Athens connection question
 

Hi, will 1.5 hours be enough time to transfer from an air france flight from JFK to an aegean air flight to santorini? thanks

Hi Quark

Do you already have your Aegean ticket or will you be collecting it at Athens airport? We found that it only took a few minutes for Aegean to produce the ticket for us but when we got to their desk there was a long line of people. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the front of that queue.

IF your flight is on time and IF you get your baggage quickly and you already are carrying the Aegean ticket then you might make it. If you are subject to delay with any of these then I think you'll miss the flight.

Can you book a later Aegean flight?

Joe

Hi Joe. I was going to book the aegean ticket on line which I assumed meant an e-ticket. They have a flight two hours later so thought if I booked the earlier one and missed it they'd put me on the later one. Maybe i should book the later one and if I can get to aegean for the earlier one they will put me on that one. Thanks.

It doesn't take long to go through immigration and get your bags at Athens Airport, but if your flight from JFK is late, you may not have enough time. Even if you have an e-ticket you will still have to check in your bags with Aegean. I think you would be wise to book the later flight.

AirFrance non-stop from JFK to Athens? Are you sure? If you flying through Paris (likely if you are flying AF), then you won't need to go through immigration in Athens, simply get your bags at baggage claim and exit.

That, of course, is assuming Quark goes through immigration in Paris - passengers in transit might not. At any rate, immigration in Athens has never taken me more than a few minutes. A stop in Paris has the potential of causing additional delay - all the more reason to book the later flight.

The only difficulty you might encounter would be if your Air France flight were late. But you could probably do this connection if you had only 1 hour. So I wouldn't worry too much. However, in the busy season, Aegean flights sell out far in advance, so don't count on being able to jump on a later flight. If you're anxious, book the 2-hour later flight now.

Doug makes a good point. Since you are booking the flights separately, the airline has no obligation to get you on a later flight if you miss your connection. Also, if you are buying non-flexible tickets for the later flight, and you do arrive on time, don't count on jumping on the earlier flight either. The choice is yours.

thanks for all your replies. i'm going to book the later flight just to be sure.

Hi Quark

Looks like things have moved on with Aegean. When we booked online with them about three years ago all you had was a printed receipt. You needed to present that at their ticket desk where paper tickets were exchanged for that receipt. It now looks like they offer e-tickets. I wasn't aware of that.

I think, like others here, that you should go for the later flight.

Joe