Airline Reviews & Opinions

MEA is the best airlines ever!!
you have to try it .

No online check in a drawback. Not being able to select a seat is also a drawback. However, instead of the embarrassingly 'cheap' idea of charging for newspapers as Sterling did, Cimber provides newspapers free. They also provide coffee, tea and water free. These are small amenities, but nevertheless welcome and unusual for a discount airline. Cimber had a high ticket client background and it shows it's welcome head. They're friendly, and certainly improve in the poor Sterling Airline package. I give them my business and hope they quickly add those facility details frequent flyers appreciate.

Dubai-Kabul-Dubai. The price of tickets is very high. It costs more to get to Kabul than to the UK from Dubai. Kam Air were OK on this trip. It was a MD-82 both ways and were were almost on time. The only problem was the return because of some stupid security procedures in the airport. They apologised for that, though it was not their fault. Neither flight was full, so was able to get a row to myself, which helps. Kam Air, along with Safi, is still the best way to get to Kabul from Dubai.

Buenos Aires (Aeroparque) to Punta del Este and return. The flight to PDP left at 12:30 and we were served a hot ham and cheese sandwich , along with a beverage service. Fr om PDP to AEP,our flight left at 500PM and we were served an ice cream snack, along with a beverage service. Both flights are short (45 minutes). On the return, Boeing 737-200 was full and yet 4 FA's managed to do the service with a smile. Due to a snowstorm, the flights fr om EZE to JFK were cancelled and American Airlines re-booked me to JFK via Dallas on American Airlines. In contrast to PLUNA, on a three hour flight fr om DFW to JFK, leaving at lunchtime, AA only served offered beverages (I ended with a cup of coffee and a small glass of ginger ale). No food was offered at all. On the PLUNA flights, FAs' were young and enthusiastic whereas on the American flights were all tired looking.

BKK-KTM, economy. B-757, pleasant and clean. This was the cheapest option BKK-KTM and our expectations were low. We were surprised! Very friendly and serviceminded cabin staff in traditional, local dresses. Good language skills and plenty of information from the captain and FA. Good, local food. Arrival on time despite delay from BKK. No baggage problems and high level of service in KTM intl airport. An overall positive experience in spite of lack of IFE. I would definitely choose Royal Nepal Airlines again and have recommended others to fly them.

LAX-PTY-BAQ. I have flown Copa 2 times a year since 2003 fr om LAX-PTY-BAQ roundtrip. The seats are uncomfortable for a 6.5 hour flight and little leg room, I am 6 feet tall. Food is usually good, drinks are limited and service is good on the plane and at the Copa Airlines counter. Never had a problem with delayed flights, missed connecting flights, being bumped or put on stand-by. Copa gives you your boarding pass for PTY at LAX so you don´t have to touch your luggage or check-in again, a very nice feature. Movies, food, drinks, blankets, pillows and 2 pieces of checked luggage are still FREE on Copa! (well you don´t pay extra)

AMS - VNO in Business. Small fleet of 737's, but row 1 A/C has exceptional legroom as there is no cloaks cupboard. Operated as a code share with KLM on this route. Choice of Orange Juice or Champagne pre take off, printed drinks menu then a hot meal service, salad, beef with pasta and veg, choice of bread, chocolate mouse desert, choice of wine. Hot drinks plus choice of more alcoholic drinks if required. Staff very courteous. On board magazine had interesting articles about Lithuanian history, and changes since Independence. Vilnius airport is in process of enlargement but immigration was efficient.

We flew first class LAX-BOS on AA international configuration 767-300ERs. AA's business class product is light years behind most European and Asian carriers, and it lags behind Northwest and Virgin America among US airlines. The seats were the angled lie-flat seats, ie. they recline to a flat position but are not quite parallel to the ground, which makes sleeping difficult because you're always sliding downhill. They are also on the narrow side for first/business class at only 20 inches in width. The pitch was a bit tight for widebody first/business, but there's a cutout in the seat in front of you for your feet. However, if you're taller than 6 feet your feet will not fit comfortably in this small space. There are no seat-back monitors, but you get a portable monitor with a 7-inch screen with about 15 movies, 20 TV/short programmes, some games and 150-200 songs. The food going out (breakfast) was ghastly (granola and fruit or some sort of mystery omelet) and coming back it was better. We don't drink alcohol when flying, but other passengers were complaining about the poor selection. FA's were professional if a bit cold and didn't go too far out of the way to please. It was what I came to expect from AA - average on all levels. Didn't disappoint in any areas and didn't excel in any areas either.

