Carpacchio

Well - the whole Lufthansa group has now eliminated cash refunds (even if it's in their T&C !) and resorts to vouchers (with a 50 CHF/USD/EUR inventive) or a refund payment "not before September".
Clearly illegal, at least from EU passenger rights regulations.
Of course, I understand the liquidity crunch - no lecture needed here. But the question is: why should we as passengers participate in their trouble, if before we weren't participating in the annual profits ?

Looking out further: either the airline goes under and then better do the chargeback now, as your M&B account won't be of much use anymore.
Or it will be bailed out by the Greek state or the EU, and then in the best case you have a voucher that you can use or not - in the worst case, they use the bailout to get rid of most liabilities (chapter 11 style) and with that your voucher and your M&B account.

headingwest

Well put!

I don't have a problem so much with Aegean lowering their standard, or decreasing Miles&Bonus benefits, they're completely within their rights to do so if they are prepared to lose custom. But breaking the law, that's something quite different!

Here's a question, are Aegean still flying!?

Carpacchio

Seems so: https://aia.gr/traveler/flight-info/rtfi/

Chr04

From 26/03 to 30/04 Aegean stops all international flights and limits to the minimum the flights inside Greece.
There will only be some flights to Brussels.

Carpacchio

Looking at the departure table of aia.gr, there are no more flights tomorrow already (March 25) - and just 1 to Brussels today.

djjaguar64

I am getting frustrated, Finally contacted my credit card company due to Canadian Government Advisory I will be able to cancel all my tickets.

djjaguar64

This does not look good for Greece and not sure how Aegean will be impacted:

https://www2.deloitte.com/gr/en/page...inkId=85244683

Plastipups

as I know even cancellation of the flight by EU carrier doesn't mean right for cash refund - EU261 leave it to terms of specific carrier, Montreal convention allow carriers to reschedule without time limits. I was abandon by A3 in the middle of return flight, no re-seating to existed *A flights for 5-8 days. I even visited their so-called "representatives" in two airports only to find they are not authorised to care about passengers whos transportation A3 had started and not finished. Of course my contacts were entered into reservation and I am status passenger for A3 (only silver, but).
SO the result: even unused/cancelled part of that return ticket they are refusing to refund.

KLouis

AF announced that they'll be issuing vouchers too, with one difference, though. If things go back to normal by the end of the years, they will be reimbursing not used vouchers from 2021 on.

Carpacchio

Correct, and even if I don't like this offer, at least I won't lose any money eventually (I would assume AF doesn't go bankrupt).
The A3 vouchers are a joke: they are personal, can expire worthless, and if you rebook to a flight with a lower fare, you are not reimbursed for the difference.
My wife had a flight with our kids around Easter which was cancelled - hence relatively high tariffs. So we are pretty guaranteed to lose money, since I don't know when she will fly with the kids again, and even if, it will most likely be a lower tariff.

I will definitely fight to get my money back according to EU regulation, which A3 should be legally bound to.

blackball

No, you have a right to a full refund in case of cancellation, but not compensation in the case of extraordinary circumstances. Read the links given in previous posts.

blackball

I'm in the same situation, and I agree, Aegean's response is pitiful and insulting. For those who don't know, here's the relevant excerpt of the voucher T&Cs:

• The Credit Voucher must be fully redeemed in one booking/transaction. If the new booking is of lower value than the Credit Voucher, then the difference will not be given in any subsequent Credit Voucher. If the new booking is of higher value than the Credit Voucher, then you will be required to pay the difference at the time of booking.
• The Credit Voucher must be redeemed in a single passenger booking, under the name of the passenger that the Credit Voucher was issued for. The only exemption is if in the same booking an adult and a child/infant are included, where in this case the Credit Voucher for each child/infant will be incorporated to the Credit Voucher of one of the adult passengers of the booking and will be sent to him/her. This Credit Voucher can be redeemed for more than one passengers, as long as among the passengers is the adult passenger who initially got the Credit Voucher. On all other cases, if you want to book tickets for more than one passenger, then you must proceed with separate bookings.

johnirvine

Cancellation of a flight by an EU carrier within 14 days of a flight most certainly gives you the right to a refund plus, in normal cases, compensation; more than 14 days before, you are entitled to a refund only - please read the EU261 regulation and you will see that this is the case. However, it is one thing to possess a right and another thing to be able to exercise it. Most EU airlines are effectively insolvent and many will not be recapitalised. In the case of Aegean, the airline is so important for the Greek economy, in particular for tourism, that the government is unlikely to let it fail. In my opinion, holders of credit vouchers for unused tickets possess less legal rights than those with unmet EU261 claims. Consequently, I am refusing totally offers of credit vouchers for future flights from Aegean. So far, I have had two tickets refunded and none refused - you need to be persistent and correspond by e-mail rather that speak to an agent who has no real authority to make refund decisions.

Xandrios

I don't disagree, but that does work the other way around too. I rebooked todays flight to July and did not have to pay the fare difference going from P to S. And the upgrade coupon was transferred, the upgrade remained intact.

If by that time it's still not safe to fly I'm sure there is another reooking policy that can be used to move the flights back further.

Personally I don't really care if its cash or a voucher. I don't believe that A3 will go fully bankrupt, and as long as you are likely to fly again within the year you should be able to use the vouchers.

blackball

Hold on. The airlines are not doing us a favor here. They allow these free changes (also in the case of fare bucket changes), because they are almost certain the flights will be cancelled and they do NOT want to refund us. Giving you an easy option to change dates, makes it certain they keep the cash in the short term, when they need it most. Had they not done this, they would've faced thousands of passengers claiming refunds and hitting their cashflow hard.

I was about to accept the vouchers, since I am 100% certain the money will go back to A3 as soon as the pandemic is over (I travel super frequently). What stopped me was that I only just saw the T&Cs today, stating fare differences are not refunded. I have booked several A3 flights, and a few of them are on the very high end of the price range that is normal for the route I fly (over 400 euros, when they are normally ~250). This means that I could lose several 100s of euros, in case of rebooking on dates which are less expensive.

By the way, I do not share your optimism about A3 not going under. The entire airline industry is in deep trouble, it has happened before to other big, national airlines and (correct me if I'm wrong), A3's bottom lines have not exactly been stellar. If anything, their current reaction shows they are panicking. Of course, I do hope they make it, and none of the employees lose their jobs.