Mar 9, 2015, 6:33 am
Last edit by: Gnopps
*** MOD NOTE: Please do not remove ***
A friendly reminder that Flyertalk is not a marketplace, and nothing may be offered (or solicited) for sale or barter within the general forums - which includes offering vouchers for free. For those with sufficient posts and length of membership, trading/exchange is allowed solely within Coupon Connection, and then only in accordance with the specific rules of that forum.
Please do not attempt to solicit, sell or trade upgrade vouchers within this forum. Posts will be deleted and the members concerned potentially subject to disciplinary action. **Please note that this includes directly using the PM system to do so without first posting in Coupon Connection**. Thanks for your co-operation.
A friendly reminder that Flyertalk is not a marketplace, and nothing may be offered (or solicited) for sale or barter within the general forums - which includes offering vouchers for free. For those with sufficient posts and length of membership, trading/exchange is allowed solely within Coupon Connection, and then only in accordance with the specific rules of that forum.
Please do not attempt to solicit, sell or trade upgrade vouchers within this forum. Posts will be deleted and the members concerned potentially subject to disciplinary action. **Please note that this includes directly using the PM system to do so without first posting in Coupon Connection**. Thanks for your co-operation.
Criteria
- You must be travelling on A3 or OA metal - codeshares are not included.
- The original ticket must be issued on either A3 (390) or OA (050) ticket stock.
- Only revenue (paid) tickets, in fare classes other than U, P & T on a GoLight fare basis, can be upgraded, but not redemption tickets.
- All flights on the ticket must be on A3 or OA metal.
- There must be award availability in I-class for the upgrades to clear. You can check this by logging in to M&B then going to https://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbon...t/spend-miles/ The results page will initially be a calendar. To see Business availability, you have to click through to the next step. (You can also use a free or paid tool such as ANA website, UA website (looking for saver award space), Aeroplan, AwardNexus or ExpertFlyer to check for availability.)
- One coupon per person per journey leg is required - so, for example, TXL-ATH-SKG and return via the same route would require four coupons per person.
- Anyone can be upgraded using the coupons - you do not have to be travelling on the same booking or even the same plane.
Procedure
- Call A3 to request the upgrade. The phone numbers are listed at https://aegeanairlines.custhelp.com/ (most of them should go to the same call centre in Greece).
- If successful, a new ticket will be issued (with a new number). The PNR will remain unchanged.
- You are liable for any extra taxes applicable to Business Class (e.g. APD from the UK). Sometimes this gets charged, sometimes it doesn't - if it's due and you're not charged because the agent forgets, you've just been lucky.
- If there's no immediate I-class availability, you can ask to be waitlisted for upgrade. The ability to waitlist was reported to have been removed in August 2016, but was again possible in September. Check with the agent - option available on May 2018.
- in case you requested to be waitlisted for upgrade and want to check if the customer care agent made the changes on your booking you can check the reservation on checkmytrip.com (click here), the leg you requested the upgrade will be shown here as ”Waitlisted”.
- If you wish to upgrade one segment of a multi-segment trip (e.g. XXX-ATH-YYY) and there is availability on the leg you wish to upgrade, you may still have to be waitlisted due to married segment issues. The process of clearing the waitlist is somewhat confusing and may result in frustration due to the availability seeming to disappear but in reality, this may mean that the segments have been "unmarried" and the availability has been allocated to your reservation. See post 2272 and the update in post 2294 for more details.
Benefits
- No matter what the fare basis of the original ticket, you receive full Business Class benefits after upgrade.
- This includes lounge access (useful if you're upgrading someone other than yourself who has no status, or if you've run out of Silver lounge vouchers) and full baggage allowance (it applies for first leg as well, in case you are upgraded only on the 2nd leg of your trip - confirmed on the etix).
- Because the ticket books as a redemption, the free car hire is not included.
Mileage/segment earning
- You will earn at the underlying rate of your purchased ticket in economy, not at a business class rate. Because status miles are awarded, this also counts as a segment for re-qualification purposes.
- The flights may credit automatically, but may take longer to credit than tickets that have not been changed. They may also credit as 0 miles, and later change to the correct rate. If the flights have not credited properly after a few weeks then calling A3 will rectify this rapidly.
Expiry
- The vouchers expire at the end of your membership year - they do not carry over, even if status is retained. A new set is issued every year.
- It is the date when you use the voucher that matters. It can upgrade a flight that takes place after expiry as long as you apply the voucher before.
