kauppias

Yes, they have duty of care but how airlines handle this across the EU is quite a crap shoot so it is unusual and great to hear that airnes like A3 do this proactively with the customer first attitude 👍

Xandrios

One important factor in the story is the Sofitel in ATH - if you would have stayed overnight in Crete things may have been less great (What hotel do they use there?). The dinner/breakfast buffet is part of Sofitel's standard offering that I (for example) also recently received after my KLM flight out of ATH went bust.

That time I was rebooked onto LH, full Y, credited to A3..while still being able to retro-claim the KLM miles too. Double dipping is great

Swanhunter

A final follow up. My rebooked flight duly posted with the miles for full C. My upgraded outbound flight did not post at all, but a simple call saw that sorted....along with the inbound from ATH that I didn't fly too. Truly, I cannot complain about Aegean's largesse!

I also forgot to mention I was given one of the "free flight" letters at HER but I gather from this forum they are useless.

IceTrojan

Interesting... I apparently got caught up in the same storms, but my IRROPs experience was about 179 degrees from OPs. Nothing I want to share quite yet, I'm working through A3 Customer Relations, but I'll update when I can.

Glad A3 came through for OP.

DrHalxx

I think sofitel operates two floors for IRROPS, eg lower quality rooms

My BA flight went bust once, and the lower floor room booked was defo not up to the standard for a 5 star sofitel. Breakfast/dinner was in a separate area just for the flight and when I tried using my Le Club platinum card to get upgraded/exec lounge access, I was denied access. Sofitel seems to operate two "separate" hotels within the same hotel, one for paying customers and one for irrops. Oh and Mitsis, the owner, is generally not lest say the most "ethical" hotel operator.

BUT777

Received one those "free flight" letter today, passing out by the senior purser to all business class passenger, for a 30mins delay flight from Rhodes to Athens, airport was pretty chaotic being Sunday and end of season, lots and lots of plane on the ground, gate change last minute, with not much information provided.

Is it normal for they to hand out this "free flight" letter for situation like this? And how "useless" is it?

Xandrios

I wouldn't expect anything else, from any airport hotel. These rooms are not priced at retail level - they are heavily discounted group bookings. I'm pretty sure Accor has some fine print somewhere that says that benefits and points cannot be used/earned on such bookings.

However I believe it is still, by far, the best airport hotel in Athens. Distance to the terminal, quality of the rooms, and so on. It may not be the 'full' 5 star experience, though definitely better than, for example, the Holiday Inn down the road.

KLouis

As a matter of fact, depending of the time of the day, it is not only the best, it's the only one: The earliest HI's shuttle leaves the hotel around boarding time of the early flights to Western Europe (and several of the domestic A3/OA ones), thus the only way to make it on time when connecting from a late inbound flight is to arrange for a cab. This is also sort of true for the small hotels around ATH, no shuttle!

By the way, I keep posting this, the Sofitel also provides one of the best shower experiences you may get in this life...

StuckinITH

Many years ago on a flight from Athens to Rhodes that was delayed 2 hours, we all got that "free flight" letter. I think that they count that most people receiving it are tourists coming from abroad that will never use it. Since, I go back home to Greece all the time, I asked my wife to use the 2 letters we received for our next trip. Big mistake. They pretended that we needed to present that letter in person 2 days after making our booking. Yep, so easy when you live in the US. Finally, after a lot of arguing by phone and email, they agreed that we could present the letter when collecting the boarding pass on the day of travel. My wife was so angry that she wasted so much time for 38 Euro. But by the end it became a question of principle.....

KLouis

Not that anybody cares, but here's an update: 1220 Euro, and the mechanic connected it the wrong way. I wanted to turn right and it went left (and vice-versa)...

NWIFlyer

But it's fixed now in time for the FT Heraklion DO, right ...?

KLouis