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"Fare free" tickets given on delayed flights

"Fare free" tickets given on delayed flights

Old Nov 16, 2016, 1:28 am
  #1  
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"Fare free" tickets given on delayed flights

I have flewn A3 865 PRG-ATH recently and the flight was 1 hour delayed. No big deal for me but I thought I should have received the free ticket letter that has been mentioned on the forum. I went on and asked A3 CS. This is what I have received in reply:
We confirm that the above mentioned flight delayed to depart by fifty three (53) minutes. The reason of the delay was the late arrival of the incoming aircraft.

We offer a fare free ticket to our passengers, whose international flight departed with a total delay of more than two (2) hours or whose domestic flight departed with a total delay of more than one hour. At this point, we would like to mention that this offer is applied, as a goodwill gesture, in cases that the delay caused due to our responsibility.
So it is 1 hour on domestic and 2 hours on international.
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Old Nov 16, 2016, 1:45 am
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...and you also have to pay the taxes yourself!
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Old Nov 16, 2016, 2:41 pm
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and usually the fare is a few euro and the rest is tax 15-30 euro, depends of your departure airport. You will save no more then 5-15 euro with this ticket and there is a black out dates.
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Old Nov 16, 2016, 2:46 pm
  #4  
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Originally Posted by winkny
You will save no more then 5-15 euro with this ticket and there is a black out dates.
And you will probably have to pay the 20 euro issue fee when calling up to book this ticket, which will leave you paying more than you would when booking the flight normally. These "free tickets" are just a way of making money.

Last edited by benberg2013; Nov 16, 2016 at 2:56 pm
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Old Nov 16, 2016, 10:09 pm
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Originally Posted by benberg2013
...These "free tickets" are just a way of making money.
I wonder what A3 did to you lately and you started the series of "anti-A3" posts (e.g., see the "infamous" one) Well, the "free" tickets are certainly not a super-duper bargain, but you can't say that they're a way for A3 to make money: there are several days during the year in which one needs to fly and can't find a cheap ticket, and then these tickets come-in handy. I flew ATH-FCO recently, and the cheapest ticket (one way) was about 100€, without including taxes... At any rate, you don't have to fly if you don't want to or when the free ticket is cheaper than the regular one (?!).

Last edited by KLouis; Nov 18, 2016 at 10:08 am
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Old Nov 18, 2016, 6:06 am
  #6  
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As with most service recovery attempts, you are far more likely to benefit if you actually fly the airline more often than average. If you merely take the four flights to lower the Gold renewal threshold, then it's going to be more difficult for you to redeem the voucher at a time when base fares are high compared to someone who lives in Greece and relies on A3/OA's network far more - as KLouis' example illustrates.

It's not a con at all - just a limited opportunity - and certainly not something A3 has to offer given the voucher is given long before mandatory EC261 compensation would kick in.
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Old Nov 18, 2016, 4:36 pm
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Originally Posted by KLouis
I wonder what A3 did to you lately and you started the series of "anti-A3" posts (e.g., see the "infamous" one) Well, the "free" tickets are certainly not a super-duper bargain, but you can't say that they're a way for A3 to make money: there are several days during the year in which one needs to fly and can't find a cheap ticket, and then these tickets come-in handy. I flew ATH-FCO recently, and the cheapest ticket (one way) was about 100, without including taxes... At any rate, you don't have to fly if you don't want to or when the free ticket is cheaper than the regular one (?!).


I think these thickets are only valid intra greece , but i can be wrong.
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Old Nov 19, 2016, 1:15 am
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Originally Posted by winkny
I think these thickets are only valid intra greece , but i can be wrong.
It depends. They give domestic tickets for domestic delays and international tickets for international.

As for the argument about these being a "con", I'm in the middle on that. As others have said, they're pretty much a waste of time unless you happen to be able to use them on a particularly high-fare route/day. I'm not sure what the availability would be - i.e. do they only book into the lower booking classes or can you use them right up to full economy fare? In that case they WOULD be worthwhile.

The problem with these is that while most of us understand the limitations and don't get too excited about them, the average traveler may see things differently. Friends of mine were quite excited that they had two free flights to anywhere but when I explained the restrictions they just felt they had been deceived and were disappointed and quite "anti" A3 - far unhappier than the 2hr delay had made them in the first place. So I think it sometimes just creates negative publicity.