- On upgrade from Silver to Gold, any remaining Silver upgrade coupons expire, but they are replaced by four Gold ones which expire at the end of the Gold membership year.
BEWARE
- Once you have upgraded your seat, your ticket will be reissued. Suddenly, this ticket may be VERY expensive to change. If, for instance, you later decide to travel on a different date, you will probably be required to rebook into Business, even if Economy was available for new bookings. A3 will charge you the difference from your original Economy fare to a NEW Business fare. Plus fees, taxes and whatnot. Update 18/08/2021: this appears to no longer be the case, as an upgraded ticket was changed and the underlying Economy fare was used for the upgraded segments. The coupon was "removed" from the old dates and "reapplied" to the new dates.
- Coupons will not be returned/reinstated. Once a coupon is applied, it is gone for good (the T&Cs printed on the coupons allow for date and time changes, but not route changes).
- If you want to provide your coupons to upgrade a friend's travel, it is advisable to call in yourself. Your friend can call in if they know your name, birthdate, M&B-number and the email address associated with your account. That means: Anyone who knows these particulars can use your coupons without your knowledge. They do NOT need the coupon numbers.
- Crediting upgraded segments to another program will likely fail, as it will be reported as I-class. It may be possible to retro-claim the miles.
Seat upgrade coupons
Jul 29, 2021, 6:18 am
#2281
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,326
Jul 29, 2021, 6:25 am
#2282
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 102
Just curious, what did they cancel now?? Those Thursday flights were already cancelled about 1 month ago (there is a data point from my experience as well about the same thing), was it one of the two last weeks in September? I'm surprized that the canellation e-mail just got sent to you this morning, perhaps they reinstated a couple of thursday flights for a couple of weeks (and then you booked your ticket) and then cancelled them again.
Jul 31, 2021, 1:49 pm
#2285
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,342
Yes, A3 business class seats that are not assigned (i.e. free) are displayed as blocked on EF. They are not actually blocked, they are available for seat selection.
Jul 31, 2021, 8:38 pm
#2287
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,567
Aug 1, 2021, 3:32 am
#2288
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,342
If the flight has no booking availability in (paid) business class, then those four seats have already been sold but the pax have not selected their seat yet. They can do so through the A3 website (or at check in).
Aug 2, 2021, 8:28 am
#2289
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: DK
Programs: A3 Gold, BA Silver
Posts: 869
What I am saying is that ExpertFlying is incorrectly marking those seats as being blocked. They are not blocked, they are available.
If the flight has no booking availability in (paid) business class, then those four seats have already been sold but the pax have not selected their seat yet. They can do so through the A3 website (or at check in).
If the flight has no booking availability in (paid) business class, then those four seats have already been sold but the pax have not selected their seat yet. They can do so through the A3 website (or at check in).
Aug 3, 2021, 4:57 am
#2290
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,342
In that case they would probably just move the curtain and make the business class cabin one row smaller. That allows for getting 6 extra economy seats, rather than 4 business seats.
In any case, it is a well-known issue with ExpertFlyer that they mark available business class seats as blocked. That's just how it works with A3 and ExpertFlyer, and applies to every A3 flight
In any case, it is a well-known issue with ExpertFlyer that they mark available business class seats as blocked. That's just how it works with A3 and ExpertFlyer, and applies to every A3 flight
Aug 3, 2021, 7:19 am
#2291
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: A3*G, Marriott Gold, Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium
Posts: 862
Aug 3, 2021, 7:45 am
#2292
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: BRU
Programs: A3 *G & FB G
Posts: 640
It is possible that this is happening though. I remember back in June 2019, my partner and I were waitlisted for an upgrade on TXL-ATH that didn't clear because Business was "sold out" despite there being 2 seats remaining. Sure enough, we got op-uped during OLCI and I used the coupons for other flights in the itinerary. Seemed stupid to me to give us the upgrades without taking the vouchers but then I don't work in revenue management.
The best part of is, you still have your coupon AND you earn C class miles
Aug 11, 2021, 6:58 am
#2293
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 127
So as Knobbgb correctly advised I did not bother the ground crew with it.
When reaching the gate during checking of boarding pass it became red and then I was assigned the last business seat, they guy checked the computer and gave me the new number. The only bad thing with this last minute upgrade is that you lose the perk of carrying extra stuff which was needed to me this time.
When reaching the gate during checking of boarding pass it became red and then I was assigned the last business seat, they guy checked the computer and gave me the new number. The only bad thing with this last minute upgrade is that you lose the perk of carrying extra stuff which was needed to me this time.
