AntonS

Flying LCA-ATH-CTA in J, both flights are 1 hour 45 min.

Do they serve snack or full hot meal on flights of this duration?

Have not flown Aegean in ages.

headingwest

Should be a hot meal on both flights.

AntonS

LCA-ATH was hot breakfast (strange for 10:15 departure, I expected lunch or snack). There were also printed menus.

ATH-CTA was cold meal without menus.

Slow service on both flight.

Bad lounge in LCA, I do know know why all other *A allowed into bigger lounge with terrace when Aegean uses small space without windows next door with poor food options and broken coffee machine, they could just merge two lounges.

ATH is not designed for connections that cross Schengen border. Same immigration as arrivals then back to main security queue. Lounge in ATH is also too crowded. With better connection logistic and bigger loungers, A3 could be really nice airline.

MeltingAlf

I don't quite get this — is there another lounge that other *A members can use? The Star Alliance Lounge Finder returned no other results, and AFAIK and remember it's just the Aegean one, which Aegean has said is slated for renovation and is the only of the four lounges they own that hasn't been renovated.

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KLouis

I can't see what the problem is! Once you've been through immigration coming from a non-Schengen place (such as LCA) and you connect to a Schengen flight (such as CTA) , you can only use the only, "main", intra-Schengen security queue. Which one would you have liked to use, the one going back into the non-Schengen area? Why?

AntonS

It would be nice to have a separate shorter immigration lines for connecting passengers. Also a separate security (and only if needed, I assume in most cases connections can be trusted without additional security for flights arriving from EU, USA, etc).

NWIFlyer

I agree with you, the layout at ATH is particularly bad. It's even more frustrating going Schengen to non-Schengen where you might clear Greek security, then have to re-clear it at ATH because you're forced landside on the connection. Schengen was supposed to establish a common security standard such that it wasn't necessary to re-clear. That just doesn't work at ATH because they've chosen to not provide a route where you pass through the border only and never leave the secure airside area.

However, unfortunately your assumption that in most cases connections can be trusted isn't correct. Schengen member states can choose not to trust any non-Schengen security process. EU members who are not within Schengen can choose not to trust anyone's security. The UK government never trusted anyone, including the Republic of Ireland with whom they form a Common Travel Area, and wherever you arrived from outside the UK you had to re-clear. In my experience, most EU countries require you to re-clear if arriving from outside Schengen.

I'm not sure if the re-screen is a Greek government requirement, or a consequence of the layout of ATH. The knowledgeable Athens diaspora here will educate us.

MeltingAlf

ATH's design is particularly bad, I think it's the only Schengen airport where you clear immigration before security (albeit it being back-to-back). Most airports have it the other way round, and sensibly acknowledges that Schengen arrivals fulfil the common security standard and thus fences immigration after that. And naturally allows connecting Schengen passengers to get to the NS side a lot easier!

johnirvine

There is only one lounge in LCA that *G cardholders have guaranteed access to if flying economy on *A and that is the Aegean lounge. However, the lounge is rather small and is unable to handle the large number of LH Group flights departing from Larnaca each day. For this reason, both LH Group and Egyptair have contracts with the larger Aspire Aphrodite lounge next door to handle their business and status passengers.

As an A3*G cardholder, I have the choice of using either or both lounges when flying business class on LH Group. Normally, I choose the Aegean lounge because the wine is better and there are excellent salads if you know where to find them. Certainly, the Aegean lounge at LCA is small and cramped but it is by no means as bad as portrayed. I would far rather spend time there than in the intra-Schengen lounge at ATH.