Jacksong

Flew a week ago to requalify and my partners flights hadn't posted so we tried to retro claim and it auto-rejected them. Then after calling in we noticed that the boarding pass had the wrong name - a 1 digit typo SAMATHA instead of SAMANTHA which is why they're rejecting it automatically. Person at the call centre suggested we call in during office hours on Monday as people who may be able to help would be in then but she couldn't help there and then which may be fobbing off but it was midnight greek time when we phoned in so that would make sense.

Does anyone have any experience with the right language to use to get a positive response from Aegean ? Ignoring the fact that technically she should not have been able to checkin (done by the automated machines at LHR so no chance of a human missing it) or even fly due to the name mismatch and the numerous passport vs boarding pass checks that happened along the way in both directions.

I'm not expecting anything positive from Aegean due to their famous customer service (and it'll likely mean the end of us flying star when leisure flights really pick up again due to status expiry) but was wondering if anyone had had success in this area before ?

Thanks in advance

Jacqui

Chiller3333

Don't have any experience with it btu I'd suggest calling during business hours and send an email using the online form asking for the retro claim.
That's the best you can really do at the moment.

KLouis

Makes sense, indeed!
Be polite and speak Greek or English. Everybody at their call centre speaks both languages!
Now, just imagine how you'd have reacted if they had denied boarding because of your partner's typo!
In contrast to what you are writing, A3's CS is usually competent and helpful. If you don't want to fly *A (A3 and lots of other airlines based throughout the world) again because of a typo, which is definitely not the fault of an employee, fair enough.

:D!

Name mismatches by up to 3 characters are usually disregarded at check-in / boarding, except in some Asian countries where names tend to be very short when expressed in Latin characters.

As for retro-claiming, it's up to Aegean, but this is obviously a mistake and not someone trying to fraudulently collect miles in a different name.

Jacksong

I feel my query has been slightly misunderstood here - i'm not asking what language to speak, I'm asking what language to use as in phraseology, key words, terminology etc. In my experience when dealing with large call centres it is easier to get things actioned if you know right things to say that trigger the appropriate responses but that may well not be everyones experience.

You're probably assuming behaviour not in evidence here - my partner tends to flip out at such situations, me I tend to remain calm and ask what needs to happen/who do we need to talk to to fix the situation - thats what i'm trying to do here otherwise my partner is likely to be exactly that kind of obnoxious person on the phone otherwise.

I don't disagree that they are competent and some are helpful. However I have direct and recent personal experience of what happens when you go off script with them when I needed to change the name, and gender, on my M+B account to match my new passport. This took multiple emails and phone calls before I got someone who understood what was being asked and to stop telling me to send in my marriage certificate. One person even told me i'd need to present my passport in Athens! Eventually I got someone that got it and collected the right information from me and actioned this but can't help but feel if I'd have known the right phrases to us to trigger specific processes that it would have gone much more smoothly. As a result A3 were probably amongst the top 10 of hardest companies I have had to deal with so far in that process (which is over 100 and still counting - although they were a positive dream compared to dealing with paypal!). But this is drifting somewhat away from the topic.

Again I feel I've been misintepreted and probably because I didn't communicate clearly. It wouldn't be the end of us flying Aegean out of spite or malice or a perceived sleight, simply a recognition that our pre-pandemic flying patterns had shifted over the years such that other airlines and alliances would suit them better but we stayed with A3 as we have enjoyed flying and visiting Greece with them and directed our flying accordingly. Were she to start over post-pandemic then it's more likely to be elsewhere just through logic and financial benefit.

Ultimately that is the purpose of frequent flyer and loyalty schemes, to keep people choosing your business over others even though it may not be the 100 percent logical choice.

Jacqui

Carpacchio

Instead of discussing around here, I would just call them and explain. Contrary to other companies, A3 customer service is not outsourced and normally tends to accept "reasonable" requests (which the typo certainly is).
Now - changing name and gender of an account is much more difficult to pass a "sniff test", since you touch key parameters of the account. So I would also go for the extra mile there to make sure it's not fraudulent.
Also, that's probably not an everyday's request, so not all call center agents might be familiar with how to deal with that.

xichang08

Something similar happened to me late 2019 and into early 2020.

For several years I had been crediting to A3 while using a suffix (Jr) attached to my boarding passes with no problem. Suddenly, flights stopped crediting and after speaking with A3 customer service, I learned of a new policy stating the name on the boarding pass must exactly match that on my A3 account. My A3 account did not include the suffix.

I was eventually able to resolve this and receive the credit but it took about 4 months, several phone calls, and emails.

What seemed to work best in my case was sending scans of all boarding passes, a screenshot of my A3 member profile page, and a scan of my passport along with a detailed explanation to [email protected]

Jacksong

Thanks very much, thats exactly the kind of datapoint I was hoping to get!

Jacqui

jerry_greece

What happened to me once was that booking through OTA had my lastname/firstname switched. I didn't have any problem traveling, let alone crediting the miles.