Please tell me if you have any experience of travelling with either Avianca or Aeromexico and what that experience was like.
If I don’t go to Japan I will probably do a tour of Central America later this year, but the tour I can fit into my annual leave involves flying into Guatemala City. there are no direct flight options.
I’d have been willing to fly with KLM changing in Atlanta but I am NOT paying £££ for a US transit visa even if it means I could sleep the first flight off in a hotel, fuck that.
So please tell me your experiences of either of the other two airlines!
Also, Air Canada suck. However their compensation for oversold flights is absolutely sensational (£1300 cash if you’re delayed by I think 12+ hours).
Air Canada: Oversold my flight, staff told me I would “definitely get on”, I did not. Other staff then acted like it was my fault for not being familiar with the complex algorithm which determines boarding priority. Great compensation but they do this a LOT. Bad food as well.
Azerbaijan Airlines: Not their fault that a drunk passenger harassed me and repeatedly tried to stop me leaving the flight but staff didn’t intervene at all, didn’t stop him from leaving the plane (where he continued to stalk me through the line at border control) and never responded to my complaint However, my flight back from Baku was completely fine even if the food was… interesting
Tarom: Cancelled our flight to Moldova and the aeroplane on the replacement flight was a teeny tiny little 2x2 layout which we thought would fall out of the sky at any minute. That said, it does prepare you for the charmingly rickety experience of being in Moldova (which is more enjoyable when you are not airborne) and they were very keen to sell wine on the flight
Easyjet: Super evasive about paying for expensive onward transport when they had to land at Marseille instead of Nice, fobbed me off for months. But when I eventually emailed the CEO as suggested by a DiSer, I not only got my compensation but they ignored that I was only asking for a third of the receipt to be reimbursed (split a taxi with 2 others) and paid me the entire amount
Also I’ll say it again - the only thing BA has in its favour compared to Easyjet / Ryanair is they don’t charge to bring luggage on board. Everything else they’ve been the same or worse. Two flights cancelled less than a hour before departure because of bad weather (weather was fine and no other flights were cancelled) and rudest staff going. Ryanair are fine.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience with them apart from my flight to Yerevan being a few hours late, but the airport was a nightmare rather than the flight.
Have massively rose-tinted glasses though because I associate them with my Balkan trip
I have no experience with them but both are 3 star airlines on here - a site recommended to me by a mate whose wife works in the airline industry.
However Aeromexico has a particular comment:
“Product standards have improved as new aircraft join the fleet. Long haul business class product on Boeing 787-9 is quite good. Onboard catering and IFE are fair, and cabin WiFi is available on some aircraft. Airport service needs improvement at MEX, and cabin service is rather outdated, lacking on-demand options, and staff attitudes can be perfunctory. Potential to meet 4-Star if further change is made.”
To put this in perspective, most of the airlines we use for long haul are 4 star on there. Here’s their small list of 5 star ones:
★ ANA All Nippon Airways
★ Asiana Airlines
★ Cathay Pacific Airways
★ EVA Air
★ Hainan Airlines
★ Japan Airlines
★ Korean Air
★ Qatar Airways
★ Singapore Airlines
★ STARLUX Airlines
Ryanair and Whizz are both 3 star, Easyjet and Aer Lingus are 4-star
the only airline I can think of having opinions on are the ones I’ve used to fly a long way
I flew to Australia with Malaysian Airlines last year and it was functional in terms of the entertainment (which was good enough for me) but the food was legit great cos curry is something that you can microwave at 40,000 feet and actually enjoy it.
pre-pando I used Singapore for the same journey and I mostly remember being tired but it was fine
However, my flight back from Baku was completely fine even if the food was… interesting
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