Olympic or Aegean?
 

For travel between Athens-Heraklion and Santorini-Athens, it appears that both Olympic and Aegean have about the same number of flights, at the same prices, at about the same times of day.

Any advice over which one to choose?

Thanks!

Rick in Maryland

Sorry I don't have an answer to your question. I have read horror stories about Olympic Airways though. I'm not sure if their flights ever leave on time. It has me a little worried as we are flying Olympic from Heathrow to Athens.

Anyways, I have read your past threads. It seems we are planning very similar trips. I'm interested to hear how your planning is coming along if you don't mind sharing.

In the past two weeks I flew Olympic 3 times: Paris to Athens, Santorini to Athens and Athens to Frankfurt.

All three flights left and departed on time. In fact the one to Frankfurt arrived a little early.

Hi Debby Fish --

Yes, I am planning a 2 week trip to Greece. I've always wanted to do this, and have always been very interested in ancient Greece, mythology, foundations of Western civilization, etc.

I have a frequent flyer from Delta that will get me there for free (Alitalia from Washington DC -- Milan - Athens). Otherwise, it would be about a US$900 airline ticket.

In Athens, I will spend about 4 days exploring the city and its sites, then a whirlwind driving tour of the classic sites (Mycenae, Epidavros, Nafplio, Olympia, Delphi, Sounion). After that it is off to Iraklion, Crete (flying) for a day and a half, mainly to see Knossos. From there a Flying Dolphin to Santorini for 3 days before flying back to Athens for a few days and returning home to Washington DC.

I got a quote from one of the travel agencies listed on Matt Barrett's Greektravel.com (an awesome resource,once you realize what his commercial biases are). I have been able to assemble my own trip using same resources for about 500 EURO less (1100 vs. 1600). Since I am fairly adventurous, I figure that is 500 EURO more that I have to play with.

Everyone on this message forum has been so helpful -- I am finding out about things you could NEVER know about otherwise.

If you want, send me your e-mail and I will send you my itinerary and notes. You can reach me at rpike20625 AT SIGN comcast DOT net (I've disguised my e-mail address to ward off the webbots - you can figure it out!).

Rick in Maryland

There's been several recent discussions about this. Like Indy, I've used Olympic 4 times in the last 6 weeks, from Athens to an island and back, then the same trip again. All flights were exactly on time, and the Olympic staff were all very nice. I have travelled regularly on Olympic for over 20 years, and am lucky to have never lost a bag or had a bad experience.

That being said, I used to say I would fly whoever is cheaper. However, I'm not so sure any more -- I've gotten increasingly concerned about safety on Olympic. Olympic has lost money for years, and the Greek government has been trying to unload it, so far without success, even though at one point it was being offered for 1 euro or something like that. The planes look older and more tired and more in need of repair that isn't being done with each passing year. Olympic has laid off its most experienced pilots and mechanics as a cost cutting measure, and working their less experienced colleagues harder. Aegean, on the other hand, seems to be expanding, and the equipment seems to be in better shape. So at this point, my vote goes with Aegean.

Here's the links to the prior discussions:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...olympic+aegean

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...olympic+aegean

Aegean is the best ! flew both last year The olympic planes that were in use were very old .Night and Day diffrence .

Rick,
Not sure if you'll see this since it's been a few days but I was reading your trip plans and thought I'd give some advice. I did a similar trip two years ago in October (not sure when you're going) and finished up with a few days at the end in Athens again. I had spent a few days previous during the trip there as well. In the end I wished I would've spent one more day on an island (Santorini, to be exact). I would give up one day in Athens for another, more relaxing, day elsewhere. Not that I don't like Athens because it has some good things to offer. If you explore more of the area outside the city that might help too. Have a great trip!

My wife and I both agreed that after flying with both in April that the flight attendants on Aegean [male & female] were much sexier !! Admittedly not much of a criteria to select an airline from !! ;)

We flew both airlines 2 weeks ago. Olympic flight- Rome to Santorini, connecting in Athens. The filght was delayed on each leg. 1 :20 minutes on the first and 1 hour on the second. The first time was due to weather, The second time, they never gave us a reason. They just kept saying " it will only be 10 more minutes" - it took a hour. The planes were old and service bad. We also flew Olympic from Athens to Amstradam. 4 hour flight, with breakfast, but they never gave us beverage service! Oylmpic sucks!

Aegean- Flew from Santorini to Athens- great flight, with beverage service, much friendlier crew and the plane was new.

I would go out of my way to fly on Aegean and to avoid Olympic.

Hi Rick,
Having just returned from Greece a month ago, and enduring an Olympic flight from Mykonos, may I raise my hand for Aegean? The Olympic plane was decrepit, there was no room in the overhead luggage area for carry on luggage, I was squashed behind the cockpit with my knees wrapped round my head,carryon luggage under my feet, no window but thankfully it was only a 45 minute flight. On arrival in Athens, my luggage along with about a dozen other passengers on the flight did not make the carousel, and nobody at Athens airport knew or cared about it. After waiting over an hour, with a lot of the victims having to catch connecting flights, hotel transfers etc, it was finally ascertained (after a lot of heated words were exchanged) that the luggage had been left in Mykonos because it was too heavy. Not a word was conveyed to any of the passengers or officials at Athens airport. Nobody had a clue where the luggage had disappeared to. The excuse was offered that Olympic were short of ground staff that day.

I eventually received my luggage at 8:00 pm that evening, but I felt sorry for the people who were flying back to the States and Australia. BTW the luggage had to be brought back by Aegean airlines...say no more??

Our Olympic flight from Athens to Chania in Crete seemed to be going fine until time to land when we kept circling and circling the tiny airport which wasn't busy. Finally we landed and went to the luggage carousel where they made an announcement in Greek. We asked somebody what they said. The problem was they had just announced that there was no luggage for our flight. It was all left on the ground in Athens. I'd choose any airline but Olympic if I had a choice.

I flew from Santorini to Rome via Athens this past May with Aegean and found the service very good. The flight left on time, wasn't packed and everything arrived with us.