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
Jan 20, 2024, 4:33 pm
#2866
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: A3*G, Marriott Gold, Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium
Posts: 860
Thank you for all suggestions. We are three *G and therefore we have plenty of vouchers for all flights. We are not sure we will do more international segments with A3 this years, therefore we would like to use them all.
I guess taking any I class availability as low as 1 is the way to go and hope that eventually all three pax are upgraded on all legs. Not sure how it's going to work with an infant, I hope they are not insisting on upgrading only together with an adult when I>=2.
I guess taking any I class availability as low as 1 is the way to go and hope that eventually all three pax are upgraded on all legs. Not sure how it's going to work with an infant, I hope they are not insisting on upgrading only together with an adult when I>=2.
Jan 23, 2024, 5:58 am
#2869
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PAS, Paros Greece
Programs: A3 *G
Posts: 1,374
DATA POINT: I just made a booking for the overnight LHR-ATH for early April and called for a voucher upgrade. To my surprise, it went thought immediately! They didn't take the extra 15 Euro tax yet and the agent told me that the relevant department do those things in blocks - 7 days at a time and that they will call me back. It might be in the next few days but it could be as late as the day of the flight. That's a bit non-specific and inconvenient, but the booking is however confirmed (the ticket number DIDN'T change like it used to) and I was already able to select a seat. There are 7 rows in the C cabin, 28 seats and NONE of them had been selected yet.
I also tried to upgrade flights ATH-PRG and VIE-ATH in mid-February but those have both been waitlisted, although the "Bound1, Bound 2" thing hasn't appeared on the booking yet. By dummy-booking I see that 5 of 20 and 3 of 8 seats are already reserved respectively on those flights. They're not as important to me as the London one, so all good.
I also tried to upgrade flights ATH-PRG and VIE-ATH in mid-February but those have both been waitlisted, although the "Bound1, Bound 2" thing hasn't appeared on the booking yet. By dummy-booking I see that 5 of 20 and 3 of 8 seats are already reserved respectively on those flights. They're not as important to me as the London one, so all good.
Last edited by Knobbgb; Jan 23, 2024 at 6:13 am
Jan 24, 2024, 4:49 am
#2870
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: btw Athens & Patras
Programs: Le Club Accor
Posts: 213
Try to made an upgrade for next Chiristmas to waw and im in wating list, but my question is, why dont give award seats from 18th Dec till 7 or 8 of JANUARY 2025 ? eh ? why ? any idea ? and the BUS class fare for this days is VERY expensive, i check other destination like FCO or PRG and is normal !
Jan 24, 2024, 9:04 am
#2871
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,323
Try to made an upgrade for next Chiristmas to waw and im in wating list, but my question is, why dont give award seats from 18th Dec till 7 or 8 of JANUARY 2025 ? eh ? why ? any idea ? and the BUS class fare for this days is VERY expensive, i check other destination like FCO or PRG and is normal !
Tickets cannot be issued in the following black-out periods: from 1/1 up to 8/1 each year, the Ash Monday period each year, the Holy Week period both for the Orthodox and the Catholic Easter each year, the 1st May each year, the period from 12/8 to 18/8 each year, the period from 25/10 to 28/10 each year, the March 25th (Independence Day) period each year and the period from 23/12 to 31/12 (inclusive) each year.
However as of late 2022 Aegean will not only restrict redemptions around these periods, but will also, on some routes, expand these cut-off periods to include something like half a week before and after Christmas time (so from around the 18th or 19th of December until the 9th or 10th of January) as well as similarly expand the catholic and orthodox Easter holiday period and even introduce new ones, like the Holy Spirit's long weekend (which is turned into a 7-10 day period, as has the May 1st holiday!) or even cut off periods around foreign and even local foreign holidays (so this is also heavily route-depended), such as some German holiday during October.
Now, August, around the 15th, will still, surprisingly, usually offer I1, at least for ex-ATH flights.
But I'd say don't waste your energy over it, it's Aegean's own FFP and they can basically do whatever they want, nobody can force Aegean to offer a certain amount of award seats on each and every flight all year round, they probably just need to offer "some" award seats on "some" flights and they'll "get away with it" (legally) just fine.