Aug 17, 2021, 4:51 pm
#2294
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: A3*G, Marriott Gold, Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium
Posts: 862
I'm not sure if this has been discussed previously in the thread so feel free to ignore (or mods can delete this post) if I'm repeating common knowledge but I had a very interesting experience last week with upgrading married segments. As I think this could be useful to know, I'll try to list a simple breakdown of what happened:
- Booked BER-ATH-RHO for 3 passengers with 3 I class seats available on BER-ATH
- Rang up to upgrade and was told the BER-ATH and ATH-RHO segments were married so had to be waitlisted and revenue management had to "unmarry" the segments first
- The next day, the 3 I class seats disappeared from BER-ATH but the segment was still waitlisted (cue a very grumpy reaction from me )
- Decided to change the dates anyway, as new dates worked better for us. Had to split my daughter off the reservation due to a typo in her name and this was the cheapest way to do it.
- 3 I class available on BER-ATH, upgrade for my partner and me could be confirmed immediately but my daughter's segments were married so needed to be waitlisted (nobody including A3 knows why!). Agent recommended not upgrading the parents' tickets in case the daughter's upgrade didn't clear.
- 2 days later, one I class seat disappeared from the inventory (cue more grumpiness from me!) so I decided to confirm the other 2 upgrades and to sit in Y on my own if my daughter's upgrade didn't clear.
- Spoke to the agent who dealt with the whole mess in the beginning and she said that the reason the 1 I class seat disappeared was that the segments had been unmarried and the I class seat allocated to her reservation despite it still showing as waitlisted. All 3 upgrades were confirmed within minutes.
- Checked back for the original date I had booked just out of interest and the 3 I class seats had reappeared.
The moral of the story is: if you're waitlisted for 1 segment due to married segments and the I class availability miraculously disappears, don't just silently fume like I did, ring A3 and see whether the segments have been unmarried and your upgrade can be cleared.
I found this whole process very interesting and a steep learning curve for me, as I had never experienced the married segment situation before. I hope it helps some of you too.
- Booked BER-ATH-RHO for 3 passengers with 3 I class seats available on BER-ATH
- Rang up to upgrade and was told the BER-ATH and ATH-RHO segments were married so had to be waitlisted and revenue management had to "unmarry" the segments first
- The next day, the 3 I class seats disappeared from BER-ATH but the segment was still waitlisted (cue a very grumpy reaction from me
)- Decided to change the dates anyway, as new dates worked better for us. Had to split my daughter off the reservation due to a typo in her name and this was the cheapest way to do it.
- 3 I class available on BER-ATH, upgrade for my partner and me could be confirmed immediately but my daughter's segments were married so needed to be waitlisted (nobody including A3 knows why!). Agent recommended not upgrading the parents' tickets in case the daughter's upgrade didn't clear.
- 2 days later, one I class seat disappeared from the inventory (cue more grumpiness from me!) so I decided to confirm the other 2 upgrades and to sit in Y on my own if my daughter's upgrade didn't clear.
- Spoke to the agent who dealt with the whole mess in the beginning and she said that the reason the 1 I class seat disappeared was that the segments had been unmarried and the I class seat allocated to her reservation despite it still showing as waitlisted. All 3 upgrades were confirmed within minutes.
- Checked back for the original date I had booked just out of interest and the 3 I class seats had reappeared.
The moral of the story is: if you're waitlisted for 1 segment due to married segments and the I class availability miraculously disappears, don't just silently fume like I did, ring A3 and see whether the segments have been unmarried and your upgrade can be cleared.
I found this whole process very interesting and a steep learning curve for me, as I had never experienced the married segment situation before. I hope it helps some of you too.
- When your flight is waitlisted for an upgrade due to married segments despite there being I class seats available, your reservation won't change initially (i.e. there won't be a waitlisted I class segment added).
- Once the segments have been unmarried, the "waitlisted" segment will appear on the reservation and the I class inventory will "disappear" from general view, as it has now been allocated to your reservation.
- At this point, you can ring up A3 to have the reservation cleaned up and the new tickets issued in I class.
I monitored the process very carefully from the time I changed the flights to when the upgrade was cleared, as I found the whole thing very interesting. It happened exactly as I expected but this time, I did not panic when the 3 I class seats disappeared. I simply rang the agent who had been dealing with the ticket back and she sorted everything out.
I hope this further information helps clarify the process better. I'll update the wiki accordingly too.
On a side note, I love that A3 will put you through to the original agent you dealt with as long as you have their name. That saves so much time compared to having to explain the situation over and over again to different agents.
