Aegean begins charging for re-booking of award tickets in Go Light.
Jul 21, 2020, 1:19 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,318
Aegean begins charging for re-booking of award tickets in Go Light.
Warning! Go Light award tickets MAY now also be non-refundable (if someone calls in, please ask them to clarify, but I wouldn't be surprised if today and in the next couple of days many agents provide the wrong answer).
I just noticed that the go light tickets when booking with miles now indicate a significant surcharge (see below, depending on the route they will ask for up to 70€).
Also missing from the go light description is the ability to cancel such a ticket (only re-booking possible?), whereas in the flex category it is clearly stated that the tickets are refundable and that you can cancel them (the "fare comparison" table hasn't been updated yet and indicates all 3 types of fares as offering unlimited changes without fees and being refundable!).
So after the changes in baggage count and the offering of free pre-selection of seats with flex, this new "non-flexibility" of "go lights" is in my eyes a major factor to consider when booking an award ticket using Aegean's Miles&Bonus for Aegean's own flights. They are pushing more and more towards getting people to book flex, however my personal concern here is, that these differences are now so big between go light and flex, that the marginal difference in price makes zero sense to book go light over flex. What I am beginning to fear is that with Aegean's pricing in many aspects now resembling more and more that of LCC's, they could be "forced" by their own moves to introduce significant costs to the customer, as the LCC's do, to provide the "usual" (or "new" if you prefer) service with the flex tickets.
To be honest I never understood why Aegean was marketing go light and flex award tickets as such, since up to a couple of days ago the only difference was one 23kg piece of luggage and nothing else. Now you have the added "perk" of free pre-selection of seats with flex (worth 4-5€), the bag as usual (currently worth 20-30€, possibly more in 2021) and the actual flexibility of the flex fare (with the penalty for the go light fare now being very high for ~3-hour flights).
I just noticed that the go light tickets when booking with miles now indicate a significant surcharge (see below, depending on the route they will ask for up to 70€).
Also missing from the go light description is the ability to cancel such a ticket (only re-booking possible?), whereas in the flex category it is clearly stated that the tickets are refundable and that you can cancel them (the "fare comparison" table hasn't been updated yet and indicates all 3 types of fares as offering unlimited changes without fees and being refundable!).
So after the changes in baggage count and the offering of free pre-selection of seats with flex, this new "non-flexibility" of "go lights" is in my eyes a major factor to consider when booking an award ticket using Aegean's Miles&Bonus for Aegean's own flights. They are pushing more and more towards getting people to book flex, however my personal concern here is, that these differences are now so big between go light and flex, that the marginal difference in price makes zero sense to book go light over flex. What I am beginning to fear is that with Aegean's pricing in many aspects now resembling more and more that of LCC's, they could be "forced" by their own moves to introduce significant costs to the customer, as the LCC's do, to provide the "usual" (or "new" if you prefer) service with the flex tickets.
To be honest I never understood why Aegean was marketing go light and flex award tickets as such, since up to a couple of days ago the only difference was one 23kg piece of luggage and nothing else. Now you have the added "perk" of free pre-selection of seats with flex (worth 4-5€), the bag as usual (currently worth 20-30€, possibly more in 2021) and the actual flexibility of the flex fare (with the penalty for the go light fare now being very high for ~3-hour flights).
Jul 21, 2020, 7:28 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,318
The last 2 screenshots already answer this (both from LHR-ATH, go light and flex) and the difference is always proportional to the distance, as published on Aegean's website https://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbon...aegean-olympic
(8x, 10x and 15x respectively, with some "minimums" to always be respected).
(8x, 10x and 15x respectively, with some "minimums" to always be respected).