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Those coupons used to be magic, now it's a pain and requires a lot of planning / monitoring and paying Expertflyer...
Main issue here is the upgrade bids... they are not good for coupons and they are not good for paying J pax as the J class is now super busy (when it was at 50% capacity most of the time before). |
Originally Posted by romans
(Post 35390301)
not quite true if we are talking about airport check-in upgrade. I was told it's possible only in Greece when I requested that at DUB airport and always worked only in Greece, never in Vienna e.g.
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I have placed upgrade coupons from RHO-ATH and the seat map is empty. Usually this route has 2-4 I seats available in advance. Is Aegean waiting for someone to buy a ticket before releasing award space?
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Originally Posted by frenchft
(Post 35394908)
Those coupons used to be magic, now it's a pain and requires a lot of planning / monitoring and paying Expertflyer...
Main issue here is the upgrade bids... they are not good for coupons and they are not good for paying J pax as the J class is now super busy (when it was at 50% capacity most of the time before). The coupon's rules are also unnecessarily complicated and restrictive, too. 390 ticket stock, no other airlines on tickets, insanely high change fees, coupon forfeiture if changed, etc. Honestly, it was easier to use paper/electronic 500-mile upgrades on UA two decades ago. As for the upgrade bids, I certainly don't blame people for trying. IMHO, Business is so overpriced that I'm surprised they sell tickets at all. If the prices were more in line with the product (as in, not 4 figures), I actually might buy Business outright instead of strategizing to use my coupons. |
Originally Posted by Tennen
(Post 35395326)
Agreed on the first part. My biggest issue is also that they're such a pain to use. For me, it's having to call, waitlist, call back, re-ticket, call again for any changes, etc. Absolutely ridiculous. So much time is wasted when it could be done in minutes online. Using European airlines' websites and apps (not just A3, but A3's pretty horrible) makes me really, really appreciate AA, DL, and UA IT. For all their faults, it's like using the latest iPhone vs a Motorola Startac.
The coupon's rules are also unnecessarily complicated and restrictive, too. 390 ticket stock, no other airlines on tickets, insanely high change fees, coupon forfeiture if changed, etc. Honestly, it was easier to use paper/electronic 500-mile upgrades on UA two decades ago. As for the upgrade bids, I certainly don't blame people for trying. IMHO, Business is so overpriced that I'm surprised that they sell tickets at all. If the prices were more in line with the product (as in, not 4 figures), I actually might buy Business outright instead of strategizing to use my coupons. |
I have to report a recent experience on a successful last-minute upgrade. I booked a kind of last minute DUS-SKG. No I availabilty at the moment (maybe 7 days before?), so I waited and opted for calling 2 days before departure (when I availabilty jumped to 3 - this is the moment that space seems to open up). I was put on waitlist but the same day, the upgrade was processed! C cabin was quite packed: 3 rows with 11 booked people and there was a last minute upgrade which was processed after boarding: pax was seated in his original seat but then the crew told him that he can be upgraded. The crew also apologised for the ground crew not proceeding with the upgrade earlier and mentioned that they also check these pending upgrades after boarding and they can also make them last minute. Not sure how that works though or if it's even standard procedure.
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I just used all of my four upgrade vouchers on A3 international flights in 2024 and all got confirmed right away, no waiting list, no bull .......admittedly this was different the years before when the upgrade with vouchers was confirmed just on the day of that flight...maybe this is a rare incident where things may have changed to the better for frequent flyers :)
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Originally Posted by Wuzz
(Post 35403227)
I just used all of my four upgrade vouchers on A3 international flights in 2024 and all got confirmed right away, no waiting list, no bull .......admittedly this was different the years before when the upgrade with vouchers was confirmed just on the day of that flight...maybe this is a rare incident where things may have changed to the better for frequent flyers :)
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Originally Posted by Wuzz
(Post 35403227)
I just used all of my four upgrade vouchers on A3 international flights in 2024 and all got confirmed right away, no waiting list, no bull .......admittedly this was different the years before when the upgrade with vouchers was confirmed just on the day of that flight...maybe this is a rare incident where things may have changed to the better for frequent flyers :)
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Originally Posted by MathAviation7
(Post 35403250)
…If A3 truly cared about loyalty, they would make the coupons work for last seat availability.
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Same experience. Found I availability on flights for 4 pax on ATH-AMM and got upgraded straight away. However, of a period of whole winter 2024 I couldn't find many flights with availability for just 2 pax for BRU-ATH route.
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Originally Posted by ermis177
(Post 35403256)
If you don’t mind can you tell me 1 airline that does that?
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Originally Posted by MathAviation7
(Post 35403442)
While not last seat availability, TK upgrade vouchers work for J fare business class, not just I fare. And mind you, these clutches are also for long haul flights. I think Aegean is quite stingy, especially since this is intra-European Business class. They should certainly allow instant upgrades when the seat map is empty/near empty and then add more J seats if there is demand from paying customers.
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Originally Posted by MathAviation7
(Post 35403442)
While not last seat availability, TK upgrade vouchers work for J fare business class, not just I fare.... and then add more J seats if there is demand from paying customers.
Regarding adding more seats (more like swapping 6 economy and 4 business class seats), if there's such high demand, then on most routes it's more profitable for Aegean to sell 3x economy seats at Y or even B and perhaps even M and lower (!) than to sell just 2 C seats instead (and provide those 2 passengers with tons of free luggage, lounge access etc.). I'd also love to see what you suggest as a passenger, but the unfortunate truth is, that they're in this business for €€, not for giving away stuff. |
Originally Posted by giorginho
(Post 35404084)
I'd also love to see what you suggest as a passenger, but the unfortunate truth is, that they're in this business for €€, not for giving away stuff.
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