Celebrating a milestone – its twenty fifth yr in enterprise – AEGEAN Airways has seen robust progress since its inception in 1999 when it had simply two plane and flew to only two locations from Athens. Now flying to 47 nations and taking pleasure in selling lesser-known Greek locations and native merchandise, this Star Alliance member caters to the undiscovered Greece in addition to the well-known. As we speak, the airline continues to develop its horizons and just lately ordered 4 A321neo LR plane able to flying distances of as much as 7.5 hours, making the Persian Gulf, India and Central Africa accessible from Greece.
Airplane and route
We flew enterprise class on an Airbus A320-200 on a direct route from Manchester (MAN) to Athens (ATH) in addition to from Athens to Manchester.
Software
There’s a beneficiant baggage allowance of two 32kg suitcases for the boot and a 13kg bag plus a private merchandise within the automobile. On condition that we have been solely staying in Athens for five nights, the latter was greater than sufficient for us, so we have been in a position to examine in on-line and head straight to safety on the quick monitor, with out having to examine our baggage, although we known as reception simply to get printed boarding passes.
Entry to the salon
From Manchester, AEGEAN flies from Terminal 2 and Enterprise Class passengers have entry to the Escape Lounge.
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There’s a lengthy bar (in addition to a smaller one which was closed on the time of our morning go to), loads of cooked breakfast choices in addition to fruit, yoghurts, pastries, tea/espresso and so on.
Exterior Athens, AEGEAN’s major base, there’s a comparatively new lounge (opened in 2022) that was considerably extra fashionable and spacious. Once more we had an early flight and I do not assume it had opened lengthy once we arrived so it was very quiet and felt very spacious.
There was additionally a big island with muffins and pastries and an space for decent drinks.
There are additionally quite a few seating choices – comfy sofas in addition to tables with a extra upright seat, extra appropriate for doing work.
There have been additionally quite a few further meals choices – sandwiches, wraps, mini burgers, mini souvlaki and extra – in addition to chilled drinks.
Loungers might be discovered overlooking the airport terminal – excellent for anybody who wants a bit of relaxation in the event that they’re going through a delayed flight or an extended layover.
Seat
There have been 4 rows of enterprise class seats on every flight, with three seats on either side of the aisle. The center seat of three has a cabin separator, reserved as a middle desk, which suggests a complete of 16 enterprise class seats. Along with this additional width, the additional legroom is in fact a giant plus. The seats additionally recline about 4-5 inches, greater than sufficient to get some slumber, and all you actually need for brief flights.
In-flight leisure
The AEGEAN Portal supplies entry to free leisure content material, together with films, information, documentaries, music, a transferring map and a number of video games, by way of WiFi. There’s a free Stream WiFi choice on board for enterprise class passengers, which supplies speeds of as much as 15 Mbps. With airplane mode enabled in your machine, you’ll merely join by way of aegeanwifi.com or scan the QR code displayed on the again of the seat in entrance of you.
Nonetheless, it is solely a brief flight (lower than 4 hours away), so for those who seize a e book or pop a film or two into your machine beforehand, you may go the time simply. The present subject of the inflight journal, fly sensible blue, had over 300 pages; maybe unsurprisingly there are lots of adverts, however there are nonetheless a superb variety of articles, and this subject included one detailing Athens’ new culinary initiatives, in addition to in-depth articles on Chios, Marseille, Vilnius, Andalucia, Rhodes and southern Chania – all simply accessible by way of the AEGEAN route community, in fact.
Foods and drinks
For our outbound flight, the in-flight breakfast consisted of a plate of contemporary fruit with Manouri cheese, with a selection of morning pastries or croissants, with butter and strawberry marmalade. There’s additionally a selection of govt chef Lefteris Lazzarou’s scorching starter of smoked hen, leek, mushroom and thyme omelette (pictured) or ‘Stourgato’ omelette with smoked salmon and spicy tomato sauce.
For the return, we had a number of pastries.
There may be additionally an everyday drinks service, with a number of drinks to select from, together with native ouzo and tsipouro, plus eight totally different Greek wines to select from (if it hadn’t been morning, I may need been tempted by one!) .
The gastronomic staff behind the AEGEAN Enterprise Class expertise contains a few of Greece’s most revered govt cooks, together with Christafaros Peskias and Alexandros Tsiantinis, pastry chef Stelios Parilaros and grasp of wine Konstantinos Lazarakis.
Prices
Within the off-season you may journey in enterprise class from Manchester to Athens and again for simply €461.90 per particular person. That is based mostly on the seek for subsequent January. In peak season, you may anticipate to pay greater than €1,000 per particular person for a return ticket in enterprise class.
Miles+Bonus – AEGEAN’s personal frequent flyer program – rewards loyal clients with miles for flights and different actions. Members can redeem these miles for a wide range of advantages, corresponding to free flights, upgrades and different providers. This system is split into three ranges: blue, silver and gold.
Frequent vacationers may additionally wish to have a look at the AEGEAN Cross which permits vacationers to create their very own flight package deal and safe costs all yr spherical, with limitless ticket adjustments. You possibly can customise your AEGEAN Cross by selecting a route or group of routes that fit your wants, the variety of flights you need and the minimal variety of days earlier than your flight departure. This may entitle you to further distinctive advantages corresponding to most Miles+Bonus awards and Tiers Miles for the Economic system Class Flex Fare with each flight booked.
Service and last ideas
As anticipated, the cabin crew have been pleasant {and professional}.
Arriving in Athens was very environment friendly and made an actual distinction in how shortly we have been in a position to get to the town heart. Enterprise class passengers have been in a position to disembark in a short time after taxiing to the gate and catch a bus that took solely 16 of us straight to the airport constructing, as a substitute of ready for different passengers. That turned out to be a giant plus.
Once we acquired to passport management, there was no line, so we handed by means of customs and reached the middle of Athens in a couple of minutes.
All in all, flying enterprise class with AEGEAN was a really nice expertise. The spacious seats and wonderful cabin high quality of the Athena have been two key attributes that basically stood out. Attending to Athens shortly and effectively was additionally a giant plus, saving us invaluable time and permitting us to start out our journey immediately.
Disclosure: Our journey was sponsored by AEGEAN Airways.
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