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 10, 2016, 7:50 am
#1156
Join Date: May 2013
Location: GVA, BSL, ZRH
Programs: A3*, HH, club carlson: all gold and bonvoy plat
Posts: 466
I called them today without knowing anything about this new condition. The call agent told me that since oct 1st the above rule is in application. Although I bought my tickets in sept., upgraded 3 of the 4 segments in sept. (the last one was on waiting list), she said she can't do anything about that last upgrade. I told her the least they could do is to inform their members about this change. She replied saying I should contact customer service. I waited 2 minutes on the line, but gave up thinking that aegean has probably more important stuff to manage right now.
Oct 10, 2016, 8:19 am
#1157
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,909
I called them today without knowing anything about this new condition. The call agent told me that since oct 1st the above rule is in application. Although I bought my tickets in sept., upgraded 3 of the 4 segments in sept. (the last one was on waiting list), she said she can't do anything about that last upgrade. I told her the least they could do is to inform their members about this change. She replied saying I should contact customer service. I waited 2 minutes on the line, but gave up thinking that aegean has probably more important stuff to manage right now.
Oct 10, 2016, 8:52 am
#1158
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,345
Oct 10, 2016, 4:25 pm
#1162
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: LON, ATH
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, OA Gold (in memoriam), Hertz #1 Gold
Posts: 548
When I called to change a flex ticket which was upgraded to C using coupons, they wanted to charge me a 20 euro rebooking fee. Their explanation was that my inability to change it online is because I used a coupon and not because of a technical fault, hence I am liable to pay the fee?
Is that correct? Any views ?
Is that correct? Any views ?
Oct 10, 2016, 6:50 pm
#1163
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,568
When I called to change a flex ticket which was upgraded to C using coupons, they wanted to charge me a 20 euro rebooking fee. Their explanation was that my inability to change it online is because I used a coupon and not because of a technical fault, hence I am liable to pay the fee?
Is that correct? Any views ?
Is that correct? Any views ?
Oct 11, 2016, 5:55 am
#1164
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: LON, ATH
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, OA Gold (in memoriam), Hertz #1 Gold
Posts: 548
I would say that, unfortunately, they have a point. It is a similar situation like changing an award ticket and you do have to pay the fee for that: the upgraded ticket is in fare class I (the same that business class awards are booked in). One could argue for hours whether it is or not a bona fide award, at the end of the day they'll win...
They can always win, the other annoying thing is that I bought the ticket on a flash sale (30-40% discount I think) and when I needed to change it they asked me for the PRICE difference not the current actual booking class difference.
So no reason to book a flex ticket on a sale I guess
Oct 11, 2016, 7:20 am
#1165
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,568
They can always win, the other annoying thing is that I bought the ticket on a flash sale (30-40% discount I think) and when I needed to change it they asked me for the PRICE difference not the current actual booking class difference.
So no reason to book a flex ticket on a sale I guess
So no reason to book a flex ticket on a sale I guess
Oct 11, 2016, 8:48 am
#1166
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: SIN 5 days out of 7
Programs: BD*G, A3*G, BA-S, Accor Gold, IHG Amb
Posts: 5,505
But it does make buying a flexible ticket in a sale seem illogical - if you think you might need to change there'll be no benefit in booking a Flexi in the sale...if you think you won't change, you may as well not by the Flexi Fare in the first place.
Oct 11, 2016, 11:59 am
#1167
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,568
If a Flexi's price is reduced by 30-40%, and given that the Cheap is, usually, only 10-20% cheaper, there is a good incentive to buy it. If they followed your idea, one could grab the Flexi every time one sees such an offer and fly whenever one feels like at a much lower price. Tricky, but they thought about that... 
Oct 11, 2016, 1:04 pm
#1168
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,345
The fare rules say the following though:
Flex Cabin (Y, B, M, H, Q, V, W, L, K, S, T, U, P Class): Any time, changes permitted, on the same booking Class at no charge, or on the highest available, by paying the difference between both fares. No-show changes free of charge.
That is for pure Economy Flex bookings though, but it does suggest that if the same booking class is available that the change is then free. So you could take a 'sale' Flex ticket and move it to another non-sale date. In theory at least
Flex Cabin (Y, B, M, H, Q, V, W, L, K, S, T, U, P Class): Any time, changes permitted, on the same booking Class at no charge, or on the highest available, by paying the difference between both fares. No-show changes free of charge.
That is for pure Economy Flex bookings though, but it does suggest that if the same booking class is available that the change is then free. So you could take a 'sale' Flex ticket and move it to another non-sale date. In theory at least
Oct 12, 2016, 5:56 am
#1169
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Singapore
Programs: A3 Gold, SQ Gold, AT Gold, Accor Silver, HHonors Diamond, I Prefer Elite, DISCOVERY Titanium
Posts: 472
Questions: if we book A3 economy (k) class and upgrade to business (I) class do we still entitle for mileage/sector?
Oct 12, 2016, 6:04 am
#1170
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: A3*G, Marriott Gold, Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium
Posts: 862