Great stuff Matt! I liked the look of the interior of the Aegean planes - pretty slick! Very interesting and informative commentary and I'm looking forward to seeing the "in between" bits of your stay in Cairo. Now, unlike the one you took for the team in your previous video, this was some real sacrifice on not one, but two red-eyes! Cheers!
Thanks - it felt like a good idea when I booked it!!! Putting off the Cairo video a bit - when making a flight video you know how it will flow so it scripts itself. A city video is much more open ended so feels like much harder work when you have a blank screen in front of you waiting for the script to be written! But I will get to it as I think it will be interesting... Cheers
@Matt’s Plannet Great report!! Aegean updated its extra shengen lounge back in April 2022. It has been a huge improvement from its previous one and much bigger as well!! If you come to Greece again, you need to visit that one!!
Late night flight to Cairo on a A321!! Yikes, rather hard-core that is!!! You are a brave man Sir! Disappointing service indeed, they normally get it spot on!
@@MattsPlanet reminded me of a late night Glasgow to Bucharest flight I took years ago. You know you got to do it, but even as an avgeek, it ain't setting you on fire!
Another great video Matt - might give them a try next year if I can. Also - feeling very cool having just watched your video via WiFi onboard the BA173 en-route to New York :-).
Hi @Matt - I wondered if you still check this. I will get 22,000 miles from Star flights this year (36000 needed for aegean, blue to gold); so I was wondering if you had some permutations for ex-LHR legs where I can get 14,000 miles in x6 Aegean Legs for the lowest possible! :)
14k is a reasonable amount... The best way to collect legs is to hop around Greece on Aegean or even Olympic flights - you can get legs for perhaps £20 a leg... I recently did 4 flights through a 40% sale in economy which earned my 4,800 points, so getting 14k out of 6 will be tough without buying into business.... Getting the 6 over a weekend skipping around Greece (and getting there and back) is probably the advice, then scoop up whatever extra points you need with another trip on a partner.... TAP would be where I'd look first as they're 200% in business.
@@MattsPlanet Hi Matt, My plan was LHR-SKG via ATH in J (pricey, and one time only) then flying domestically from SKG and simply purchasing the remainder of the tier miles. Are TAP a member? They don’t show up on the Aegean partners page for earning (but if they are, which fare classes beyond J should focus on, or avoid, I know about LH/LO P class fares, but Swiss P class is fine). Thereafter to maintain gold it’s just 12k miles and 4 A3 segments right? But do award tickets or cash+miles count for qualifying segments to retain status? I fly enough Star Alliance to get 20-50k miles a year, but not enough for Gold on any particular airline beyond A3 or OZ (Asiana) and who knows what will happen with the KAL merger… - Asiana needs 40k miles in 2 years. I doubt Asiana will exist in about 2-3 years.
Oh for the passengers capable of getting to their seat, swinging the carry-on straight into the overhead, and sitting down immediately. You never seem to be on my flights, Matt. Aegean? I would use them.
Years of practice! Helped that it was my third flight of the day so I was in the groove... Not a great experience but I think Aegean is worth persevering with!
Good update Matt, thought you might do a back to back in Cairo but sounds like you went to a hotel ? Aegean looks just ok, not a match for Lufthansa though !
Thanks Charlie. Actually had 6 nights in Egypt between flights - will be sharing a little of what I did in the next few weeks. A sample of two flights is not enough to draw too many conclusions about Aegean but they have the potential to be great! Flew Lufthansa back from Athens so look out for that review too!
@@MattsPlanet yes you’re right … look forward to the Egypt trip and more *A flying … great 👍 You will have to release more vids per week at this rate ..
Another good video Matt, how do you find out all about the paper work needed to fly to different countries and what covid test did you have to do to enter them. You must have slept for days after all the night time flying with the amount of slept you missed.
Cheers Peter. The airlines will bombard you with info as they end up having to police things so they are very invested in their passengers getting it right. Then some googling - it really wasn't too bad and as long as you're double vaxxed it wasn't too hard. No tests required to get anywhere on this trip, just the UK day 2 one on return which cost £18 through Qured with the BA discount and was fairly straightforward. It did take a couple of nights to catch up the sleep!
