The Best Airlines for Travel to Greece This Summer, Ranked
The number one carrier isn't American — obviously.
Although the paradigm has shifted — travel in Greece isn’t just for summer anymore — most airlines have been playing catch up, with Athens still the most underserved major European capital in terms of year-round nonstop flights from major American cities. While there may be some good reasons it is still easier to get from Beverly Hills to Rome, Tel Aviv, or Istanbul than to Athens, we know California pretty well and can’t think of any.
So when it comes to ranking the best airlines for travel to Greece this summer or right now, for that matter, there are two major factors: quality of service as well as frequency of service. Based on this essential pairing, the winner is Emirates. The Dubai-based airline’s “fifth-freedom” flights connect Newark to Athens daily. The late departure from Newark means that travelers from the West Coast can arrive at EWR in plenty of time to make the connection to Athens, even if this means having to buy a separate ticket to get to the East Coast. Beyond that, the service on board outshines that of every American airline. In Business class, obviously, but also in the redesigned Premium Economy.
Andiamo:
Emirates. For all the aforementioned reasons plus a few more.
Virgin Atlantic. If you have to make a stopover en route to Athens, it may as well be London. Frankfurt is a nightmare, Charles de Gaulle is the recognized capital of labor strikes, and we find Romans to be rude (sorry, but it’s true). We do predict that fairly soon Aeroflot will be back in SkyTeam, meaning that we also predict cheap flights via Moscow, but give Trump a few more weeks on that. One of the things we like about Virgin is that the airline uses T3 at Heathrow, which is lot closer to your connecting flight on Aegean (separate ticket) at T2 than from the monstrous T5, which is used by the world’s former favorite airline.
ITA Airways. True, Rome has become a very unpleasant place to connect. Rome Fiumicino "Leonardo da Vinci" Airport is always overcrowded and it is staffed by some of the rudest people we have encountered on the European continent. And that’s sayin’ something. No fresh air, mosquitos everywhere, bad pizza. But ITA is a pretty good airline, and Italy is close to Greece. So connect via Milan instead, and see how it goes.
Delta. We are not going to provide a hyperlink to Delta’s website, because it is frankly the crummiest airline website we have seen in a long time and maybe that is because it is run by disgruntled Smurfs. We can only guess. However, the airline has extended the season of its New York JFK-Athens service, using new A330neo aircraft for those flights, so there’s that.
Norse Atlantic. Seasonally.
United. If you must.
Among European airlines, almost anything but Lufthansa. One of our spies aboard a recent flight from Denver (ed. Denver?) to Frankfurt (we said, no Frankfurt!) told us the newfangled Allegris business class (ed. Allegris, um, is that a German word?) was a major letdown.
Among American airlines, anything but American. If you’re an American, you already know. You’re welcome.
