As part of my little hobby of collecting points and travelling one thing that makes it all worth it is Airline Loyalty programs and the status that comes with it in the higher levels. The higher the status the better the perks and its the same with levels that come with hotels as well.

Unfortunately the only program I don’t hold status with at the moment that i wish i did is Qantas. I have almost 200,000 points with Qantas yet i have no status at all. However the programs where I have little to no points I hold status… wierd huh. I have over the years obtained Silver Status with Virgin Atlantic of BMI thanks to website problems or mistakes but the two I currently hold I have earned, one the hard one, the other from an offer.

So thanks to all my recent tripping around the world I managed to earn Star Alliance Gold with Aegean Airlines. This level of status gets me into any Star Gold Lounge world wide when flying, free bags/extra bags and priority boarding and check in on Star Alliance Airlines. Big big big perks when travelling that is for sure. Thankfully obtaining this was a lot easier than getting it the hard way on other airlines that require 60-70 thousand miles flown, with Aegean its only 20! Easy++

Then because I was star gold I was able to status match my way over to Virgin Australia Velocity Gold which means I get pretty similar benefits over here when flying with Virgin (which i am sure i will be doing more of while I have this lovely gold status). Being an Elite flyer sure does make travelling easier!

I also managed to pick up Silver Status in some hotel programs including Marriott & Carlson Hotels, Gold with Hilton for a while (back to Silver for a little bit) and also Gold with Accor. All come with lovely benefits which make hotel stays so much more comfortable and fun!

I am enjoying this hobby and my next 12 months of travelling should be all the more prosperous (Although my Star Gold with aegean expires in 2014 w00t!).