CPT-JNB-CPT economy. I booked 3 days before departure for a quick return trip. I would have travelled SAA in preference to the other carriers, but after booking I compared prices between SAA and the four other domestic carriers, and comparing similar timings, SAA was the least expensive (ZAR 1565), admittedly not by much, but so much for 'low cost' carriers. When I saw the long check in queues for the other carriers at CTIA I was even happier to have booked SAA, simply drew my boarding card after checking in online and sauntered to the boarding gate. Flights were punctual, lots of information from the flight deck, cabin crew attentive and friendly, modern clean aircraft, and decent seat pitch.

We booked and paid for our Buddha Air flight fr om Kathmandu to Pokhara three months in advance. The confirmed flight time (12:30 PM) didn't match the internet flight time. The tickets delivered to our Kathmandu hotel had us on a different flight, with a departure time of 2:30 PM. We called Buddha Air for two days with no answer. Our hotel finally reached them, and changed our flight to 9:40 AM, since our 12:30 flight had sold out---in other words, they'd sold our original seats to someone else. We tried for 3 more days to reach Buddha by phone, and finally dropped by one of their offices. They had our names on a confirmation list for the 9:40 AM flight, #605. When we checked in at the airport, we noticed we were now on a completely different flight, #601, which departed at 10:00 AM. It was a prop-plane, and held maybe 20 people, with only one seat on each side of the aisle. There was no confirmed seating. (A tip: for great mountain views on the way to Pokhara, sit on the right side of the plane, and fr om Pokhara to Kathmandu, on the left.) It was a relatively smooth flight for what many term a "vomit comet". Buddha Air's slogan should be "We'll get you where you're going, but until then, you'll be confused."

Grenada to Barbados. Original flight route required flying to Trinidad, changing planes for flight to Barbados. Wouldn't have been a problem if the GRE-POS flight hadn't left over two hours late. I asked at the gate if I could still make my connecting flight (the whole LIAT system was running late) and was told yes. Of course, when I got to POS, no connecting flight and I was told I should never have been boarded in GRE. LIAT had flown me to Trinidad by mistake. I got a boarding pass for the next flight to Barbados, only to be stopped at the gate and told the counter agent made another mistake, there were no more seats. I did get on the following flight to Barbados - which flew back to Grenada first. So what should have been about a two-hour journey (including check-in and such) turned into twelve and, according to LIAT itself, instead of being flown to Trinidad to wait in the airport, I should have been waiting in Grenada, where I could have headed back to my hotel or even just to a nearby beach.

Return journey from Bishkek to Osh. This has to be one of the world's most spectacular flights over the mountains between Kyrgyzstan's two main cities. The flight experience was OK with an old Antonov turboprop on the outward leg and a Tu134 on the return. Both were on time and with clean aircraft, although certainly not the newest. The airport check-in at Osh was a bit relaxed in procedure and chaotic, but did the job for the small number of passengers. I'd fly with them again on this route.

LAX-SYD. After my free upgrade to business on the outward trip I was dreading the return in Economy on the way home. However the A380 surprised me as to the level of comfort and service it provided. I was seated in almost the last row of economy however found the seat to be really comfortable, recline excellent and comfortable. The overhead bids (and air vents) are quite high and I had to unbuckle to reach them. IFE was much better than on the 747 with much more content. The service by crew was excellent. Hot towels provided after take off, followed by a few beers with the meal. After meals were taken away the cabin was dimmed for sleep and provided with little snack bags which contained water, fruit snacks, cookies, peppermints and other little snacks. The self service snack bar was great - a nice place for people to have a chat, stretch your legs and grab a snack/soft drink. Flight slightly delayed out of LAX, but we got into SYD pretty much on time. I was able to get about the same amount of sleep as I did in business. The crew were fantastic and very eager to assist everyone. The service across the full length of the flight was consistently excellent.

Caracas-Quito with Aeropostal, was concerned before flight and rightly so. They virtually ignored all regulations and just took off without any real interest in safety procedure etc. Plane old, seats crap, designed for very small oompa lumpas i think. I feel asleep waiting for water from FA and woke about 30 mins before landing. Food good but service lousy and the crew were still standing when the plane landed and the seatbelt lights etc switched on about 10 seconds before landing. Surprised they haven't had more fatal incidents. Check in a joke too. Complete disorganisation and people running everywhere. Only for helpful Lufthansa staff I wouldn't have got my boarding pass or luggage on the flight. One to be avoided if possible.

Flew Viva Macau Sydney to Macau return. For the price paid AUD$510 return, it was worth it. As with other posts, entertainment was non-existent, you must pay for about 99% of everything. seats were standard, enough leg room for average size person. Cabin crew helpful and friendly. You get an itinerary that you print out when you book online and then at the airport counter, collect your boarding pass. unlike Jetstar there was no barcode or anything except a confirmation number so was a little worried about the validity. but was all good. On the flight back, plane was delayed about 1.5 hrs. Overall, definitely good value and a satisfactory experience (bar the flight home) so would fly them again.

