Mar 9, 2015, 6:33 am
Last edit by: Gnopps
*** MOD NOTE: Please do not remove ***
A friendly reminder that Flyertalk is not a marketplace, and nothing may be offered (or solicited) for sale or barter within the general forums - which includes offering vouchers for free. For those with sufficient posts and length of membership, trading/exchange is allowed solely within Coupon Connection, and then only in accordance with the specific rules of that forum.
Please do not attempt to solicit, sell or trade upgrade vouchers within this forum. Posts will be deleted and the members concerned potentially subject to disciplinary action. **Please note that this includes directly using the PM system to do so without first posting in Coupon Connection**. Thanks for your co-operation.
A friendly reminder that Flyertalk is not a marketplace, and nothing may be offered (or solicited) for sale or barter within the general forums - which includes offering vouchers for free. For those with sufficient posts and length of membership, trading/exchange is allowed solely within Coupon Connection, and then only in accordance with the specific rules of that forum.
Please do not attempt to solicit, sell or trade upgrade vouchers within this forum. Posts will be deleted and the members concerned potentially subject to disciplinary action. **Please note that this includes directly using the PM system to do so without first posting in Coupon Connection**. Thanks for your co-operation.
Criteria
- You must be travelling on A3 or OA metal - codeshares are not included.
- The original ticket must be issued on either A3 (390) or OA (050) ticket stock.
- Only revenue (paid) tickets, in fare classes other than U, P & T on a GoLight fare basis, can be upgraded, but not redemption tickets.
- All flights on the ticket must be on A3 or OA metal.
- There must be award availability in I-class for the upgrades to clear. You can check this by logging in to M&B then going to https://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbon...t/spend-miles/ The results page will initially be a calendar. To see Business availability, you have to click through to the next step. (You can also use a free or paid tool such as ANA website, UA website (looking for saver award space), Aeroplan, AwardNexus or ExpertFlyer to check for availability.)
- One coupon per person per journey leg is required - so, for example, TXL-ATH-SKG and return via the same route would require four coupons per person.
- Anyone can be upgraded using the coupons - you do not have to be travelling on the same booking or even the same plane.
Procedure
- Call A3 to request the upgrade. The phone numbers are listed at https://aegeanairlines.custhelp.com/ (most of them should go to the same call centre in Greece).
- If successful, a new ticket will be issued (with a new number). The PNR will remain unchanged.
- You are liable for any extra taxes applicable to Business Class (e.g. APD from the UK). Sometimes this gets charged, sometimes it doesn't - if it's due and you're not charged because the agent forgets, you've just been lucky.
- If there's no immediate I-class availability, you can ask to be waitlisted for upgrade. The ability to waitlist was reported to have been removed in August 2016, but was again possible in September. Check with the agent - option available on May 2018.
- in case you requested to be waitlisted for upgrade and want to check if the customer care agent made the changes on your booking you can check the reservation on checkmytrip.com (click here), the leg you requested the upgrade will be shown here as Waitlisted.
- If you wish to upgrade one segment of a multi-segment trip (e.g. XXX-ATH-YYY) and there is availability on the leg you wish to upgrade, you may still have to be waitlisted due to married segment issues. The process of clearing the waitlist is somewhat confusing and may result in frustration due to the availability seeming to disappear but in reality, this may mean that the segments have been "unmarried" and the availability has been allocated to your reservation. See post 2272 and the update in post 2294 for more details.
Benefits
- No matter what the fare basis of the original ticket, you receive full Business Class benefits after upgrade.
- This includes lounge access (useful if you're upgrading someone other than yourself who has no status, or if you've run out of Silver lounge vouchers) and full baggage allowance (it applies for first leg as well, in case you are upgraded only on the 2nd leg of your trip - confirmed on the etix).
- Because the ticket books as a redemption, the free car hire is not included.
Mileage/segment earning
- You will earn at the underlying rate of your purchased ticket in economy, not at a business class rate. Because status miles are awarded, this also counts as a segment for re-qualification purposes.
- The flights may credit automatically, but may take longer to credit than tickets that have not been changed. They may also credit as 0 miles, and later change to the correct rate. If the flights have not credited properly after a few weeks then calling A3 will rectify this rapidly.
Expiry
- The vouchers expire at the end of your membership year - they do not carry over, even if status is retained. A new set is issued every year.
- It is the date when you use the voucher that matters. It can upgrade a flight that takes place after expiry as long as you apply the voucher before.
