I've plumped for TK which will give me status till 2014, after which I will see if A3 will comp me. Now that bmi has gone and there's no * carrier worth talking about from GLA, my priority is to keep status for those rare occasions when I do fly *.

Speaking of which, I have just taken my first A3 flight and jolly good it was too.

I am typing this post from a sunkissed terrace in Oia, Santorini and we flew ATH - JTR on Sunday to get here.

The A3 lounge at Athens is really nice, and looks brand spanking new. It was empty at 0900 on a Sunday morning and offered a good selection of cold breakfast items, two coffee machines (1 Nespresso, 1 Bean to Cup) and enough booze to fell an elephant.

The very short flight was also excellent. Brand new looking A321, 30 minute flight, quick drinks service then land.

There was one oddity. When we arrived in JTR, we took a bus the 50m to the terminal and there were two bags already on the belt, including SWMBO's.

Now there wasn't time to get any bags from aircraft to hall whilst we were heading there and the rest of the bags took another 5 minutes, so I was left wondering whether her bag had been sent on an earlier flight by mistake. We were at the airport about 3 hours before take off, so theoretically possible.

Anyway, the bottom line is that as well as a decent FFP, A3 seems to be a more than decent airline.