Hey all,

I've got an A3 itinerary (all A3 metal, no OA or anything else) with JTR-ATH (A3 369) and ATH-IST (A3 994) booked (separate tickets unfortunately, A3 didn't allow a mixed class itinerary), with a 1hr15min transit at ATH.

The JTR-ATH leg is a cash booking, and ATH-IST is an award booking.

Performing a dummy booking JTR-IST prices out the same itinerary so A3 certainly seems to believe it's a legal transfer, however that's for a single ticket/booking/itinerary.

The Y segment JTR-ATH does seem to have "ComfortFlex" fare rules (one of which is "Change to an earlier or later flight within the same day of departure"), so technically we can swap over to an earlier JTR-ATH flight on the same day (from a bit of reading, this "benefit" activates as soon as the day of the flight starts at midnight Greece time, or does it activate when online check-in opens?).

Questions:

1. How are the A3 ground agents at JTR? Would they entertain a through check-in so baggage goes all the way to IST?
2. If baggage is successful, what about visas? This itinerary is intra-Schengen to extra-Schengen so that's another friction point. As a result, would the procedures such as customs/visa checks etc (that would only apply for international travel) take place at JTR or would we have to wait till we get to ATH for this?
3. Has anyone here done something similar and have any advice to offer?

This trip isn't until the end of June so there's about 2 months to go, however we want to be prepared in case anything does go belly up. Cheers in advance for any any all helpful info.

Happy travels!

1. Most likely the bags will be checked all the way to Istanbul. Remember to ask.
2. All passport procedures will take place in Athens. Definitely if everything is on time you will make it. If there are a lot of people at passport control ask the airport people to move you forward because of short time.
3. Something similar happened to me with 2 different bookings, and the first flight wasn't on time, the call center offered me to book me to the next Istanbul flight. ( I declined because there was a TK flight before the A3 one, I booked this myself, and at the end the customer service paid me the difference of the two tickets).

Awesome thanks Chr04 for the prompt response, much appreciated.

We've never flown with A3 before so have no idea how things usually work with them (I know they're not an LCC but how "full service" are they?).

The baggage was the main concern as this is a massive time burner (I've waited at the carousel for 3 hours once at MEL when the ground agents were short staffed once).
​
So am I correct in assuming that the JTR-ATH flight will just operate as a domestic (apart from the baggage being tagged all the way to IST), and then upon arrival at ATH we'd have to go to the A3 check in counters and then security/passport control etc? The gates for this flight will presumably close 20-30 mins prior to departure which does make things a tight connection.

In any case, we'll do our best to change to one of the earlier JTR-ATH flights using that ComfortFlex benefit, but in the absence of availability or similar, I'd love to know how feasible it is.

Unfortunately A3 doesn't have any later ATH-IST flights that day so if we miss it, it'd be pretty bad.

Do you not check in online? If the bags are tagged all the way through, why do you need to go to the counter? You can just take your boarding pass and go straight to the non-schengen area.

Also, I don't think I have ever seen gates close 20 minutes before departure on Aegean. They usually don't start boarding until about 30 minutes before, and boarding usually takes more than 10 minutes. So if your flight lands on time, you definitely should be okay.
However, that being said, I would highly recommend taking an earlier flight if possible, if only to be able to enjoy the new non-Schengen lounge for a bit. It is a nice space and since you are flying in business, you should try it.

Unfortunately ATH isn't the best laid-out airport for Schengen to non-Schengen transfers, and personally I wouldn't want to chance a 1h15 connection on separate tickets if there were other options. Last month I had just under that time on a single ticket transfer, SKG-ATH-LHR, we landed on time (actually slightly early) and I only had about 15 minutes in the lounge before going to the gate at about T-30. That was sitting in row 12 from SKG on a fairly full flight, but the plane emptied pretty efficiently so there wasn't a lot of delay getting out.

To get from Schengen to non-Schengen you have to exit to landside and go back in the departures stream, so another security check and then through passport control (you also get to experience the frustration when you arrive at non-Schengen security of being able to see the area you've just exited). I walk quickly, I know ATH airport reasonably well, so whilst I wasn't concerned about the transfer I equally never felt I had a massive amount of time to complete it.

You will be travelling at a much busier time, queues for security and passport control are likely to be longer so I would regard your itinerary as risky. Even if A3, as is likely, through-checks your luggage you still don't have protection albeit you'd gain a few minutes if they loaded your cases simply because no-one likes doing the paperwork and lifting to remove them from the hold again if they can avoid it.

On separate tickets, I'd want at least a couple of hours between flights, preferably more. If the most important part of the holiday is ATH-IST, I'd strongly recommend getting on an earlier flight if you can.

That's a very risky move. June is busy month, possible Greek ATC strike, bus gate on arrival in ATH.

I will fly LCA-ATH-CDG next Monday with a 1h35 minutes layover in Athens. 1st ticket is an award ticket, second was bought with the Aegean pass. I am not super confident. If the LCA-ATH is let�s say one hour late, I can always change my ATH-CDG flight to the next day for free. If I miss the flight just by a few minutes I will have to pay for another flight, I guess.

The chances of an ATC strike in the public sector (including ATC) one month after elections or, even, before new elections in case the ones coming up don't lead to the formation of a new government are less than 0.001% ! No reason to scare people, after all this is about flying A3 in Greece, not LH in Germany!

