Rami Tamimi

Hi everyone,just thought I would give a small review on this airline. I am really a oneworld guy and the last time I flew Star Alliance was 2 years ago on MS. I do still keep Star Gold active via status matching. I got a status match from BD Gold to A3 Gold when BD was taken over...3 years later when A3 downgraded me to *S I status matched my RJ Emerald to TK *G (Elite),just in case. I do the same with Skyteam so I possess an AZ Elite Plus,just in case I suddenly have to fly non OW carriers.

I had to fly LHR-AMM OW,RJ was quoting something like 1100GBP for a oneway on my dates and there is no way I am flying BA's A321 to AMM. A3 had tix to AMM for 195GBP or so,which was amazing value,the connection was 1:45 which was also very convinient.

Now I did not know much about A3,so tried to find the "Select my seat" button in their MMB and then when I could not find it I searched here (rather than opening a new thread) and learned that they don't have ASR unless you are A3*G or in J. I entered my TK FQTV and the system immidiately recognized it and showed me my new allowance of 1PCS.

OLCIed 48 hours before departure and selected 34D (A321) and 29C (A320) for LHR>ATH and ATH>AMM resepectively...because http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...t-just-me.html . *G did not show up on the OLCIed BP,so I changed it to A3*S (which showed up),but the system would not let me enter the TK № again,so I had to go to the check in counter for that. (kiosk also failed to update the status.)

It was my first time using Termial 2. Apparently they have a policy to make all the Y cl pax use Kiosk check in (which is good).The only problem is that most people either refuse to do that (because they want to speak to a human),or dont understand how to operate the machine (because ...well).

I went to the premium check in counter which was manned by an elderly British woman. She entered the FQTV number but *G did not show up. She told me I won't be able to use the fast track/lounges and would have to pay for baggage check in (I was not planning to check in any bags anyways). I knew I could probably show the card in the lounge and fast track,but then agin I lost it and only had the baggage tag which did not have an expiry date on it. The woman told me to go to the TK ticketing desk and ask them to verify it in their systems...so off I went knowing that they probably would not be able to help me out and I was right. I stepped aside to make an (unrelated) phone call and then I saw the woman from the A3 counter running towards me and shouting "Sir....sir....I forgot to check if you have a schengen visa. I told her that I am in transit and did not need one...she was relived.... After the phone call I looked at the BP and noticed there was something wrong with the FQTV number,took out the baggage tag and ofcourse she entered an exta "1" to the number (110 *** *** whereas she entered 111 1** ***),so went back to the counter and pointed out to the mistake. No apologies ofcourse...she entered the number,but got an error,so she "unchecked me in" and then checked me back in (SEQ number was different) and the legendary *G appeared on her screen. By the way regarding the FQTV/FQTS issue,I was looking at her screen when she was entering the number and there is are two boxes available "Mielage accrual" and "Status recognition",so it is possible to add two FQTVs. Another piece of evidence that this possible is that the agent told me that despite her keying in my TK FQTV, the A3 FQTV did not delete completely.

Before going to security I asked the agent about the loads&seat block and she told me that Aegean was always full and that she could not block seats for me.

Entering "Gold Track" security channel my BP would not scan,as the BP of the other guy using the adjacent gate,so I went to the officer and asked him if the gates did not work. He told me that the gates did work,but the scanners did not....hmmm,alright. Gold Track was not busy,but the fact that people did not clear their hanbaggage trays meant that the x ray belt could not move much. I remember clearing about 5 or 7 trays after I went thru.

Since it was my first time using T2 I wanted to check out all the lounge options. Started with LH. BP scanned and I was given a slip with a barcode for Senator lounge access. To be honest I am surprised that LH offers a better lounge to *G than to their J cl customers. SEN lounge was fine,but nothing much to write home about. Decent catering and alcohol selection.

Went over to T2B,signs mention a 15 minutes walking time,in reality it took 5 minutes on the way out and 7 on the way back and no I was not running.

My next stop was the AC lounge which was very decent with very attentive attendants,tended bar and a good lunch spread ( I later found out they also have a la carte options). The coffee I had there was probably the best I have ever tried in any other lounge in elsewhere.

Next stop-the UA lounge and I was very impressed. I did not eat there,but used the shower room,which was very spacios and well stocked amenity wise.If there is anything to complain about there it is the somewhat weak water flow. The lounge itself was crowded,but the large space compensated for that very well. The bartenders were also truly amazing and they almost managed to replicate Simon's Flagship "Baileys Fast track" cocktail (CX folks on here would understand what I am talking about).

Visited the SQ lounge as well and did not find it too nice. They had those CX-Solus style chairs-suites which were much more spacios than the CX version,but other than that there was nothing to write home about this lounge.

