New rules for ATH Intra Schengen lounge access for A3G + non gold companion
 

I have just received this email which is a bit meh.

We have come into an agreement with Goldair Handling Lounge to secure additional capacity and therefore, effective May 12th 2023, our Gold members who fly together with a non-Gold travel companion (guest) will be hosted at the Goldair Handling Lounge. Our Lounge personnel will always be available to guide you and assist in any way.
As a token of our appreciation for your understanding, we offer to all Gold members, 200 extra award miles for all domestic flights from Athens, and 500 extra award miles for all flights from Athens to an international Intra Schengen destination.

Reactions?

I found this bit of the email interesting:

However, in the Intra Schengen Area, the pandemic delayed the expansion plans of the Athens International Airport, that would give us the opportunity to acquire the extra space we need to increase our Lounge capacity. This has resulted to significant capacity issues, especially at the pick-hours of the day. Soon, we will be given the prospect from Athens International Airport and we will expand our premises in this area as well.

Sounds a bit insane they might need to build yet another lounge, but honestly it might be a good opportunity once it's all done that Aegean might get two lounges intra-Schengen at Athens! (One can hope)

For me it would be rather interesting to know until when this measure will apply. Luckily we can still use the LH lounge with a companion but I assume this will be crowded too considering its size.

Also an update: Silver members won't be able to use their lounge coupons for the A3 Intra-Schengen lounge from May 12.

1. Will everyone get 200/500 extra miles or only those who go to the goldair lounge with their companion?
2. Very poor communication from Aegean, sent an email about policy change, when said policy will take effect in ~8 hours.
3. The new policy only applies to A3 Gold from what it seems, so A3 is treating *A Gold better than their own program.
4. No timeline about when they will restore the old rules.
5. I less worried they will increase the miles requirement for reaching/renewing gold status. I was almost certain they were going to go with 36k miles for reaching / 18k miles for renewing Gold status starting next year, but it seems they decided to increase the lounge space instead. Anyone who used A3 lounge knows its always packed.

I've only visited the LH lounge once, it was pretty bad from what I remember. They weren't even offering water. I suspect the Goldair one will probably be better.

On the same issue, an update on the A3 SILVER status holders:
The lounge coupons are no longer valid for any Athens lounge. They may only be used at SKG or LCA.

Correction: They are no longer valid for any INTRA Schenghen lounge, they are still valid for the EXTRA Schenghen lounge. (thanks @ariadgr_)

Honestly, this is the part I like the least. Is it because they control what they can do on their Golds and cannot deny entry to other *A Golds?

They can probably deny entry. In the past when other lounges were under construction other *A airlines gave me a check worth 20Euros/20$ to spend in airport stores. Though in those cases entry was denied to all passenger, regardless of the program.

My understanding is that whenever a *A passenger uses the A3 lounge, the other *A airline pays A3 some money (e.g. 15 Euros per passenger, no idea about the actual amount). So Aegean does not want to block that revenue stream.

Could it be about limiting access to M+B members who can get in on OA routes?

That's not a huge amount though given OA-numbered routes are on turboprops... unless they're going to bring back OA numbers for all domestic Greek (and Cypriot) routes.

Wrong.
They are no longer valid for any Athens INTRA Schenghen lounge.
They are still valid for the Athens EXTRA Schenghen lounge.

If the Goldair lounge is anything like the standard of the one that used to be in the extra-Schengen area before the redevelopment, then it is unquestionably an enormous downgrade. It would regularly feature in lists of "worst BA third party lounge", and that's pretty stiff competition if you've ever visited the old one at RAK!

The reason for doing this is bound to be highly speculative.

Either you view it as creating more space so as not to have to deny anyone admittance on capacity grounds (it would be particularly embarrassing for A3 to turn away one of its own Gold members or Business Class passengers because the lounge was full of guests), and therefore conclude that the airline was acting favourably towards its customers

or

You feel the airline is deliberately trying to discourage Gold members from bringing a guest, to the extent that the alternative is so sub-standard they won't bother and A3 will save some incidental F&B costs.

In practice, I expect guests will be allowed into the A3 lounge at non-busy times because that incidental F&B cost must still be considerably less than paying for two people to go to the Goldair lounge.

I'd probably be charitable at this stage in thinking this is the airline trying to help, but what happens in reality might well change that view!

There’s now quite a big advantage in using upgrade vouchers/booking business class tickets if you value a superior ground experience at ATH.

Aegean’s e-mail seems hastily written with many grammar mistakes and incoherent sentences.

It seems like this was a last minute decision, even though A3 must have had a vague-to-clear idea of the number of status passengers and guests during peak (not pick) hours for weeks if not months now.

I’d say this doesn’t bode well for renewal tiers staying at their current levels for those who do A3 flights.

😳😳😳 To me the LH lounge is much better than the Aegean lounge at ATH with a very large choice of food and drinks.
Actually, I was not allowed to enter last Monday. I was told admittance was only granted to LH, OS and Swiss passengers. I ended up in the Aegean lounge which was very busy (around lunch time).

I'm flying tomorrow with 4 people including myself (2 A3*G, 1*S , 1*Blue). I guess we will visit LH lounge together, then the Goldair lounge, drop my parents at the Goldair Lounge and visit the A3 lounge if that's what Aegean wants.

The LH lounge is way better than the A3 zoo... booze selection is way better and food too.