Olympic Airlines / Airways lost our bags not once but TWICE in 1 week. the 2nd time, they knowingly boarded passengers in a plane where the luggage cabin was too small. as a result, 20 of us lost our luggage. i still don't have them. DEFINITELY INSURE YOUR BAGS! airline aegean

I flew Singapore to Athens in 1977 with them. I doubt whether I would ever fly with them again either.

Olympic is the only airline we've flown on where the passengers actually clapped when the flight landed. As most of them were Greeks, I think they knew something that I'm glad I didn't.

That's funny, rickmav. I flew Olympic and had no real problems, but everyone has a different experience.

This brought back memories of the one and only time I flew Olympic, and it was about thirty yearas ago. I never had a fear of flying until I flew Olympic into Athens. It was as though I was flying with a fighter jet pilot. I nearly had a heart attack with the way he landed the plane. It took me about 25 years after that experience to be at all comfortable with take-offs and landings.

We did and we don't!

About 8-9 years ago we went to Greece, flying from JFK to Athens on Olympic and the aggravation started at the airport before we boarded. I think they changed the gate about three times. We would just get settled and a gate change would be announced. We were already tired, having flown from SFO to JFK and then taking the shuttle for a terminal change. It was really annoying and a little scary since they seemed so unorganized.

When we took off (the plane was a 747) it sounded as if every bolt in the plane rattled and all the overheads threatened to open.

The cabin crew were the rudest we have ever encountered (in both directions). For most of the flight on our return home the curtain to the galley was closed and all the flight attendants stayed inside smoking.

When we boarded for our flight home in Athens, there were people sitting in some seats obviously assigned to other passengers and when they boarded the usurpers refused to move. The cabin crew were of no help whatsoever and I thought the guy who legitimately had a gripe was going to physically remove them. After much screaming and unpleasantness (very close to where we were sitting) the rightful passengers got their assigned seats.

The bathrooms were filthy, with wet floors which I desperately hoped was water, no paper in one. It was awful.

We loved Greece but their national airline SUCKS!!!

There're all these horror stories about Olympic, but fortunately I've not run into them in the couple of times I used them. A funny thing though -- last year, when we were leaving from Santorini, we shared a cab with two other people. They asked which airline we were using and then added "not Olympic, I hope" -- of course we were using Olympic. They proceeded to tell us all these horror stories and how their travel agent had warned them not to use Olympic.

By the way, Olympic was the airline that had to compensate a passenger whose husband died because of smoke. Apparently the husband had asked repeatedly to be moved, but the flight attendants did nothing. The case happened a couple of years ago before flights were made non-smoking, I think, and the judgment was finally made a couple of months back.

Surely the cabin staff can't be ruder than Egypt Air????

In 1997 we flew in and out of Athens on Olympic. The worst flights ever. Landing into Athens was exactly as described above. A rollercoaster ride combined with side to side moves that made my husband and me begin to say our last prayers!! The flight home was a nightmare. We passengers were so upset with the smoking of the crew behind the curtain that we actually voted for one of us to approach the co-captain to ask for help. No help was coming. Also, a passenger was seen exiting the bathroom holding her DOG!!! Arrogant flight attendants did nothing. NEVER AGAIN!

We just returned from Greece - and used Olympic for our inter-island flights - we were fine until the morning we were leaving - we were supposed to fly from crete to athens and athend to JFK (on Delta thankfully) We were on the plane in Crete and they all of a sudden cancelled the flight - the airport was an absolute nightmare - they made no provisions to re-schedule passengers - we bought 2 tickets on Agean for the next flight out of Crete - ended up missing our Delta flight - got stuck in the blackout in the Athens airport. Delta (our favorite airline) was able to re-route us to Paris - where they held the next flight to NY for us so we were able to get home only about 20 hours after we had planned!!!! My new husband and I looked at each other and said I guess the honeymoon is over! - Needless to say, we had a FANTASTIC time in Greece and cant wait to return flying agean for inter-greece flights!

Where were you guys 2 weeks ago!! My wife and I just bought round trips from Athens to Chania, in October. We're experienced flyers, I have over a million miles on AA, should we seriously consider changing from OA?

Other than Syddiez, has anyone else flown on Aegean? I am going to be booking flights to at least two islands and Aegean actually has better flight times, but I have not read any comments about them.

We flew Olympic from JFK to Athens the summer of 1997. After we were all boarded, the plane sat on the tarmac for 4-5 hours because of a mechanical problem. We basically had to beg for food & water, and the customer service was the worse I've ever had. Maybe that's just the Greek mannerism.

YIKES, all these stories make me realize just how lucky I was that my flights all went well. Of course, those were just little hops around the islands, but it sounds like the longer flights are a nightmare!!

Thanks to all who have posted about their experiences. It's a shame that you had to go through them but you've probably saved many Fodrites from flying Olympic.

Have flown inter island/Athens and never experienced a problem. I was warned about one thing though. We bought the tickets early and we told that if the fare went up between ticket purchase and time of travel,Olympic's official policy was to charge you the difference at time of boarding. Our fares did go up substantially however it seemed as though no one was interested enough to bother.

Richard- we flew Aegean from Santorini to Athens a few weeks ago. It was great. The plane was a jet, as opposed to the rattling prop planes we had with Olympic (which we also flew during our trip). The Aegean plane was also very clean, the staff was professional and friendly, and our flight was incredibly on time. On our 3 Olympic flights within Greece, we were never less than an hour late departing. Everything was newer and seemed more professional and better quality than the Olympic flights we had. If the schedules had worked for us, we would have flown Aegean the entire time (based on our travel agent's recommendation). Unfortunately, the schedules didn't work except that one flight from Santorini. If they work for you, I would definitely go with Aegean.

Then there was the true story about my friend Libby and her friend Pip. In Athens they purchased tickets from for a flight to Paris. You can guess where they landed, just a different spelling of course !

Sydney Steve....Where did they land?

I am printing this out for my Travel Agent. When I tell her about all the magic suggestions Fodorites pick up on this forum, she says she would love to check it out but they're so busy.