- On upgrade from Silver to Gold, any remaining Silver upgrade coupons expire, but they are replaced by four Gold ones which expire at the end of the Gold membership year.
BEWARE
- Once you have upgraded your seat, your ticket will be reissued. Suddenly, this ticket may be VERY expensive to change. If, for instance, you later decide to travel on a different date, you will probably be required to rebook into Business, even if Economy was available for new bookings. A3 will charge you the difference from your original Economy fare to a NEW Business fare. Plus fees, taxes and whatnot. Update 18/08/2021: this appears to no longer be the case, as an upgraded ticket was changed and the underlying Economy fare was used for the upgraded segments. The coupon was "removed" from the old dates and "reapplied" to the new dates.
- Coupons will not be returned/reinstated. Once a coupon is applied, it is gone for good (the T&Cs printed on the coupons allow for date and time changes, but not route changes).
- If you want to provide your coupons to upgrade a friend's travel, it is advisable to call in yourself. Your friend can call in if they know your name, birthdate, M&B-number and the email address associated with your account. That means: Anyone who knows these particulars can use your coupons without your knowledge. They do NOT need the coupon numbers.
- Crediting upgraded segments to another program will likely fail, as it will be reported as I-class. It may be possible to retro-claim the miles.
Seat upgrade coupons
Mar 2, 2025 | 5:54 am
#3106
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AF Ultimate & Plat 4 life/AY LUMO/SK EBD/LH SEN/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG DIA
Posts: 11,422
hence why I asked if theres a chance then fine, if not whats the point anymore.I realize THIS is not the case for most but for me A3 has fallen into secondary or third program and without benefits I am not so sure I want to keep it going forward, so if its a 0 chance then yeah might as well cancel and go to another destination to be honest. If they upgrade even the last seat then I can just risk it and move on the following year.
Mar 2, 2025 | 6:11 am
#3107
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,863
What I usually see is an award space getting released about 2 days before the flight, that is "C-1" so if you have C5, then you get I4, C2 will result to I1. I don't think I've seen a C1 resulting in I1, but then again I must have observed something like 0,001% of the flights or probably even less. 
Mar 2, 2025 | 6:46 am
#3108
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 8,234
Paid bid upgrades are processed a day earlier compared to voucher upgrades. If at T-72 the availability drops then I believe this means that this is caused by voucher upgrades rather than paid upgrades.
For my last AMS flight I saw C8 drop to C5 at T-96, and then to C1 at T-72.
I do believe that they like to keep at least one C seat available for sale, though they may - possibly - do upgrades on the day of departure for that last seat.
For my last AMS flight I saw C8 drop to C5 at T-96, and then to C1 at T-72.
I do believe that they like to keep at least one C seat available for sale, though they may - possibly - do upgrades on the day of departure for that last seat.
Mar 2, 2025 | 6:46 am
#3109
Join Date: Nov 2016
Programs: Nectar Card
Posts: 1,622
Is it still the norm to charge the difference in taxes when being upgraded from Y to C? I'm a bit rusty I'm afraid.
This would be ex-UK before the April changeover, so looks like it would be an increase of 13 GBP for what this table shows as Band A? Perhaps there are other taxes.
This would be ex-UK before the April changeover, so looks like it would be an increase of 13 GBP for what this table shows as Band A? Perhaps there are other taxes.
Mar 2, 2025 | 7:07 am
#3110
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: VIE/PRG/BTS
Programs: A3, LH
Posts: 1,308
Is it still the norm to charge the difference in taxes when being upgraded from Y to C? I'm a bit rusty I'm afraid.
This would be ex-UK before the April changeover, so looks like it would be an increase of 13 GBP for what this table shows as Band A? Perhaps there are other taxes.
This would be ex-UK before the April changeover, so looks like it would be an increase of 13 GBP for what this table shows as Band A? Perhaps there are other taxes.
Mar 2, 2025 | 7:15 am
#3111
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PAS, Paros Greece
Programs: A3 *G
Posts: 1,525
Just luck I think. I nearly always get the upgrade I request, but for the two of 12 that have failed in the last three years, there have been several empty seats in the C cabin on departure. Very frustrating.
Mar 2, 2025 | 7:33 am
#3112
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AF Ultimate & Plat 4 life/AY LUMO/SK EBD/LH SEN/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG DIA
Posts: 11,422
Paid bid upgrades are processed a day earlier compared to voucher upgrades. If at T-72 the availability drops then I believe this means that this is caused by voucher upgrades rather than paid upgrades.
