Review of Aegean Airlines flight Paris → Athens in Business

Hello everyone and welcome to my flight report!

Earlier this year, I had a 4-day break between the first and the second semester in January. I decided to visit Greece in low-season as there would be less crowd and cheaper accommodations. For the choice of carriers leaving from Paris, I chose Aegean Airlines because I needed to fly at least 4 flights with them (+ 12000 miles) to requalify as a Gold member in their FFP for next year. On this flight I got to use the seat upgrade coupon distributed by A3 for their elite members (4 coupons for Gold and 2 for Silver).

Intra-European flights in Business Class are nothing to get excited about. Generally you get a narrow-body plane in a 3-3 configuration with the middle-seat blocked. The legroom and the seat width are the same as Economy most of the time. Food and drink service is more elaborated but still nothing to be looked forward to at all.

The routing is as followed.

A3 611 CDG-ATH C A320-200 —> You are here!
A3 352 ATH-JTR Y A320-200 —> No report
A3 361 (Operated by OA) JTR-ATH Y DHC-8 400 —> No report
A3 614 ATH-CDG C A320-200 —> No report

This flight report will only focus on the service since the seats are quite boring and uninspired. This is my first time flying Business Class on an intra-European flight. Personally, I don’t think it is worth the extra money at all since the seat in pretty much the same as in Economy, the flights are usually short (not more than 4 hours), and I already get the perks as a *G member (priority check-in, boarding, baggage handling as lounge access.

I have heard and read quite a few good reviews regarding Aegean Airlines and really wanted to try them out. I heard that the service is quite good even in Economy and you also get a full hot meal tray so I really looking forward to this flight and I have to say that I was not disappointed.

It all started with me taking the RoissyBus from the Opera to CDG terminal 1 where most of the Star Alliance flights depart. When I arrived at the check-in counters there was a huge queue for the Y pax and one person in the J queue. I went to queue up there and the agent controlling access asked me if I was travelling in J and I said Yes. She asked again if I was sure. I said Yes. She then left. The agent at the counter was not smiling at all, not so welcoming. For info, Aegean uses Swissport ground handling at CDG. Overall, not the best first impressions out there.

I went passed all the security and made my way the lounge which was the SAS lounge. The agent was nice and polite. The lounge was a small lounge with nice decor in the Scandinavian style. The catering was pathetic with the continental breakfast offering. There was business centre without printers. The magazines were all in Swedish or Danish or anything but English (nor French).

When It was time for boarding, I headed to the Gate 77. The priority boarding was respected which was great. On this flight I chose the seat 1A which was right in the bulkhead of the aircraft with extra legroom. The cabin was extremely warm during boarding. After the boarding had finished, the crew came around and offered a selection of newspapers, a candy and a welcome drink. (water, orange juice, sparkling wine. — the traditional trio of all time)




And we were up in the sky…



This being a 3 and a half-hour flight, the service was at a good pace, no rush.



The Appetizer : Marinated strips of chicken breast on a bed of salad leaves, topped with peppers, cheese cherries, pomegranate and mustard vinaigrette.



The salad was very fresh and the vinaigrette was pretty good. They serve one of the best bread I have tasted on any airlines. So bad i did not take a pic of it. it was served with the right temperature and the texture was perfect.

For the main dish, my choice was not available and I was sitting in 1A. One of the reason I chose to sit on the right side of the plane is that you will be served first most of the time but on this flight the crew decided to serve the right side of the aisle first and someone took the only Chicken dish. This was the first time I saw this but well…

: Grilled Beef fillet with baked new potatoes, vegetable pearls and Naoussa ‘’Kir-Gianni’’ red wine sauce



Fortuneately, it turned out to be pretty good. The sauce was delicious and the meat was not overcooked.

Cute Salt&Peppers



The dessert came some time after the main dish was cleared and here what it looked like :



They also run the coffee and tea service at the same time. (filter coffee, expresso, cappuccino, decaffeinated, black tea, green tea) I also notice that I was the only passenger who took the dessert…


The crew came around again offering liqueurs service along with a piece of dark chocolate. I had not seen this liqueur service on any airlines before so it was quite a service. I declined it and only took the chocolate though.

We landed in ATH on time and my luggage was one of the first to come out.

Thank you for reading.