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
Aug 26, 2016, 1:29 pm
#1036
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Beijing, China
Programs: BA/A3 Gold/SPG Plat
Posts: 500
Upgrade cleared after contact service center for my flight ATH-FRA on Oct. Agent processed the upgrade within 2 minutes, and received the re-issued e-ticket within another 2 minutes after hand up the phone....
Aug 27, 2016, 8:41 am
#1037
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Somewhere between LHR, KUL and YYZ
Programs: Turkish Elite, British Airways Silver
Posts: 53
Hopefully not a stupid/obvious question, but: can coupons be used to upgrade only one leg of a trip? If I want to book two people LHR-ATH-CHQ and only have two coupons, can I upgrade just the LHR-ATH and leave the second leg in economy?
Aug 27, 2016, 8:52 am
#1038
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Paris, France
Programs: A3*G, Accor ALL Gold
Posts: 597
Aug 28, 2016, 12:06 pm
#1040
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: TXL
Posts: 218
Just called Aegean to upgrade one upcoming segment at the end of September. There was no award availability so I was hoping to be put on the waiting list but I was told that the policy has recently changed and the waiting list for upgrade coupons is not available anymore. Was kind of surprised - did anyone have a similar experience?
Edit: Confirmed that as of Friday, August 26 one can not be waitlisted with an upgrade voucher. Would be maybe good to put it on the wiki
Edit: Confirmed that as of Friday, August 26 one can not be waitlisted with an upgrade voucher. Would be maybe good to put it on the wiki
Last edited by nikolask; Aug 28, 2016 at 12:47 pm Reason: New information
Aug 29, 2016, 3:00 am
#1041
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Berks
Programs: BA, A3, Hilton, IHG
Posts: 215
Coincidentally my waitlist for today's flight was cancelled on Friday. Maybe it's a policy change to save them hassle.
Looks my coupon upgraded flight last Friday may need a retro claim as well
Looks my coupon upgraded flight last Friday may need a retro claim as well
Aug 29, 2016, 3:45 am
#1042
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,473
Bad news indeed, and another enhancement to M+B following the silent removal of the companion vouchers on domestic flights last year.
Wiki updated.
Aug 29, 2016, 7:20 am
#1044
Join Date: Nov 2015
Programs: A3*G
Posts: 128
What are the most recent experiences about that?
Aug 29, 2016, 7:27 am
#1045
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,564
and I really wonder why they did it... It makes no sense.
Aug 30, 2016, 4:19 am
#1047
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Battleaxe Alliance
Posts: 22,127
I'm impressed with A3 call centre. They answered my call faster than BA GGL phone line does, and they handled my requests efficiently and politely.
I finally booked some flights long enough in advance to make it worthwhile seeing if I could use those coupons before I lose them when I get Gold, called to check that there was upgrade availability on the flights in question before I made the booking (otherwise I'd have booked J outright), made the booking, called back to upgrade, and it was all done - all in about 10 minutes from the first call all up.
I finally booked some flights long enough in advance to make it worthwhile seeing if I could use those coupons before I lose them when I get Gold, called to check that there was upgrade availability on the flights in question before I made the booking (otherwise I'd have booked J outright), made the booking, called back to upgrade, and it was all done - all in about 10 minutes from the first call all up.
Last edited by LTN Phobia; Aug 30, 2016 at 4:31 am
Aug 30, 2016, 4:58 am
#1048
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Wedged somewhere between BTS and VIE ✈
Programs: Star Alliance Gold (A3 Gold), Oneworld Emerald (BA Gold), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,338
Aug 30, 2016, 5:08 am
#1049
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: London
Posts: 517
I'm impressed with A3 call centre. They answered my call faster than BA GGL phone line does, and they handled my requests efficiently and politely.
I finally booked some flights long enough in advance to make it worthwhile seeing if I could use those coupons before I lose them when I get Gold, called to check that there was upgrade availability on the flights in question before I made the booking (otherwise I'd have booked J outright), made the booking, called back to upgrade, and it was all done - all in about 10 minutes from the first call all up.
I finally booked some flights long enough in advance to make it worthwhile seeing if I could use those coupons before I lose them when I get Gold, called to check that there was upgrade availability on the flights in question before I made the booking (otherwise I'd have booked J outright), made the booking, called back to upgrade, and it was all done - all in about 10 minutes from the first call all up.
Going back a few months now, but had no issue upgrading a friend's ticket ZRH > ATH in September - I was not on the PNR. Confirmed and done in 3 minutes flat and now he has extra luggage to bring me back a haul of wine in return
