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
Oct 6, 2022, 11:09 am
#2476
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: VIE/BTS
Posts: 975
- this was done at check in desk or gate or magic beep?
Oct 6, 2022, 5:12 pm
#2477
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Maribor SLO
Programs: MM silver, Flying blue Platinum, A3 gold, Marriott platinum, IHG gold
Posts: 132
Full C boarding pass. The second pass I got at check in gate in Vienna, before first flight.
Oct 25, 2022, 3:13 pm
#2484
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: RTM
Programs: DiamondClub (rip), Currently an Alliance Treble Champion (BA, A3, AZ)
Posts: 1,786
Very happy to have AMS (luckily I have Privium!) ATH-CHQ rtm in March upgraded and ticketed straight away today for my annual wine/food/mileage run
Oct 26, 2022, 2:27 am
#2485
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Rhineland-Palatinate
Programs: *A Gold (A3), HHonor Gold
Posts: 5,689
On the plus side I saw one of the true benefits of a domestic flight in Business: the dedicated arrival car. We landed Saturday at 00:15 in JTR, quite delayed. I was alone in C and they got a dedicated car for me to drive me to the terminal. As I was hand baggage only I was in my taxi en route to my hotel while the plane was still de boarding.
Oct 28, 2022, 9:25 am
#2486
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,339
A little disappointed with how Aegean handled this situation.
I had booked DUS-SKG-KLX a long time ago, and upgraded the DUS-SKG segment. Flight is due tomorrow. Unfortunately I won't be able to fly and called them to reschedule.
Turns out that the winter schedule starts this weekend. And that this specific flight was the last Saturday flight on this route. Going forward it only exists on Tuesdays on which I won't be able to travel. So, I asked for DUS-SKG on Friday, and SKG-KLX on Saturday. The flights operate, bookable through OTA's, and there is I-class availability. But they refused because the Aegean website doesn't allow flights with an overnight layover. If its not bookable through their own website, they refuse to make the change. Even if its a valid option according to the fare rules (<24h layover).
So the only option I was left with was to cancel. They kept a 70 euro fee, the coupon, and whatever is left from the fare will be refunded (Not much).
I then booked an alternative flight for next week on the AMS-ATH route. Paid fares were crazy expensive so I went for an award. Only economy still available, but when having to choose between 10K miles (+40 tax) or close to 300 euro (Economy) or 600 euro (business) I guess I'm going for the award seat. Asked Aegean about the upgrade challenge (Still plenty of seats available in C at this moment..)...and was told that the upgrade challenge cannot be used for award tickets. Even though the website offers me to bid. Anybody ever tried doing that? Would not be surprised if it still does work due to some missed constraint or bug on their website.
I had booked DUS-SKG-KLX a long time ago, and upgraded the DUS-SKG segment. Flight is due tomorrow. Unfortunately I won't be able to fly and called them to reschedule.
Turns out that the winter schedule starts this weekend. And that this specific flight was the last Saturday flight on this route. Going forward it only exists on Tuesdays on which I won't be able to travel. So, I asked for DUS-SKG on Friday, and SKG-KLX on Saturday. The flights operate, bookable through OTA's, and there is I-class availability. But they refused because the Aegean website doesn't allow flights with an overnight layover. If its not bookable through their own website, they refuse to make the change. Even if its a valid option according to the fare rules (<24h layover).
So the only option I was left with was to cancel. They kept a 70 euro fee, the coupon, and whatever is left from the fare will be refunded (Not much).
I then booked an alternative flight for next week on the AMS-ATH route. Paid fares were crazy expensive so I went for an award. Only economy still available, but when having to choose between 10K miles (+40 tax) or close to 300 euro (Economy) or 600 euro (business) I guess I'm going for the award seat. Asked Aegean about the upgrade challenge (Still plenty of seats available in C at this moment..)...and was told that the upgrade challenge cannot be used for award tickets. Even though the website offers me to bid. Anybody ever tried doing that? Would not be surprised if it still does work due to some missed constraint or bug on their website.
