Hi all and welcome to my (as live as possible, semi JapesUK-style) TR of my current business trip to Zilina in Slovakia. I was debating whether to post or not but seeing that I’m stuck in 17A with nothing better to do, as my upgrade didn’t clear, I thought I’d post a few words and pictures of my trip so far.

Background: I do most of my work for a client in Zilina in Slovakia. They kindly invite me down there twice a year for their Christmas party and the summer sports day. This is always a great excuse to travel, meet up with colleagues and help me to retain Star Gold with Aegean. This year, I’m getting my 4 sectors in nice and early and these flights will get me almost half way to requalification. In December, I requalified in one single trip but that was very intense so I’m hoping to take it a little calmer this year. That said, my 4 flights are an adventure to
say the least.

The route: when I booked a few weeks ago, my original plan fell apart very quickly. The BER-ATH flight was totally sold out in Y and J was around €800 so not an option for my client. Getting creative, I looked at other departure options but the only
ones with suitably timed departures not involving leaving home at the crack of dawn were FRA and MUC. Now FRA is obviously way closer to Berlin but the connection in ATH was only an hour from Schengen to non-Schengen which is way too risky for such a tightly timed trip. MUC offered 1 hour 50 minutes in ATH so that’s what I took. From ATH, I’m going to LCA and back, arriving there at 01:20 in the morning and leaving again at 05:00. Immigration are going to love me. My status year only reset last Saturday so I had to wait until then to request my Gold upgrades using Aegean’s new online system. ATH-LCA-ATH confirmed immediately and ATH-VIE cleared just before OLCI opened. MUC-ATH was more annoying but I’ll describe that below. I have already reported my experience on the A3 forum too.

I’ll leave the intro there and carry on, including pics, in the next post.

This morning, after dropping my daughter to school, packing and driving to the station, I got a direct ICE from Berlin Hbf to Munich and then the S-Bahn to the airport. Amazingly for Deutsche Bahn, it was all on-time and I got to MUC at 16:08 for my 18:25 flight. I didn’t take many pics of the train ride, as I was working as much as possible to meet a deadline.


My private first class compartment on the ICE 4 from Berlin to Munich


Currywurst mit Pommes for lunch. I ordered via the ICE online portal and it was delivered to my seat. Great service!

I had had problems checking in for MUC-ATH, as my ticket was waitlisted for the upgrade so I had to check in at the desk in MUC. The agent assured me I was still on the waitlist despite the app showing me I wasn’t but that upgrades would be assigned at the gate. Needless to say, I was unlucky but the app still shows that I have used all of my upgrades. I’ll have to monitor that in the coming days.


Walking from the S-Bahn to the terminal

A3 check-in desks

Business and Gold desk

After clearing security in record time, as it was empty, I had to take the train to the K gates.


This way please

I did go to the LH Senator lounge but no pics, as it was really busy and I just had some water to rehydrate. I went to the gate early to see if anything was forthcoming with the upgrade but obviously, that failed. I boarded with group 2 and was very impressed that the LH auto-boarding gates refused anyone in the wrong group.

As one of the first on board, I had no problem
stowing my luggage in the overhead bins and then checked out my seat.


Very tight legroom


It won’t stay this way. 😉


At least the wing view is great









We pushed back around 10 minutes late but should still be in ATH early. Once airborne, I fought to get the wifi to work and then food was served.



Beef pie. Very nice!

26th anniversary chocolates


One more wing view before I send this off.



We’ve started our descent so I hope this posts before the wifi cuts out. I’ll try to keep this as live a TR as possible.

Just landed in ATH and we have an airbridge gate thank goodness. Landing was smooth as is normal
on A3 and some of the views on the way in were great. I now have 1 hour 50 until the next flight but have to go through passport control and security so can’t dawdle too much. Next update from the A3 non-Schengen lounge hopefully.








Oh, they’ve finally opened the doors after having been on stand for almost 10 minutes. 😒

Through security and passport control where I had to explain to the officer why he shouldn’t stamp my British passport.

In the A3 lounge now. About to have a nibble before making my way slowly to the gate in a while. The next flight is in an hour.




Special bubbles for Aegean’s 26th birthday. Nothing really enticed me and I’m dehydrated so just went for water. I’ll be partaking of a tipple or two on the next flight anyway.

Sweet treats

Cold savoury items. Hot food is available too. Greek meatballs and rice, moussaka and stuffed peppers.

Went for the moussaka, baked custard and orange cake

Boarding is in around 20 minutes time

I like the details and pics!

maybe I'm having a brain freeze...why should the officer not stamp your passport?

Because I have a German residence permit and stamps would cause chaos when I return to Schengen. No problem with them stamping in LCA but not in Greece.

Thanks for reading and for the nice comment.

After boarding not boarding, we’ve been sitting at the gate for 20 minutes since boarding complete. They’re still not finished loading bags.


Boarding not boarding

Legroom in row 2 is a bit more generous.

Luggage hold still open

The smallest PDB bubbly I think I’ve ever had

Tonight’s menu




Maybe we’ll be on our way at some point soon. On the plus side, less bumming around in LCA waiting for the lounge to open. 🤣

Edit: all doors closed and the captain is making his announcement. At the moment, it’s all Greek to me. 😉

*groan*

Excellent report. Whats you inside leg measurement? I know, weirdo question of the day trying to judge legroom for a giraffe like me

Well that was dramatic! After we were finally closed up, a guy decided not to travel so the airbridge was pulled back and a full security check run with us all
identifying our bags in the overhead lockers.

The guy across the aisle from me lost it. He asked what if that passenger had planted something under his seat before getting off and why, when the same happened 3 weeks ago to him on A3 in ATH, they
took everyone off the aircraft and swapped the aircraft. He would not stop and even I started to get a bit nervous. The poor purser just kept explaining their security policy and trying to reassure him. In the end, the purser just walked away. The geezer across the way shouted after him: “I’ll be sending in a complaint when we land. If we don’t all die!” 🤣

The food has been amazing for a 1 hour 20 flight. Sadly I can’t get the stream package to work on this flight so no pics until LCA, if we don’t all die! 😉 Just about to enjoy a cappuccino and a Mastiha with my dessert. Cheers! 👍

Thanks for reading! That question certainly wasn’t on my bingo card of responses to this TR. 🤣 Erm…..well I wear 31” length jeans if that helps? I have no idea beyond that I’m afraid.

I DIDN’T DIE! 🤣🤣🤣 Just landed in LCA. Will update once I’m through the formalities. 😊

So Larnaca has a connecting flights lane. Just a boarding pass scan and security. Now in departures waiting for the lounge to open in 35 minutes.

The flight here was so impressive for a 1 hour 20 flight. So much food. A3 always impress me compared to other European airlines. Here are the pics:


Menu

Food

Drinks

Wines

Table set. Ready to go

Amazing amount of food for 1 hour 20. All delicious too

Greek salad, crackers, butter and 26th birthday chocolate

Chicken kebab with rice, chocolate cake. So delicious

Cappuccino and Mastiha to finish

Just before landing in LCA. No bomb fortunately.

Always people are so complimentary about A3, but one time I was flying to LCA they stopped the direct flight and priced out of the connecting… so I still have yet to fly them.

That’s annoying! They really are a great airline. Especially in business!

So I was chatting to a mate and he mentioned that the Skala lounge is 24/7, takes priority pass and has an outdoor terrace so off I went. Sitting outside now. It’s 22 degrees at nearly 3am. 😊 Moving to the A3 lounge when they open. Here’s the Skala lounge:


Terrace

Skala lounge

Skala lounge

Food and drinks. Just water for me. I’m so thirsty!