Charter aircraft on scheduled service

[knobbygb]

I just had the misfortune to fly MAN-ATH with Olympic. Only problem was, the flight was operated by their charter subsiduary Macedonian.

Now, I'm normally quite happy with Olympic - the relaxed Greek attitude means you probably won't get there on time, but their 737's a configured with plenty of room, so at least your extra time spent waiting for departure is comfortable!

As this was an overnight flight, I deliberatley wanted the extra room, and so paid about £280 for scheduled flights, when I probably could have got a charter for more like £180.
The aircraft we flew on was 29" pitch, as opposed to, I think, 34" on OA's 737-400's. (The one we came back on was one of the recently refurbished ones and I swear the pitch was a full 36", although I forgot to measure it!)

Anyway, have I got any comeback against Olympic? If you look up the flight on their website now (the Wednesday night one), it is clearly marked as being operated by Macedonian, but this definatley wasn't the case when I booked it - or I wouldn't have done!

I know many people will be thinking that you get what you pay for - you can't expect the lap of luxury on (relativley) cheap flights. The point is that if you turned up at the airport for your BA flight and it was operated by Air 2000 or Airtours, you'd be none too happy. The Saturday flight is operated with a proper OA aircraft which is very comfortable and the service is better. Is it fair to charge the same for such differeing levels of service?

Any OA or Macedonian cabin crew on Pprune care to comment? What are they like to work for? (the crew were very helpful and did their best with an aircraft full of very tired and unhappy pax but seemed very 'miserable' - not enjoying their job at all).

Rant over. I'll let you know if I ever get a reply from my letter of complaint.

[Boss Raptor]

Macedonian is an Olympic subsiduary operating both mainly sched. and a few IT services from Salonika...I think OA could/would justify this as just another OA service...believe it is just a branding and is all on the OA certificates, infrastructure etc. (unlike Olympic Aviation the internal operation which is 'stand alone')...

[knobbygb]

That makes sense, and to be honest, I don't expect to hear anything from them. I've flows with Macedonian before, when an internal OA was cancelled, but that was on the old 727's, which seemed to be in the original 1970's fit, but that's another story.

Just thought it was a bit of a 'con' taking the attitude: 'Oh, they're only a load of holiday makers anyway, give them charter service, they won't know any different'.

Anyone thinking of going to Athens over the summer, try the LH or AF services. Not direct, but cheaper, more reliable and better service.

I've been hoping for years that we'd get a direct service to ATH, but now I wish they hadn't bothered and will be flying with the others in future.

[groundbum]

I think it was in the paper recently that somebody booked a trip to Canada on a charter, and specifically checked pitch etc. When he got on the aircraft it was totally different to what he had been left to expect.

It came out in the wash that the main long haul broke, so a lower spec 757 was substituted. The county court judge agreed that the substitute wasn't really up for the job (10 hour flight) and so the guy got a load of money back.

I would suggest a similar tactic. After all if you booked a 5* villa but they substituted a 2* one you'd ask for a refund! Same with an aircraft seat pitch, if you had explicitly checked this before booking.

www.courtservice.co.uk/moneyonline for an onlime small claims court.

Of course, knobbygb if you kept out of Rusholme a bit you'd fit your seat a bit better???? :cool: Better than the severe lack of back seat time that I'm booking on yer PA28.....

[Wizard]

Boss Raptor email me please