Award or upgrade seats aside, prices have also taken a very dramatic turn around those (same) high season times. Christmas 2023 - new year's 2024 saw a number of Aegean's flights being completely sold out at least 1 month in advance and even 3 months in advance you'd only find booking classes like H, B and Y (and of course only C in business class). I have been keeping an eye on those Christmas prices in the last year+ and I can tell you I have had one single chance to book a trip at humane prices for the 2023-2024 period and that was during the new year's promotion of ... 2023! After that, prices were never humane again.
As for the 2024-25 period, I had some hope that the same would be true, but it seems Aegean's marketing has become quite cunning, because as soon as those flights went online, they did so starting at fares like L and above (which is already at or above 50% of the full Y fare, so already very expensive).
In my opinion, the Aegean pass is a real saver if you're only flying around these times of the year, you're almost certainly saving money (and likely a lot of it!), but you're 100% certainly saving time searching for cheap fares and worrying about whether or not you're going to blow up your budget etc. etc. I am actually still "pass-less", but the way it looks right now I think I won't last another year without one.
But, as I wrote, it's all very heavily "route-depended", so some will be much cheaper than others (example: I saw some SKG-NUE prices during the recent promotion that made my jaw drop... Business class A fares for around 100€ each way! Economy was also discounted accordingly)
Feb 12, 2024, 8:55 am
#2872
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: BRU
Programs: A3 *G, BA Silver
Posts: 170
Got upgraded on BRU-ATH on the Feb14 18:45 flight about 52 hours out. I called last week to waitlist.(actually also called a week earlier, but it seems that got lost, as I didn't start seeing the fake 2nd segment in C in the reservation). One PNR for both pax on a flex fare in T, booked with a promo from May 2023. (<80 EUR pp).
Business on this flight was 6 rows a few weeks ago, and last week there were only 3 rows. Yesterday there were still 7 seats unassigned, now 5 ...
Happy to be able to use my vouchers on Valentine's day
Business on this flight was 6 rows a few weeks ago, and last week there were only 3 rows. Yesterday there were still 7 seats unassigned, now 5 ...
Happy to be able to use my vouchers on Valentine's day
Feb 16, 2024, 12:06 pm
#2873
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PAS, Paros Greece
Programs: A3 *G
Posts: 1,374
I got both my recent flights upgraded with vouchers - both booked in November but upgrades not requested until early January.
ATH-PRG I was worried about as it did NOT show up the usual "bound1, bound 2" situation on my booking. I even called back to confirm I'd been waitlisted and was told "yes it's normal, that doesn't always happen, this one will work differently." When I still hadn't been upgraded after OLCI opened I kind-of gave up, only to be upgraded at the gate, which was nice (red light and loud BEEP at boarding before being presented with a new pre-printed boarding card). I was even automatically given seat 1F - the one I would have selected anyway!
VIE-ATH worked as usual - "bound1, bound 2" showed up right after the request and the upgrade went through a couple of hours before OLCI opened. C class was totally full on that flight - 3 rows, 12 seats so I'm surprised they made space for upgrades - no chance to take a walk-up fare two days before the flight is pretty bad planning in my opinion (I checked as soon as check-in opened and all seats were already allocated).
ATH-PRG I was worried about as it did NOT show up the usual "bound1, bound 2" situation on my booking. I even called back to confirm I'd been waitlisted and was told "yes it's normal, that doesn't always happen, this one will work differently." When I still hadn't been upgraded after OLCI opened I kind-of gave up, only to be upgraded at the gate, which was nice (red light and loud BEEP at boarding before being presented with a new pre-printed boarding card). I was even automatically given seat 1F - the one I would have selected anyway!
VIE-ATH worked as usual - "bound1, bound 2" showed up right after the request and the upgrade went through a couple of hours before OLCI opened. C class was totally full on that flight - 3 rows, 12 seats so I'm surprised they made space for upgrades - no chance to take a walk-up fare two days before the flight is pretty bad planning in my opinion (I checked as soon as check-in opened and all seats were already allocated).
