Olympic and Easyjet

[D and E]

Not long now - next Wednesday in fact.

We often travel independently with EasyJet so it dawned on D this morning that as Olympic doesn't have our passport details we would have to provide Advance Passenger Information although he couldn't find this mentioned anywhere on the numerous emails and itinerary from Olympic.

So tried the EasyJet App and website but needed Olympic's booking reference to access the booking so had to call them. The representative was surprised the info hadn't been supplies.

So just in case anyone is in the same position - being bumped off Germania onto EasyJet - you might want to check this out.

D also took the opportunity to ask if we would be transferred on the 15:00 Blue Star as there is no evening ferry like there has been for years. The representative couldn't say but said she would contact the Rhodes Office to see what is happening. If we hear we will post.

[Gemma1]

Hope you manage to catch the afternoon Blue Star and looking forward to your reports and hearing about your delicious meals

[Oor Willie]

Just booked flights with Thomas Cook for September and their site states API not required which surprised me as I had to submit API for our Easy Jet Flights in June ??

[Andy W]

It is always legally possible to take API details at the airport, and airlines that are basically charter operators often do as almost all their customers are on one or two week holidays and will need to check bags in anyway.
EasyJet and other scheduled airlines have lots of hand baggage only customers on their shorter routes and it is far too slow to take API details at the boarding gate. In addition they are moving to fully automated bag drops at busier airports such as London Gatwick, so there will be no staff to collect the information before security.

[D and E]

Hi Andy - hope you are enjoying Symi.
Here's an interesting one.
Olympic tell us we have a 15kg hold allowance.
But when asking EasyJet whom we have been moved onto and often travel independently with they tell us we have 20kg.
Clearly our return charter flight with the Polish operator will be 15kg.
But then we often leave some stuff, especially now that the refugee cause can benefit.
Will try and clarify with Olympic tomorrow as they still haven't confirmed back that they will be putting us on the 15:00 Blue Star on Wednesday.

[Andy W]

Olympic's UK staff appear to be very poorly informed as usual. EasyJet's standard baggage allowance start at 0kg (which obviously doesn't apply to you) and then jumps to 20kg and increases in 3kg steps to the maximum 32kg. They certainly aren't going to change their systems to suit Olympic Holidays,who they could probably buy out of petty cash! Obviously nobody knows what Enterair or Small Planet will do, but Germania always allowed 20kg even though Olympic said 15kg.

[Gemma1]

A few years ago I flew with Jet2 from Leeds Bradford on an Olympic package and the baggage allowance was still the standard 22kg, regardless of what Olympic put on the ticket. I didn't realise that about Germania - in the past I've paid extra to upgrade to 20kg - it sounds like I was just lining Olympic's pockets .

It wasn't an option to upgrade to 20kg on the Olympic website when I booked either of this year's Olympic Holidays so I am going to try and 'manage' with 15kg when I go to Kefalonia in June as can put some stuff in OH's suitcase if I go over I was going to upgrade to 20kg for my week on Symi but that costs an extra £20 (I think it was £5.99 the last time I upgraded with Germania) and don't want to be paying out extra if it's included as standard. I've bought a new lighter suitcase this year so will see how much my case weighs in June before forking out for extra luggage allowance that I might not need. I'd rather spend the £20 on a nice meal in a Symi tavern

[D and E]

Our early morning EasyJet flight was rewarded with a minibus of 6 of us being taken direct to the port where we had a couple of hours in the nearby taverna before catching the 15:00 Blue Star.
The travel blog is written but photos need to be imported and edited for size so D will try and get that up tomorrow.
In the meantime a bit of breaking news. A car went on fire on the early hours of the morning and has gutted the Custom House beside the Corner Cafe on the harbour. No one hurt and no damage to surrounding buildings.

[Gemma1]

I saw pictures of the fire on Facebook and wondered how it started. It looked bad Glad to hear that nobody was hurt though.

Really looking forward to reading your blog