Mar 9, 2015, 6:33 am
Last edit by: Gnopps
*** MOD NOTE: Please do not remove ***
A friendly reminder that Flyertalk is not a marketplace, and nothing may be offered (or solicited) for sale or barter within the general forums - which includes offering vouchers for free. For those with sufficient posts and length of membership, trading/exchange is allowed solely within Coupon Connection, and then only in accordance with the specific rules of that forum.
Please do not attempt to solicit, sell or trade upgrade vouchers within this forum. Posts will be deleted and the members concerned potentially subject to disciplinary action. **Please note that this includes directly using the PM system to do so without first posting in Coupon Connection**. Thanks for your co-operation.
A friendly reminder that Flyertalk is not a marketplace, and nothing may be offered (or solicited) for sale or barter within the general forums - which includes offering vouchers for free. For those with sufficient posts and length of membership, trading/exchange is allowed solely within Coupon Connection, and then only in accordance with the specific rules of that forum.
Please do not attempt to solicit, sell or trade upgrade vouchers within this forum. Posts will be deleted and the members concerned potentially subject to disciplinary action. **Please note that this includes directly using the PM system to do so without first posting in Coupon Connection**. Thanks for your co-operation.
Criteria
- You must be travelling on A3 or OA metal - codeshares are not included.
- The original ticket must be issued on either A3 (390) or OA (050) ticket stock.
- Only revenue (paid) tickets, in fare classes other than U, P & T on a GoLight fare basis, can be upgraded, but not redemption tickets.
- All flights on the ticket must be on A3 or OA metal.
- There must be award availability in I-class for the upgrades to clear. You can check this by logging in to M&B then going to https://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbon...t/spend-miles/ The results page will initially be a calendar. To see Business availability, you have to click through to the next step. (You can also use a free or paid tool such as ANA website, UA website (looking for saver award space), Aeroplan, AwardNexus or ExpertFlyer to check for availability.)
- One coupon per person per journey leg is required - so, for example, TXL-ATH-SKG and return via the same route would require four coupons per person.
- Anyone can be upgraded using the coupons - you do not have to be travelling on the same booking or even the same plane.
Procedure
- Call A3 to request the upgrade. The phone numbers are listed at https://aegeanairlines.custhelp.com/ (most of them should go to the same call centre in Greece).
- If successful, a new ticket will be issued (with a new number). The PNR will remain unchanged.
- You are liable for any extra taxes applicable to Business Class (e.g. APD from the UK). Sometimes this gets charged, sometimes it doesn't - if it's due and you're not charged because the agent forgets, you've just been lucky.
- If there's no immediate I-class availability, you can ask to be waitlisted for upgrade. The ability to waitlist was reported to have been removed in August 2016, but was again possible in September. Check with the agent - option available on May 2018.
- in case you requested to be waitlisted for upgrade and want to check if the customer care agent made the changes on your booking you can check the reservation on checkmytrip.com (click here), the leg you requested the upgrade will be shown here as ”Waitlisted”.
- If you wish to upgrade one segment of a multi-segment trip (e.g. XXX-ATH-YYY) and there is availability on the leg you wish to upgrade, you may still have to be waitlisted due to married segment issues. The process of clearing the waitlist is somewhat confusing and may result in frustration due to the availability seeming to disappear but in reality, this may mean that the segments have been "unmarried" and the availability has been allocated to your reservation. See post 2272 and the update in post 2294 for more details.
Benefits
- No matter what the fare basis of the original ticket, you receive full Business Class benefits after upgrade.
- This includes lounge access (useful if you're upgrading someone other than yourself who has no status, or if you've run out of Silver lounge vouchers) and full baggage allowance (it applies for first leg as well, in case you are upgraded only on the 2nd leg of your trip - confirmed on the etix).
- Because the ticket books as a redemption, the free car hire is not included.
Mileage/segment earning
- You will earn at the underlying rate of your purchased ticket in economy, not at a business class rate. Because status miles are awarded, this also counts as a segment for re-qualification purposes.
- The flights may credit automatically, but may take longer to credit than tickets that have not been changed. They may also credit as 0 miles, and later change to the correct rate. If the flights have not credited properly after a few weeks then calling A3 will rectify this rapidly.
Expiry
- The vouchers expire at the end of your membership year - they do not carry over, even if status is retained. A new set is issued every year.
- It is the date when you use the voucher that matters. It can upgrade a flight that takes place after expiry as long as you apply the voucher before.
- On upgrade from Silver to Gold, any remaining Silver upgrade coupons expire, but they are replaced by four Gold ones which expire at the end of the Gold membership year.
BEWARE
- Once you have upgraded your seat, your ticket will be reissued. Suddenly, this ticket may be VERY expensive to change. If, for instance, you later decide to travel on a different date, you will probably be required to rebook into Business, even if Economy was available for new bookings. A3 will charge you the difference from your original Economy fare to a NEW Business fare. Plus fees, taxes and whatnot. Update 18/08/2021: this appears to no longer be the case, as an upgraded ticket was changed and the underlying Economy fare was used for the upgraded segments. The coupon was "removed" from the old dates and "reapplied" to the new dates.
- Coupons will not be returned/reinstated. Once a coupon is applied, it is gone for good (the T&Cs printed on the coupons allow for date and time changes, but not route changes).
- If you want to provide your coupons to upgrade a friend's travel, it is advisable to call in yourself. Your friend can call in if they know your name, birthdate, M&B-number and the email address associated with your account. That means: Anyone who knows these particulars can use your coupons without your knowledge. They do NOT need the coupon numbers.
- Crediting upgraded segments to another program will likely fail, as it will be reported as I-class. It may be possible to retro-claim the miles.
