Avis du vol entre Athens et Paris en classe Economique avec Aegean Airlines

Introduction

This story is the second segment of the return from a trip to Georgia and Armenia, complicated by the fact that:
- the initial plan was to also go to Azerbaijan
- relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan are strained
- relations between France and Azerbaijan had become strained
It was necessary, at the last minute, to buy a return ticket from TBS and no longer from GYD: the direct flight with AF was unaffordable, which left TK and A3, the latter offering a more acceptable schedule.

I left you at the end of the previous FR in front of the entrance to the Aegean lounge, and no, against all expectations, our travel companion was unable to invite Mrs. Marathon there…

… because when you have a guest, you have to go to the neighboring lounge. Aegean seemed not to want to mix apples and oranges: guests can be admitted in a lounge, provided it is not theirs.

You owe these pictures to Mrs. Marathon, here immediately to the right of the reception desk

… and a little further. Neither lounge provides a view on the apron, but there was ample natural light.

Food area

Buffet on the left

The hot dishes

Meat

Rice

Peas in tomato sauce

"Partially overall" view

The soft drinks, beers and water in the fridge

Teas and coffee

Various creams

Mini-brioches and smoked pork

Miscellaneous sandwiches

These were not pretzels, but they look a bit like them

Macaroons and salads

Various cakes and dried fruit

There was also wine

And stronger beverages

Overview of the decoration of the buffet

I was not waiting for Mrs. Marathon in this lounge, because it was for smokers, that I am not.

There was no shortage of seats, but there were few power and USB sockets under them

(By the way, that’s an A320 Sky Express behind the windows. There was a good view on the apron, but the variety of aircraft visible from the Schengen area part of the terminal was low.)

Not only there were few power and USB sockets under the rare, but hardly any passenger used them, for the simple reason that nearly all they were powered off.

After walking around the Schengen terminal area from left to right, I found ONE live power/USB socket. Since the USB socket was already used by a PAX (using the white cord), I installed my power strip and a USB adapter for my laptop and phone. My second USB socket quickly made someone happy (a PAX who had also searched for power everywhere).
(No, the socket on the right was not powered…)

Throw in the fact that there was no free wifi access (so using your phone’s data plan was mandatory), and top it off with a loud and tiring piped music, interspersed with bilingual announcements of last calls and expected passengers. It felt like a rather low-end shopping mall.

After a gate change, our flight would eventually board almost opposite the Aegean lounge.

Two flights to CDG at almost the same time: Aegean was displayed on time, but Air France would be 50 minutes late.

My wife had done some shopping in the lounge for me.

The plane was an A321ceo

Door shot

Fuselage shot. A smiling welcome when entering the plane (and an equally smiling service in flight)

Neutralized middle seat in business class

Typically missing seat in front of the jumpseat at the emergency exit

The seat pitch was very comfortable

The backrests could recline about 9°

Standard A32x width between armrests

The safety card’ front

And back

Are you sure a carry-on suitcase could fit vertically in the overhead bins?

Horizontally seemed more feasible to me

Night falled. D-AIFK, an A321neo, pushed back shortly before us

Iberia A320neo

Taxiing towards the runway

Terminal and control tower

G-TNEC, a British Airways A321neo

4X-EKL, an El Al 737-800

Three Embraer 120Fs and two Swearingen Metro IIIs operated by Swiftair, a Greek freighter airline

Taking off from Runway 03R

The lights of the southern end of Artemida, on the coast

The E75 motorway at Schimatari, and a little below, the fine light pattern of the runway and taxiways of the Tanagra air base (LGTG)

The meal, as served, with the chicken option here

And vegetarian there, that Mrs. Marathon hardly tasted

And this “dessert”

… made up of two very thin sesame pancakes. The least we can say is that this performance did not impress us: we had better memories of Greek gastronomy a few months before.

End of the descent to CDG

Touch down at 8:51 p.m.

… on south pair of runways

Air France A320ceo and A220-300 parked remotely

Arrival at Terminal 2D

The display panels at the gate – seen after deplaning

The return flight was planned on time

But for the Marathons’ suitcase, the trip home was more difficult, because I received an ominous email

… but Aegean was taking things seriously

So all that remained was to return by hired car, following clear directions to the pick-up point.

And then wait patiently, because it would take up to five days

Once we had reached home, all I still had to do was to help Aegean find the our suitcase, stating its color, general type…

… then the brand, chosen from a closed list of 30 brands ranging from Adidas…

… to Victorinox, followed by Άγνωστη [= “Unknown”], but Aegean’s website froze when I selected the “Other” choice. It was already 11:30 pm French time, and I had giving up my hopes of finding our suitcase virtually …

… with even less qualms since it had been routinely delivered without any particular delay in CDG, even before I knew that Aegean had lost track of it!

Just after landing at CDG, I had deactivated my phone’s airplane mode, checked my messages, noted that nothing required an urgent response, and then only used it to book a car. By the way, the meeting point for them was well signposted (for the PAX) and accessible (for the drivers) - I recently remember a hired car meeting point which was completely jammed in ORY (Paris’ lesser major aiport).

Only once home (and after we had started to empty our suitcase!) did I discover these successive emails from Aegean. Life is sometimes simpler when you disconnect a little!

(Exceptionally, I had not immortalized the arrival of the Marathonvalise on the conveyor belt, which prevents me from illustrating this epilogue.)

I never determined if and when Aegean realized that it had been scanned upon arrival at CDG, not having gone so far as to file a complaint about it!

Quiz: the answers

These are the answers to the quiz at the end of the previous FR, whose questions were deliberately worded in a misleading way:

Would Mrs. Marathon be admitted in this [Aegean] lounge?
> No, but she could be invited to the Goldair lounge only!

Would I be going to wait for her comfortably seated on these seats, while recharging my laptop?
> No, because these seats were not comfortable, and the sockets shown in the photo were not powered!

Would our suitcase be there at CDG?
> Yes, contrary to what Aegean wrote me after I had picked it up on the baggage carousel!