Boarding was from gate A19 which was right next to WH Smith where I purchased a bottle of water (by the way why none of LHR lounges offer bottled water to take away,none of the lounge in T2,nor BA/CX/AA have it ?) started on time and there was a well policed *G/J cl priority line. We were soon onboard an old-style A321. Unlike BA, there were no problems finding space for hand baggage whatsover. The crew on both flights were friendly and efficient and I did not once see a male F/A on A3 (I read on here that they have very very few male F/A).

Departure was delayed by 55 minutes,but we ended up only 30 minutes late,I was cool with my 1:45 INTL>INTL,but a British lady sitting next to me on a 45 minutes connecting to HER was not...I told her there was no point to run,but looking at FR24 now I see that her onward flight was delayed by over an hour and was operated by the same A321,oh well.

The catering was fine,they hot option was "meatballs with rice" and it wasgood,although I have to say that these are definately the smallest portion I have ever seen. The meal on AMM sector was the same as the one on LHR,but the former was served in a small box,rather than on a tray and there was no bread/cheeze there.

Seats: Legroom better than BA and way better than IB,but it does feel somewhat cramped after 2 hours. You can play golf on RJ 321's in comparrison.

ATH transit. We were parked at a remote stand and both L1 and L4 were used for deboarding. Inside the bus there was an A3 agent who was wearing a "Flight Connections" vest and asking if anyone was going to HER.

Security was very smooth and after a short walk I found myself outside the Swissport lounge. The guy sitting in the window seat on the LHR sector was also going to AMM,so we disembarked together and I invited him to the lounge (TK must really hate me now for all the payments they have to make).

We had about 10-15 minutes in the lounge,so I had two salmon filled sandwiches (which were amazing) and a coffee and grabbed a bottle of water for the flight. The lounge is not bad,but I would not want to spend over an hour there.

Boarding the flight to AMM was a real mess. They were checking passports as you enter the gate area and they placed stcikers on each passport. Boarding was delayed by around 25 minutes due to late arrival of incoming aircraft. They did try hard to enforce the priority boarding and let's say they were almost successful.

AMM flight was operated by an old style A320 and it had about 20 empty seats,with one next to me (LHR flight only had 2 empty seats and none empty next to me). The crew were also very good on this flight,but the landing,or rather hitting the runway in AMM was the worst I ever had in my life.

Conclusion. A3 is a very decent airline with great crews and good catering.Seats may not be the most comfortable ones out there,but they are way better than most EU carriers. Transitting Athens is very straigt forward and you never have to walk too far and the lounge is very good for a quick bite and a drink,but I would not want to have a long layover there. A3 also offers great prices ex LHR,so I would not hesitate to fly them again.

Kind regards
Rami

KLouis

Really, a very meticulous report. Only question I have is, what are "old style" A320s; actually, what are "new style" ones?

Knobbgb

Well done for visiting all FOUR LHR T2 lounges! I've only ever managed two in a trip. Even then I always worry that my extra visits will flag up somewhere in the system as an extra expense and maybe upset some bean-counters. I actually quite liked the SQ one - the food is great, but I agree that UA is the best of them.

Rami Tamimi

Thanks!

When I say old style I mean this: http://image.shutterstock.com/z/stoc...-367270169.jpg

and these are the new ones:http://c8.alamy.com/comp/CBK9NT/no-s...ane-CBK9NT.jpg

I beleive Airbus upgraded their cabin style something like 10 years ago.

Rami Tamimi

Well it was my first ever visit to T2 and I probably won't fly out of there for a long time. If I will I ll probably go to LH and UA.

Actually their systems are not connected. Indeed the only reason they scan the BP is to input BP details quicker,some lounges just write them down on a sheet.

In any case the lounges are happy to admit you because they get a payment everytime you visit. A3 would not be too unhappy because in Star Alliance it's your FFP program that issues your *G that pays for access,so yeah TK is not happy with me now

KLouis

I see! Well, considering that only four of the A3's 41 A320s are older than 10 years your flights seem to have been both on planes from one of the ends of a Gaussian bell.

Rami Tamimi

Hahaha it was SX-DGS (15.6 years) and SX-DGW (13.7 years). I do have to say though,the cabin and lavatories were in perfect conditions,so no complains here at all.

DrHalxx

Rami,

SQ lounge offers small bottles of water to take onboard

Rami Tamimi

Oh really? I only saw the large glass bottles,but I might have missed the small ones. Nice of them if they do indeed provide them.

Rami Tamimi

Just flown AMM-ATH-LED,having booked it at a last minute (about 8 hours before the flight). A few notes:

-OLCI was not available. Website did not let me go further,just saying "Acceptance closed",but I managed to select seats via the app,although it still did not let me print out the BP. Not sure if OLCI is not available from AMM,or was there a problem with my booking.

