Phoenixtinct

Not necessarily - I recently flew through there and because my flight was operated by Olympic Air, I was turned away. Since Aegean likes to do this a lot - any flight marketed and/or operated by Olympic Air is ineligible for access, the pool of potential visitors will be quite limited.

pewpew

Which gate is it by? Might stop by to pick up dinner on my 55 minute Schengen->Domestic transfer now that we're relegated to the CIP lounge...

Visio

I do hope that A3 will be presenting a Gold lounge + regular lounge. Currently, the offering is very bad. I cannot understand how someone here even say they prefer the A3 lounge instead of the LH lounge, which is superb in terms of food product. Once again, this week the LH lounge had really nice dishes in lunch time.

Do we finally see some proper food in A3 lounge? Also the decoration needs to be updated from the 1990's to this day. Looking forward to hear more of the new lounge concept.

Xandrios

Eat Greek is right around B11 I believe. Close to the stairs to go to the bus gates.

Coincidentally I am flying my last Aegean segment early next week (for the year) as I also still have to re-qualify for Skyteam. So when I saw the email last night I thought that I would not be affected. However...if all those pax come to the Goldair lounge... then I won't be saved it seems! (Goldair is the Skyteam lounge at ATH).

Knobbgb

I actually opt for the A3 lounge rather than LH (usually) because it's just brighter and more spacious (when it's not busy). I also like to use one of the full-size PC's they have there. OK, if I'm hungry I sometimes go to eat at LH and then move to A3. I'm usually there between 4am and 7am and I just want to relax, have a coffee and catch up on some emails etc. LH is good for evenings - a hot meal and a nice single malt or three!

My bet is that they'll do pretty much the same as they did to the lounge at SKG. The food and drink offerings there are the same as in the current ATH lounge, so I'm guessing that will stay the same. Just new seating, carpet etc.

I was recently in the LOT lounge at WAW. For a fairly similar sized airline to A3, their offering was MILES better. They have better food options (proper hot breakfast for example) and differing styles of seating, including some places to relax more (quiet, not so brightly lit) and there is a separate Gold area as mentioned above - where the food and drink selection is slightly improved. As A3 is expanding and becoming more "well known" I think they really need to up their game. I hope they take the opportunity now.

FlyerTalker688786

It is a REGIONAL airline lounge for a regional airline which the average stage length is hovering around 2 hours. It is adequate for its purpose. You can not expect it to be a long haul premier airline lounge. Even LOT has long haul routes where A3 does not have a single one. DUB/LIS/HEL are the longest routes come to mind.

KLouis

+1

DELLAS

I prefer the A3 lounge. Sad you dont understand but people have different opinions for various reasons.

Argyris

Are you a gold member?
Maybe they sent a generic email to all M+B members (that the lounge will be closed), and a different email to those who can access the lounge (gold members)

Xandrios

Actually, I also received the email about GoldAir. The email was addressed by name, so they may as well have recognized the status.

From this summer Goldair has added about twice the number of seats - basically by just cramming them in between the existing ones. I was hoping that after the summer rush this would be reverted back to normal, but I expect not. It will still get full though, even with just AFKL flights it is pretty busy at times. Guess the 'necessary arrangements' means they will hand out vouchers?

Knobbgb

I actually don't think A3 IS a regional airline - not any more. Yes, in their early days when they served mainly domestic destinations (with Avro REGIONAL jets) and had added just a few close-by international destinations, I'd agree they were. But now they serve the entire continent, and a few places in Asia too. I don't see long-haul as being a necessity in order to graduate to the next stage after "regional" - whatever that is called. If they just served the south east of Europe/Mediterranean region - even with a couple of key flights to, say, London and Paris then (imho) they would be "regional". But they are a fully-fledged international airline, albeit without long-haul. Olympic itself is a regional airline, as are those in other countries that serve a similar perpose (e.g. Air Nostrum for Iberia or Air Dolomiti linking Northern Italy to LH at Munich. Also bigger, more autonomous airlines such as Flybe).

OK, Skytrax says Aegean is the best "regional" airline in Europe. It must be true then...

Anyway, that's off topic. I just feel they have outgrown their current offering at Athens and should be providing more if they consider themselves true competitors to the bigger, more established carriers - which they for sure ARE. They are already miles better than BA, LH, SK, IB, AF, KLM etc. in just about every way - other than their flagship lounge at their main hub!

They should be actively attempting to attract passengers of SK, TP, SN, LO and even LX, OS and LH to use THEIR lounge instead of the LH one, thus increasing brand exposure, hopefully winning some more business away from those airlines as well as helping to actually finance the running of the lounge of course. This will be even more important when they open the new A-gate lounge and will be selling themselves to UA, AC, TK and CA long-haul passengers too.

SPLP007

SILVER

Visio

I'm sorry but why I cannot expect that? Especially when bringing something fresh instead of those hidious and unhealthy pastries would not cost them very much. I guess it causes extra cost for A3 that many of thei Gold member + Business passengers will visit both LH lounge and their lounge. I guess it would be cost reducing if customers could stay only at their lounge.

I usually fly rather long flights from ATH (I am based in HEL), so yes - I would like to have something else to eat at least. Marketin-wise it would be really important to boost the Gold status somehow, by differentiating the lounge experience for example.

Visio

As you said, you have your opinion.. but there might be other opinions too. If someone has eg. 4 hours between two flights and he or she hasn't eaten properly that is the first major problem with the current A3 offering: there is not absolutely anything available in the lounge that could be considered as a breakfast/lunch/dinner. Of course, if you have just a short layover at ATH, you might not expect that. But as I said - I am comparing the LH and A3 offering and the difference is like night and day.

Visio

Finally I feel someone understood what I was talking about. It really is about the look & feel and offering and boosting the brand. Not for all maybe, but for many for sure. The lounge is THE place to expose a passenger to the the (otherwise so appealing) A3 brand. In some aspects, A3 does that nicely (eg. the wines from the different parts of Greece are presented). But for me at least, the interior and food offering plays a major role. Currently, it feels they are not trying to serve their customers with almost any kind of effort.

I don't see why the situation couldn't be the kind that all the current LH lounge visitors would prefer to stay at A3 lounge instead of other lounge. Then of course the offering would had be enhanced and the lounge would need to someway serve better the most loyal Gold members.