Luton - Waterford Return. Check in at Luton quick and efficient. Its nice to have flights using the smaller types of aircraft such as the ATR with a max of 70 people to check in. ATR 72 was fine with comfortable seats. Cabin was a little bit tatty in places. Arrival at Waterford very easy and quick, a bonus when using small airports. The return, 4 days later suffered two delays. The first of which (about one hour) was notified to me by text message the night before. The knock on effect was that the Luton and Manchester flights were checking in at the same time. This stretched the facilities at Waterford to maximum. We were then advised that the aircraft already at Waterford had a technical fault and a spare aircraft would have to be flown in from Dublin. This duely arrived but our departure was now 5 hours late. Vouchers were given for food and drink as a gesture of goodwill. Return flight fine and FAs pleasant and helpful, this time giving food and drink free of charge. One week later I received a letter from the airline explaining the reasons for the delay and extending their apologies. It also included a travel voucher worth 50 Euros.

We were rerouted through Prague for connecting flight to BTS with a four hour layover - we had boarding passes issued by Czech Airlines in Amsterdam. We were in the final boarding when we were pulled aside and told our tickets were no good and two standby passengers allowed to board. We were forced to stay overnight in Prague at our expense. We had to fight the next morning to have our tickets honored. We have sought reimbursement from the airlines and been given the run around. I would not recommend ever using this airline.

I have flown several times with TA but rarely enjoyed the trip; made worse by the lack of everything one associates with a decent air carrier. They dont have staff who can speak English, no particular manners and in general they are rude. No information in English or Hindi/Punjabi on board or at Ashgabad. How one should know what to do or expect in term of time for board? I think they treat passengers with contempt and anger directed towards them; I have witnessed the so call air hostesses being rude. As for the onboard entertainment, the less said the better. They make all announcements in some language that not a single passenger understands - I know they sometimes have one air hostess who pretends to speak English, but no one can understand as it simply isnt English! The occasional films they show are in Russian and always highly embarassing for Indians. Overall, I would rate TA 2 out of 10. You may say why 2 when the whole service is so diabolical. Well, they usually let you sit down in a sort of seat and if you dont ask for anything they dont hit you over the head. And also because usually flights are on time. Would you fly with this thing? Well as for me and all my friends and family I much rather take a Maruti from Birmingham to Amritsar (if I had the time) than subjecting myself again to this humiliation, frustration, insults and torture lasting almost 12 hrs.

DXB-KWI-SAW (Istanbul Sabiha Goken Airport) return. For a low cost airline, I was impressed with the online booking system, inflight comfort (leather seats, good legroom, free IFE (bring your own headset or buy one on board) and connecting flight service. The shows/movies were a mix of Arabic and English, as was the audio channels (x2 English only). All flights left and arrived on time. The area I found a bit inconsistent was the cabin crew. On some flights, the crew were attentive and knew what they were doing. By contrast on other sectors, the cabin crew had an "I don't know" attitude. Of particular concern was on the flight out of SAW whereby the safety demonstration was still being played on the IFE as the plane took off! Can't blame the pilots here, but begs the question as to what an Earth the cabin crew were doing! For a young airline, they have an excellent product but need to make their service a bit more consistent. The product comfort in terms of seats and IFE are amongst the best I've seen on any narrow body aircraft and provided they keep the prices low, I'd highly recommend them.

LHR-BKK-LHR, Boeing 777. Check in at LHR efficient. Given a pass for the London Lounge. Not the best I have been to but adequate. Could only find soft drinks and beers on the ground floor - upstairs much better with a range of spirits available. Little choice for vegetarians and no labels on the food. I checked with the staff to see if they announce the flight and was told they don't, so don't know whether or not they have changed this policy since a recent review by a fellow traveller. The crew on board were very welcoming and attentive - they all greeted me and offered help with anything I needed. Was offered juice or water on boarding and asked for my drink preference after take off (champagne, wine, spirits) and what I would like to drink with my meal. The meal was excellent (prebooked online), wine was gorgeous. Seats are lie flat angled I found it best to keep the chair in a tilted relaxed position with a cushion under my knees. In addition to the cushion already on the seat, was also given a larger foam pillow and duvet. AVOD great and the attendants checked at very regular intervals to see if there was anything you wanted. No fast track at BKK but that it was not really necessary. Return to LHR equally good if not slightly better in that the Evergreen Lounge was excellent - very quiet - excellent choice of food - hot noodles, sandwiches, pastries, cakes, alcoholic drinks, wines etc. I checked with staff and was told they do announce the flight - which they did 30 mins before scheduled departure. Attentive FAs - meal was excellent, drinks were available when requested. Was given a Fast Track pass for LHR which helped cut down the time at immigration. Excellent value and would recommend.