London Heathrow to Athens

[Stephen]

Hello,

I’m looking to book 3 x AVIOS flights to Athens for June 2023

Any thoughts on the chance of British Airways releasing more availability closer to the time?

Thanks

[NorthernLass]

There was an identical question yesterday except it was about Prague! Depends on a few different factors.

[jj]

I think the boat has sailed (if I may use a slightly inappropriate metaphor) for direct flights to Athens. Iberia availability from Madrid seems quite good, though, as is Heathrow to Madrid, so it should be possible to route that way at a slightly higher cost.

Apologies, but some of the missing direct flights went to me. I love Greece.

[Philondon]

I’ve just boarded the plane at Athens and there was initially only 1 person checking passports for non EU passport holders. After about a 20 minute wait another person came along. The EU queue had automatic gates and no queue.

So make sure you get to the airport early if you are not an EU citizen.

[TheBlood]

Stephen wrote:

Hello,

I’m looking to book 3 x AVIOS flights to Athens for June 2023

Any thoughts on the chance of British Airways releasing more availability closer to the time?

Thanks

In my experience, these short haul flights won’t add more Business avalibility, but will show up more economy avalibility (particularly for Gold’s) nearer the time. You can obviously check the seat map on Expert Flyer to see how full any given flight is at the moment.

[George K]

To be frank, you’re a bit late for securing Avios seats for a summer in Greece, especially for three people. My only suggestion – which is something I’ve done – is to secure an Amex 241 voucher which will open up further availability (obviously not an easy task to do). If you’re BA Gold status, you’ll have more economy seats made available to you if you search.

I’ve just done a quick search to see which dates come up for three passengers as BA Gold and I can see only one outbound (4th of June) but plenty of inbounds (15 dates to choose from). There’s no way to tell if the increased availability to Gold members will be passed down later to the rest of the pecking order. It’s usually the case that once spring is upon us, summer fares go one way, and that is up…

[SamG]

Very last minute can sometimes be good for CE but I’d not be relying on that unless it was an optional trip 🙃 – good for upgrading though

Personally for June I wouldn’t plan on them adding any seats now and would buy what tickets suited best for cash

[marks7389]

George K wrote:

My only suggestion – which is something I’ve done – is to secure an Amex 241 voucher which will open up further availability (obviously not an easy task to do).

Not for Greece it won’t. The additional availability is Club World only.

[George K]

My apologies. I thought there was ‘I’ fare bucket for CE flights, as it features in the BA Tier Point calculator.