drbala

I did not find a section for Olympic airways and am posting my horror story here
I, my wife and two of my friends booked a ticket from London to Arhens and then on to Istanbul after two days in Athens by OLYMPIC AIRWAYS THE OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF GREECE AND 2004 OLYMPICS.
Our trip from London to Athens was nice and the fiasco started in Athens airport when we tried to check in for Istanbul. The Olympic airways maintanence staff had gone on a 24 hour strike and our flight was cancelled. We had to line up to get a rebooking for next day and it took 90 minutes to reach the counter. We were rebooked next day and PROMISED overnight hotel accommodation by the agent who asked us to proceed to the Hotel counter for the voucher. After another 45 minutes wait we were told by the agent at the Hotel counter that NO accommodation can be provided as we are considered to originate from Athens. We talked and argued with no avail. We were threatened that they will call the Police to arrest us and referred us to the Station Flights manager. She also refused to give us accommodation quoting a rule which was in Greek. We asked her whether the promise by their ticketing staff had any meaning and she said NO. We said "Do Olympic airways staff lie" She said No. We said whether the staff had any honor as they do not keep up their promises; she said no honor. We said how are they going to conduct the Olympics in 2004, she said GREECE WILL SUCCEED. Good luck to Greece and the splendid and hospitable Greeks for having to tolerate an airline like OLYMPIC. Finally we got a third rate hotel 30 miles away and paid for it ourselves.
I dreamt of going to Athens for the olympics, Now I dont know

SD Flyer

While I have no personal experience with Olympic, on my recent trip to Greece, I heard several horror stories about delayed baggage, canceled reservations, canceled flights, etc. Olympic is government owned and has a deplorable standard of service. I flew to Greece on Virgin, which was excellent, and used Aegean Airlines for intra-Greece flights. Aegean is a privately owned carrier with excellent service.

ETOPS01

There *are* other airlines that do fly to Greece, dontchaknow...

Let me guess. Olympic was flown in this instance because it was the CHEAPEST way to get there...

[This message has been edited by ETOPS01 (edited 06-23-2001).]

drbala

Olympic was flown because it offered a stop over in Athens and was one of the cheapest. You must be one of the elite rich who fly the most expensive snooty airlines. Price paid is immaterial Passengers have rights too and nations who own airlines have responsibilities

Pull the red toggle

Sorry ETOPS, but Drbala has a point. The fare paid has no significance to the services provided. I worked for an airline that at one point had the cheapest fares to London and the staff complained to me that the pax were too demanding for the fare paid. I told my staff, "if XX airlines is prepared to sell tickets at this price, then you have to accept that the company must provide all the services at that price". Case closed.

salt

ETOPS01, there are politer ways of expressing your view

JonNYC

I don't think there are more polite ways of calling someone cheap. It's just a nasty thing to do. And not the least bit relevant either.

MilesDependent

That's the problem with discussion forums such as these. They are kind of detached from reality. So people say things they probably wouldn't say in the real world. I always think before typing s/thing, and having a go at someone, say to yourself "would I say this to the person's face".

[Edited to remove a sarcastic joke]

MD

[This message has been edited by MilesDependent (edited 06-24-2001).]