Hi everyone -

I'm going to be flying back from Santorini to Athens and then on to New York the first week of October. I'm stressing over flight times and hoping to get some good advice before finalizing our plane tickets.

The day we check out of our hotel in Santorini, we can take an early morning Aegean flight that is scheduled to arrive in Athens at 8:10 a.m. Our flight on Olympic to NYC would then be at 12:25 p.m. Is this crazy? Ordinarily, I wouldn't be worried with over four hours between flights, but this is an international flight and I don't know how frequently the Aegean flights from the islands are delayed.

Our other option would be to just spend the night in Athens and leave the next day, but because of money and limited vacation days, I'd like to avoid this if possible.

What do you think? Is this cutting it way too close? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi there - I know exactly how you feel because I am planning a trip to Athens/Cyclades for August and it does feel as if you are sailing too close to the wind sometimes!

The current wisdom seems to be that you should plan to stay in Athens the night before you leave Greece, so that you are able to sort out any last minute snags. I would say that 4 hours is a lot of time. However, if there are delays taking off, you are going to have a major panic attack. Can you handle that?

I would say that an early morning flight is less likely to be delayed than one later in the day. Is there an Olympic flight departing around the same time that could act as back-up.

Why don't you call Aegean and see if they can provide you with their results of take-offs/delays. EasyJet do this on their website but Aegean do not. I have another post going giving some feedback on Aegean. In summary, I have found them to be really great. I called their reservations number in Greece and spoke to a fluent English speaker who answered on the second ring.

If you want to put your mind at rest, have a read of this:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/aegean.htm

Lots of comments about leaving on time and very few comments about delays.

What time does the last Aegean leave the night before?

Hi Ally -

Thanks so much for your response. You're right about the major panic attck if the Aegean flight is delayed. That's a good idea about checking to see if there is an Olympic flight leaving around the same time that morning to use as a back-up. I'll also call Aegean and see what they recommend.

There would be two Aegean flights leaving in the evening, at 7:20 and 9:45 p.m. I guess I'm just being greedy - I don't want to cut our stay in Santorini short by one night in order to go back to Athens early!

As good an idea as it is to use another flight as a backup, keep in mind that these flights are usually booked solid, so counting on that as a backup might not be such a good idea. Granted, flights in October might not be full, but relying on it might be a mistake.

Hmmmm, I know what you mean. We are travelling from London, arriving into Athens at 1.55pm. There is a connecting flight to Santorini at 3.15pm with Olympic and I was sooooo tempted to book. And then I realised I was being crazy. But that doesn't help you!

If I were you, I would go with the early morning flight. Leaving at 9.45pm means you will miss that gorgeous sunset and I think an overnight stay in Athens would be unsettling. At least this way, you fly into Athens airport and you're done. But, most importantly, I guess I just have a good feeling about Aegean - I have never flown them before (would be interested to hear from those that have) but I do take a lot of low-cost flights around Europe and am rarely delayed. In fact, the most I have ever been delayed was 1 hour flying out of Nice on EasyJet. There are horror stories out there but for the most part, I think they are pretty reliable.

I noticed on their website that Aegean won an award - ERA: European Regions Airline Association - assigned to Greek Carrier AEGEAN AIRLINES the "Gold Award Airline of the Year 2004/5". Aegean Airlines', President and CEO Theodoros Vassilakis accepted the award on September 30th, in a ceremony held in conjunction with the Associations' annual General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, with 600 international press and airlines' delegates.

Among other things, they were recognised for:

«The best flight regularity of all entrants».

«The introduction of electronic ticketing from the airline website, including for agents».

«Improved seat quality in business class and access to lounges at international airports».

«Good customer service and on-time performance».

Thanks brotherlee and Ally. Right now, I'm leaning toward taking the morning Aegean flight and living dangerously. I'm not usually one to take risks with flight planning, but 4 hours really does seem like ample time, even allowing for a short delay. Hopefully I won't live to regret it . . .

I am traveling to Greece in September. I have 3 days (the four of us traveling together) at the end of our trip that we are thinking of filling with a flight to Santorini. We would then return to the Athens airport on a flight a couple of hours earlier than the departure of our return to US flight. Here is my question: I am finding flight times for Aegean and Olympic Airlines but no costs. Does anyone know "about" how much this will cost per RT ticket? This is Athens to Santorini RT.

Are you looking on the websites? I know that sounds like a daft question but they do display costs. Also, do you think leaving only 2 hours transfer time is a bit dicey?

I was quoted £160 for 2 tickets ONE WAY. Not sure if the return would be the same...

Thanks EVERYONE for your replies! We decided to GO FOR IT and are staying in Santorini. We can take a later flight and reset all of our flights. That would be WORST CASE but we'll be fine. I travel Int'l. ALOT for work and just returned from PRC - I can handle pretty much anything at this point! The immigration computers all shut down right when I got to the counter - 10 minutes before boarding(3 days after the "liquid terrorist" alert in London). So..... I can handle it ....

I'm just trying to figure out the train/metro system now! Does anyone have any links they can share of the maps for the local trains and metro for Athens? All the maps I'm finding are scanned images and really muddy.

http://www.ametro.gr/top0eng.htm

http://www.athensguide.com/map/athens.htm