{"id":2383,"date":"2014-12-10T23:23:48","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T04:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guruoftravel.com\/?p=2383"},"modified":"2015-02-15T16:56:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T21:56:29","slug":"aegean-airlines-business-class-istanbul-athens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guruoftravel.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/10\/aegean-airlines-business-class-istanbul-athens\/","title":{"rendered":"Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Intro and Greensboro to Chicago<\/a>
\nAir Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto and Exploring Toronto<\/a>
\nAir Canada Executive First Suite Toronto to Istanbul<\/a>
\n14 Hours in Istanbul<\/a>
\nAegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens<\/a>
\nHotel Amalia Athens and Exploring Athens (Part 1)<\/a>
\nExploring Athens (Part 2)<\/a>
\nAthens Airport Lounges and Aegean Airlines Athens to Santorini<\/a>
\nAnamnesis Luxury Spa Hotel and Exploring Santorini (Part 1)<\/a>
\nExploring Santorini (Part 2)<\/a>
\nExploring Santorini (Part 3) and Aegean Airlines Santorini to Athens<\/a>
\nHoliday Inn Athens Airport and Aegean Airlines Athens to Milan
\nUNA Hotel Cusani and Exploring Milan
\nUnited Business Class Milan to Newark to Greensboro<\/p>\n

\n

(It’s been a little while since I’ve had a chance to continue writing up our trip to Turkey, Greece, and Italy, but I’m finally back with the latest update)<\/p>\n

As a bit of a refresher, we left from Greensboro on Friday morning<\/a>, spent a few hours in Toronto<\/a>, then flew overnight from Toronto to Istanbul<\/a>, and spent a full day in Istanbul<\/a>.  After our day in Istanbul, we made our way back to the Istanbul airport, and took some much needed showers in the amazing Turkish Airlines lounge.<\/p>\n

The lounge just opened about a year ago, so it’s in excellent condition, and is huge:<\/p>\n

\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lounge has 2 floors, with video games, a miniature remote control race track, a golf practice simulator (which unfortunately was closed while we were there), a kids’ play area, and a small movie theater:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The food and beverage spreads were also fantastic, with fruit and salad bars, grilled chicken with vegetables, flatbread pizza, and more:<\/p>\n

\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Turkish<\/a>
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We filled up on dinner, and our flight from Istanbul to Athens was scheduled to depart at 10:40 pm, so we left the lounge at about 9:55, since it would be about a 10 minute walk to Gate 206.<\/p>\n

When we got to the gate, we were a little annoyed that the monitors instructed passengers to “Go To Gate,” and then even changed to “Boarding” all before the inbound plane even arrived.  The inbound plane was about 30 minutes late, so it would have been nice if Aegean had updated the flight status accordingly, but that seemed to be the common theme with them.  I had flown Aegean a few times in the past, and they’re decent enough, but rarely seem to care about any sort of operational efficiency.<\/p>\n

It would have been nice to spend the extra 20-30 minutes in the lounge, rather than standing in the gate area (since all the seats were taken), but it wasn’t the end of the world.  On this trip, we had 5 flights on Aegean, and 4 of them had impressively chaotic boarding processes (not quite up to the ranks of the Ethiopian Airlines boarding circus in Addis Ababa<\/a>, but it was still pretty poorly managed)<\/p>\n

There was no pre-board announcement for Business Class, Star Alliance Gold, or any other preferred passengers,  It was just a mob to rush the gate, but once we did make it on board, we were welcomed by the Flight Attendant and ended up as the only 2 passengers in the small Business Class Cabin.  Intra-Europe Business Class really isn’t much to get excited about…it’s the exact same Coach seat, sometimes with a bit more legroom (but sometimes not), but the main difference is that the middle seat is blocked, so only the aisle and window seats are available for seating.  On this flight, Aegean had a small tray mounted in the middle seat, which did give us a nice place to set our pre-departure champagne:<\/p>\n

\"Aegean<\/a>
Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Aegean<\/a>
Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once we took off, our friendly flight attendant passed out menus for dinner:<\/p>\n

\"Aegean<\/a>
Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Aegean<\/a>
Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were already relatively full from the lounge in Istanbul, but I ordered the Veal and Eggplant Ragout, while the Mrs. Guru ordered the Rooster.  Both dishes were good, though nothing especially memorable.  Since the flight was barely an hour long, it was more than enough.<\/p>\n

\"Aegean<\/a>
Aegean Airlines Business Class Rooster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Aegean<\/a>
Aegean Airlines Business Class Veal and Eggplant Ragout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before we knew it, we had finally made it to our first destination, Athens.  The Athens airport is relatively modern (it was built just before the 2004 Olympics hosted there), although it’s a 45 minute bus or train ride into the city.  Since the train stops running around 11:00 pm, and we landed around 12:30 am we caught a bus into Athens.<\/p>\n\n