http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Good safety record, though: http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi_bin/a...lympic+Airways

Last May I headed out to do some Greek Island hopping and booked Aegean only because Olympic ATH-JTR options sucked. After flying both several times over course of 3 weeks, was sorry didn't book all legs in A3 as I would much rather fly A3 over AO any day.

I hope the news of OA getting better is true.

BTW, the name of the OA FF program is Icarus. I remember it because I was hoping we weren't flying too close to the sun after hearing those odd groans and rattles aboard one OA flight...

[This message has been edited by tcook052 (edited Dec 21, 2003).]

I agree. Olympic Airways FAs recently went on strike, to protest the latest restructuring. I would recommend Aegean Airlines (A3 - www.aegeanair.com ) if they fly to your destination. A3 has a FF program, but you must accumulate 8,000 miles in 12 months or the miles expire.

How about HellasJet?

oops, haven't you heard? hellasjet went bust earlier this year :-) www.hellasjet.com

Oh-so-thank-U for the news :(. I seriously considered flying Hellas Jet on March 14 ATH--MANchester, UK, but I ended up flying ATH--LHR/OA--DUB/BD on March 16 instead. For the better, as I liked the extra time in Nafplio & Corinth & in between.
FTers had given positive reviews to Hellas Jet service.

my experience with Turkish Airlines is also not bad and the price/value ratio
is hard to beat (i.e. ATH - MIA return like € 1.200 in C ).

however, anyone got a clue what FT programs other than AA include TK ?

FWIW, OA biz class is pretty nice. I haven't had a bad flight on this airline, and the prices are right. Of course I have some stranded miles just sitting there, but someday...

Have you flown them more than once??? :D
My last three flights with them:
2001: ATH-TXL. They couldn't find enough crewmembers for a morning flight from their main hub! Resulted in a 3-hour delay and me missing my connecting BA flight and meeting in BHX!
2001: ATH-SKG. The 2pm flight was delayed enough to be departing after the 4pm flight. Took my money over to Axon (RIP) for a very enjoyable flight.
2002: IOA-SKG. No problems, although service was, erm, spartan (still it was a 50 minute flight on an ATR so my expectations hadn't been high in the first place).

I go to Greece 4-5 times a year, and always avoid OA like the plague.

Me too, where possible. Some inter-island routes not always possible to catch Aegean, which don't forget has cozied up to LH in recent days:

http://www.aegeanair.com/aegeanen/news/index.asp

For Inter-island flights you shouldn't expect much. I flew HER-ATH once and didn't get much service. But later I flew ATH-CAI in biz and it was very nice. Good food and service. However I haven't flown OA in 2 or 3 years and I fully acknowledge that I hear bad things about them from lots of people so I guess I just happen to have gotten lucky on my flights.