Britannia Airways - BAL > Reviews > Flights from Hell

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Very poor
Customer Service	Very unhelpful
Punctuality	Poor
Space	Terrible
Value for Money	Poor

Advantages:	None
Disadvantages:	small seats, rude staff etc

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I had the unfortunate experience of flying Britannia for my honeymoon this year. 9 1/2 hours with them is a living hell.

~~~Thompson ~~~
Britannia are owned by Thompson but their flights are also used by other tour operators. If you are with another tour operator you feel like a second class citizen, even before you get on the plane. Upgraded seats are available on their long haul flights but they are only really available to Thompson customers. If you are with a different operator you can book them 2 weeks before the flight when there are none left. Given that these planes only have about 20 of the bigger seats its really unlikely you'll get one two weeks before you fly.

~~~In Flight Service ~~~
The inflight service is pretty much the worse I've ever seen. The food is dire, I ordered vegetarian and not only could they not tell me what it was meant to be I couldn't tell either. I've never had fantastic meals on an aircraft but I do usually know what I'm eating. On a long haul flight the drinks only came round twice but there was a never ending procession of goods for sale. That is except the goods you wanted, they had none of the snacks or chocolate left either way. On our return journey we had been delayed for a few hours and we were all hungry but there were no edible snacks for sale. Several passengers complained about this and were told "Sorry, we sold a lot more than usual on the outward journey". They all pointed out that these items hadn't been available on their outward journey either!

~~~ In Flight Entertainment ~~~
In flight entertainment was so badly planned it was a joke. They won't show the movie until after they have given you a meal and been round with all the sales trolleys. The outcome of this was that they showed a movie 5 hours into the flight. On the return flight that was at 1am after everyone had fallen asleep.

~~~ Friendly Staff ~~~
Well Britannia sure don't have any of these. On our outward journey I was sitting on an aisle near the toilets. This meant that my seat actually stuck out a little further than all the others. Every time one of the staff wheeled a trolley past they bashed my arm or shoulder. There was never any word of apology and when I had the audacity to say very loudly "Excuse Me!" the trolley dolly said, that’s OK! I believe she thought it was my fault the seat stuck out.

~~~ Sardines ~~~
Our flights were an interesting game of sardines. At least that’s what you felt like wedged into the seats. I know that most flights are the same, but I usually pay for a better seat so I'm not really used to traveling cattle class. One thing I have seen before on a long haul flight in economy is an announcement asking everyone to put their seats up during the meal, this makes it much easier for the person behind to eat their dinner. Britannia asked for no such courtesy, I guess that’s the difference between them and BA. Consequently I could barely move my arms between plate and mouth as I was so tightly wedged in. It’s a good job really that the food was inedible.

~~~ Pushy, Pushy, Pushy ~~~
On our return flight they handed out questionnaires which were not only about the flight but about the holiday experience. These were clearly aimed at the Thompson customers who were eligible for a prize draw when they completed them. I didn't fill mine in and neither did hubby. We couldn't be bothered as it was so irrelevant, we were not eligible for the prize draw and we hadn't traveled with Thompson. You would not believe how much the staff badgered you for the return of these questionnaires. First time the woman came round she asked for it, I said no I haven't filled it in. She said she would come back for it, I said don't bother we're not with Thompsons. She came back and asked for it again and I told her we were not filling them in. I thought that was the end of the matter but no, she came back and asked for it a third time. I was getting a bit hacked off with this and I said, look I've told you twice we are not traveling with Thompsons and we are not filling them in. She then walked off, I couldn't believe that she was so pushy and so stupid that she needed telling three times.

~~~ The Bottom Line ~~~
In future when I book a holiday I will check first that we are not flying with Britannia. I've flown lots of times with Monarch and found them to be a far superior package airline. Britannia are a bunch of clowns who need some serious lessons in customer services.