Athens port to airport; United changed our flight departure time.

[brucewg]

We will be arriving at the port in Athens at 6 AM (Constellation) on Saturday 6/3.  Our flight to Munich was to leave at 3 PM, but that flight was cancelled, and the only option offered is an 11 AM flight.  Obviously, we'll keep our luggage with us and arrange a private transfer.

 

Advice on what time to setup the pickup?  And odds of actually making the flight?  We are US based.  Any advice welcome.

 

Thanks in advance.

[SFCAcruiser]

You may get more responses by posting this to the Cruise Critic Cruise Air Forum since it is only marginally related to Celebrity. 

Travel time from Piraeus to ATH is about 45 minutes. So, your flight seems doable as long as you self-disembark with a private transfer.

 

I see a 12:55PM flights on Lufthansa from Athens. Have you contacted the airline about switching to this flight? In my experience, when the airline cancels the flight, they can be quite lenient about booking you on the flights that YOU have selected. We are generally not bound by the flight that some airline computer has found for us. When you call the airline, it is helpful to ask the agent for the specific flight numbers you want, i.e. making the agent's job a little easier. 

Do you have a ticket that has a lot of restrictions on re-booking?

Edited March 28, 2023 by SFCAcruiser
Looked at wrong travel date schedule

[marazul]

3 hours ago, brucewg said:

We will be arriving at the port in Athens at 6 AM (Constellation) on Saturday 6/3.  Our flight to Munich was to leave at 3 PM, but that flight was cancelled, and the only option offered is an 11 AM flight.  Obviously, we'll keep our luggage with us and arrange a private transfer.

 

Advice on what time to setup the pickup?  And odds of actually making the flight?  We are US based.  Any advice welcome.

 

Thanks in advance.

You should be fine if you can disembark by 7 am. However, the best thing you can do is to tell your transfer service the time of the flight and let them tell you at what time they will pick you up. They are professionals and their job is to get you to the airport on time.

We use George's Taxi and can recommend them.

taxigreece.com 

[John Bull]

6am sounds very much like ship's berthing time, so I doubt you'd be able to disembark (even unassisted) before 7am. And the 45 minutes drive-time will actually be a lot longer at that time of day - google has it at up to 1hr 40 mins.

Still doable, but with little wiggle-room.

 

It's worth checking with the cruise line or with CC members on the Celebrity forum to get a better idea of earliest disembarkation. And with a potential private transfer operator (George's taxis linked by SFCAcruiser ?) for the drive-time at that time in the morning - they'll be more knowledgeable than Mr Google.

 

JB 🙂

[VMax1700]

United do not fly Athens to Munich, so it was booked on a codeshare with another airline.  Are you only flying as far as Munich?  Or are you booked Athens - Munich - USA?

If the latter, and Munich is not important to you, ask United or your Travel Agent to reroute you will a later departure from Athens.

 

As mentioned by @SFCAcruiserthere is a flight at 12.55 and another at 15.25 operated by Aegean Airlines.  There are seats available on both these flights.

[brucewg]

I'm sorry that I wasn't more clear.  We will depart Athens for Munich, spend 3 days there before returning to SFO (direct flight).  I initially booked a 3 PM flight to Munich, it was cancelled and the only available option was the 11 AM flight.

 

We are flying on an award ticket, booked by United and this leg (to Munich) is on a Star Alliance partner.  I do understand that United has to accept what their partner opens up for award space, and that's the issue.

 

As per the suggestion above, I've posted this in the Cruise Air forum, so I'll use that for and not create more confusion with multiple posting. 

 

Thanks for the comments!

 

Bruce

 

[marazul]

10 hours ago, brucewg said:

I'm sorry that I wasn't more clear.  We will depart Athens for Munich, spend 3 days there before returning to SFO (direct flight).  I initially booked a 3 PM flight to Munich, it was cancelled and the only available option was the 11 AM flight.

 

We are flying on an award ticket, booked by United and this leg (to Munich) is on a Star Alliance partner.  I do understand that United has to accept what their partner opens up for award space, and that's the issue.

 

As per the suggestion above, I've posted this in the Cruise Air forum, so I'll use that for and not create more confusion with multiple posting. 

 

Thanks for the comments!

 

Bruce

 

You should be OK. Check-in for European flights takes a lot less time than for flights to the US.

[CCJack]

On 3/28/2023 at 7:31 PM, SFCAcruiser said:

You may get more responses by posting this to the Cruise Critic Cruise Air Forum since it is only marginally related to Celebrity. 

Travel time from Piraeus to ATH is about 45 minutes. So, your flight seems doable as long as you self-disembark with a private transfer.

 

I see a 12:55PM flights on Lufthansa from Athens. Have you contacted the airline about switching to this flight? In my experience, when the airline cancels the flight, they can be quite lenient about booking you on the flights that YOU have selected. We are generally not bound by the flight that some airline computer has found for us. When you call the airline, it is helpful to ask the agent for the specific flight numbers you want, i.e. making the agent's job a little easier. 

Do you have a ticket that has a lot of restrictions on re-booking?

Do you know if airlines will allow re-booking on a different airline if they changed our flight to an unworkable time?   We are booked on American and they changed our flight from 1 pm to 11:30.  

[SFCAcruiser]

5 minutes ago, CCJack said:

Do you know if airlines will allow re-booking on a different airline if they changed our flight to an unworkable time?   We are booked on American and they changed our flight from 1 pm to 11:30.  

 

I am not familiar with AA policy. I have had good luck in the past with United, perhaps at least partially due to my loyalty status with them. Generally, the airline will try to re-book on their own flights, then look for joint venture flights if any, and then look for other airlines in the same alliance.

I would suggest you look at AA flights that might work better for you, or perhaps British Airways flights as an alternative. Then present these alternatives to the AA reservation agent asking for their help with your situation. It is useful to try to get the agent to be empathetic and want to help you. Getting angry will be counterproductive. If the first agent with whom you speak is not helpful, then implement the HUCA guideline = Hang Up and Call Again.