Has anybody here actually used one yet? Maybe somebody who has one for an international ticket (I only have domestic) could volunteer to call up to make a "mock" booking - choose a nearly full flight in a few days time and see if they offer availability. Also it would be interesting to see if they charge the 20 Euro call-centre fee too.
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Old Nov 19, 2016, 3:27 am
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I agree that if this may sometimes create negative publicity, but I must say that the conditions are clearly written on the piece of paper that one reads. Still, how can one say that it's a rip-off if you get something for free or, even, for substantially less money, just because one thinks that one hour's worth of delay should be worth a free trip to Papeete... Of course, if someone does not reside in Greece and does not plan to travel there within a year, and if (s)he does, it will be part of the 4 flights re-qualification requirement this is completely useless. If on the other hand you have several flights planned per year XXX-ATH-AAA and you pay less than the full price, then it is certainly a nice gift. A similar logic applies to the 2-hours delay for international flights.
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Old Nov 19, 2016, 3:39 am
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Originally Posted by Knobbgb
Has anybody here actually used one yet? Maybe somebody who has one for an international ticket (I only have domestic) could volunteer to call up to make a "mock" booking - choose a nearly full flight in a few days time and see if they offer availability. Also it would be interesting to see if they charge the 20 Euro call-centre fee too.
I took one of these in March on a domestic flight. N-Class.

AIR FARE: IT
TAX: EUR 12.00GR
AIRLINE SURCHARGES : EUR 3.00YQ
TOTAL: EUR IT

FEE: EUR 10.00 OBT01 FREELETTER
FEE TOTAL: EUR 10.00

I think I saved 10 at that time. Due to the limitations, not during summer, easter, christmas, the voucher is almost worthless to most summer tourists. Yet it is a nice gesture and I believe everybody understands that, once having read the letter.
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Old Nov 24, 2016, 2:10 am
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Wow. you all are flying for less than 50eur for an international flight on a full-service carrier and complaining? No wonder Aegean is going to go out of business and hasn't been able to turn a profit.
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Old Nov 24, 2016, 4:40 am
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Originally Posted by keitherson
Wow. you all are flying for less than 50eur for an international flight on a full-service carrier and complaining? No wonder Aegean is going to go out of business and hasn't been able to turn a profit.
Do you base your opinion on A3 going out of business on this year's 9-month results only?
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Old Nov 24, 2016, 5:11 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by keitherson
...and hasn't been able to turn a profit.
A3 has been profitable since 2013.
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Old Nov 24, 2016, 5:38 am
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I wouldn't bother rising to the bate of such an obvious troll. What do you expect to achieve?
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Old Nov 24, 2016, 5:57 am
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Originally Posted by KLouis
I agree that if this may sometimes create negative publicity, but I must say that the conditions are clearly written on the piece of paper that one reads. Still, how can one say that it's a rip-off if you get something for free or, even, for substantially less money, just because one thinks that one hour's worth of delay should be worth a free trip to Papeete... Of course, if someone does not reside in Greece and does not plan to travel there within a year, and if (s)he does, it will be part of the 4 flights re-qualification requirement this is completely useless. If on the other hand you have several flights planned per year XXX-ATH-AAA and you pay less than the full price, then it is certainly a nice gift. A similar logic applies to the 2-hours delay for international flights.
At least in my case it was booked to revenue class (Z) so counts as 4 segments and is not tied to award availability. There was quite a few problems issuing the award which took multiple calls to A3 so it might be that they had to do some extraordinary measures to get it booked, but maybe somebody else can confirm whether this was a one timer or normally they issue into I class.

I used our vouchers this May for HEL-ATH-HEL and only had to pay additional SKG segment with cash.

We got vouchers on Aug 2015 on coupon-upgraded flight, so flights using voucher were also issued in business class which was a very nice bonus/gesture by them.

By the way, original reason for us getting the coupons were that ATH-HEL flight was heavily oversold and they had to sit few Economy passengers to second row of business class 3 abrest and couldn't move the curtain due to limitations
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