eagle007

Recently booked 2 Flex tickets on Aegean via their website and opted for the flex ticket because it advertises the 60 Euro return fee if you choose to cancel (this was a trip where canceling or change was a definite possibility).

Ended up needing to cancel. You can't do that via the website, so I had to call-in to the call center and of course they charged the 60 Euros but they also charged 20 Euros for calling into the call center. But there's no other way to cancel the ticket! Had a long discussion with them about this misleading "60 Euro cancellation fee" but no luck in getting the 20 * 2 euros refunded.

So truly, the cancellation fee is really 80 Euros (88 in this case because they also charge an 8 Euro foreign transaction fee for using a credit card).

Quite disappointed, will try not to travel with them again - buyer beware!

Air Rarotonga

Well, it is up to you to check all the rules and condition of the fare you're buying. All the fees you're mentioning are shown on the A3 internet site, I don't see any misleaded advertising:



Aegean Airlines - Fare Rules :

• There is a €20 service fee for refunds. (footnote #4)

Aegean Airlines - Payment Card Fee:

• A payment card fee of €8 per passenger (infants excluded) applies for flights between Greece and France, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, United States, Norway, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Singapore, Australia and Azerbaijan.
  
• A payment card fee of €8 per passenger (infants excluded) applies for flights between Cyprus and Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium and France. Between Cyprus and the rest international flights is €6 per passenger.

eagle007

Of course it is misleading. To say the refund fee is 60 Euros and prominently display that on the front page of the purchase and then bury the service fee in some small print somewhere else is very misleading. There's no other way to refund the ticket, so it is a guaranteed 80 Euros refund fee not 60. They should change it to 80 Euros.

Yes, The payment fee of 8 Euros is disclosed at purchase, I wasn't saying I had any issues with that.

MidnightLight

I agree that there's at least some intent to distract (if not outright mislead) here. I learned this the hard way myself when I also had to refund a Flex fare a while back (ended up re-couping a mere 15 EUR + taxes per pax, though it's still better than nothing I suppose). But that's just the way business marketing tends to work all around the world.

KLouis

Not saying I like how they're doing it, but since all airlines follow similar ways to sell tickets (hidden charges and small script were certainly invented outside Greece), I'm afraid there will be none left that you could travel with...

eagle007

I can only speak to the "major" airlines that I've used (UA, EK, Delta, AirFrance, Virgin etc) and they are not like this. The hidden fees are for minor/specialty items, not something like this that would be frequently used. No question, they have hidden fees, but when they advertise a refund fee, it's inclusive.

KLouis

Well, I've not had cancelled flights with all 5 "major" airlines like you, but I can only speak for two of them (won't tell you which ones, though ). The issues I've had with them were far more serious that what you've described (in terms of $$$ involved). I finally "won" both cases but it cost me lost of nerves over many, many weeks until I could recover what was due to me (won't bother describing the whole stories). The bottom line is, as I wrote previously, all of them are one of the same, and to prove my point just scan through the different forums and you'll see what I mean. If, like Air Rarotonga, you do bother to read the fine print, you'll be faced with fewer surprises, but you'll still get angry.

Do I sound convincing to you? I doubt it very much. Will you be able to go through with your decision to not fly A3 again? Yes, of course, but only if you only occasionally fly to Greece. Otherwise forget it. When I lived in Switzerland, five centuries ago, I also tried to make Nestle understand my point of view...

aschwa

I booked a revenue ticket in "business" on aegeanair.com

The description says 4 things:
Lounge access
2 bags 32kg
Ticket change free
Refundable without fee

Silly me, I assumed that refundable without fee meant that the fare was refundable without having to pay a fee. However, when I called Aegean, they told me that there was a 20 EUR fee for all refunds.

Have other people had the same experience? I booked the ticket because it seemed risk-free!

NWIFlyer

Discussed last month ... you are not alone:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aegea...vertising.html

aschwa

Thanks. Sorry.