First Time Flying Aegean Airlines
Posted by Scarlett in Accomodations, Europe, Greece, Packing & Travel, Random, TurkeyNov 14th, 2009 | 5 responses
After a short one hour flight from Istanbul, we arrived in Athens, Greece this evening. At the moment, there are no budget airlines flying to Athens, so we took a flight with Aegean, a regular carrier. Although it was a bit more expensive (€180 for two one-way tickets to Athens), I have to say it was nice not to fly with a budget airline for a change!
Unlike when we arrived in Istanbul, today we flew from Atatürk International Airport, Istanbul’s primary airport. We had initially planned to take the tram there, but every time we rode the tram this week it’s been completely full and getting on with luggage would be difficult. We decided it would be worth it to pay for a shuttle, but our hotel wanted a ridiculous €30 to hire a ride to the airport! Luckily, the travel agency (Mysia) across the street had a shuttle at 12:35 pm for just 11 lira per person. Our flight was not till 5 pm, but the extra time turned out to be necessary because the shuttle driver was late picking us up and there was heavy traffic. I’m not sure what was scarier, the bus rides yesterday or our shuttle driver’s erratic impatient driving today… If you’re considering using a shuttle in Istanbul to get to the airport, give yourself plenty of time and prepare for a rough ride!
When we got to Atatürk Airport, we were surprised to find we had to go through security to enter the airport. Since you have to go through another security check before you board (there’s a scanner and metal detector thingy at every gate!), they don’t worry about things like liquids at the first security check, but you still have to take out your laptop, empty your pockets, take off your coat, etc. I understand why you’d want to check people as they go into the airport, but it’s quite a hassle to have to go through security twice!
Unlike budget airlines, regular carriers like Aegean, Air Canada, Delta, etc. allow up to two pieces of carry-on luggage (one small and one regular size). From our experience, as long as your carry-on looks like standard carry-on size, the check-in staff don’t hassle you to weigh or size-check it (they also allow you to check one piece of luggage weighing up to 30kg without an extra charge). When you’re living off the contents of two 35-litre backpacks, everything is necessary and important so we never check our bags. But, fully packed, our bags weigh about 12kg each so when we fly budget airlines we have to wear extra layers and put heavy things like laptop chargers and liquid toiletries into our pockets to be within the 10kg carry-on weight limit. Not having to do this today was such a relief!
After a painfully slow (but hassle free) check in, we went through a customs and immigration checkpoint to exit Turkey. There was a separate line for Turkish citizens and we noticed that all the men in that line were wrapped in towels the way we were when we finished at the Turkish baths! They were coming from a room next to the bathroom and the signs were all in Turkish, but I’m guessing there’s a bath in there! There were women as well, but they were wearing pale yellow long-sleeve dress-type garments, not towels. I asked Ilyas about it when I got online later and he thinks they were going to somewhere called “Umre (Kudüs)” which is a holy place for Muslims…
When we landed in Greece we had no problems getting through customs and we found our way by metro to our hotel, the Best Western Hotel Pythagorion. We were originally planning to stay at a hostel that was rated pretty high on hostels.com, but when I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor I found a bunch of bad stuff. I’ve learned my lesson from our past stays – always double check reviews against Tripadvisor because the hostel can delete bad reviews off hostels.com or hostelbookers.com. And right now, during the low season, most hotels have cut prices but many hostels haven’t so it only cost us 7 euro more per night to have a hotel room instead of sleep in a 4 bed mixed dorm. The Best Western isn’t in a great location (20 min walk from the Acropolis & archaeology sites) but our room is big, we have a mini fridge to use, the Wi-Fi works great, and there’s a full breakfast included. I’ll take that over a mediocre hostel any day!
5 Responses to “First Time Flying Aegean Airlines”
About Us
Thank you very much! We’re taking the very same flight in April, never flew Aegean before (though researched it real good!). Nice to have such a detailed review!
Enjoying reading the posts here, thanks.
1. Search at the Right Time
Try hunting for fares after midnight; that’s when many airlines reload their computers with the deeply discounted fares that people reserved but didn’t pay for. If you’re only seeking last-minute Web fares, look on airline sites, major booking sites, and aggregator sites (search engines that scour on-line suppliers, consolidators, and booking sites) between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning for tickets for the coming weekend. Such fares usually require that you leave on a Saturday and return on Monday or Tuesday, but some airlines offer Friday departures and Sunday returns.
2. Check a Broad Range of Dates
Travelocity and Orbitz have the most flexible search functions of any of the major booking sites. Travelocity will allow you to search for the lowest round-trip or one-way domestic or international fare within a range of months, which it shows as green dates on a calendar. Even if you are just using Travelocity’s calendar for research, click all the way through an available date; the site frequently shows dates as available when they’re actually sold out. Orbitz will let you search for the lowest price over a weekend you designate; search up to three days before and after your dates; or look for the lowest published fare within a 30-day period. The site recently extended its flexible search option to include international flights, though at press time, it still indicated that the destination airport “must be within 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, or Canada.” Expedia’s flexible search provides a pull-down list of 50 popular U.S. destinations only.
3. Use Aggregator Sites
Once you’ve figured out which dates will yield you the best fares, search one of the Web’s “meta” travel agents. Mobissimo searches 85 U.S. and international sources and converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars. Kayak, which at press time was still being tested, searches 60 sites and allows you to sort airfare results by departure or arrival time. Qixo is a good source for deals from small charter companies and discount airline agencies, as well as major carriers—28 in all. Cheapflights lets you search flexible dates and, like Travelocity, offers a calendar with a range of available dates. Here, too, you should click through the green (available) dates to ensure that the fare you want isn’t sold out. Aggregator sites don’t charge fees themselves, but they might direct you to a site that does.
4. Book Award Tickets Early—and On-line
Since airlines allocate only a small percentage of their seats for award travel, it’s smart to book months in advance. Just to be safe, book 330 days in advance—when most airlines load award fares. Also, reserve those seats on-line: American, Northwest, and Continental all charge $5 for booking award travel over the phone and $10 for doing it in person—but nothing for on-line reservations. (United charges more to book award travel by phone than to book paid tickets by phone: $15 versus $5.) If you do get lucky and are able to reserve an award seat only a week or two before you travel, unfortunately you could get slapped with a high “expediting fee.” For instance, Delta charges $50 within two weeks of travel; Continental charges non-elite frequent fliers $75 for booking within three days of flying (elites pay $50).
5. Book Through an Airline’s Web Site
If you’ve found the same low fare on an on-line booking agent like Orbitz and an airline’s own Web site, it makes more sense to reserve on the latter to avoid paying the $10 or so service fee booking sites now charge. By booking on an airline’s site, you’ll also avoid the service fees the airlines themselves have begun to charge: $5 for booking over the phone, and $5 to $10 for booking at ticket offices and airport counters.
6. Don’t Pay Too Much for Change Fees
If there’s a chance that you’ll need to change your flight, book directly with the airline. Orbitz and Travelocity (but not Expedia) charge a $30 fee to change a flight, which is on top of the $100 change fee the airlines assess. Low-cost airlines have much lower change fees. JetBlue charges $20 ($25 on the phone) plus the fare difference, Song charges $25 plus the fare difference, and Southwest has never had a fee—it charges only the difference in fare. But there’s some good news from the major airlines: in January, Delta decreased its change fee to $50 from $100. And though the other major airlines hadn’t followed suit when this went to press, we expect they will.
Tips and tricks for cheap air tickets
hi everybody
just signed up and wanted to say hello while I read through the posts
hopefully this is just what im looking for looks like i have a lot to read.
I am very grateful to you for the information. I have used it.