A mundane Aegean Air question

what you should do is before paying for them look at the seat map to see how full the flight is; if you don't see many seats left then book it

I paid about $70 last year about the same time. But there are only two flights a day so I agree at looking at seat map. I think there was a seat sale that I bought them during. It was after the New Year but I can’t remember exactly when and certainly no guarantee that would be the same this year.

Alas you don't get much in the way of "seat sales" for Naxos ... because those flights to Naxos are govt regulated (part of a program to assure that each island with an airport gets a certain # of flights... usually it's islands that don't have a big year-round demand). The only time a seat is less is when a flight is 7 am. Three of us are on that AM June 8 flight, and we paid that price, bought tix 2 weeks ago. I've been looking at that flight since early December, and there was no price break this year, I can testify. There re only 38 seats total, so don't wait too long. Otherwise u will find y ourself making a 6.5 hr ferry trip.

Thank you everyone for your helpful and thoughtful advice. Since getting to Athens together is the priority for our family, especially given that there are only 38 seats on each flight, I went ahead and booked our seats. For some reason I didn't get a chance to view any seat availability while I was booking the flight but in the future, it will be a handy way to help decide when would be a good time to purchase seats. Many thanks to each of you for taking the time to help. Happy travels!

for others with the same question just a clarification. Aegean/Olympic has changed aircraft and now use ATR's which have seating for about 50 passengers. Also you could look at Sky Express which uses the same aircraft but have 3 flights a day this year versus Olympic which right now seem to only have two.
You will almost never get a seat sale on these flights. Just book them when seats are available otherwise you will have a ferry ride in your future.

Would you consider taking a ferry? It's a lot less expensive and it's really not that long of a trip . . . maybe 4+ hours.

Are you locked into June 8? Aegean has flights on 7th & 9th for 75 euros each. ($85)

Sky Express has flights for 102 euros but 93 euros on the 7th & 8th ($105)

Prices are pretty much locked in for the season but you may want to sign up for price alerts in case there is a drop but they usually are a one day thing then quickly jumps back up.

That's good to hear about the additional seats and Sky Express as another option. We considered the ferry but most of us get seasick pretty easily and even though we recently bought some of those magnetic bracelets for the 2 hour ride from Santorini to Naxos, we thought it best not to chance a longer ride in case the sea is rough that day.

We had rough seas from santorini to Naxos and no bracelets. It never occurred to me. We also were on a smaller boat that stopped a lot as it was all that was running that day because of a ferry strike.

We had tickets to fly from Naxos to Athens. I was never so happy to fly on a small plane!

Oh darn, we specifically chose early June for Greece because we had heard that the seas are calmer then rather than July and August when it's windy. We've never tried the bracelets before (heard about them on this forum) so I hope they work their magic. So what happens when there's a strike? How much notice do they give? Did you have to scramble for tickets on other boats on your own or did Blue Star help with that? Is this something that a hotel might provide assistance with? We're staying at the Scirocco in Fira.

The ferry you would take is very large and more than likely will handle any type of sea. I took ferries when the sea was rough and another time there was a thunderstorm. The ferry took it in stride and I didn't get sea sick nor did I see anyone around who looked like they were sea sick.

However, each person is different, so do what's best for you.

I think we got unlucky with the sea. It was windy for two days and then beautiful and calm.

We knew about the strike even before we left for Greece. They announce them which is interesting but no less annoying when it impacts you. I found an alternative boat that wasn’t affected because it did not dock in Athens. It was a government subsidized boat that went to places that were not commercially viable. It took longer than the blue star ferries. It wasn’t small-took cars-but was smaller than blue star ferries.

This is business as usual in Greece. The owner of our air Bnb in santorini was going to let us stay an extra night and our hotel in Naxos was aware of the situation.

We also hit a metro strike when we got to Athens and ended up taking the bus.

Thank you both. I hear that the Blue Star ferries are pretty smooth, and smoother than the hydrofoils during rough seas. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that we won't have any weather or strike problems during our trip. The early strike notification would give me a chance to make some travel adjustments if need be but we don't have a lot of wiggle room since our time in Greece is limited. When we were in Greece for the first time 3 years ago, we didn't come across any strikes then but we did experience train and bus strikes in France and Italy. It was easier to navigate those strikes because there are many more transportation options in France and Italy than in Greece. Thanks again.