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
Nov 18, 2015, 6:21 am
#796
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,339
Nice! Thanks for the link. It even gives you a seat map with reserved seats (only for business?).
(Sorry if I'm bordering on off-topic, but I think this site is useful for searching for I class availability and would like to know how to read it. If you think it belongs elsewhere, move it).
(Sorry if I'm bordering on off-topic, but I think this site is useful for searching for I class availability and would like to know how to read it. If you think it belongs elsewhere, move it).
Nov 18, 2015, 10:17 am
#797
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Paris
Programs: Miles&Bonus *G
Posts: 318
We'll see if it comes back later on...
Nov 19, 2015, 12:40 am
#798
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 69
The fact that the new ticket is still issued in I means that it's still an upgrade. I could imagine that in the case of re-booking, they first downgrade the ticket to its original booking class, then re-book the downgraded ticket (while charging any fees that result from non-availabiliy of the original booking class on the new flight) and then re-upgrade the changed ticket. Just a speculation, but makes sense to me.
After flights having been credited, I can see now what was invisible for me the after the booking change.
The upgraded flight had the original booking class U. Atfer the change, it was credited according to class M.
Nice investment: for 281 EUR I bought 597 award miles and 497 tier miles.
But, I had to run in the marathon.
Nov 19, 2015, 4:28 am
#799
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: SOF
Programs: A3 Gold, IHG Platinum, Marriott Silver
Posts: 849
I read the info on top of the thread and found out that upgraded segments do count toward the minimum 4 A3/OA required for the lower qualification threshold. I did fly 2 segments yesterday as I only needed 2 to requalify, I had already flown the necessary mileage. Just now I checked and one of the segments, which wasn't upgraded, posted but the other, which was upgraded in I class, didn't. A3's earning chart says that I class doesn't earn mileage and I actually don't need it to. I'm only 1 segment away from requalifying and I wanted to get confirmation that A3 will count it - it appears that if it doesn't credit automatically, I would have to call and request it? Can anyone with experience in that area let me know? Thank you!
Nov 19, 2015, 4:38 am
#800
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2005
Programs: BA Gold, A3 Gold, FB Gold, Bonvoy Titanium / LTP, Accor Plat
Posts: 13,883
I called today for just this reason. The person on the other end asked if I'd used upgrade coupons as soon as I mentioned the online claim failed and said "so we have to do it manually". No fuss, just a time waiting to be put through.
Nov 19, 2015, 5:03 am
#801
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: SOF
Programs: A3 Gold, IHG Platinum, Marriott Silver
Posts: 849
Great. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Nov 19, 2015, 7:35 am
#802
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Chilling with penguins
Posts: 13,043
Nov 21, 2015, 1:34 pm
#803
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: MAN,TLV
Programs: Silver:BA,VX,AB, QF. Gold:A3,RJ,AZ,GF, EY,SPG,Marriott,Choice, Carlson. Dia/Plat:HH,IHG,BW,Accor
Posts: 1,965
IZ Tax
Regarding extra taxes when using the upgrade coupons, I recently upgraded a flight from LCA to LHR and there was extra taxes of 1.5 Euro - I'm interested to know what that is for.
And a flight from CDG-LCA-TLV there was extra taxes of 40 Euro (!) so I asked them to upgrade the 2nd leg from Larnaca to Tel Aviv, and there was no extra taxes. Why is there so much taxes extra Ex - CDG?
On ITA Matrix I can see the only diferrence is in Economy: French Air Passenger Solidarity Tax (IZ) €1.13
And business: French Air Passenger Solidarity Tax (IZ) €11.27
But i'm not a good itamtrix user.
And a flight from CDG-LCA-TLV there was extra taxes of 40 Euro (!) so I asked them to upgrade the 2nd leg from Larnaca to Tel Aviv, and there was no extra taxes. Why is there so much taxes extra Ex - CDG?
On ITA Matrix I can see the only diferrence is in Economy: French Air Passenger Solidarity Tax (IZ) €1.13
And business: French Air Passenger Solidarity Tax (IZ) €11.27
But i'm not a good itamtrix user.
CDG airport charge "IZ TAX" (
) of which I had only paid 5 euro , and in business class that Tax is 45 euro. Anyone know what this is? (Sorry, no time to google it
)
Nov 21, 2015, 3:31 pm
#804
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,339
It seems that the phone agent was correct:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soli...rance)#Details
Basically the tax is a charity-tax, and is 4.51 euro for economy and 45.07 euro for business. However these fees are, according to Wikipedia, only for destinations outside the European Economic Area. Within the EEA the fees are about a quarter of that - which equal the fees you found on ITA.
So it seems to be related to your final destination, TLV. Even though you fly via Cyrpus (which is part of the EEA), the final destination is what counts. And in your case that is an airport outside of the EEA and therefore boils down to the highest category of fees
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soli...rance)#Details
Basically the tax is a charity-tax, and is 4.51 euro for economy and 45.07 euro for business. However these fees are, according to Wikipedia, only for destinations outside the European Economic Area. Within the EEA the fees are about a quarter of that - which equal the fees you found on ITA.
So it seems to be related to your final destination, TLV. Even though you fly via Cyrpus (which is part of the EEA), the final destination is what counts. And in your case that is an airport outside of the EEA and therefore boils down to the highest category of fees
Last edited by Xandrios; Nov 21, 2015 at 3:38 pm
Nov 22, 2015, 2:18 am
#805
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: YXY
Posts: 3,506
I recently flew two tickets with two legs each. Three of the four legs were upgraded with coupons. All four legs were credited automatically to my M&B account a few days later. I did not have to call.
So sometimes it works as it should. Why, I don't know.
So sometimes it works as it should. Why, I don't know.
Nov 26, 2015, 2:15 am
#808
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: MAN,TLV
Programs: Silver:BA,VX,AB, QF. Gold:A3,RJ,AZ,GF, EY,SPG,Marriott,Choice, Carlson. Dia/Plat:HH,IHG,BW,Accor
Posts: 1,965
Nov 26, 2015, 4:48 am
#810
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: LON, ATH
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, OA Gold (in memoriam), Hertz #1 Gold
Posts: 548