Originally Posted by
Knobbgb
It hadn't been sorted out on my OTP-ATH flight a week ago.
There were a LOT of Golds (both by the number hanging around the gate with their cards out and the number I recognised from the lounge) - probably about twenty five or so. But only two people seated in the three rows of C class.
At the gate, there was no boarding announcement whatsoever. One of the agents just called out (not so loudly) "All Passengers!" and there was one of the worst boarding scrums I have ever seen with gold-types in suits pushing me out of the way (because I wasn't dressed as a gold it seems) and yaya's pushing EVERYBODY out of the way! The flight was almost totally full and I was surprised at the number of people apparently on business rather than leisure travel, but then it was 7pm on a Friday.
It is mainly a business route actually, big on emigrants or people with dual Greek/Romanian origins as well. Leisure, it's almost exclusively charters (many operated by A3!).
On my last OTP-ATH a whole different experience. Zero people in the lounge, zero others in J. And priority boarding for biz & gold was very clearly communicated by the gate agents, although on that Tuesday again it seemed were the only two.
I guess (from my other experiences, at different airports) in the end its all about how welll-trained the gate agents are in their job.