.

Turkish is also quite easy if you can arrange some of your travel via IST (as the miles are harder to use).

Asiana has a lifetime status but there is a risk of leaving star, although the merger is stalled for now

[anuj]

Depends on your disposable income, £1000 to me seems a lot to spend just to get gold. For less than £1000 you could pay for lounge access and fast track and even pay for extra baggage regardless of airline. Now if you fly a lot it may be different.

[Faze]

anuj wrote:

Depends on your disposable income, £1000 to me seems a lot to spend just to get gold. For less than £1000 you could pay for lounge access and fast track and even pay for extra baggage regardless of airline. Now if you fly a lot it may be different.

Fair point, you could do that indeed. I do not to do mileage runs, so usually it would be because I actually want to do a certain trip/visit friends/have a short vacation somewhere..

[The real Swiss Tony]

I think @anuj makes a very good point. To me, the value of *G is far lower as a UK based traveller, especially with factors such as the select Lufthansa lounge deals with Amex Plat. That extra £1k can very easily be invested in add ons or even upgrading a long haul PE ticket to J. I got SK Silver from one round trip to SE Asia on Lufthansa in Z class on the family holiday, so if I’m back out that way, booking *A makes reasonable sense and should get me almost to *G. That’s likely to come at zero marginal cost, too.

But separately @Faze good to stumble across you here. I read you blog post on the Sofitel Obelisk over the weekend as have just booked a stay there for next month. Looks excellent – thanks for the write up.