DrHalxx

I had two really bad customer experiences recently

1. We booked an economy ticket and we were waitlisted for an upgrade. To avoid any surprises I bought an extra bag (it was a golight fare). When we dropped our bags at the business class check in, because each bag was 2-3kg overweight they charged us an overweight fee despite still waiting for the coupons to clear. I understand that they went by the T&C but, no appreciation to loyalty and the special circumstances.

2. Booked an economy ticket for my partner. Blank page after the booking. Received a confirmation email with a different flight than the one I booked. Called them to change it to the original intended time within 20 minutes from the booking and they charged me 20 euros for using the call center.

Really cheap, cheaper than ryanair

headingwest

Ryanair would make you pay for another ticket!

DrHalxx

BA wouldn't!

DELLAS

Have you written in to customer care and raised these issues? If so what was the reply?

Cide

I don't see a problem with #1 . You had a ticket with 23kg baggage allowance. You had more than that. You pay for the difference. *G or not. You said you had 2-3kg more than the allowance and that it should be OK as you are a A3 *G (I guess). But where do you draw the line. Would 4kg be ok? How about 5? Or even 9, as you might get upgraded and would have an allowance of 32 kg? (and what are those "special circumstances" that you mentioned?)

DELLAS

Agreed although personally 2-3KG over should be waived for *G as a gesture of goodwill. The rule of thumb on some carriers used to be 5Kg for top tier members on a few carriers. It was not a advertised perk but greatly appreciated. The upgrade may clear has no relevance though I agree.

Point 2 there is a valid issue but if the original poster has not written to A3 and brought this up and complained then Im not sure what good it does.

Cide

Absolutely. It would have been nice if they waived the fee. But there's no reason to complain if they don't.

As far as #2 goes, I'm with you. It seems to be a technical issue and it should have been fixed without any costs.

East_and_West

Strange. My sample is quite small since I usually travel HBO,especially on short-haul, but as an A3*G I have always been allowed a one or so kilos in excess of the official allowance when this has occurred. In most *A carriers, and especially when flying A3, without even the agent bringing this up. Hopefully this is an one-time, agent-specific incident rather than a new A3 policy... Were you flying from ATH or an outstation? If the latter is true this may be the answer...

If you are positive that you booked a different time in the first place, then this may be due to their ever-problematic IT rather than them being cheap. Sometime ago I was assigned a middle upfront seat on an A3 flight. At some point I changed to a paid window upfront seat, but got an error message after entering my payment details. The same happened on my second attempt. Tried to do that again after a while or so but than I was informed that check-in had been closed, already some 45 mins before departure. Then at the gate my BP beeped red as "I hadn't paid my fee for my (automatically assigned) middle seat"! Thankfully enough this was settled with a manager on the spot. Yep, such things happen...

A3 has truly wonderful PAs in my experience. Their problem is that processes in A3 tend to be very bureaucratic, and unlike other *A airlines, PAs have not been given the liberty to change even the slightest detail that is not specifically prescribed by their rigid rules. Call the Gold line and ask to speak with a supervisor, they have more authority to handle such things than regular PAs. Alternatively write to them, explain your situation, and bring up the possibility of a refund.

East_and_West

My guess is that in most of the cases the line lies at about 2kg, maybe a bit lower. In my limited experience (about 10 times perhaps?) I had never encountered any problem on any *A carrier when checking in a couple of kilos in excess of the allowance as a *G. Yet I've never stretched that beyond that (say, 1kg, perhaps close to 2kg at most) since I prefer to avoid such situations, and I don't like to push my limits. The reason they allow that is I guess that it's not good for business to exhaust their strictness on their best customers just to pocket a few dozen additional €... Their medium-/long-term losses outweigh their immediate gains. But I agree that 3kg sounds indeed a bit too much.

headingwest

True, but they have the 24 hour cooling-off period. I wish Aegean would introduce that.

DrHalxx

So re baggage fees: It was the first time I had such a problem to be fair but the check-in agent was quite rigid and looked a bit inexperienced as well.

In terms of the call centre fee, I complained to them through twitter and they "didn't find any technical issues". I asked for a call from customer services and sitll waiting

KLouis

I don't really understand OP's logic, or he is a very, very optimistic person. He complains that "When [he] dropped [the] bags at the business class checkin, because each bag was 2-3kg overweight they charged [them] an overweight fee despite still waiting for the coupons to clear". He was waiting for the upgrade even after checking the bags, i.e. 1-2 hours before departure?

As for the second complaint, I got the same "white page" today at the end of booking my (and my wife's) next flights. Same technical problem, indeed. But what is missing on the white page is the confirmation after the booking is completed. Thus, if there was a problem, it would have been too late to solve it, and OP would have to go through the call centre, anyway. Therefore, the technical problem is not to blame for the extra 20€...

Cookoovaya

1. Overweight bag, and not by 100 grams. You are wrong.

2. You booked a ticket but you got a confirmation email for a different flight. Are you 100% sure that this wasn't a mistake from your side? Maybe you picked the wrong flight in the first place and therefore I could easily justify the call center fee.

nk15

Well, the "honeymoon" period with A3 where they were a great airline and FFP has been over for quite some time, now we are in the fleecing part...

That being said, I agree, 2-3kg per bag over is pushing it, but 1-2 should be accommodated. If your upgrade cleared, you should ask for the overweight bag fees back. Same for the second issue, ask for the fee to be refunded.

KLouis

On what basis?