Originally Posted by
MeltingAlf
ABid-for-upgrades are definitely not applicable, and they aren't allowed to upgrade even if you try to pay hard cash at the Aegean ticketing desk at ATH (I've tried), and indeed you can only book and upgrade with coupons when check-in opens if you're gonna book your flights very last minute + to keep the flexibility. And with this I'm quite sure you can only call in as well, because the A3 ticketing desk said that they have no way of processing coupon upgrades at the desk and I'd have to call in if I wanted to try.
Thanks. Have you had any luck upgrading these through coupons last-minute, say, from a few days before check-in opens? Or was that in the end not practically feasible?
Originally Posted by
giorginho
[..] DUS taxes are btw also over 45 Euros, so also quite a lot. EIN is like 41€, so cheaper than DUS and probably also easier for you to get to (?).
Interesting, I was not aware of that. In my specific case the EIN flight is unfortunately only usable from ATH to EIN and not the other way around (due to late arrival into ATH and connecting onwards from there). So in that direction I'll be limited to the AMS flight, the other way around I could use either route - but taxes ex-ATH are the same for those. If only they had smaller Pass'es, or allow to combine multiple cities (e.g. AMS, DUS, BRU) that'd be ideal
Originally Posted by
giorginho
I haven't closely monitored availability on the AMS-ATH route, but even in 2 days from today there seem to be even U/T fares available, whereas the DUS-ATH flights are in part completely booked (if not over-booked!).
What I mean is, I see absolutely no point in purchasing a 0-day pass for DUS (since paying more for it and then not being able to redeem due to full flights will be a huge let-down), but perhaps it could be "viable" for AMS (you can certainly assess this better than non-AMS passengers can). And I say "for AMS", even though it's still only available as AMS/EIN, because EIN has like 2 flights per week, so a 0-day pass for that is nearly completely pointless!
AMS availability is very limited in my experience. This is mainly due to the fact that the airport is heavily slot restricted and Aegean is unable to add additional flights (Even though they'd probably want to - they have tried, but only been able to do so seasonally and only this year. Previous years they scheduled a 2nd flight and cancelled them later on).
Having a lower weekly frequency doesn't nessesairely mean that a 0-day pass is not advantageous though. Even with a 3 weekly flight that 0-day Pass would allow to book any of those 3 flights up to the day of departure. The next step up, a 7-day pass, would still require at least a 7-day lead time - while the 0-day pass would allow to only depend on flight frequency (Which is ~2 days for a 3-weekly flight).
Originally Posted by
giorginho
I don't quite understand why you'd have to wait until OLCI to request an upgrade with vouchers. If you do book over 48h prior to departure, just apply for an upgrade immediately. Should I class open up at OLCI and your voucher be high enough up the waiting list, it should also clear (or am I missing any "tricks" regarding this process there?). Moreover I don't understand your concern about changing flights after having successfully upgraded. If you're using the 0-day pass, then, by the time you redeem your pass, your flight will be a couple of days, down to a couple of hours away, so I'd say you either definitely know you're flying or you're not booking in the first place! Having used a 30-day pass I've always refrained from placing an upgrade request until I was absolutely certain the booked flight was to be taken (it's actually a good thing you can still re-book after you've entered those final 30 days prior to the flight, or that you can apply for an upgrade as late as possible before departure, even though the original ticket has the 30 day limitation). However if your goal is to use the pass to book, but so far in advance, that you can still pick, that have I availability, in order to also use your vouchers, then perhaps the 0 day pass is the wrong choice?
Even with a 0-day Pass it may be a valid usecase to book a flight earlier (e.g. a few weeks before departure), but decide last minute to extend your stay by 1-2 days. Which the Pass would allow, but not if you apply a voucher from the moment that you book the flight. I do wonder if flight changes would still be possible if you are merely waitlisted for an upgrade, though I expect that the same applies. The problem is likely that after requesting an upgrade the ticket can no longer be modified online - while these Pass tickets cannot be booked or modified by the CS. Has anyone tried this?
Originally Posted by
giorginho
If you paid 10€ for AMS, then I'd bet this was the discounted price.
Everybody who purchases an 8-flight bundle would likely be Gold as the miles from only that pass already allow to requalify. With Gold you already get 50% discount on upfront, so does that mean that the discount benefit that one gets on the 8-flight Pass is basically not applicable for Gold members? That'd be.. not very nice. I guess that you could say that the 8-flight Pass therefore in reality requires an 10-euro extra surcharge for that seat selection. While the 12-flight Pass doesn't have that surcharge.
Originally Posted by
giorginho
Now a question from me: Can anyone with a pass confirm, that once booked, a flight can be re-booked even outside the original 365-day window? Just try a dummy re-booking and see what dates are available
Good one. If one's 30-day pass expires August 1st, would it then be possible to book up until August 1st for flights on (exactly?) August 31? Or could you potentially book flights for much later as long as it's booked prior to the pass expiry?