Last edited by Xandrios; Oct 28, 2022 at 11:51 am
Oct 28, 2022, 11:16 pm
#2487
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,313
Sure! A couple of times in fact! However the last one must have been around 2019, so if they don't allow it in the meantime, I don't know... But I'd definitely place a bid if the system allows it. That to me is a clear indication, that you could get upgraded. Keep in mind that a lot of Aegean's phone agents have zero clue what they're talking about (when it comes to uncommon situations) and many of them have a "know-it-all" attitude too!
As for how your booking was handled, I guess the fact that you already had a confirmed upgrade kind of limited your options, since any kind of change would require a re-issuing of the ticket. But I would have asked for a re-routing (for example to change it to just the international leg or you could even go DUS-ATH if it was cheaper) and then either book the 2nd leg separately or if going to ATH simply drive to Kalamata from there
.
As for how your booking was handled, I guess the fact that you already had a confirmed upgrade kind of limited your options, since any kind of change would require a re-issuing of the ticket. But I would have asked for a re-routing (for example to change it to just the international leg or you could even go DUS-ATH if it was cheaper) and then either book the 2nd leg separately or if going to ATH simply drive to Kalamata from there
.
Oct 29, 2022, 5:14 am
#2488
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,339
Thanks. So you have been successful with the Upgrade Challenge on an X-class award in the past? The phone agent was indeed of the type that you describe. I guess I should not be calling A3 on a national holiday if I want to talk to the better agents... but unfortunately I only knew for sure that I'd have to cancel from yesterday. Didn't want to wait with calling A3 until the next morning (of departure).
Actually I did ask for a re-route but was instantly denied. Because the flight was upgraded a reroute was not possible according to the agent. Perhaps I should have asked if she could downgrade me (removing the coupon) and maybe then a reroute would have been an option, did not think of that. That may have allowed me to rebook to another route, though unfortunately the cash prices for AMS-ATH were quite up there (even in economy). DUS-ATH would theoretically have been an option but that flight leaves a little earlier than the SKG one which makes me somewhat uncomfortable being on-time at the airport (Taking the first train from NL).
Actually I did ask for a re-route but was instantly denied. Because the flight was upgraded a reroute was not possible according to the agent. Perhaps I should have asked if she could downgrade me (removing the coupon) and maybe then a reroute would have been an option, did not think of that. That may have allowed me to rebook to another route, though unfortunately the cash prices for AMS-ATH were quite up there (even in economy). DUS-ATH would theoretically have been an option but that flight leaves a little earlier than the SKG one which makes me somewhat uncomfortable being on-time at the airport (Taking the first train from NL).
Oct 29, 2022, 2:18 pm
#2489
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,313
) and in the summer of 2018 I had an award ticket in booking class X from Athens to Hannover, for both my wife and I, and I managed to upgrade us both with the then minimum bid of 65€ per person 
. I hope such times return (but as we Greeks say, I'll probably be left with just the hope
). My last successful upgrade bid was in July 2020, but that was a paid ticket (though again it was a super deal, P class upgraded for 75€ for ATH-DUS
). BTW I was coincidentally checking out the terms and conditions today and I'd suggest you check out the part about options after having upgraded with a voucher yourself, even as a reference for next time. I'm on my mobile phone right now, but I think cancelling an upgrade results in practically a re-issuing of the ticket in economy, in which case fare rules and fare differences apply. There could/should be an option there for agents who perform this procedure to not immediately re-issue the ticket for the same flight but seize the "opportunity" to make further changes (such as date and destination/origin) and then re-issue it, so that you'd only need to pay whatever fees once.
Nov 1, 2022, 5:12 am
#2490
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: RTM
Programs: DiamondClub (rip), Currently an Alliance Treble Champion (BA, A3, AZ)
Posts: 1,786
I recently asked the call center to upgrade a booking early next year (before the expiry of my membership year and vouchers) and it was successfully applied and I received the new confirmation and ticket numbers. I have seats selected in the business cabin.
However, the vouchers still appear in my profile with status "Available"
I can't remember, do they disappear from the profile only after the flight is flown, or were they incorrectly applied to this booking?
However, the vouchers still appear in my profile with status "Available"
I can't remember, do they disappear from the profile only after the flight is flown, or were they incorrectly applied to this booking?