Seat upgrade coupons
Jul 6, 2016, 11:49 am
#1007
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZ, YUL, PEK
Posts: 429
Purely a guess, but perhaps certain airports charge business class passengers a slightly higher airport development fee or the like, which may explain instances of people having to pay a very small extra amount when upgrading.
Jul 6, 2016, 11:51 am
#1008
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Paris
Programs: Miles&Bonus *G
Posts: 318
One important point, which I mentioned on another thread some time ago...
You can enter one FFP number when booking, use that number while checking in, and then change the FFP number quite easily using the app, no need to phone up. I've done it 3 times already without issue - all miles credited correctly.
When you check in, save the boarding pass to Passbook. This will show the original FFP number AND STATUS (*A Gold in my case) but in blue, which you can then use to enter the lounge. Then whilst in the lounge it's possible to go back into the 'check in' menu and change the FFP number to the desired programme. Once changed, download the boarding pass and it will still retain the *G status and display the pass in the gold colour.
Here you can see that the app is displaying my *A Gold status with the A3 number entered (after switching from O6), even though I don't yet have status with M&B.
You can enter one FFP number when booking, use that number while checking in, and then change the FFP number quite easily using the app, no need to phone up. I've done it 3 times already without issue - all miles credited correctly.
When you check in, save the boarding pass to Passbook. This will show the original FFP number AND STATUS (*A Gold in my case) but in blue, which you can then use to enter the lounge. Then whilst in the lounge it's possible to go back into the 'check in' menu and change the FFP number to the desired programme. Once changed, download the boarding pass and it will still retain the *G status and display the pass in the gold colour.
Here you can see that the app is displaying my *A Gold status with the A3 number entered (after switching from O6), even though I don't yet have status with M&B.
The things you learn in this forum... 
Jul 6, 2016, 12:20 pm
#1009
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Wedged somewhere between BTS and VIE ✈
Programs: Star Alliance Gold (A3 Gold), Oneworld Emerald (BA Gold), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,338
Jul 6, 2016, 8:16 pm
#1010
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: YXY
Posts: 3,506
Jul 7, 2016, 12:47 am
#1011
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,476
For small amounts, if there's no other difference in taxes for class of travel, it's most likely an exchange rate effect if the starting point isn't a Euro-zone country - A3 re-issues the ticket when the upgrade is processed, and recalculates the amount due based on the day's IATA rate. There is the odd report of this making just a few Euro cents difference, but A3 still collecting it!
Last edited by NWIFlyer; Jul 7, 2016 at 2:34 am
Jul 7, 2016, 1:34 am
#1012
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: NW London and NW Sydney
Programs: BA Diamond, Hilton Bronze, A3 Diamond, IHG *G
Posts: 6,344
For small amounts, if there's no other difference in taxes for class of travel, it's most likely a exchange rate effect if the starting point isn't a Euro-zone country - A3 re-issues the ticket when the upgrade is processed, and recalculates the amount due based on the day's IATA rate. There is the odd report of this making just a few Euro cents difference, but A3 still collecting it!
Jul 7, 2016, 2:33 am
#1013
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,476
Of course, if you happen to be a UK resident you'll just lose it back again when it converts back to GBP, but for those elsewhere it's a saving.
A3 will always, always convert any tax amounts to Euros when processing an upgrade, because the ticket is re-issued from Greece irrespective of the country it was first issued in.
I have always paid for my LON-ATH flights in GBP, they'll be ticketed initially from A3's London office, but upon upgrade it changes to ATH and I pay all other fees in Euros.
Jul 7, 2016, 10:02 am
#1014
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: POZ
Programs: LH*S (FTL), OZ*G, Accor gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 270
Jul 13, 2016, 10:49 am
#1016
Join Date: May 2012
Location: GVA
Posts: 188
Jul 14, 2016, 1:22 am
#1017
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 13
Jul 27, 2016, 7:02 pm
#1019
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: EBG4Life, EBD, 1MM
Posts: 1,397
Upon calling the hotline, a friendly MB representative checked the award seat availability, told me they are available, BUT, now the interesting part, my tickets need to be sent to a special department and fixed and that I should call in 3 days, and if award seat is still avaible on the flights when I call, I will be upgraded
Anyone any ideas on what happened?
Another interesting detail, kids under 12 are apparently not allowed to sit in business class without an adult in the same cabin (note: the kids are A3 gold/silver and they vouchers are theirs). This was not the case last year, but I can understand the rule (for the kids with non-FTers for parents
).Quick update: I just checked the booking and it seems that someone has split our booking and upgraded 2 of the 4 members (so much for 1 seat on the inbound). No call or email for the changes and no idea if the other two were put on the wait list.
Last edited by livious; Jul 27, 2016 at 7:14 pm
Aug 1, 2016, 5:41 am
#1020
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: GRZ
Programs: A3
Posts: 4
One quick question:
Was it somewhere (Aegean website or checkmytrip) visible when people asked to be put on the waiting list for a voucher upgrade?
I tried to upgrade multiple flights for mid-September weeks ago. Three succeeded but one didn't. When I got a call today the woman collected 30 cent tax changes but she saw only the three flights and didn't mention anything about the waiting list for the 4th flight. I'm wondering if I was on the waiting list ... maybe I should give them another call in few weeks.
Was it somewhere (Aegean website or checkmytrip) visible when people asked to be put on the waiting list for a voucher upgrade?
I tried to upgrade multiple flights for mid-September weeks ago. Three succeeded but one didn't. When I got a call today the woman collected 30 cent tax changes but she saw only the three flights and didn't mention anything about the waiting list for the 4th flight. I'm wondering if I was on the waiting list ... maybe I should give them another call in few weeks.