-There were 3 counters open for check in:1xJ and 2xY. The J counter was handling Y pax as well,but when I came to the J desk and there were 5 people in front of me,the agent asked me if I was in J and invited me forward. Unlike LHR,in AMM they issued me with proper A3 style BPs,one for each sector. Asked for the possibility of seat block,they told me they can't do it.

-Flying out of AMM,A3 J/*G pax don't get fast track. To be fair to A3,no airline appart from RJ offers this. The agent scribbled "СIP" on my BP,because he could not find an invitation. No problems with access at all.

-The flight boarded from AMM's new pier of gates,which was nice. Boarding started 50 minutes before departure,with no separate priority queue. I initially got 30C (last row),but kept checking the mobile app,which eventually showed 30AB as occupied. Since 30DEF were empty,I reassigned myself to 30D just before the check in closure deadline. This was picked up by the scanner which beeped red. Ended up having the whole row for myself,despite the plane being very full (6 empty seats).

Crew were very friendly on both sectors again. On AMM sector it was just a hot meal with and on LED it was an omlette with fruit salad. Both tasty,but a bit small. LED crew were very hard working:they did a meal run,then drink run,then rubbish collection,duty free run,followed by another drink run prior to descent.

On arrival at ATH,we were parked at a remote stand,so they used both aft and forward exits for deboarding,but given how smart pax are everyone ignored crew instructions and anouncements and lined up for the forward exit.

Security was quick and easy and since it was 6AM we were behind staff who delivered boxes of food for the outlets airside. It was interesting to see those x-rayed. The lounge was quiet when I came,but filled up massively within the next hour. Not much to eat there and not much to do. Great for <1 hour connections though.

Boarding was a mess,with screens showing Gate Open,whereas there was no activity going on there at all.Since it was the A11,I just returned to the lounge. There was priority boarding,but one would have to squeeze thru 100 people who are lined up for normal boarding to get thru the priority counter in the far left. I did not bother.

Finally note: unlike my last trip,the AMM and LED flights were operated by SX-DGO and SX-DGZ,which are 8.3 and 1.3 years old respectevely. Both appear very new,but the legroom is very very tight,I really stuggled.Luckily I had the full row to myself on both flights. SX-DGZ had overhead screens,which showed safety demo,advertisements for the first half of the flights and moving map for the second half.

PS:For the LHR-AMM flights in the OP,the miles appeared in my TK account on the second day after the flight (TK sends an email when miles credit).

KLouis

A few questions/comments:

1) You were in business (asked me if I was in J and invited me forward) and you sat in row 30?

2) Which scanner beeped when you moved across the aisle?

3) ...screens showing Gate Open: In ATH terms, this means than an agent is at the gate counter. The screens show "boarding" when boarding has begun.

4) the legroom is very very tight: Not better nor worse than all Euporean A320s I've flown with. Mind you, I've never sat that far back... Ar any rate, I guess you're rather tall (I'm 1.82 myself).

A last, rather stupid question: you seem to look up which plane you fly in; why?

Rami Tamimi

1)I was in Y,but am entitled to use J counters as TK *G.

2)I moved myself across the aisle in the mobile app. When the BP got scanned,the computer would give a "Seat number/BN mistmatch". The agent entered my old seat number and it showed a different person assigned to it,he then entered my B/N and found my new seat and wrote it down on the BP. Same happens when someone is upgraded.

3)Thanks for the clarification. I normally see the distinction between Gate Open and Boarding in airports with security at the gate (FRA,VIE,KUL,CMB etc),or sometimes in those where they scan your BP and then let you into a holding pen (BKK,some gates at LHR-T3),so I was confused when I saw it in Athens.

4)Yeah,I agree with you,I am very spoiled with RJ legroom.I am about 180 too and find European airlines to have very limited legroom (IB was the worst in this regard). Regarding "never sat that far back",does A3 actually have more legroom in the front? I did not notice it when I was boarding. Emergency exits had a bit more legroom,but all 12 seats were occupied on both sectors,so I guess having an empty seat or two next to myself was better than extra legroom.

5)I dont normally look up (appart from when I am checking flightradar24 for the inbound flight of an airline to an outstation that I am flying for),but this time decided to have a look following our conversation about my bad lack with getting 2 out of 4 old planes in A3's fleet on my previous trip.

KLouis

Absolutely, rows 1-4 (some say 1-5 or 6), i.e. the ones that are often separated from the rest vecause of the C section. By the way, last week I sat in row 11 (forgot to check-in early ), right behind the emergency exit, and I was amazed when I realized that this raw also had more legroom than average (or I shrank a lot ).

Rami Tamimi

Did not know that...still I would prefer to take my chances and sit myself at the back and keep checking the seat map (love this feature on A3) and see if the seat(s) have become occupied or not.

By the way,both of my flights had only 2 rows of J.