DELLAS

Good move by A3 I got it also although have not been impacted by it as most of the flights I was on were roughly on time.

jumpallover

I appreciated the note since my HER - ATH flight was delayed and I had to rush in ATH to catch the other one. Later on I discovered that also my last A3 flight was delayed so I rushed back to the lounge

pewpew

Interested to see what this does to my 1:05 connection in ATH for CFU-ATH-LHR tomorrow . I found VIE-ATH delayed for ~1.5h July 29, JSY-ATH for 10 mins Aug 5, and ATH-CFU for ~15 mins Aug 6

alanw

I especially like the kind I got on a recent ATH-JMK flight that was delayed by an hour: a letter with similar tone and language to the email, only printed, and with a code to redeem for a free business-class flight as a way of apology.

My usual carrier is VY (not by choice), who suffer the same delays every summer. I cannot imagine them apologizing for or even acknowledging their delays. You're lucky to get a shrug.

I think this is a very nice effort on the part of A3.

Alexandros Bravos

alanw

That's a good question - looking again at the letter it says "on a route (domestic/international) and class of service (Business/Economy) as his originally booked ticket."

So, as is frequently the case, A3's communication is vague and open to interpretation:

- "on a route", not "on the route" therefore I read this as any domestic route, though it also says "originally booked ticket" and not "originally booked segment". I was on a BCN-ATH-JMK ticket so even though the delayed flight was domestic the ticket was international. Does that mean I get an international flight?

- same with respect to the class of service. I bought a refundable business class ticket BCN-JMK. The second leg didn't have a business class cabin. But it was a business class ticket.

As I read it, I get a business class ticket on an international flight. It could have been much, much clearer.

As far as the other 169 people on the flight, I didn't ask them if they got a letter or what it said.

Knobbgb

No, you get an economy domestic flight. IF you're lucky! The availability on these flights seems to be limited by the same criteria (or similar) to award flights, so finding one can be tough. Also, you pay the tax. So, on a domestic flight you're likely to save 20 or 30 Euro max as no space will be available except when the cheapest fare buckets are on sale. I've had 2 or 3 or these letters, and after trying unsuccessfully to use them, they now go straight in the bin.

I see what you mean about this being an international ticket, but I would imagine it should indeed read 'segment'. Since you're not legally entitled to anything, good luck arguing that point with them!

jerry_greece

It's very sweet of them to apologize (although what should BA say that their operational base is at the busiest EU airport?) but I am not sure if ATC has to be blamed for everything. A3 has scheduled many turnaround operations of 321 (which in the busy summer season fill up with 200+ pax.) to last as long as 30 min! And many of their delays are because of that (e.g. in my latest small delay ~ 1 hour, the captain blamed the late arrival of crew from other flight and the wait due to connecting pax.).

However, blaming the ATC this summer in Greece seems to be ongoing, also for political reasons.

Alexandros Bravos