Life is slowly improving and I should be back again in December! Yippee!!
Life is slowly improving and I should be back again in December! Yippee!!
Member since:23.08.2002
Reviews:53
Members who trust:56
I am a very lucky lady, as I have travelled out to Montserrat, West Indies, via Antigua, on 3 occasions to do fieldwork on the active volcano there. For 2 of those trips I travelled with AIR2000.
AIR2000 is part of the First Choice Travel Group, so if you take a First Choice holiday, you will most likely be flying with AIR2000. Flights can also be bought direct over the phone and on the internet, where you can recieve a discount for using this booking method.
AIR2000 fly out to both European holiday destinations, like Tenerife, and cross-Atlantic, like the flights I took to Antigua. They have a fleet of 29 aircraft, which include Boeing 757s and 767s.
When I travelled out to Antigua in July last year, I paid £525 for the return flight, inclusive of taxes. Other airlines which fly to Antigua include British Airways, BWIA and Virgin. They were charging between £650 and £800 for the return flight at that time.
When I travelled before Easter, the flight cost £369, inclusive of taxes and an internet booking discount. British Airways return flights were about £600 at that time.
The Air2000 flight to Antigua is an outward journey of 11 hours, via St Thomas and an 8 hour overnight return journey.
My first trip with them was flying out on 25 July 2001 and
returning 2 weeks later. The flight was over an hour late taking off, and further delays in St Thomas (not AIR2000's fault) meant that I arrived 2-3 hours late. The return journey was just as bad, they had forgotten the food in London and we were delayed again by 2-3 hours. I had to pay a fee to change my coach ticket so that I could get home.
The other problem I had with the flight was the lack of space. When you are sat in an aeroplane for over 11 hours, it can get very uncomfortable, even painful!!
I survived the trip in enough health to think that I could survive another trip with AIR2000, so when we travelled out again in March this year, I made no complaints when we booked with AIR2000. Then things really got bad!!
I was travelling out with 2 other students carrying equipment for the monitoring of the volcano. No other work could be done until we arrrived. We decided that the best way to get to the airport would be to drive down in a hire car, leaving Leeds in the early hours for our 10:45 flight.
We left at 4 am, 3 very sleepy but excited girls and drove down to London. We made a toilet stop at 6.30, and at 6.40 found ourselves in solid traffic on the M1 just outside London. We sat in traffic on the M1 and the M25 for over 3 hours. The traffic was so severe in London that day that it made the news in Leeds!
We arrive at the airport just after 10am. Rushed into the AIR2000 queue, reached the front at 10:13 and were told that we couldn't get on the flight, as we were too late, checkin had closed at 10am. We were a little annoyed, as if we hadn't had to queue with all the other flights, we may have been able to get on the flight.
We were sent to another desk, where the attendant was to try to find us an alternative flight. She gave us a number which we were to call after 1 hour, as someone was searching for alternative flights for us. On calling we were told that she couldn't find any flights, not even with Virgin (who they have an arrangement with), either direct or via another airport. The only option was for us to go on standby for a flight to Grenada the following day, and from there we would have to find our own way to Antigua.
We decided that there was little chance of us actually getting on the Grenada flight and travelled back up to Leeds to await instructions from our supervisor, who was already out on Montserrat.
So what is the problem I hear you all ask? It was no more AIR2000's fault that you missed the flight than it was yours! I agree! The first problem was the attitude of the staff.
They knew that AIR2000 only flew out to Antigua once a week and that all flights were full, and therefore that it was unlikely we could get another flight. Yet they made no effort to rush us onto the flight. They were off-hand and behaved like they really didn't care. The one person who we told how long we had been driving was only interested in that we had been stuck in traffic. Therefore it was obviously our fault! We should have left earlier than 4 am for what should have been a 3.5 hour drive!
What was worse, was that on arrival back in Leeds I was contacted by my supervisor. He had found seats available on a flight to Barbados with Virgin, which left the following day. We could have flown from there to Antigua internally. He had found this information on the internet and from this it was apparent that the lady on the phone had made no real effort to find us alternative flights!
You will be pleased to know that we got flights out with British Airways 5 days later and we left Leeds at 1 am to make sure that there was not repeat of the previous week (we arrived at 4:45 am including toilet stops).
The BA flight was comfortable, had televisions in the backs of the seats, provided headphones for us to watch them free, and gave us a nutritious vegetarian meal.
We spent a very busy 9 days doing all the work that should have been done over the 2 weeks. All's well that ends well you might say, but there was the return flight with AIR2000 to contend with!!
It started ok. We checked in, we were boarded approximately on time. The seats were as small as I remembered. Ok, I can deal with that, I will hopefully sleep most of the way... The food... ah well. I am vegetarian. I had ordered vegetarian food, specifically vegetarian and not vegan. Previously I have eaten around the meat course so as not to given a meal with no protein and an energy value of around 5 calories. I will tell you more about that at a later date!
If you are a meat eater on AIR200, you get the meat dish, a salad, bread and cheese, and a piece of cake. I got given a tray with a covered hot meal, some green leaves, 5 small chunks of melon and a rice cake! I asked for a proper tray (with real food!), but was told that this was all I was getting, so I gave it back.
The overall behaviour of the air staff gave the impression that they didn't want to be there and were not very pleasant or helpful. There were 3 televisions for our entertainment, hanging from the roof of the plane, one of which had a picture with a beautiful green colouring to it. To use these fine facilities you then had to buy headphones so that you could see this quality entertainment!
I tried to sleep most of the journey, but it is near impossible in the space provided! I was meant to be driving back up to Leeds when we got back! I eagerly waited for breakfast, as I was a bit peckish by this point. And we got: One small bowl with a few cornflakes, a bit of milk and a muffin, of which no-one in my party could manage to eat. My mind boggles when I try to identify the type of muffin, and I can honestly say that I still have no idea!
My final impression of AIR2000 was that the staff did not like their jobs much or people! It seems that once AIR2000 had your money, they were no longer interested in you. I firmly believe that budget or not, staff should be friendly and helpful, and be prepared to help their customers with what ever problem they have.
Although I appreciate it is a budget airline, for long-haul flights more room is needed, entertainment should not require extra purchases and requested food should have some nutritional value to it.
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good op - you might as well stand on charter flights, it would be more comfortable
Paula_23_uk 20.12.2002 13:00
I have just returned on Tuesday 17th Dec 2002 from Spain (alicante) with Air2000 and i swear that i will never fly with them again - i had many of the experiences on board as you did but to add to the problem we had no cabin space for our hand luggage and had to sit with it on our knees for 21/2 hours - the stewards were as you mentioned not bothered and not really interested in their passengers - all i can say is i would rather pay a bit more and get a decent flight.
Great op - Thanks - Paula : )
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Advantages: Nice staff, clean aeroplanes, good entertainment and food, on time flights (in my experience any way) Disadvantages: Just another money grabbing charter airline (I've probably been very lucky with them so far)
xr2i16v 28.12.2000 ·
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Review of Air 2000
Aug 30th, 2002
(Sep 5th, 2002)
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