Same-day standby or changes on A3?

I hold an inexpensive revenue ticket LHR-ATH-JTR (fare classes S & Q, not sure about the booking code, maybe S2JA3C?) and am curious about whether it's possible to get onto an earlier flight out of London.

Does Aegean Airlines have any special standby or same-day confirmed change rules?

Looking at what I think are my fare rules I don't see any special provision for standby travel.

I do see language indicating that changes are permitted with a pretty low change fee (€30, Ł25, $50, or 8500 HUF, if ITA is decoding this correctly), but I'm not sure how that would work in practice since my ticket is owned by a travel agent who charges their own change fees to touch a ticket.

Normally by the day of travel, the airline "owns" the ticket, not the travel agency, although some carriers notoriously charge an additional fee to change any ticked that was not issued by them.

My only vaguely close experience was once missing a Greek island flight on Aegean in business class and being rebooked on a later flight with no fuss, no muss and no fees or additional fare charged. My wonderful travel agent took care of it instantly.

All A3 tickets can be changed for a fee (usually 15 Euro).

I'm holding a super cheap one way economy ticket on Aegean (ticketed by Aegean) from SKG (Thessaloniki) to ATH (Athens). It comes with a 30 Euro change fee plus fare diff. I'm already checked in to to my ticketed flight.

I'm wondering if Aegean does same day standby to another flight for no fee at the gate or will they treat it as a ticket change and charge the change fee plus any fare diff to take a diff flight on the same day at the airport gate?

I'm a *G if it matters. Totally prepared to take my ticketed flight but would love to take a later one if they offer this. But later flights have seats but are showing much higher prices on the website. Just wondered.

Thanks!

European airlines do not generally operate a free standby system, unlike those in the US. If you want to change a ticket to a different flight (even a later one) you should always expect to pay the change fee plus any fare difference.

It always pays to ask, and A3 is more accommodating than most, but if you prepare for disappointment that's not a bad default position!

I confirm what NWIFlyer wrote. I've tried numerous times to get on an earlier flight home and they always had to calculate the new price, which was never lower that the old one

no standby for SKG to ATH. they told me it would be expensive. (i am a3 gold, which dont matter.)

How is A3 about accommodation on a later flight? I'm taking a DBV-ATH flight that arrives at 5:40pm, and flying onwards to SKG on a separate ticket (yet to be purchased).

There are departures at 7:10pm, 8:30pm, and 10:15pm. If I book the 7:10pm departure and miss it because my inbound flight is late (all A3 flights, incidentally), would they put me on a later flight without much fuss?

Trying to avoid having to wait at ATH for an extended time if it can be avoided, but if A3 isn't kind to late arrivals, I'll just book the later flights anyway.

Thanks.

On a single ticket (or multiple conjunctive tickets) with a missed A3-A3 connection, A3 is pretty much required to put you on the next flight out.

(General rule: When on a single ticket/consequent conjunctive tickets, the late delivering carrier is responsible for rebooking)

Careful, we are talking about individual, i.e. separate tickets, thus no obligation for anything! I've often (4-5 times) asked A3 to "merge" such tickets for me and every single time I got a NO for an answer. I was lucky, and I was not late, or at least not that late to miss my next flight so I don't know how they would have reacted. Of course, on single tickets there is no problem.

Years ago, before they joined *A, my wife called me from Germany telling me that their incoming flight to ATH (separate tickets, separate airlines) was late due to a strike. I called A3 and the agent on the phone, after talking to a supervisor, did change the connecting flight. But, a) I did this hours before the connection and b) there was that strike that, I guess, mellowed them down.

In brief, just to be safe, I'd book the 8:30 pm flight to SKG.

You could book a later flight and since you will be at the airport you could ask to take an earlier one. In the past they were not so flexible, but lately they will let you fly with no extra charge. It happened to me @ HER this summer.

You can always take an earlier flight if there's space and you're willing to pay. If a free seat is available in your fare class, you only pay the standard fee, otherwise you also pay the additional fare due (difference between what you paid and the price at that moment). Occasionally, if the flight you were originally booked in is oversold, they may wave the standard change fee, as mentioned by jerry_greece.

In my case, my original flight (last one from HER-ATH) was not fully booked (they were still selling Y class) but they rebooked me on the earlier one for free (which of course was still expensive or at least more expensive than I originally paid).

I think in some cases they may relax on the change fee / additional fare.

I went ahead and booked the later 8:30pm flight to be safe. If there's time I'll ask about getting on the earlier flight with no expectations; otherwise we'll just take our time.

Thanks for all the info.

We are flying LHR-HER,

Current Itinerary

12:15 LHR 5:50pm ATH
20:30 ATH 21:20 HER

When we check in in LHR do you think they will let us onto the earlier flight from ATH to HER which departs at 19:00?