Old Mar 9, 2015, 6:33 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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.
A3 provides all Gold members with four vouchers for upgrade from Economy to Business. Silver members get two upgrade vouchers.

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.
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Seat upgrade coupons

Old Jul 2, 2017, 7:31 am
  #1441  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: 39000ft
Posts: 953
Originally Posted by FlyingJazzy
Are those seat upgrade coupons transferable if I intend to gift them away? If yes, what I need to do? Thanks in advance.
The person that wants to upgrade needs to know your details (M&B number and perhaps some personal info that you already gave A3). That's what I did last year when used coupons of a friend.
jerry_greece is offline  
Old Jul 2, 2017, 8:17 am
  #1442  
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,321
Originally Posted by FlyingJazzy
Are those seat upgrade coupons transferable if I intend to gift them away? If yes, what I need to do? Thanks in advance.
No, the coupons are not transferable. However you can upgrade somebody else. Just call in and give them your friends PNR.
Xandrios is offline  
Old Jul 3, 2017, 3:08 am
  #1443  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: LAX & BKK
Posts: 135
.............
IBstudent is offline  
Old Jul 3, 2017, 8:42 am
  #1444  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: BA Bronze, A3*G
Posts: 12
Originally Posted by Knobbgb
I'm not really familiar with Aeroplan so I usually check upgrade availability by searching for business class redemptions directly with A3. This method does indeed show that 'I' class IS available on your dates.

I would try calling tomorrow - in "normal" office hours. Several people have reported having problems getting upgrades at weekends (but I'm too lazy to find the posts) - indeed some have been told to call back in office hours because "the Miles and Bonus department have to deal with it themselves". Maybe the agent you spoke to just couldn't deal with upgrades at that time and didn't want to explain.

I bet if you call on Monday it will all go through right away. Also, if you are allowed to upgrade ATH-BEY even though MAN-ATH cannot be upgraded then that would debunk the rumour about all legs of a journey having to be upgraded, so feedback would be most welcome. On the other hand, maybe the agent couldn't see availability for exactly that reason.
Thanks for the tips. I did indeed call again today and the agent said that there was some IT issue given that my first flight MAN-ATH is economy only. She mentioned that there was indeed availability for the other three but it would take time for them to sort out their systems to deal with the upgrade. I've just looked again on my reservation (about two hours later), and the other three flights ATH-BEY-ATH-LHR are all now in I class, so it looks like the upgrades have indeed gone through. My MAN-ATH flight is still showing as L class. As such, it seems that you don't have to upgrade all the legs of a journey, but it's requiring some effort in dealing with their systems to allow it to process. The agent was very helpful and did seem frustrated, so hopefully this problem will be ironed out soon.
johnmanchester is offline  
Old Jul 4, 2017, 10:16 am
  #1445  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Chilling with penguins
Posts: 13,043
Does anybody have experience of being cleared from the WL? I'm WL on all my flights (CDG-ATH-LCA-ATH-GVA immediate overnight turnaround) in early August. I know I have a month to go, but what are people's experiences?
YOWkid is offline  
Old Jul 4, 2017, 2:15 pm
  #1446  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Germany
Programs: *G, OWS
Posts: 214
I'm thinking of upgrading my little sis with my vouchers (spaces are available).

What happens to her baggage allowance if she's flying an international leg (upgraded) and then connects to an non-upgraded domestic flight on OA (same ticket)?
frogster is offline  
Old Jul 4, 2017, 2:36 pm
  #1447  
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: USA, JPN, GBR
Programs: A3, AA, AC, AS, DL, NH, SQ, SK, UA; BW, CP, HH, IHG, MB
Posts: 1,947
Originally Posted by YOWkid
Does anybody have experience of being cleared from the WL? I'm WL on all my flights (CDG-ATH-LCA-ATH-GVA immediate overnight turnaround) in early August. I know I have a month to go, but what are people's experiences?
This is probably out of the ordinary, but I'll share it anyway. Confirmed 1 upgrade (for some reason, the coupon wasn't pulled and I didn't notice until later), with remaining waitlisted. Award space opened up for 1 flight, but didn't clear automatically. I called to upgrade it, which was done.

I emailed to see if everything was ok - to check that the confirmed upgrades were intact, to make sure the coupons were pulled properly, and to see if there were any issues with the waitlist (since the upgrade wasn't processed automatically when the award seat was released). They responded by confirming my remaining upgrades and pulling the appropriate coupons.

Flights were C9 D9 Z9 but I0 with no seats assigned (just the blocked ones), so perhaps IM thought that it was ok to give me the upgrades. YMMV.

