lorelai

Hi all

I am travelling LGW - HER (Crete) in Club Europe in August 2017, and I just had a couple of quick questions.

I have checked the wiki on here, and I know that BA don't have lounge access for their CE passengers at Heraklion Airport, does anyone have any experience with any of the Priority Pass lounges there? The Filoxenia lounge looks quite nice, but I'm just a bit concerned that it is landside, as I have images of security being quite busy mid-August! This brings me to my next question; is there a priority lane for CE pax travelling with BA to pass through security?

Any information or sharing of experiences that you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Lorelai

KalEL

I flew CE from to/from HER in June
I can't comment on the Priority Pass lounge as I didn't go in there, but I would try and spend as little time air side as possible! (It's hot, stuffy and has very uncomfortable metal seats).
CE priority queue when dropping off luggage, but no priority through security

:D!

Refer to this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aegea...3-flights.html

trvllvr123

We used the landside lounge in August, it took no time to pass through security so don't worry about that. There was an ok selection of drinks, loads of smarties and sweets, spinach pie, pizza and sandwiches (although best to wait until a fresh batch comes out and watch where they're placing it on the plate, as they leave the old stuff there!) we were delayed 2.5 hours and had lounge passes with the membership rewards card, it was definitely a relief compared to the rest of the airport. There are no toilets in the lounge, and the public ones weren't overly pleasant.

lorelai

Thank you for this information, really useful. Oh goodness, I have been to Heraklion once before and my god, those toilets! Given that you can't put any toilet roll down the loos, you'd think they might choose to empty the bins once in a while. Grim.

jimlad48

I went through in May in ET. It was an experience to put it mildly, there is very little catering past security, and the airport is rather pokey. Interestingly I found that you could NOT do OLCI for flights out of HER.

waribai

Flying CE from HER-LGW on Tuesday. Was thinking of booking the Filoxenia lounge. As it is landside, do we have to come out of the lounge and use the normal security channel or is there a separate one for the lounge?

Thanks for any advice

corporate-wage-slave

It's the same security as main security, so no separate security when I used it. The lounge agent left the lounge unattended for most of my visit. However when I used the same lounge company's facility in RHO, I was escorted through to the front of the queue, the reception agent summoned a colleague to assist with this.

There is an airside lounge in HER, the Evropi lounge, but it's only open at peak times.

waribai

Thanks. I don't think I'll bother booking then. I just hope there is a separate CE queue at check in!

drpabs

Is this still the case? Is check-in at HER prohibited via the BA app as well? If so, when would be sensible to get to the airport for a CE flight to LGW? (I am keen to be neither bumped nor kicked out of my row 1 seat!) I know there is no BA airside lounge but have also heard there might not be a CE check-in desk too. Is this true?

corporate-wage-slave

There is a CE desk, but they may pull passengers in from the other queue. I'd get there about 60-75 minutes before departure. You have to check-in at that airport, in common with (I think) all Greek airports except SKG and ATH. The reason being that Greek airports are on a basic computer system and only a cut-down version of FLY can work there. The App does not work there. [LCCs bypass it altogether so there is no problem doing OLCI with easyJet or Ryanair].

Andy33

CWS, A3/OA has managed to allow its customers to OLCI or check-in using its app and use mobile boarding passes from the same island airports BA uses, and lots more besides, for literally years. They're a full Star Alliance airline, as you know, complete with wide ranging codeshares and 2-class cabins on some routes, not an LCC, so require a fairly sophisticated system.

I do wonder if a big part of the problem is that BA persist in using Swissport as its handling agents at Greek island airports, presumably because they're cheapest. One of the reasons they're cheapest is that they literally close island stations down for the winter and lay staff off, so the last thing they'd want is a complicated system to teach new starters each spring. Skyserv and Goldair are the other two handling agents with wide coverage across Greece, and have both held contracts with Aegean incorporating both OLCI and mobile boarding passes. They retain a core of staff in the islands year-round.
As most of the island airports with international services are now on a long lease to Fraport starting this spring, I think the basic computer system excuse will soon wear thin. Will we get a decent service, or will the BA excuse department pull another rabbit from its hat?

waribai

After worrying unnecessarily, we went with the flow and got there early. It was all fairly plain sailing to be honest. They seem to have updated the check in procedure so it is pretty much like checking in anywhere else in the world. Airport is old and outdated but apart from that it was fine really.

We did book the Evropi lounge which admittedly was small but well stocked with drink and food, all of which were regularly replenished.
It also had nice toilets and a play are for the kids at the end. All in all, not a bad experience at all.

jowlymonster

We were there last year and agreed it was probably the worst airport we'd been to for quite some time.
I read it was the second busiest in Greece, but it seemed even aircon was a luxury they'd not bothered forking out for.

ahmetdouas

Except for ATH, basically all airports in GR are typical of the state-controlled mentality; dirty, broken, bad toilets, etc. etc. This will change now that Fraport took over many island airports.

HER I doubt will change much as it hasn't been taken over by Fraport and is still state-controlled.

The good thing for the future is HER will close in the next few years as there will be a new airport built in the near future nearby up in the mountains at Kastelli.

Until then, avoid the toilets and spend as little time as possible in the actual airport! Since the airport is basically in the town there is no rush to get there 2 hours + before!

Funnily enough when I flew out of JMK (also an absolutely awful airport, more like a dirty bus stop actually) we went there at around T-75 to check in our bags and then took the car and went to Starbucks a 5 minute drive away until T-25 where we drove up and pretty much walked to the plane after a 2 minute security queue!