Feb 19, 2024, 7:49 am
#2874
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 10
Hi,
I had a flight in business, upgraded from economy with a coupon. The upgrade was done and confirmed a few months ago. Online check in and luggage drop went smoothly. However during the lounge visit in ATH, Aegean downgraded me to economy as the app showed a seat in economy contrary to the seat on my physical boarding pass. The used coupon, expired now, shows up again in my account with the original expiry date in 2023.
The ticket was booked on Aegean website.
I received no mail or notification, I discovered it by myself.
Is compensation due ?
Thank you in avance for your help.
I had a flight in business, upgraded from economy with a coupon. The upgrade was done and confirmed a few months ago. Online check in and luggage drop went smoothly. However during the lounge visit in ATH, Aegean downgraded me to economy as the app showed a seat in economy contrary to the seat on my physical boarding pass. The used coupon, expired now, shows up again in my account with the original expiry date in 2023.
The ticket was booked on Aegean website.
I received no mail or notification, I discovered it by myself.
Is compensation due ?
Thank you in avance for your help.
Feb 19, 2024, 3:06 pm
#2876
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci, BA, AF
Posts: 10,130
C class was totally full on that flight - 3 rows, 12 seats so I'm surprised they made space for upgrades - no chance to take a walk-up fare two days before the flight is pretty bad planning in my opinion (I checked as soon as check-in opened and all seats were already allocated).
Feb 20, 2024, 3:52 am
#2877
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,342
Hi,
I had a flight in business, upgraded from economy with a coupon. The upgrade was done and confirmed a few months ago. Online check in and luggage drop went smoothly. However during the lounge visit in ATH, Aegean downgraded me to economy as the app showed a seat in economy contrary to the seat on my physical boarding pass. The used coupon, expired now, shows up again in my account with the original expiry date in 2023.
The ticket was booked on Aegean website.
I received no mail or notification, I discovered it by myself.
Is compensation due ?
Thank you in avance for your help.
I had a flight in business, upgraded from economy with a coupon. The upgrade was done and confirmed a few months ago. Online check in and luggage drop went smoothly. However during the lounge visit in ATH, Aegean downgraded me to economy as the app showed a seat in economy contrary to the seat on my physical boarding pass. The used coupon, expired now, shows up again in my account with the original expiry date in 2023.
The ticket was booked on Aegean website.
I received no mail or notification, I discovered it by myself.
Is compensation due ?
Thank you in avance for your help.
The EU regulation states that 70% of the fare is due if you are downgraded on a ticketed flight. Question here is though, were you actually ticketed in business class. If not the upgrade was never processed/gone through.
Feb 20, 2024, 5:05 am
#2878
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 10
Were you actually upgraded, and not just waitlisted? In other words; Had they confirmed the upgrade and sent you a new e-ticket?
The EU regulation states that 70% of the fare is due if you are downgraded on a ticketed flight. Question here is though, were you actually ticketed in business class. If not the upgrade was never processed/gone through.
The EU regulation states that 70% of the fare is due if you are downgraded on a ticketed flight. Question here is though, were you actually ticketed in business class. If not the upgrade was never processed/gone through.
On their side I was probably not. In the lounge and at the gate they said something went wrong with the upgrade process. But that is of course not of my interest.
Feb 20, 2024, 5:26 am
#2879
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,342
As long as you have an eticket (Note that the associated eticket number has changed from the original economy booking) that shows you in business class, you should be covered. You could then either request 70% refund of the fare paid (Though, likely, they will not be happy and be quite hesitant to provide this), or, you could ask them to provide you with a new/extra voucher. It is important that when you discuss this with them that you had been fully upgraded and ticketed in the new class.
Feb 20, 2024, 5:59 am
#2880
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 10
As long as you have an eticket (Note that the associated eticket number has changed from the original economy booking) that shows you in business class, you should be covered. You could then either request 70% refund of the fare paid (Though, likely, they will not be happy and be quite hesitant to provide this), or, you could ask them to provide you with a new/extra voucher. It is important that when you discuss this with them that you had been fully upgraded and ticketed in the new class.