headingwest

I don't think I've seen anything about this before so it must be new, but I noticed something about an Aegean Upgrade Challenge on my new upgrade coupons and looked into it a bit more. It appears that Aegean now has an auction for Business Class, like Austrian or Iberia etc.

Does this mean less chance of being able to use upgrade coupons and fuller cabins? For some reason I don't like the sound of this!

https://en.aegeanair.com/travel-information/upgrade/

johnirvine

This is a significant change in Aegean's business model but one that was entirely predictable. It will allow the airline to ascribe a market value to the free upgrades that it currently offers to Gold and Silver cardholders, with the probable effect that these will be eliminated for the latter coupled with an increase in mileage qualification thresholds. Free upgrade vouchers may well also become more difficult to use, especially a long time in advance of flights. Larger business class cabins will possibly also squeeze upfront economy seating and result in raised prices. The move will likely be good for Aegean's share price but not for a large proportion of its upper tier frequent flyers.

johnirvine

I tried to request an upgrade for a P Flex return flight LCA-ATH-TXL-ATH-LCA. Aegean denied the request and said 'your flight is not eligible for an upgrade'. There could well, therefore, be booking class restrictions. Additionally, the upgrade conditions state that all flights must be operated by Aegean and Olympic operated flights like LCA-ATH-LCA may be excluded.

headingwest

P fares are definitely eligible, below is my booking on a Light fare in P. For some reason it's only the LUX-ATH sector which is eligible on this booking, probably because they know they can fill the cabin on the ATH-LHR with fully paying passengers?

I won't be partaking in this particular latest development with Aegean. Anyhow, I only payed €15.94 for that booking

I'm starting to think that Aegean's IT department is getting too good...I kind of liked it better when we had the A3 website that only did basic functions! That said, they can't seem to get the new function to display in English!

Arrivals

Take a look into the T&C "15. Mileage accrual is applicable according to the original fare purchased. Miles do not change upon Upgrade. "

KLouis

Check the conditions for the coupons; among others they list:

• The member is required to have a valid and paid Economy Class ticket with confirmed reservation either with Aegean as the validating carrier (stock number 390) or with Olympic Air as the validating carrier (stock number 050)

The same is true for upgrade awars. I don't see why they would change that for this new kind of upgrading (which, by the way, I find really bad) and I think the reason that they did not upgrade you may be that they did not consider your "bid" as being "satisfactory".

johnirvine

My understanding is that the new Upgrade Challenge has nothing to do with the old free upgrade certificates: it is rather Aegean implementing a Plusgrade system like LH-Group airlines. From what is evident in the example above, A3 appear to be highly optimistic about what customers will be willing to pay. I have obtained upgrades on the LH LCA-MUC/FRA routes for as little as US$75 which is perhaps a price worth paying.

I was actually not offered the opportunity to bid and therefore price was not relevant to Aegean's refusal!

KLouis

I am aware of the fact that this is an entirely new feature for A3; my point (not explicitly written out) was that for almost everything OA and A3 passengers share all resources. Of course this is not true for benefits to *A golds on OA, but other than that I am not aware of ant distinctions. As for your bidding, I misread Headingwest's screenshot-containing post, with his 145€ bid, and I thought it was yours

SPLP007

Is this now the only way to upgrade is with a bid?--
is his all flts?-

I have upgrade certificates that are good for 6 more months - and wanted to requalify to gold -- if this is a change to the upgrade system I will not even try -----most of my flts are 1 hour or so and for me it is not worth paying extra- I have club access with other ways

Knobbgb

There's no suggestion anywhere that the vouchers will not also be valid.

headingwest

Haha, I certainly did not make any bid...the system 'helpfully' preselected the €145 bid when I entered the function.

Personally I don't like this idea one little bit, partly because of what I've seen on other airlines. I remember a few years back when I had an Austrian economy flight to Chicago and I decided to bid for an upgrade. Being as tight as I am (OK, I'm not afraid to admit it ) I bid a very low amount - I think it was €300. Not surprisingly I didn't get it, but when I boarded the flight I was actually quite happy. Walking through the Business cabin, it was packed solid...not an empty seat. But to my surprise the economy cabin was very lightly loaded indeed. I ended up with a row of 3 seats to myself and it turned out to be an excellent, quiet flight with a very attentive crew who probably had lots of extra time. That was when I made up my mind never to bid for upgrades again because they fill the cabins.

If you make something less exclusive, you make it less desirable. In a way I think that's the way it's going with Miles&Bonus and perhaps Star Alliance Gold generally. Each few months they chip away at the benefits and its all becoming less desirable. I like Aegean very much, but I fear that it's heading the same way as all the other airlines. I hope I'm wrong.

DELLAS

Yes I actually mentioned this was coming in the other thread. It was a natural progression given the success other airlines have had with it. IB just being one.

DELLAS

Indeed while some have been slating A3 IT a lot of investment has been made in the last 18 months and they are not as stupid as some people think .

Xandrios

Interesting development. I noticed that the cheapest fares are eligible, however the minimum fee is not always the same. AMS-ATH in May is cheaper (75 euro) than AMS-ATH in september (85 euro).

Especially in this case I would be inclined to make a bid - since it allows you to potentially get an business class fare for a very low price.

But economy could just as easily be booked full as well. And a business class seat, even if the cabin is full, is still miles more comfortable than the economy cabin.

I'm flying A3 business quite regularly and even if the cabin is full - the experience is still great. You don't really notice the difference between an empty or full cabin to be quite honest.

swingaling

I wouldn't give them that much credit. This upgrade bid system was developed by an outside vendor called Plusgrade. A number of other airlines use the exact same software: CX, LH, LX, AC, CA, SQ, NZ, EY, BI, JJ, QF, EI, MH, etc.