After spending our layover in the Aegean Lounge, it was time for the final leg of this portion of the trip to Santorini in Aegean’s A320 Business Class.
Booking
Similar to our AMS-ATH ticket, we booked our tickets with cash in Economy. A few months before departure I had the option to bid on an upgrade to Business Class. With Business Class in Europe consisting of a blocked middle seat, I didn’t want to spend a ton so I was pleasantly surprised that my $75 upgrade bid was approved a few days before departure for this leg.
Lounge
We spent our layover in the very pleasant Aegean Business lounge in Terminal B. I did a full write-up of the lounge here, but it was a nice place to kill time during the layover. We had access to this lounge on account of our Business Class tickets and I also could have accessed the lounge using my Star Alliance Gold status.
Boarding
We left the lounge and made the short walk to Gate B26 just as boarding was scheduled to begin. We knew from seeing the gate on our arrival that we were stuck with a bus gate. Boarding was already underway when we arrived and we utilized the priority lane and soon found ourselves on the bus out to our remote stand.
Aegean Airlines
A3 364
ATH-JTR (Athens International – Santorini International)
Seat: 3D (Business)
A320-200 (SX-DGB)
Scheduled: 11:10p-11:55p
Actual: 11:07p-11:45p
We had a 5 minute drive out to our waiting A320 where we boarded via airstairs. When things are running on-time, I really enjoy bus gates as it provides great views of the plane.
Seat
We boarded through the forward door and made our way to row 3. This was the typical EuroBiz setup, consisting of an economy seat with a blocked middle, and I was definitely missing the limitless legroom from our previous AMS-ATH flight. Fortunately, this would be a short 45-minute hop down to Santorini.
Departure
Boarding wrapped up a few minutes late thanks to a late arriving bus. No pre-departure beverages were offered but we left close enough to on time. After a brief taxi, we rocketed out of Athens to the south headed for Santorini.
In-Flight
Once airborne, I didn’t expect much in the way of service as the flight was only 45 minutes gate to gate. I was pleasantly surprised that Aegean offered a full, albeit abbreviated, meal service on this flight. The meals were served in bags and consisted of a sandwich, granola bar, and a bottle of water. As the flight was only 136 miles, it was much more substantial than you would see on many domestic routes within the United States and Europe.
Arrival
Not long after the meal service, we began our descent into Santorini. Upon arrival, the ramp was empty with the exception of one 737 taxiing out for a late-night departure. Even though we were 100 yards from the entrance to baggage claim, they still loaded us onto buses for the transfer to the terminal.
We had a 15-minute wait for our bags and then headed out through the deserted customs checkpoint to meet our driver who would take us to the hotel.
Summary
For such a quick flight, Aegean far exceeded my expectations. While European Business Class isn’t anything to get excited about, the service on this flight was fantastic. All in all, I was very impressed with both of our Aegean flights and wouldn’t hesitate to fly with them again.
