Delta vs Olympic Airlines
 

Planning a trip to Athens. Just wondering which airline, Delta or Olympic, would be the best means of transportation from New York to Athens. Thanks.

Don't forget Continental from Newark, which I will take. It has newer plane than DL's, with personal video screen in each seat.

Too many bad reviews of Olympic to recommend it.

I flew Olympic several years ago and would NEVER do it again. My first choice would be Continental(I realize that was not one of your choices)then Delta.

Let me tell you that I am flying Olympic on Sunday to Greece. I have been trying to phone them for the last two weeks; they don't answer the phone! I have emailed repeatedly to no avail.

What kind of airline is this????????

Greek............

Yes...well wait until the Greeks at Olympic meet this pushy Jewish housewife. All hell is going to break loose.

Did I mention that I am a crack shot with my Holland & Holland hunting rifle?

Mrs. Keith Levy

Have never had a problem with Olympic's London office. They answer phones and emails promptly, tickets are dispatched the day after my internet bookings, and all my flights have left on time. I prefer them to their main London to Athens rival, BA. Perhaps the New York Olympic office isn't as efficient as the one in London, I don't know.

Likewise, I have always had good service with Olympic's domestic service in Greece itself. They fly many more destinations than their rival airlines, including many islands with airstrips too small for the large jets.


You will be flying from New York to Athens, and have the choice between Delta and Olympic. If you have flown with Delta before, and are pleased with thier service, then go with what you know.

Marginal margiela, I eagerly await your trip report. Your posts have been very entertaining. :D

Ditto everything Heimdall has said about Olympic's London office.

Similary, I too have used their domestic network regularly, without a problem.

One thing I've said here before though and it might be worth repeating is that I've found the Greek folks working for the airline (ground and air crew) to be polite, efficient and have manners.

They sometimes don't smile a lot. In fact sometimes they don't smile at all!

I can live with that though, but some folks do interpret it as rudeness.

bill

I flew a London to Athens flight on Olympic two years ago. It is not really up to what you would expect from your average US airline (which isn't much these days). I would definitely stick with either Delta or Continental...as a confirmed Continental flier, that would be my first pick. Having said that, if there is a big price break, Olympic will certainly get you there.

I would have thought that the best airline would be the one that had the best security and maintained their aircraft.

I have always flown British Airways to Athens - Dulles to Heathrow to Athens - and appreciated their service and attitudes. Never flown Olympic, but never heard many (positive) recommendations for them.

Delta, Delta, Delta. If you have to choose, choose Delta. Good Lord, don't fly Olympic.

Goodness, I must have been lucky with Olympic after reading these most recent postings.

I can't compare with Delta as I haven't flown Olympic transatlantic but they have come though for me on inter-european and domestic flights. As a result, I'll continue to fly with them.

bill

Here's a repost of something I posted elsewhere which is probably more relevant to this thread:

I don't understand the enthusiasm for Olympic Airlines. It has a poor reputation which in my experience is largely deserved. This isn't just my opinion. The web site www.airlinequality.com is a user-input airline rating site -- very useful for travelers to know about -- which gives Olympic a 2/5 "poor" rating. The comments section on Olympic, though it includes a few good reviews, is overall fairly devastating. So don't take my word for it; look at the web site to see an overview of people's experiences with Olympic.

Personally I wouldn't fly Olympic unless there were just no alternative. For flights within Greece, I've found Aegean to be a very good airline. They also have a small but growing number of flights to Greece from other parts of Europe.

I don't have recent personal experience as a passenger myself with Olympic since I quit flying them years ago, but the many unbiased and recent reports on the web site I gave will provide an overview of the personal experiences of many passengers. As I mentioned, some of them are positive, but the overall impression they give is of a fairly dreadful airline.

Actually, I do have a little recent experience of Olympic from flying several times out of ATH on Aegean, whose check in desk is right next to Olympic's. On these occasions the Aegean desk was always orderly, efficient, and with short lines, while the Olympic desk always seemed to have a mob of people in front of it waving tickets and muttering angrily.

It also shouldn't be forgotten that Olympic has for years been trying to find a partner or buyer unsuccessfully because all the partners or buyers who have looked at Olympic have recoiled in horror, is continually plagued by labor unrest and staff and equipment shortages, is under investigation by the EU for breaking EU regulations on allowed state support, and is for all practical purposes bankrupt. All this can be verified from the public media, including English-language and Greek-language Greek newspapers, magazines, and news services.

Thankfully, we will be flying on Aegean once we are in Greece--Thessaloniki to Rhodes to Athens.

Thingorjus

Maybe we should just say Olympic's service and quality is <b>highly inconsistent</b>, especially for longhauls.

If you feel lucky, you may want to fly them. Otherwise, stay away.

Littlebigshot jumps in to knock Olympic at every opportunity. I don't really understand that obsession, because he/she admits to having no recent experience with them. All he/she can do is provide the Skytrax link, which I have had bookmarked on my computer for several years, so nothing on it is news to me.

The only two posters on this thread who have cited actual experience flying with Olympic (billbarr and myself) have given favorable reports. Everything else is conjecture.

Having said that, as an American I am in favor of supporting our own flag carriers. So by all means go with Delta (or Continental if that works better). Living in England as I do, my only options for direct flights to Athens are Olympic, BA, and easyJet. Of the three, Olympic has given me the best service.

Another interesting posting Heimdall.

I've been flying to ATH for almost 30 years. I stopped using BA simply because of delays. We are talking major delays too and my missing connecting flights despite leaving hours between them.

Three times I've flown easyJet. The first was OK. The second time we had planned to spend the millennium in Athens. Due to a technical fault the flight was cancelled after we'd been sitting on the easyJet aircraft for an hour. There was no back-up available.

The third time with easyJet we left on time but 40 minutes or so out of Athens we all heard what I could describe as a small bang. We were then told we were flying back to London as a fault had developed and their hub in Geneva didn't have the part they needed. Ok, when we got back to London another easyJet aircraft was waiting but all in all that journey alone took almost 10 hours or so.

So far, Olympic hasn't once let us down and we have made all our island connections. We once had a slight problem with them when the Greek national football team was on our aircraft. The crew spent all their time with them!

I still think that Olympic have the best airline food on that route and their safety record is excellent. For many years all Olympic pilots were ex-Greek Air Force although I don't imagine that is still the case.

bill

I think that it's comparing apples to oranges to talk about flying from UK or France to Athens vs. flying from NYC to Athens on Olympic.

The first is a 3-4 hour flight usually by day, and the 2nd is a 10-11 hour flight by night, during which people at least attempt to nap...and the discomfort level on Olympic has increased steadily over the years, keeping pace with price increases.

I flew Olympic in '99, '01, '02 and '03. The first time wasn't so bad, then they tightened up the seat configuration each year; plus the seat padding is much inferior to Delta or Lufthansa. This doesn't matter much to UK people,but is criticl to those of us who don't fancy 24-30 hours without sleep.

Additionally, on each flight I noticed less service to non-Greeks vs. the large contingent of Greeks/Greek Americans. This is NOT my imagination; others on the flights complained as well. (Not surprised to read that attendants ignored another poster to fawn on the national football team).

The final straw was coming back to US in 2003 when our dinner was totally inedible. I LOVE greek food -- but I do not fancy warm squid salad on a pricey transatlantic flight.