Voyager
Star Alliance · miles · Annual qualifying period — points accumulate across the full year.
Elite tiers
| Tier | miles required from zero | To retain |
|---|---|---|
| Silver | 20,000 | 19,000 |
| Gold Star Alliance Gold | 45,000 | 42,750 |
| Platinum | 95,000 | 90,250 |
Gold confers Star Alliance Gold — the lowest tier in this programme with alliance-wide lounge access. Alliance mapping last verified 7 August 2026. Conditions beyond the threshold: Tier Miles are earned per calendar year on SAA and Star Alliance flights.; Platinum and Lifetime Platinum also confer Star Alliance Gold; Silver confers Star Alliance Silver.; SAA does not publish that base miles equal Tier Miles 1:1; this score assumes they do.; Own-metal earning is spend-based (1 mile per ZAR 1.60 of base fare plus carrier-imposed fees), converted here at an assumed 23.50 ZAR/£.. Compare lounge access across programmes →
Keeping a tier is a different bar from reaching it. The last column is what Voyager publishes for a member who already holds the tier, over the same qualification window as the reaching figure; a dash means no separate retention threshold has been captured for that rung, not that renewal is automatic.
Tier Miles are earned per calendar year on SAA and Star Alliance flights — and ONLY there: the T&Cs (§6.1) scope tier determination exclusively to South African Airways, SAA-marketed flights and Star Alliance partners, so Voyager's five non-Star partners (Emirates, GOL, JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia) earn Base — award — miles only, however generous their published percentage charts look. Gold, Platinum and Lifetime Platinum all confer Star Alliance Gold — Gold is the entry point — and Silver confers Star Alliance Silver. Blue is awarded after any 3 Base Miles transactions rather than on a threshold. No segment alternative is published. Lifetime Platinum is narrower still than the tier rule: it requires 6 consecutive Platinum years, or 720,000 miles over 4–6 consecutive years earned on SAA metal alone — Star Alliance flying is explicitly excluded from it. Retention is published as a PERCENTAGE, not as figures — 95% of each tier's qualifying criteria — so the retention numbers shown here (19,000 / 42,750 / 90,250) are our arithmetic on that published percentage rather than figures SAA prints. Failing retention drops Gold to Silver and Platinum to Gold. Five consecutive years of Gold, or of Gold and Platinum combined, earns one complimentary Platinum year, after which the Gold-year count resets and the next Platinum costs 120,000 Tier Miles (T&Cs §6.2). Miles are valid three years and expire every 31 March; the only published protection is earning 6,000 Tier Miles on SAA-OPERATED flights within the calendar year. Own-metal earning is spend-based — 1 mile per ZAR 1.60 of base fare plus carrier-imposed fees — and this calculator converts at a dated reference ZAR rate; SAA does not publish that base miles equal Tier Miles 1:1, which this calculator assumes. The class-of-service question is RESOLVED at source (capture U, 31 Aug 2026, Primary): the T&Cs chain explicitly — a Class of Service Bonus (§3.1.9) is categorised as Bonus miles (§3.1.8.2), and Bonus miles do not count towards Tier miles (§3.1.8) — so the premium-cabin excess above 100% in Voyager's partner charts (e.g. United Business 125%) is award-side only, and Tier miles here are clamped at 100% of miles flown (migration 200). Verified at voyager.flysaa.com incl. the T&Cs, Aug 2026.
Earning reference
Booking classesEvery miles rate, by booking class
The full reference table for Voyager: each operating carrier crossed with each booking class, the rate we hold, and the earning model behind it. Only classes with a rate we have captured from the programme are listed — nothing is filled in with a guess.
Open the booking-class table →Voyager status matches out
Into Virgin Atlantic — Flying Club
- Platinum or Gold → Gold (Status match)
- Silver → Silver (Status match)