djjaguar64

I am planning a same day return from a city in Europe to ATH and back to any city(or the same) in Europe the same day. Ideally, prefer ARN, MAD, CDG, BCN etc.

We only need 2 segments with A3 for next years requalification.

Knobbgb

That seems very strange. I cannot fully vouch for them of course but I have been using them for around 4 years and have made maybe 25 bookings through them with no problems whatsoever. My only dealing with their customer service was when a flight was cancelled due to a strike. They called me even before I knew about the strike and re-booked me within a couple of minutes and everything worked smoothly. I just read through the linked thread. To be fair, the initial complaints are from three years ago and the people raising the problems were all newly-registered first time posters. Add to this the fact that people like to complain but rarely compliment - you never get a thread saying "I just used xxxxx.com and everything was as expected", and I'm happy to disregard what I read there and continue using them. Anyway,this is all very off-topic. Sorry.

Knobbgb

SO karns - any update on your KBP-SKG sector run? How did it go? Any problems? I feel kind of a bit responsible as I think I came up the the itinerary you finally chose.

karns

Yes, you did, and it worked great! I am still on the road, in LH lounge in FRA waiting for flight to EWR/YHZ.

Ukrainian did get me to IST on time, and I spent the rest of the day going ATH/SKG/ATH/IST. It was a great itinerary, and smooth all the way. The turnaround times were no problem. Although, I didn't have much time to make the first flight, coming from KBP. I mentioned the tight schedule to the FA, and she let me go up to business just before we landed. But, even though I was first off the plane, I had to wait for the bus to fill up before we got to the terminal. Still, it was OK. And, I also got to see that one can, indeed, board the plane from the lounge in SKG. A very nice touch.

Overnight in IST, at a not-bad 5* hotel, Istanbul Gonen, which has free airport shuttle. Paid 55 euros for the room, which was a bargain.

Back to KBP in the morning, no problems.

Aegean did downgrade me to silver. Fortunately, I printed my boarding passes before they did that, so I'm ok for the lounges on the way home.

Two of the four segments have already posted, and the other 2 should show up any minute, all on the 23rd, which in my mind is within the deadline.

So now, I guess I have to contact A3 and see if they'll reinstate my gold. I will be some p-offed if they don't. It cost me quite a lot to do it, not to mention the time.

Any suggestions on who/where the best place is to call? Or should it be in writing?

karns

And, BTW, thanks so much for all your help in making that happen. I was beside myself trying to get it sorted, and appreciate so much the time and thought spent on my problem. And thanks also to benberg2013, NWIFlyer and KLouis for their help. I don't get much chance to pay back, as my level of knowledge is pretty rudimentary.

I will post what happens with A3 regarding the reinstatement to gold, and hope it will be helpful. Thanks again, so very much.

benberg2013

Well done, and congratulations on it all working out.
The best is to call A3 on +302106261000 , as they have been known not to reply to enquiries/requests in writing for a very long time.

One point: Would you really get lounge access just because on the boarding pass it says you are gold? Don't they scan it upon entry then the system would tell them that in reality you are not gold? Or does the computer display you are Gold because it says so on BP?

karns

will follow up on result.

karns

got an email from A3 today, telling me that my gold card has been renewed for another year. Card should arrive in about a month. We'll see how long it takes. It seemed to me in the past that it didn't take too long, although I've certainly noticed other people's problems with that.

Except for all the angst, and huge thanks for the help I got from you guys, it was a pretty painless process, for having being done on the very last qualification day..

Thanks again, all of you!

karns

Hello Knobbgb, NWIFlyer and Benberg!

I don't know if you remember this from last year, but you guys helped me get my 4 segments in on the last day I could qualify - and I did re-qualify.

I need the annual 4 segments again this year, but I don't have to do it on the last day this time. I'll actually have some time to spend a few days in Greece.

I've been trying to decide where to spend those few days, and find any research into the Greek islands to be a monumental task. I have a whole Rough Guide to the islands, and everyplace is appealing.

So I'm asking for help again. I need 3500 miles and 4 segments. I'll be starting the saga in Moscow, or London, whichever works best.

I looked at DME-Heraklion, which is 4 segments, but doesn't give enough miles. And I don't know if Heraklion is the best place to go anyway. I see that A3 has a sale to Paros, and wonder if that would be a good place.

I have quite a few miles on A3, so don't mind using some of them to get in a good position to do the trip, if that would make it work better. Or maybe I have to do more flights in order to get the miles. I do have a couple of AC flights as part of that trip, and could contribute some of them to my A3 account, but I was hoping that I could start diverting some of those miles to an FF plan that would be more useful to me, like UA or AC.

Any suggestions from you guys, or anyone else who might find this interesting?

Knobbgb

It depends a lot on what you are looking for AND what time of year you will visit, so give us more ideas. In high season I'd say the smaller islands are better - you can actually escape the crowds, but out of season some of them are virtually closed except for a few places frequented by locals. But then again, you might be more interested in culture, hiking or just chilling out than eating, drinking and partying. You could have 10 totally different holidays on 10 different islands.

I am obviously biased towards Paros or I wouldn't be here. I think though, the sale has finished - it was just an introductory offer to clear the large number of seats that were suddenly dropped on the market. It's still a great place to visit though - but only outside of high season. The place is overrun right now and it's difficult to do anything relaxed. Until the middle of September we have a twice weekly connection to Thessaloniki which might help with your segment run.

As for your mileage/segment run - as I always advise, maybe combine A3 with SK to make up the missing miles. On certain days there are often very cheap flights from Scandinavia to Greece (especially out of the peak season) on A3. LHR-OSL or ARN (ideally with two legs) and then connect to OSL/ARN-ATH-xxx. As another example, in September I am flying DUB-ARN-TLL with SK then TLL-ATH-CHQ with A3. The first two flights cost me about 70 Euro and the second two were 54 Euro. That will be at the start of October. Around 2950 miles for 124 Euro = 4.2cpm

karns

Thanks for the reply knobbgb,

I am free on the 25th September, when I fly back to LHR to come home to YHZ. Would like to get the segments then, although like I said, I'd like to do it in a more civilized manner this time. I have 4-5 days that I can spare before I head home from wherever I end up. Again, changeable ticket, although I'd like to keep it simple and cost effective by flying home either from LHR or SVO/DME. I'd have to investigate that, as sometimes a weird new itin doesn't raise the price of the original ticket.

But, that said, I am going to start researching your Scandinavian idea right now. Speaking of which, if I can arrange it on the 25th, I'll be going to Helsinki for a day or two, and will look into that as well.

Thanks again, for last year, and this!

Knobbgb

Ah yes, I remember last year now, too. I'm really bad with "names". As usual, let us know how it goes. I'm dreading the day SAS finially ends it's 100% points. It has to happen at some point I guess...

benberg2013

Really lovely to hear from you again. So happy you retained your gold, and will do it again this year.

Really can't add much to Knobbgb's helpful suggestions.