Originally Posted by frogster
I'm thinking of upgrading my little sis with my vouchers (spaces are available).

What happens to her baggage allowance if she's flying an international leg (upgraded) and then connects to an non-upgraded domestic flight on OA (same ticket)?
My understanding is that the Business Class baggage allowance prevails. At least, that's what my itinerary showed when I had one segment upgraded and the other waitlisted. I'd imagine that'd be the case with A3-OA trips too.
Tennen is offline  
Old Jul 4, 2017, 7:31 pm
  #1448  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,557
Originally Posted by YOWkid
Does anybody have experience of being cleared from the WL? I'm WL on all my flights (CDG-ATH-LCA-ATH-GVA immediate overnight turnaround) in early August. I know I have a month to go, but what are people's experiences?
Yes, ATH-FCO-ATH, two years ago, travelling with my wife and a pair of friends. The wifes' upgrades for both flights were OK'd when booked (~ one month before the outbound) while I and the "other" husband were waitlisted. The outbound never made it (though we were both upgraded in the lounge without a coupon being used) while the two men were upgraded through the WL two days before the flight (received email) for the return flight using the coupon.
KLouis is offline  
Old Jul 5, 2017, 8:40 am
  #1449  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Chilling with penguins
Posts: 13,043
Awesome. I was for whatever under the impression that if one didn't clear the WL as soon as they got on it, then there would be no chance in hell of getting C after that.

I'll hang tight and report back.
YOWkid is offline  
Old Jul 5, 2017, 9:40 am
  #1450  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Programs: SQ *G / A3 *G
Posts: 195
I am on a wait list later for LON - ATH later in the month. There was I availability so went on the list. Under no illusions that it would clear - I need 4 seats!!! No problem on the ATH-LON return leg: I could book them with coupons.

I thought that if they didn't get back to you within a couple of days you probably had no chance anyway?
FlyingDobber is offline  
Old Jul 5, 2017, 1:24 pm
  #1451  
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Programs: A3*G
Posts: 42
Originally Posted by FlyingDobber
I thought that if they didn't get back to you within a couple of days you probably had no chance anyway?
A friend of mine was waitlisted two weeks prior the flight (LHR-LON) for one upgrade seat. They called him a couple of hours prior the departure to verify the upgrade.
Argyris is offline  
Old Jul 5, 2017, 11:42 pm
  #1452  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,557
Originally Posted by YOWkid
Awesome. I was for whatever under the impression that if one didn't clear the WL as soon as they got on it, then there would be no chance in hell of getting C after that.

I'll hang tight and report back.
Sorry, but if one would clear the WL as soon as (s)he got on it, this would no longer be a waiting list!
KLouis is offline  
Old Jul 6, 2017, 3:43 am
  #1453  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: 39000ft
Posts: 953
Apparently, there seems to be a change in the WL rules and they might clear the list even a few hours before the flight. I have a WL-for-upgrade for end of July and they told me to call again once the date approaches.

I guess it's a step forward, but if you, for example, count on having the extra luggage, then it's not really handy...
jerry_greece is offline  
Old Jul 6, 2017, 12:22 pm
  #1454  
Hilton 25+ BadgeMarriott 10+ Badge
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 4,268
Confirmation from Customer Service

Hi,

Looking at all the discussion here on the usage of the seat upgrade coupon, I emailed Customer Service and received the following response.

"Further to our correspondence, we would like to note that for your future flights, you may use your upgrade coupons for one flight only. This is a new clarification from the Loyalty Department of our Company."

So it seems that usage is back to what we were previously used to, i.e use only for the segments that you would like to upgrade without being forced to use it for all in/out-bound sectors if connecting in ATH.

Kudos to A3 for coming to it's senses.

Cheers!
nldogbert is offline  
Old Jul 7, 2017, 1:36 am
  #1455  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: SKG
Programs: A3*G, FRECCIA ALATA CLUB
Posts: 54
Originally Posted by nldogbert
Hi,

Looking at all the discussion here on the usage of the seat upgrade coupon, I emailed Customer Service and received the following response.

"Further to our correspondence, we would like to note that for your future flights, you may use your upgrade coupons for one flight only. This is a new clarification from the Loyalty Department of our Company."

So it seems that usage is back to what we were previously used to, i.e use only for the segments that you would like to upgrade without being forced to use it for all in/out-bound sectors if connecting in ATH.

Kudos to A3 for coming to it's senses.

Cheers!
It was nonsense really :-) Thanks for letting us know
vangelisd is offline  

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