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 16, 2015, 6:28 am
#706
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: GVA
Programs: A3 *G, LX *G, AF *S
Posts: 761
I think I know why this happens: I checked 2 upgraded tickets I had, and one showed 'I' as pricing code (I.e. It seems they issued a new ticket without trace to the old one) and the other one a code like 'Tupgr', which to me seems as if it's ticketed as upgraded T class, hence has a trace to the old fare code. For the former, I had to call to get the miles, for the latter they credited automatically. So seems it depends on the person that processes the upgrade...
Oct 19, 2015, 1:17 pm
#708
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: MUC
Programs: M&M, M&B
Posts: 33
Last Saturday I called the ticket hotline to use my 4 vouchers to upgrade a trip with 4 legs (3 Aegean and 1 Olympic). Everything went fine and the lady on the phone told me I will receive my new ticket information within an hour via email. So far I did not receive any email and the funny thing is, that second two legs already show booking class "I" while the first two legs (incl. the Olympic leg) are still in booking class "P". Furthermore inside my M&B account all of the 4 voucher are still shown as valid. Did anybody make similar experiences? Do I just have to wait a little bit longer until the upgrade of the first two legs will appear in the system or shall I call again?
Oct 19, 2015, 1:22 pm
#709
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,478
Last Saturday I called the ticket hotline to use my 4 vouchers to upgrade a trip with 4 legs (3 Aegean and 1 Olympic). Everything went fine and the lady on the phone told me I will receive my new ticket information within an hour via email. So far I did not receive any email and the funny thing is, that second two legs already show booking class "I" while the first two legs (incl. the Olympic leg) are still in booking class "P". Furthermore inside my M&B account all of the 4 voucher are still shown as valid. Did anybody make similar experiences? Do I just have to wait a little bit longer until the upgrade of the first two legs will appear in the system or shall I call again?
Oct 19, 2015, 9:16 pm
#711
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PAS, Paros Greece
Programs: A3 *G
Posts: 1,374
Last Saturday I called the ticket hotline to use my 4 vouchers to upgrade a trip with 4 legs (3 Aegean and 1 Olympic). Everything went fine and the lady on the phone told me I will receive my new ticket information within an hour via email. So far I did not receive any email and the funny thing is, that second two legs already show booking class "I" while the first two legs (incl. the Olympic leg) are still in booking class "P". Furthermore inside my M&B account all of the 4 voucher are still shown as valid. Did anybody make similar experiences? Do I just have to wait a little bit longer until the upgrade of the first two legs will appear in the system or shall I call again?
Incidentally, if your Olympic flight really is OA marketed, OA operated it won't have a business class cabin, so you won't be able to upgrade that leg.
Oct 20, 2015, 4:52 pm
#713
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: LAX, LGB, SNA
Programs: AA EXP OWE, DL DM ST+, AS MVPG, UA, BA, WN CP, Hyatt E, Ritz Plat, HH GM
Posts: 3,185
For using upgrade coupons, do I have to be the one to call and request for someone else or can they call with the coupon code and upgrade themselves?
Oct 20, 2015, 8:00 pm
#714
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,567
If by "they" you mean a non-Gold person whom you'd like to upgrade, then the answer is simple: you (i.e. the actual coupon "owner") have to call them.
Oct 21, 2015, 7:14 pm
#715
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Programs: A3*G, Fairmont Pl, Accor Pl, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum, Amex Platinum
Posts: 182
I just used my first upgrade coupons this week.
Upgraded CDG-ATH and back. Searched for the I class availability on Aeroplan first to make sure it was there. Then booked the tickets and called Greece immediately to upgrade.
Initially was told there was no I class but that I was added to the waiting list. I mentioned that I confirmed I class on Aeroplan a few minutes before. They said they would call me if seats became available. They called 30 minutes later, I received the upgraded tickets by e-mail within 30 minutes, and the coupons were used in my account within the hour. Very efficient process.
End result - I got round trip business class CDG-ATH for 134 euros. I tacked a quick round trip to SKG on the end of the ticket (which I did not upgrade) - to get my four Aegean segments for Gold re-qualifcation.
Thanks to everyone in this forum for making that happen!
Upgraded CDG-ATH and back. Searched for the I class availability on Aeroplan first to make sure it was there. Then booked the tickets and called Greece immediately to upgrade.
Initially was told there was no I class but that I was added to the waiting list. I mentioned that I confirmed I class on Aeroplan a few minutes before. They said they would call me if seats became available. They called 30 minutes later, I received the upgraded tickets by e-mail within 30 minutes, and the coupons were used in my account within the hour. Very efficient process.
End result - I got round trip business class CDG-ATH for 134 euros. I tacked a quick round trip to SKG on the end of the ticket (which I did not upgrade) - to get my four Aegean segments for Gold re-qualifcation.
Thanks to everyone in this forum for making that happen!
Oct 24, 2015, 3:21 am
#716
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 345
I, too, received no revised email nor a new e-ticket number after calling in to request to use the seat upgrade coupons.
However, it is now showing as I-class on A3's MMB and it shows "Business" on CMT.
Should I be worried that I would not be allowed to travel in business on the day itself?
However, it is now showing as I-class on A3's MMB and it shows "Business" on CMT.
Should I be worried that I would not be allowed to travel in business on the day itself?
Oct 24, 2015, 4:42 am
#717
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PAS, Paros Greece
Programs: A3 *G
Posts: 1,374
I, too, received no revised email nor a new e-ticket number after calling in to request to use the seat upgrade coupons.
However, it is now showing as I-class on A3's MMB and it shows "Business" on CMT.
Should I be worried that I would not be allowed to travel in business on the day itself?
However, it is now showing as I-class on A3's MMB and it shows "Business" on CMT.
Should I be worried that I would not be allowed to travel in business on the day itself?
Oct 24, 2015, 3:51 pm
#718
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 345
Unfortunately, no - the etkt number has not changed since the booking class has changed. But I have got a seat confirmed in row 2 if that changes anything.
Oct 24, 2015, 4:09 pm
#719
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,478
You won't be denied travel in Business Class, but you will need the ticket to be re-issued - until it is you won't be able to check-in, and if you leave it until you reach the airport it might become more complex because the Miles&Bonus department may need to authorise something. It's much tidier to get it sorted ahead of time - if the agent doing it forgets, it can get left forever without a push.
Oct 24, 2015, 4:33 pm
#720
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: LHR
Programs: Accor PLT,Thai Silver, HH Dia, SPG Titanium (LT Gold), Aegean Gold, BA Silver
Posts: 5,120
Booked an LCA - LHR Y and called UK reservations to use a coupon. 5 mins later had a seat in business. Superb.
Last edited by NWIFlyer; Oct 24, 2015 at 11:43 pm Reason: Promoting link outside Coupon Connection