Originally Posted by
johnirvine
Did I just start flying? I currently have 850k miles in my Aegean account - how many do you have?
Seriously now? You want to take it there and still have me take you seriously?
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
If you had any recent experience with LH group flights, you would see that the C class cabin on intra-Europe flights is normally 2-3 times the size of A3 flights. Why? Because they provide a service that people want at a price they can afford.
Coincidentally I just flew exactly that, LH C in a A321 (which is probably the "best" Aegean also has to offer) from their hub at Frankfurt to London Heathrow (which should also probably be one of their most busy routes) exactly 3 weeks ago. If I were to carefully examine your sentence I would start with "normally": Which, as the the word implies, is not always the case and this is in fact correct, since Aegean also flies the A321 to Heathrow and from what I've seen (never taken that flight) the C cabin on that route is also quite large. What I am used to when it comes to an Aegean C cabin are 2 or 3 rows of seats. To compare the products further, I need to stress the fact that while both hard products come with a free middle seat, the innermost armrests on Aegean's Airbus A320/321 (can't remember the A319, but I see no reason why it would be any different) get moved towards the inside of the middle seat, giving each of the 2 actually used seats an extra 4-5cm width. If you think this isn't much, I was extremely surprised and disappointed that LH didn't have that (after all it was exactly the same aircraft type!), since I actually don't enjoy having my arms go straight "down" my sides (for obvious reasons) and even those extra 4cm do make a difference in comfort which is at least worth mentioning. Along with the fixed armrests comes the missing "middle-seat-table" on the LH plane, which is used by Aegean for welcome drinks etc. Everything else regarding the hard product is pretty much the same. When it comes to the soft product, I have met so many more Aegean crews that I am not sure I can objectively compare them (though I don't think that you'd ever feel "warmth" from the absolutely professional, but also strictly professional LH crew). A bigger (and fuller) C cabin on LH also doesn't leave much time for any special attention, at least on 2h-flights. However I can definitely compare the food offered (not much else is offered that interests me anyway, I don't drink wine just for the sake of drinking wine on an plane and neither of them serve actual champagne -don't mistake some 10-15$ sparkling wine for champagne- on these flights). I do, however, always (when available) drink a cappuccino (or two), which Lufthansa wasn't serving. Here Aegean, even after the "downgrade" that the gastronomics menu introduced, is a clear winner. What was I offered on the LH flight (9:30am dept. - 11:15am arr. -german time- there was some congestion so we might have stayed even longer in the air)? About 10-15 gramms of "muesli" (which I would normally never eat -I know, it's supposed to be good for you, but I just have my own preferences- ), 100ml of sugar-milk and some bread (slice or roll) that I would only eat if I were starving and there was nothing else left for me to eat. There's a picture for you below...
On any similar Aegean flight in C you would always have the option for a warm meal (even the not-so-impressive-but-still-better-than-LH's my 2nd pic shows from a 2h15min flight). Not that this is worth the difference in price we are discussing, but that's not the point right now.
Even on a 1h15min flight with LOT I enjoyed that little 'breakfast snack' very much (plus I did -just like on Aegean's flight- eat that -unhealthy- bread :P -- pic #3).
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
Your argument that 'has lost it implies there has been a dramatic change in their affairs' is a non sequitur. What has actually happened is that LH Group has significantly cut their fares, at least out of Cyprus, and Aegean has not followed. The business seating in both A3 and LH Group is little different than economy apart from the blocked middle seat and it should therefore be possible to make a profit at far less than the usurious price Aegean is attempting to sell C class seats for.
So it is actually the LH group that "lost it", or simply couldn't compete/sell tickets for the same price as Aegean :P. No serious conclusion, but still, to claim that Aegean has lost it because they didn't follow and trash their C prices is extreme. They were probably doing just fine before and still are now. But if you do fly Aegean as much as you lead us to believe you do, then you should know (and I hate to repeat myself) that you will never find (or to put it correctly: you have never in at least the last 7 years seen) such a C fare on Aegean for that price tag! Aegean will never sell C tickets for less than the price they sell a bunch of economy class tickets! Why is this so difficult to fathom? If LH's super-large regional C cabin can't be filled, then prices will drop, because flying a plane with 1/3rd of its capacity empty is extremely bad for business. Aegean's 2 rows are still valuable, but at the end of the day, they don't live off of those tickets. But again, it's not my position to explain a company's pricing policy, you can criticise it as much as you want, but if they don't want to change it or if it simply doesn't matter to them, there's just no point (and, again, I am absolutely confident that they won't change it. Simply because if they do, they will be shooting themselves in the leg, since their frequent flyers will notice and "expect" other routes to get cheap C fares, so C sales will take a serious hit).