I believe you should try to take an earlier flight from JTR, if possible.
If that is not possible, try to get a seat near the front door.
Gate closing time, according to A3 dragon, is 15 minutes before departure, so chances are not that bad, but connection is still a risky one.
Concerning luggage, A3 has a "quick transfer" baggage tag, so if you make them to check it to IST, it would probably make it.
But if they refuse, most probably you won't be able to make that 75 min connection at all.

Thanks for that! I'll check in online of course, however will the boarding pass of the ATH-IST flight be given at JTR (I thought the visa check and customs/passport control etc would be completed at ATH given that JTR-ATH is treated as a domestic flight?)? If we can get the BP at JTR itself then that would be wonderful.

Definitely will try to swap over to an earlier flight. At this point all the earlier JTR-ATH flights on the day have seats available, however as the date approaches who knows how that will play out. We'll definitely use that "privilege" of the ComfortFlex fare to get an earlier flight and longer connection.

Thanks heaps for this - you're right that things can get tricky very quickly if anything goes wrong. We'll do what we can to jump onto an earlier flight on the day (any experience with using the "change to a different flight on the same day" feature in a ComfortFlex fare? Glad to hear you made your connection, missing ATH-LHR would cause all sorts of headaches.

Are either of those tickets in a "ComfortFlex" fare bucket? This fare bucket comes with a certain privilege which is quite generous (see "Change to an earlier or later flight within the same day For free" at https://www.aegeanhub.com/-/media/ab...2b_for-web.pdf). I've never used it and have been searching for other people's experiences of using it, which hopefully will be somewhere within FT's database and forums!

Haha, I love the subtle dig at LH in Germany - they must go on strike quite often?

Yep, we'll definitely try taking an earlier flight if there's availability and we can use that feature of ComfortFlex to swap over. It all depends on how friendly/understanding the check-in agents/dragons at JTR will be on the day. I'm guessing they're used to a processing a lot of international transits at ATH given the usual clientele at JTR so let's see...

Yes, you'll get a single paper boarding pass for both flights, although, having checked in online, you really don't need one - just use the one sent to the Aegean app. or emailed to you. Yes, you go through passport control at Athens, but I don't see how that would affect where you obtain the actual boarding pass from.

I'd be really worried that the flight you want will be full by then - they often are in summer (but you haven't told us the date). How much are you actually saving by not paying to switch now? Is it worth the hassle and worry? Just go into your booking and see how much it is to change. You will only pay the fare difference. If it is a small amount, just pay it. If the earlier flight is a lot more expensive that means it's approaching being full, so you could be out of luck changing on the day. I'd just pay to switch now anyway.

Thanks for the confirmation. The only reason I assumed that we won't have a boarding pass for the ATH-IST leg is because this would require a passport and visa check (in my experience boarding passes are only given once the agent confirms that the passenger has all required documentation to reach the intended destination). My wife has an IN passport and I have an AU passport, we both have TR e-visas so that's no issue of course. So are you saying that the agents at JTR will confirm that we're allowed to enter IST and therefore give the boarding passes there? We'll check-in online as well (which I assume will ask for passport/visa details as well).

In terms of paying to switch now, there is quite a substantial EUR price to make a flight change, so it would be good to save that money. However, is it worth paying it to avoid the hassle? I guess no amount of money can replace an itinerary full of hassles so that's a good point. We'll monitor the availabilities frequently and decide soon.

Thanks again for the confirmation.

I have no direct experience because I'm a UK passport holder so can go pretty much anywhere Aegean flies without a Visa. I've never had them check entry requirements for Turkey because most people can just do visa-on-arrival anyway. On that route (domestic-ATH-IST) I just check in online and go. I think online-check-in does require your passport details, but that's all. Even if they check visas, I would imagine it will be the JTR staff who will do that. You could call Aegean to check. Or, maybe better still, just ask at the airport when you arrive at JTR. Online check-in opens 48hrs before departure so, if there is a problem (maybe it won't let you), you have a couple of days to sort it out.

Yep, just what I was thinking anyway. We're staying in Kamari (a 10 minute, 6km distance from the airport), so a quick trip to JTR for any issues that need to be sorted out shouldn't be an issue at all.

Thanks again so much for your input and advice.

I always get extra cautious when it comes to passport/visa checks because Timatic is the bible with this stuff as you would know, and check-in agents don't mess around with this stuff. Me, personally, as an AU passport holder it's never been an issue; however with my wife's IN passport - that tends to cause all sorts of troubles (not many countries look favourably on people hailing from IN for some reason). Fortunately she has a Schengen visa (proper visa sticker on a passport page) issued by ES which allowed a TR e-Visa to be issued as opposed to another TR visa sticker.

Any issues at all, I'll hop on over to JTR and check with the A3 service desk there.

Final question - do you know at exactly what moment the option to "change to a different flight on the same calendar day" becomes available? Is it T-48 or is it 12am on the day of T, where T is the STD of the flight? A3's website doesn't exactly explain how this option works so I'm left to do my own research. I've tried emailing A3 but they just send generic replies and then mark the ticket as closed/solved!

After 12 midningt local time in Greece, the day that your flight is, you can change your flight. You start doing your check in and there is a choice there to change the flight.