Great video review. I fly Aegean frequently. I think you were just unlucky with the first flight. On board service and crowd management at ATH is usually very good. That said, Aegean being a short/medium haul airline, are not experienced when it comes to red-eye flights.
No! Its a 2 hour flight so it can never be that bad... I actually went back past the Cairo departure gate in Athens airport last week, about an hour before departure, and it was quite serene... They were checking documents but they hadn't had to deploy the "corridor of doom" strategy so perhaps getting to the gate quite early is the key?
Spot on review Matt! I’ve had quite similar experiences with Aegean (except I had some initial issues with points being awarded). It’s a good backup, but I’ll stick to trying to rack up my Qantas status credits on Oneworld alliance airlines.
Thanks Joshua. Keen to try them again during daylight to see if I just got a bad sample... Then in September I'll shift focus back to renewing my BA... Perhaps also a trip to Australia myself, although I may wait a few months before committing any cash to that plan!
I was also disappointed with Aegean as well. Staff were rude and disinterested and the 2x2 seats on the 321 economy by the emergency exit were narrower than any other 3x3 seats and we had to move. Terrible.
No worries! Thanks for watching anyway. Plenty of reviewers will gush about everything without being critical of the shortcomings and if that's the style of review you like then enjoy them!
Hi Matt! Nice video! Aegean uses both A & B wings. A wing is for non-Schengen flights & B wing is for Schengen flights.
Ah - that's helpful to know... Planning another trip with them for January which may clarify things for me! Thanks for watching
Great stuff Matt! I liked the look of the interior of the Aegean planes - pretty slick! Very interesting and informative commentary and I'm looking forward to seeing the "in between" bits of your stay in Cairo. Now, unlike the one you took for the team in your previous video, this was some real sacrifice on not one, but two red-eyes! Cheers!
Thanks - it felt like a good idea when I booked it!!! Putting off the Cairo video a bit - when making a flight video you know how it will flow so it scripts itself. A city video is much more open ended so feels like much harder work when you have a blank screen in front of you waiting for the script to be written! But I will get to it as I think it will be interesting... Cheers
@Matt’s Plannet Great report!! Aegean updated its extra shengen lounge back in April 2022. It has been a huge improvement from its previous one and much bigger as well!! If you come to Greece again, you need to visit that one!!
I will come to Greece again and I look forward to experiencing the new lounge!
That’s great news!! Have a nice day!
Late night flight to Cairo on a A321!! Yikes, rather hard-core that is!!! You are a brave man Sir! Disappointing service indeed, they normally get it spot on!
The things I do for this channel...
@@MattsPlanet reminded me of a late night Glasgow to Bucharest flight I took years ago. You know you got to do it, but even as an avgeek, it ain't setting you on fire!
Very great and detailed video! I am wondering if Aegean still plays the Arabic Safety information before take-off on their NEOs.
Thanks! I don't recall them doing so but it was a few months back now!
Another great video Matt - might give them a try next year if I can. Also - feeling very cool having just watched your video via WiFi onboard the BA173 en-route to New York :-).
Feeling very cool having had one of my videos watched via Wifi on board BA173 to New York! Have a great time!
Hi @Matt - I wondered if you still check this. I will get 22,000 miles from Star flights this year (36000 needed for aegean, blue to gold); so I was wondering if you had some permutations for ex-LHR legs where I can get 14,000 miles in x6 Aegean Legs for the lowest possible! :)
14k is a reasonable amount... The best way to collect legs is to hop around Greece on Aegean or even Olympic flights - you can get legs for perhaps £20 a leg... I recently did 4 flights through a 40% sale in economy which earned my 4,800 points, so getting 14k out of 6 will be tough without buying into business.... Getting the 6 over a weekend skipping around Greece (and getting there and back) is probably the advice, then scoop up whatever extra points you need with another trip on a partner.... TAP would be where I'd look first as they're 200% in business.
