DELLAS

Not due to coupons there are not that many on the wider scale of things compared to amount of members and size of the network.

They have seen a decent increase in revenue bookings from the business community especially on the LHR route.

Romanianflyer

I can imagine that.

Whenever I search for flights, almost always A3 comes up (both in Y and J) with the best prices and convenient schedules with quick transfers. This counts for lots of destinations on their connecting flights (like looking at BEY recently for me).

gandalftm

This has happened to me three times last year with LH on various flights between FRA and Singapore / Shanghai. I was unsure whether this happened because of my A3*G or my LH FTL status.

Nevertheless, good investment for LH: I've actually started buying their PE product since then. ^

NWIFlyer

This may well be down to BA's downgrade of CE in terms of seat pitch - plus A3 also wins on seat width thanks to the innovative armrests.

Mind you, it also helps if you're able to nab 1C or 1D (or even, in my case, 1A/C on Friday on one of the birds with the 'clear' bulkhead placed 3' further forward, giving pretty much unlimited legroom).

I wasn't so fortunate on my return yesterday, given a fellow FTer had disgracefully nabbed one of the prime seats in row 1 before me - yes, I'm looking at you DrHalxx . Mind you, the convivial conversation for the last part of the flight after I woke from my wine-induced slumber (those damn pesky A3 FAs would insist on my glass being refilled, although I think the large serving of Mastiha with a large smile might have been the final straw) did bring forgiveness!

A3's food is better than BA's, the drink selection and quality is probably similar, although the Swissport lounge experience must be costing them - that really does let the service down, and A3 should be insisting on a higher quality experience for their customers.

If they did that, BA really would start hurting.

DELLAS

Indeed and looking very bright for ATH in general with latest figures. February saw 18,2% increase in passenger traffic reaching 1,07 Million. Of those 26.6% were growth in Domestic passengers and 12.8% International. 17% increase in Greeks using ATH and 21% by foreign passengers.


Glad to see you are feeling the A3 love again

A3 also do not fleece their Business Class non status passengers with seat fees unlike BA.

BA lagged behind on the ATH-LHR route for a while now. Their only asset at ATH is the lounge. A3 beats them onboard even with the recent personal experiences of the main course meals.

PS. Hope you took pics and will add to the catering thread .

NWIFlyer

I'd overlooked the seat selection fees from BA - it wouldn't come into play for me in Club Europe because of my Gold status, but it would if I bought a Hand Baggage Only fare where BA continues to excel itself with anti-customer practices in charging everyone for seat selection. I imagine that might also push a few status Y passengers to A3 as well.

I never lost the love, either for A3 or Greece and its wonderful people . I just can't say the same for the Swissport lounge ... generally a dreadful place, I'm afraid, and not a patch on the A3 lounge in the Schengen area. I think I might send A3 some feedback on it so they're aware of some of the issues.

Currently 80% of my mileage is with Oneworld though, something I didn't think would ever happen a couple of years ago, but it's a fact that *A doesn't compete particularly well on long haul Business Class pricing ex-EU (at least for cost per mile on earnings), and the Oneworld lounges are definitely far superior - plus that's not really a market A3 is in. You can blame the lovely people over at the BA board for tempting about 50k Star miles away with their advice on BA Tier Point runs and cheap flights to Oz ...

I only thought about photos just after I finished my meal, I'm afraid, at which point I figured an empty dish might not make the best picture. I guess that means I'll just have to go back again soon, doesn't it ...?

DELLAS

Currently 50/50 with both OWE/*G future travel plans are split between the two. I have to say Im also 50/50 about who has the best lounges also. It very much depends on Airline/Airport than Alliance for me. Take T2 LHR for example and the good quality Star lounges but then again I love the IB MAD T4S lounge so for me there is no clear winner.There are good and bad across all Alliances. Id say ST is the poor man of the Alliances still though.

No probs about the pics or lack of It does indeed mean you need to book some more A3 flights soon purely for research purposes of course.

frenchft

As mentioned before, almost no upgrade because of A3 *G, but on most flights with TK (with A3 card) they have blocked the seat next to me when possible (should be nice Aegean does the same indeed).

HNF01

I would like to report an op-up on todays LH1401 PRG-FRA based on A3*G
Arrived to the airport, went to oldskool checkin because of luggage, was told Y is overbooked but supervisor did not approve op-up because of SENs. When BP was printed I did not see my *G status and asked for a correction. Agent reentered my FF# and told me "oh that puts you first on the list" and called supervisor to tweak the computer to print my new C BP.
(I hope this is just a beginning of a series of op-ups !)

djjaguar64

Thats what I thought that Operational upgrades done by an automated system based on status. I am sure manual intervention is possible but it is usually frowned upon so as to discourage upgrading of friends. My experience has been on LX, upgraded multiple times on flights to BKK & SIN from ZRH.
So the Supervisor had no say in your upgrade.

blackball

I fly ~15-20 times a year, mostly on A3, and rarely on LH/LX/UA. In 3 years of Gold status, I have never ONCE been upgraded to C! Incredibly, I *have* been upgraded on LH once in the last ~3 years (out of only ~6 flights with them since I've made it to Gold).

I am guessing this is because I usually fly with colleagues - presumably A3 would not want to 'break up' people traveling together. I wonder if checking in separately makes a difference (though I doubt it does, if both travelers are on the same PNR).

Any thoughts?

KLouis

I've been Gold with A3 for about ten years, taking about 20-30 flights a year (50% domestic), and I've been upgraded a total of three or four times. Which shows that you're not alone! I've also noticed that in the majority of flights business class has free seats while the back of the plane is full. Why they don't often upgrade people preferring to have non-full planes doesn't a priori make sense, but they must have a reason that escapes us...

potjernik

Yes, the TK does that regularly when asked. They were doing this for me when I used A3 and now with TK *G status.

Funny thing - I was upgraded complementary several times as A3 *G, once on AC and several times in a row with TK (never with A3, but did not fly them much)! But, since I switched using TK *G, not even once (on TK)!

I am now in IST lounge, waiting for the flight which is allegedly overbooked by 25 pax. With a big smile, asked the lady at the check-in if she can "mark me" for operational upgrade at the gates, she answered "that is done at the gates" but in very polite way, smiling, and mentioning something in Turkish about "elite" to the supervisor, so I keep my fingers crossed!^

sokolov

After a number of not upgraded flights with UA, I've recently enjoyed another free upgrade from economy minus to economy. This time it was very welcome, because it was on one of the new 737-900 planes which are awfully uncomfortable in economy minus. And the toilrts are ridiculously small. There should be a law against that.

There were plenty of empty seats in economy minus, and some empty seats in economy. I simply asked, at checkin, to sit farther to the front, and they moved me up. The boarding pass, however, did not say "economy plus", just "economy" as before.

Global guy

Have been A3 Gold for three years now. NEVER had an op up on either AC UA LH or LX. Did use 2 out 4 upgrade certificates on A3 last year.