For my last AMS flight I saw C8 drop to C5 at T-96, and then to C1 at T-72.
I do believe that they like to keep at least one C seat available for sale, though they may - possibly - do upgrades on the day of departure for that last seat.
For my last AMS flight I saw C8 drop to C5 at T-96, and then to C1 at T-72.
I do believe that they like to keep at least one C seat available for sale, though they may - possibly - do upgrades on the day of departure for that last seat.
For me the last 3 years have been useless for upgrades, all longer flights ie 2-4 hrs are denied and the skg-ath bit I get upgraded sometimes which is useless 🤣🤣
On this trip at t-96 both flights dropped from C8 (ie no sold J tickets I guess since its 2 rows on J ) to C1 return flight has gone to C1 as well. I was bombarded with upgrade challenge offers where offers can be made as low as 100 so I am assuming they upgraded those challenge types and my upgrades will be again expiring....
Very frustrating since all my A3 flights are only for requalification reasons so I dont NEED to take those flights, I used to fly star sometimes but in the last 6 years its just A3 and 1 or 2 domestic US flights so I dont really think going forward it would make sense. I can fly to thessaloniki with a3 without status and wont miss alot of benefits that CCs dont give me since upgrades dont clear atleast for me 😀...
Mar 2, 2025 | 8:38 am
#3113
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Amsterdam
Programs: A3, BA, OZ,
Posts: 1,169
Very frustrating since all my A3 flights are only for requalification reasons so I dont NEED to take those flights, I used to fly star sometimes but in the last 6 years its just A3 and 1 or 2 domestic US flights so I dont really think going forward it would make sense. I can fly to thessaloniki with a3 without status and wont miss alot of benefits that CCs dont give me since upgrades dont clear atleast for me 😀...
Mar 2, 2025 | 9:23 am
#3114
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AF Ultimate & Plat 4 life/AY LUMO/SK EBD/LH SEN/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG DIA
Posts: 11,422
Since you don't need to take the A3 flights, the only *A flights you would take naturally are one or 2 domestic US flights. It really doesn't make sense to me to keep the status. It sounds like there is no point and perhaps even possible to move those United flights elsewhere and then you don't need to take *A at all. If I were in your position, I would not bother maintaining this status...
I have perhaps stayed too long with star needlessly 😀🤣
Mar 2, 2025 | 2:00 pm
#3115
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,863
I don't know anything about your previous flights, however all flights these days have been affected from Friday's strike. My own flight yesterday had still C7 1 week ago, as the strike was announced, of course C ended up being full and since I was seated in row 4 (the first in economy) I overheard at least 2 passengers in business class discussing how they got rebooked from "yesterday's" cancelled flight on this one.
Mar 2, 2025 | 2:12 pm
#3116
Join Date: Nov 2016
Programs: Nectar Card
Posts: 1,622
Ah yes, I wasn't sure if that was accurate though. (There are some carriers where a dummy comparison is not.)
Anyways, my main question was whether it's typical for an upfare in charges to be charged. I can report back that I was, and hopefully that contributes to future readers as to whether this is typical.
Anyways, my main question was whether it's typical for an upfare in charges to be charged. I can report back that I was, and hopefully that contributes to future readers as to whether this is typical.
Mar 2, 2025 | 6:46 pm
#3117
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,959
I bid a stupidly low amount for two upgrades on Saturday (day after the strike) and it was not accepted. There were empty seats in business on that ATH-HER flight, meaning that thay don't accept all bids when there are still seats available...
Mar 2, 2025 | 11:50 pm
#3118
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: VIE/PRG/BTS
Programs: A3, LH
Posts: 1,308
Mar 3, 2025 | 12:07 am
#3119
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AF Ultimate & Plat 4 life/AY LUMO/SK EBD/LH SEN/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG DIA
Posts: 11,422
I don't know anything about your previous flights, however all flights these days have been affected from Friday's strike. My own flight yesterday had still C7 1 week ago, as the strike was announced, of course C ended up being full and since I was seated in row 4 (the first in economy) I overheard at least 2 passengers in business class discussing how they got rebooked from "yesterday's" cancelled flight on this one.
Mar 4, 2025 | 4:25 am
#3120
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AF Ultimate & Plat 4 life/AY LUMO/SK EBD/LH SEN/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG DIA
Posts: 11,422
Looks like they went from 4 rows of J to 2 rows of J So I guess that explains why no J space so the flight is departing with 10 empty Y seats 🤣🤣 makes sense to me