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
You say 'if you like to fly business, pay the higher price!' Fortunately, out of Cyprus there is a functioning market and I can fly business at a price that I can easily afford.
Well then..... just .... and fly whatever the heck you want! Free market! You are free to choose! "Make Aegean hurt and bleed by flying a competitor in C"

Show them!!
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
Actually, I normally use my black TK Elite Plus card because other *G airlines understand that this is a serious FFP card that you have to do significant flying to retain, not a mere 12,000 miles. If flying economy, I use the A3*G card since I currently like the idea of Aegean paying for my lounge entry.
Wow, what a beautiful ethics lesson! Show off my super cool hard-to-obtain-card and make the 'poor' airline that practically gives their (equally valuable) cards away pay for everything... :shock: I seriously couldn't care less how much Aegean pays for whatever you're milking them for, but you'd better not be looking for sympathy with this attitude (your own actions speak volumes about how you treat people/partners etc. and I am pretty sure you were just "milking" Aegean even before they gave you "reasons" to rant about their C fares from Cyprus)...
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
Aegean have squandered their previous strong hub position in Larnaca due to poor management.
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
By criticizing Aegean, I hope that the airline will improve.
Have you put any thought into why you are ranting here before addressing Aegean with your complaints? You don't mention if you have, so I assume you haven't. Here's another "good" part (it will also spare you some time and effort): If you do contact Aegean with your thoughts, doesn't really matter how you address them (kind of harsh), there's one and only one answer you are going to get: "Thank you for your remarks. We have forwarded them to the appropriate department for evaluation". Do you want to try and guess what will happen after that? :P :P And by the way, do you seriously think that while contacting the airline directly will change nothing, a rant on FT will cause some eyes/heads at Aegean to roll?
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
Yes, I have had my car vandalised at ECN
Did you consider your attitude having anything to do with that? :P
Originally Posted by
johnirvine
The reason I started this thread is not to rant but to point out the uncompetitive nature of A3 business fares. This week, I booked two return business fares from LCA to TXL for next year. These cost around €390 compared to more than €800 on Aegean.
In all seriousness, I am super happy for you! I would have done the same. I just fly Aegean, because it usually suits me best, my alternatives are usually Ryan or Eurowings, sometimes TUI, and needless to say all offer inferior products to Aegean's and for the most part they are even more expensive to fly (maybe someone ought to rant about that, I mean it is pretty much the same -crazy- case of "inferior" product being constantly more expensive), but when it happens, that let's say Eurowings offers a fare that at a given point in time is cheaper (I don't mean 50% cheaper, I mean like 15% cheaper, all factors/costs considered -- on many dates they take off at 4am-6am, which is just horrible since you lose pretty much a full night's sleep!-- ) I do actually fly them, instead of Aegean and guess what: Aegean never wrote me any letters to complain about me flying a different airline :P :P :P
PS1. As [MENTION=10042350]bearchemist[/MENTION] pointed out, because LH's hubs are actually.... Europe's hubs (Frankfurt/Munich), a great deal of passengers are long-haul premium-cabin passengers that are "just" connecting... They "must" keep their C cabins large to accommodate these passengers (this is exactly what I flew them for as well 3 weeks ago, I was 'just connecting' and so were most of the other C passengers as well!). You take a long-haul flight to FRA/MUC and connect pretty much anywhere in Europe. Aegean's hubs are in Greece, so if one doesn't have Greece as their origin/destination, there's no connecting to an A3 flight. Hence the smaller cabin (plus you can't really compare wallets between Germans and Greeks).
PS2. DUS-SKG 26 Dec. 2019 Economy class Eurowings 199,99€, booked Aegean for 50€! (and there are dozens of similar examples, but after this post I just don't have the time to go open 10 threads to criticise those airlines in the hope that they will improve, could you please do the community a favour and do it for me?

)
PS3. Again, the 195 Euro C fare is a fantastic price!
PS4. Geez.... 850k Aegean miles and you won't redeem a fraction of them for a 800€ ticket???!!!!