Hi everyone,
As my first report I'd like to share with you my impressions from both WAW-ATH and ATH-WAW flights I made this summer with Aegean Airlines. I used to travel with Aegean before but always on charter flights while the airline still used the 737-400 aircrafts. I always wanted to fly with them on a regular route having heard a lot of good comments regarding the inflight service. Fortunately some time ago Aegean started to operate daily between Athens and Warsaw (this summer season they are going to fly to Cracow KRK too) and the ticket price was very reasonable (approximaately 100 euro with cabin luggage). It was better even than the Ryanair offer from Warsaw Modlin WMI airport situated 50 km outside the city while it takes me a 10 minute taxi drive to get to WAW and as I try to avoid low cost airlines and always wanted to fly Aegean the choice was very simple.
Aegean online check-in is very simple and it took me just a couple of mintues to check all our team (4 pax) in. We've chosen the 10 AB and EF seats with good outside visibility. Already checked - in we proceeded immidiately to the baggage drop point (it was necessary to buy extra luggage as we were going to stay in Greece for two weeks) and then to the security check which is WAW's worst nightmare as the staff is often very rude and unfriendly. It wasn't that bad this time and we easily reached the gate where our brand new A320 stood preparing for boarding.
The female only cabin crew was very friendly and helpful making the boarding process fast and simple. We took off on time leaving behind the cloudy that day Polish skies.
As I said before this A320 was one of the freshly delivered to Aegean and it could be felt in the brand new and clean cabin.
About 30 minutes after take off a hot meal was served togehter with wide range of beverages inclouding Greek wines. If I'm not wrong it is only A3 and TK that offer a hot meal on european flights in economy. The meal (meatballs with potatoes and tomato sauce) was really tasty and the wine was great.
It was slowly getting dark as we passed Hungary and Serbia on our way to Athens.
There was no turbulance at all which made this flight a perfect one. We arrived on time with a feeling of having just had one of our best short haul flights ever. Bravo Aegean!
To finish I will post some of the pictures I made during our 2 weeks stay in Athens, Peloponnese and Serifos Island in the Cyclades.
The Arcopolis seen from the new Acropolis Museum
Inside the new museum
Tolo sunrise (Peloponnese)
Mycenae Lions Gate
Nauplio
Arriving to Monemvasia
Shipwreck Dimitrios near Gytheio
Delicious frozen Greek yoghurt with fruit and honey
And a Greek salad
Rio - Antirrio bridge
Sunio
Octopus drying in the sun
Serifos Island
Hope yoy enjoyed it. A report from the flight back to Warsaw will follow shortly.
Thank you much for sharing this report aboard A3 and welcome to the site!
A3 does offer one of the best products in Europe (you chose wisely to pick them over FR), unfortunately they are limited to regional service so they often go forgotten. Checked luggage is not included in the fare? The catering looks very good for Y, even outperforms some Asian carriers on regional route. It's always nice to get a brand new plane, how is the seat pitch on A3?
Beautiful bonus of Greece!
I've never flown A3, but from the reports I have seen it, it's definitely a carrier I would like to try in the future. Excellent first report (maybe a little concise for some people's taste, but you included everything that needed to be included :) ). Thanks again and see you for the return leg!
Dziekuje :)
Welcome on Flight Report!
A3 is a really good airline and is offering better services than LOT on WAW-ATH.
Very good bonus, i'm waiting for your return flight.
Do zobacenia
Thanks for nice comments. I don't know the exact seat pitch on Aegean aircrafts but the legroom is ok. For some time now checked luggage is not included in the lowest fare (only 8 kg of hand luggage)and the extra charge is 20 euro per piece. LOT has stopped to operate on WAW-ATH route and is going to restart operations this spring but comparing to A3 it has much worse service and using smaller aircrafts (E170/175/195) it won't be able to offer better prices so A3 will still remain the best option on this route.