Argh! We booked flights with a three hour layover between arriving in Athens and our Sky Express flight to Santorini, but Air Canada is delayed two full hours and now we’re not landing until 12:30. Is there any way we’ll make our connecting flight with an hour between them (we have checked bags — don’t get me started on the family packing dynamic!)?? And If not, is there anything we can do while still in the air? I tried to log into Sky Express to see if there was a chat or message function but no luck. We do have the fare that allows same day ticket changes but I’m worried there won’t be room.
Any good advice other than just waiting and seeing once we’re on the ground??
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
6974 posts
Is both flights on the same ticket or have you booked them separately?
Posted by
OP
Massachusetts
22 posts
Separately. Just landed and can’t get to the gate. I’m not optimistic.
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
6974 posts
So your ticket was for the 13.30 Sky Express to Santorini? How did it go? If you missed your flight, you can always see if you can find some Sky Express staff and ask them kindly if they can rebook you on another flight. Otherwise, you need to buy new tickets. That is the risk when you are self connecting.
Posted by
France Southwest
2329 posts
His Air Canada flight AC 898 landed at 12:35 p.m., two hours late. But the Sky Express GQ346 for Santorini took off at 1:58 p.m. 30 minutes late.
I guess he was able to catch his flight.
If so he landed in Santorini 30 minutes ago
As they say: "no news is good news"
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4088 posts
This comment can't help you now, but maybe offers some advice for the future. I know first-hand that Athens airport is an unhappy place to endure a delay (crappy WiFi, among other things.)
Air Canada sells tickets to Santorini, with a connection on Aegean to the island. Aegean and AC code-share through Star Alliance. Then the burden is on the two airlines to get you to your destination, possibly transferring checked luggage too.
It might not be perfect; there could be delays. But in general the stress is less to let airlines assemble your itinerary.
As well, Athens is not the only access to the islands. Other gateway cities in Europe can be easy. Searching for a complete itinerary will show possibilities more efficiently than do-it-yourself. I look at matrix.itasoftware.com to find the routes.
Posted by
Northbrook, Illinois, USA
310 posts
I am sorry I cannot help you, but the story of delayed flights seems to be playing out all over Europe this summer. I suggest anyone with tickets on connecting flights make sure you have a good long layover (three hours?). See my post on our trip home from Athens. We were dumped in Frankfurt late Saturday afternoon along with hundreds of others who missed connections. Did not get home for another 24 hours and we consider ourselves lucky b/c we were in line in FRA with folks who were looking at a two day unplanned layover. Hope it works out, been there and it is not fun!
Posted by
California
43 posts
I second Marie's recommendation. Barely made my flight to Rome with a 70-minute layover at Frankfort because of long line at Passport Control. Fortunately, the Rome flight was delayed. Delayed flights are becoming more frequent.
Posted by
OP
Massachusetts
22 posts
Thought I would update you all! The good news is that we made it. The bad news is that we missed the connecting flight (by the time Air Canada actually let us off the plane it was almost 3 hours delay). And not only that but despite the fact that I bought Wi-Fi on the plane to both email and message SkyExpress about the situation (namely that Air Canada was 3 hours delayed), and had bought the flex tickets that allowed same day changes, we arrived to a message that since we were “no-shows” for our flights we forfeited the full price and had to buy new tickets. Luckily we were able to get seats on the 4:50 flight and made it to the island.
Once I catch my breath I will fight the good fight to get our money back for the original flights (I have screenshots of my emails and messages and responses from SkyExpress that they received my messages), but for now I am just reveling in the view from Villa Fegari in Firastefani and hope that everything goes better from here.
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
3397 posts
Thanks for getting back to the forum... it was thoughtful of you. So often, people post urgent queries and then disappear. Your feedback helps to keep the RS forum contributors active. Good luck on the refund; you seem to have the methodical evidence-based approach that will succeed.
Posted by
Massachusetts, USA
1700 posts
We recently returned from Greece, and we are from Massachusetts, too. I always recommend to people that they should book through tickets (both flights on the same ticket) to their final destination. That is what we did. We flew on United/Swissair from Boston to Santorini with a connection in Zurich. No problems whatsoever. And if we were delayed leaving Boston and missed our flight from Zurich, it would be up to the airline to put us on the next available flight. Additionally, once we checked our luggage in Boston, we didn't have to deal with our luggage until we reached Santorini.
It seems that Air Canada is having lots of these problems. We flew AC home from Athens, and our flight was delayed for an hour. Which meant we had to practically run through the Toronto airport to catch our flight home.