I have written before about one of the best deals on elite status in the industry – Star Alliance Gold status through achieving Gold status with Aegean Airlines (Greece’s airline). You do not even have to fly on Aegean to earn any of those miles (though, flying Aegean is far from being a bad experience!). To read my previous posts about getting Star Alliance Gold with Aegean and other posts, please read these:
- Get Star Alliance Status with Aegean Airlines
- My First Upgrade with … Aegean Airlines?
- My First Aegean Flight as Aegean Gold
- Mileage Run Report – Running for Aegean Gold
Aegean Airlines Launches New Fare Classes
Airlines have begun to make a lot of changes in the past year and almost none of them are good. US Airlines especially seem bent on messing with their flyers that earn and use so many of their frequent flyer miles. This change with Aegean is one I am happy about and that I wish would move throughout the industry a bit more.
Starting today, Aegean Airlines has new fare classes for travel. Airfare with these new classes can be booked today for travel within Greece starting November 1st and international travel beginning January 15th. Here is a breakdown of the new fare class structure.
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As you can see, if you can handle traveling light, these new fares will work out very well for you. Plus, one more advantage to having Aegean Gold status, Aegean Gold members get one extra piece of luggage no matter the fare class! So, even with the GoLight, I would still get one bag up to 50lbs for free.
One of the examples of these new prices is on Athens to London. Before taxes and card fee, the ticket rings in at a highly competitive €34! After all the taxes and fees, it comes to $94 compared to EasyJet’s $64. However, because of the upcharge experiences I have had before with EasyJet and their failures to get me my checked baggage, I would opt for the higher ticket to take advantage of Aegean’s great service.
This is an excellent new program that I am definitely going to be quite thankful for. There are times that I need to book a flight but am not 100% sure of the connecting flight that I will book. Because of that, I am a little hesitant to book my Aegean flight. Now, if that is the case, I would book the flex fare and not worry about change fees (though, before this, the change fee was a minor €40 – minor compared to what US airlines charge). This new system will work very well for families as well. I am wanting to take my family on a couple of trips in the next few months and tickets where I was wanting to go were higher than I wanted to pay. With this new system, they are now in reach!
So, does this have any affect on the flyer who does not fly Aegean? More than likely not right now. Hopefully, this system will start to catch on, though, and other airlines will add something similar. There are some low cost European carries that already do something similar (Easyjet, Ryanair, etc) but those other airlines do not have the great in-flight and ground service that I have experienced with Aegean.
Should you find yourself in an airport in Europe served by Aegean, I hope you will take a look at the fares available to you. You may be surprised how much you can save! Besides, who wants to take quick hops around Europe carrying 50lb bags anyway? 🙂
