jscivi

Hello,
I booked an economy flight from the Swiss website for a Geneva-Athens flight and Athens-Alexandroupoli flight. I was on a Swiss aircraft for the flight segment (GVA-ATH) as expected. The next day I was taking my ATH-AXD flight.
At Athens' airport I tried getting into the lounge (I am a frequent flyer, silver status), and I am told that I cannot enter because the flight is operated by Olympic Airlines, and Olympic airlines is not part of star alliance... Not cool, but fair enough.

But! I eventually get to the airplane and I was surprised to see that the airplane was from Aegean Airlines (which is part of star alliance). All documentation on board was from Aegean, the crew was from Aegean and there was a huge Aegean logo on the plane...
So what does "operated by" mean? Because clearly my flight was operated by Aegean Airlines!

Could someone explain, please?
Thanks a lot!

Fireflyer05

It is possible that Olympic wet leased the aircraft from Aegean. So Olympic still had the commercial responsibility of the flight.

malmostoso

Lengthy thread here.

Imagine WK/EW wetleasing an LX/LH plane and crew.

cfischer

I am surprised LH hasn't dealt with that yet. E.g. United has added Olympic including all the SAG benefits and lounge access.
Olympic Air is a regional carrier based out of Greece. From its hubs in Athens, Rhodes and Thessaloniki, Olympic flies to dozens of destinations across the Greek mainland and islands.

Visit www.olympicair.com for more information.
MileagePlus members can earn award miles, Premier qualifying miles, Premier qualifying segments and Premier qualifying dollars on eligible Olympic Air flights. To receive mileage credit, present your MileagePlus number when you make reservations and make sure it appears on your boarding pass at check-in. Additionally, MileagePlus members receive the following benefits on Olympic Air-operated flights:

• Premier Gold, Platinum and 1K® members are eligible for priority check-in, boarding, standby and baggage delivery
• Premier Gold, Platinum and 1K members receive one additional complimentary checked bag
• Premier Gold, Platinum and 1K members are eligible for access to Gold Track priority security and immigration checkpoint
• Access to United Club locations

oliver2002

OA is like EW, not *A but United has made arrangements.

flatworm

hugolover

One of our forum regulars got badly burned on a confusing A3/RO codeshare situation. Even OLCI was impossible. A3 do come across as a little opaque on all this.

cfischer

agreed, WK as well. LH should make arrangements because the A3 situation is just confusing.

lhrpete

That would be good as long as there is an arrangement in return regarding EW.