@@MattsPlanet Hi Matt,
My plan was LHR-SKG via ATH in J (pricey, and one time only) then flying domestically from SKG and simply purchasing the remainder of the tier miles. Are TAP a member? They don’t show up on the Aegean partners page for earning (but if they are, which fare classes beyond J should focus on, or avoid, I know about LH/LO P class fares, but Swiss P class is fine).
Thereafter to maintain gold it’s just 12k miles and 4 A3 segments right? But do award tickets or cash+miles count for qualifying segments to retain status?
I fly enough Star Alliance to get 20-50k miles a year, but not enough for Gold on any particular airline beyond A3 or OZ (Asiana) and who knows what will happen with the KAL merger… - Asiana needs 40k miles in 2 years. I doubt Asiana will exist in about 2-3 years.
@@MattsPlanet or - just do 6/6 as cheap as possible but TAP’s LHR-LIS would only yield 1800 each way!!
Oh for the passengers capable of getting to their seat, swinging the carry-on straight into the overhead, and sitting down immediately. You never seem to be on my flights, Matt. Aegean? I would use them.
Years of practice! Helped that it was my third flight of the day so I was in the groove... Not a great experience but I think Aegean is worth persevering with!
Good update Matt, thought you might do a back to back in Cairo but sounds like you went to a hotel ? Aegean looks just ok, not a match for Lufthansa though !
Thanks Charlie. Actually had 6 nights in Egypt between flights - will be sharing a little of what I did in the next few weeks. A sample of two flights is not enough to draw too many conclusions about Aegean but they have the potential to be great! Flew Lufthansa back from Athens so look out for that review too!
@@MattsPlanet yes you’re right … look forward to the Egypt trip and more *A flying … great 👍 You will have to release more vids per week at this rate ..
I'm editing as fast as I can!!!
Another good video Matt, how do you find out all about the paper work needed to fly to different countries and what covid test did you have to do to enter them.
You must have slept for days after all the night time flying with the amount of slept you missed.
Cheers Peter. The airlines will bombard you with info as they end up having to police things so they are very invested in their passengers getting it right. Then some googling - it really wasn't too bad and as long as you're double vaxxed it wasn't too hard. No tests required to get anywhere on this trip, just the UK day 2 one on return which cost £18 through Qured with the BA discount and was fairly straightforward. It did take a couple of nights to catch up the sleep!
Great video review. I fly Aegean frequently. I think you were just unlucky with the first flight. On board service and crowd management at ATH is usually very good. That said, Aegean being a short/medium haul airline, are not experienced when it comes to red-eye flights.
Thanks - booked 4 more flights with them today - two on Aegean and two on Olympic to be precise. Excited to seem them at their best!
Great video! I love travelling Aegean, the only thing I hate is the connecting in Athens. Things are obviously worse with the pandemic.
Athens wasn't the best! Keen to try them again during the day!
Im going on this flight on May 1st...should i be worried? Lol
No! Its a 2 hour flight so it can never be that bad... I actually went back past the Cairo departure gate in Athens airport last week, about an hour before departure, and it was quite serene... They were checking documents but they hadn't had to deploy the "corridor of doom" strategy so perhaps getting to the gate quite early is the key?
@@MattsPlanet if I remember I'll keep you posted, I have 9 flights on this trip lol
Spot on review Matt! I’ve had quite similar experiences with Aegean (except I had some initial issues with points being awarded). It’s a good backup, but I’ll stick to trying to rack up my Qantas status credits on Oneworld alliance airlines.
Thanks Joshua. Keen to try them again during daylight to see if I just got a bad sample... Then in September I'll shift focus back to renewing my BA... Perhaps also a trip to Australia myself, although I may wait a few months before committing any cash to that plan!
I was also disappointed with Aegean as well. Staff were rude and disinterested and the 2x2 seats on the 321 economy by the emergency exit were narrower than any other 3x3 seats and we had to move. Terrible.
Cheers Adam - booked another trip with them to widen my sample - hopefully it will be a better experience.
you moan too much, you need to look at other reviews. you are NEVER satisfied. i certainly won't be subscribing.
No worries! Thanks for watching anyway. Plenty of reviewers will gush about everything without being critical of the shortcomings and if that's the style of review you like then enjoy them!