SKY express — Local services in Municipality of Spata - Artemida

This is our experience (me, my wife and our), not even one week ago… It is truly mind-boggling. Please read attentively. It may sound complicated, but it is not, notably if you are a frequent traveler. We had round-trip tickets, from Athens to Crete and back. Athen-Crete-Athens. With Aegean Airlines.

When we were going to return from Crete to Athens, with Aegean Airlines, we had other travel tickets, to fly from Athens to our home, in Canada (via Munich). A few hours after our return to Athens, with Aeagean Airlines.

These were distinct tickets, with separate airlines. We are not talking about a Crete-Athens-Canada, "continuous" travel tickets. Which means that if we had missed our plane to Canada, that was it !!

Also, since this was not a lay-over situation, there was no automatic transfer of our checked-in luggage. We had to recuperate our checked-in luggage in Athens, and then proceed to its check-in with the airline who was going to fly us to Canada.

If our Crete-Athens flight, with Aegean Airlines, was not delayed, we could have done all that, no problem. We had calculated our time and purchased our tickets accordingly.

HOWEVER, when we checked in for our flight from Athens to Crete, at the airport, we realized that serious delays are quite systematic, with Aegean Airlines flights.

We endured such a long delay ourselves, for that first segment of our Athens-Crete-Athens flight.

Consequently, as a precaution, from Crete, we contacted Aegean Airlines. And we asked them to please put us on their earlier Crete-Athens flight. So that in the - alas, probable- event of a delay, we do not miss our plane from Athens to Canada.

They had available seats on their earlier flight. But the fees that they demanded to make the modification, was… MORE, higher, than the total price of just purchasing totally new tickets, on Sky Express, with an earlier departure time.

So, we did that... We had to let our Crete-Athens Aegean Airlines tickets "burn", go to waste. And we purchased new Crete-Athens tickets, with Sky Express.

Thanks to those new tickets, and the fact that there was absolutely no delay with the Sky Express flight, we were able to catch our plane to Canada.

Now, please listen to this…

The Crete-Athens flight on which we had initially planned to be, with our tickets with Aegean Airlines, was delayed for 1,5 hours !

Which means that, had we not done what we did, as exposed above, we would have actually missed our plane to Canada ! Without any responsibility for the airline company from which we had purchased our Athens-Canada travel tickets…

Based on this experience, there is no way we would ever fly with Aegean Airlines. No...

I echo the abysmal feedback received by the airlines. Worse airlines alongside Ryan Air.

Flight 1- Gatwick - Athens : they changed flight times and didn’t email passengers to inform. Flight got moved BACK 30 minutes. Flight was supposed to depart at 1415 so gates ostensibly close at 1345. At 1230 I joined the line and got checked in at 1305-1315. Within 5 minutes I went up to the security check and got rejected for being ‘ too late’ - eventually after lots of waiting around and running around I cleared immigration at 1335 but was told the gate has closed because apparently the flight departs at 1340. Both the check in counter and members of staff did not correct me when I said my flight was 1415 and nor did I get any email telling me about the change. With my breathing condition if I had collapsed rushing to my gate I would have taken legal action against the airline.

Flight 2 - Athens to Gatwick

They did not order shuttle buses (rookie mistake) and the bus did not arrive to pick passengers up leading to a huge hold up at the gates. The adjacent gate whose flight departs 30 minutes after managed to get all the passengers on a shuttle bus promptly without any delay while we wait for ours. The flight was scheduled to leave at 1020 and at 1050 we were still waiting for buses to arrive. Eventually at 1140 we are preparing to take off.

Further the Sky express staff lacks basic training and courtesy. It is customary that passengers queue orderly while the people n front stow their luggage in the overhead compartment. I waited in line patiently for those in front of me to do the same. When it came to my turn, the stewardess asked the lady behind me to rush in past me. Beyond the fact that this is just rude and discourteous, it also a safety hazard as the isle is extremely narrow and having people bump and collide into each other poses an accident risk. I do not understand what the need for that was and it was the only time she did that in the line. It’s not only poor professionalism but a perceived bias on skin colour.

Secondly , when she was asking me to take off my earpiece for take off - she could have done so politely instead of asking me to ‘ get out the headphones ‘ do the staff in sky express undergo any sort of training and how to talk to people with...

Avoid Sky Express at All Costs – Incompetent, Unreliable, and a Ruinous End to Our Holiday

I cannot stress this enough: do not fly with Sky Express, especially if you value your belongings or expect even the bare minimum of communication or competence from an airline. Our recent experience flying from Milos to Athens was an absolute disaster and has completely ruined the end of an otherwise fantastic holiday.

We paid for checked baggage on our flight from Milos to Athens – only to discover after waiting at the luggage carousel (alongside half the other passengers from our flight) that our bag hadn’t even been loaded onto the plane. No announcement, no staff there to explain – just a crowd of confused travelers. We had to hunt down the baggage tracing desk ourselves, only to be told they had no idea where our luggage was or when we might get it. The best they could offer? “Wait for a phone call.”

Fast forward two days – still no word, and our weekend in Athens is coming to a close. Just as we pass through security for our flight back to the UK, we finally receive a call: good news, they say – they’ve located our bag and can transfer it onto our UK-bound flight. At this point, we’re relieved – finally, some resolution.

Except, of course, that Sky Express once again managed to mess it up. When we landed in the UK, our bag was nowhere to be found. They’d evidently forgotten – again – to hand the luggage over to the other airline. Utter incompetence.

This wasn’t just an isolated case. Speaking to other travelers, it became clear that this happens all the time – especially on flights out of Milos. There seems to be no accountability, no communication, and absolutely no sense of responsibility from Sky Express. Their baggage handling is a joke, their customer service is non-existent, and they clearly don’t care how much they disrupt your travel plans.

This experience was infuriating, stressful, and completely avoidable – and it ruined what had been a perfect trip. If you’re considering flying with Sky Express, don’t. It’s just not...