Comair (South Africa) > Reviews > An African airline giving British standards

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Nothing special
Punctuality	Always on time
Space	Fairly Comfortable
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	BA standards in southern Africa, LAst - On - First - Off baggage
Disadvantages:	Don't seem to be as friendly as they were

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I recently flew with Comair for the first time in several years. I had flown with them several times back in 1996 and 1997, and was quite impressed. In March I flew with them again.

Who Are Comair?
Comair started life as Commercial Airways in 1946, with a solitary aircraft. They have developed steadily over the following 50 years, as one would have hoped, and in 1996 they joined forces with British Airways to become the first BA franchisee outside Europe.

At the time they flew mostly domestic routes including some propellor planes to Krueger Park, but a few years ago they dropped those and became all-jet. They also began updating some of the older aircraft, getting some "new" 737s that were less than ten years old.

Being a franchise of BA means that they operate to BA standards, delivering the BA product. So the aircraft is painted like a BA plane, on board there are BA standard seats; the crew wear BA uniforms, the procedures are the same as BA and the meal is of a BA standard served on BA trays. Really, you feel that you are on a BA flight, though they do have a few extras of their own.

Check-In
I arrived in South Africa and was connecting onto a BA/Comair domestic flight. Having cleared customs and passport control, I walked round to the domestic side of the terminal and joined the BA/Comair check in. There were several desks open and only a queue of one or two people, so just a couple of minutes later I was being checked in. Unfortunately all of the window seats had been taken so I was given an aisle seat. The check in person was not exactly gushing with warmth but was polite, pleasant, smiled and seemed genuinely apologetic that there were no window seats available.

Boarding
I grabbed a quick coffee in the departures lounge and was one of the last to board, taking a bus from the terminal building to the plane.

Last time I flew with Comair, in the late 90s, they were using old Boeing 737-200s and Boeing 727s. Over the past few years they have replaced some of the older aircraft with some newer 737-400s, most of which have come from British Airways who had them from new, so they have been well looked after. I was glad to see that I was flying on one of the newer ones.

One great little extra that Comair offer is a "Last On, First Off" hand baggage service. If you have any bulky cabin baggage, or a bag that really is too big to take on board, you leave it at the bottom of the steps. It then gets left on the tarmac and the plane then takes off without it... no, not really. They load it into a dedicated hold then, when you arrive, they quickly unload the hold so as you walk down the steps, your bag is waiting. A great way of dealing with the suitcases, tea chests, kit bags and tractor tyres that people obstinately insist are small enough to take on the plane and will fit under the seat! So, I left my cabin bag at the bottom of the steps and was given a LOFO receipt, then I climbed the steps with only my laptop.

At the top of the steps we were welcomed by a stewardess who was courteous but again, not particularly warm.

Seat and Cabin
I was seated in the Club cabin, business class. The blue carpet on the floor looked clean and tidy, as did the rest of the cabin - there were few signs of wear and tear. This of course was a newer plane, perhaps some of the older ones might look a bit more worn.

My seat was an aisle seat. There were two seats on the left of the aisle and three on the right and I was seated in the aisle seat of three. At the last minute a guy, who told the stewardess that he had been upgraded, sat in the seat next to me. So he nicked all my elbow room!

The seats on the aircraft are cleverly designed that they can be converted between Economy and Club - there are three seats either side of the aisle, but on one side three are compressed to two, and on the other they are widened. This means the number of Club seats can be adjusted to suit demand. Great, unless you are in the middle seat.... which is marginally worse than being next to someone who is in the middle seat. At least, this guy didn't want to eat, so we weren't fighting to share a fork.

Service
The flight was pretty busy, and the crew were also quite busy. This might explain why the friendliness and warmth that I had remembered from previous trips was missing; or perhaps it was just one of the less friendly crews. They were certainly polite and professional, but not as warm as I had expected.

Newspapers were offered and there was the normal pre-takeoff drink, a choice of orange juice or water. There was also a hot, wet towel.

After take off the breakfasts were distributed. This consisted of fresh fruit slices - orange, grapefruit etc - along with a croissant or bread roll. The hot food was a full-on english breakfast: bacon, sausage, egg, etc. There was also a choice but I just wanted the English! The portion was a bit smaller than I had hoped, it was not particularly generous, but the food tasted okay.

Along with the food came of course tea and coffee. Now, some airline teas and coffees can taste like dishwater, battery acid or both but the Comair coffee was, thankfully, fine.

Arrival
We arrived on time; despite the request of the crew to keep phones etc switched off, some self important, impatient pratts thought the world couldn't wait for them, so mobile phones were ringing as we taxied onto the stand.

As I walked down the steps, my trusty, beloved cabin bag was waiting at the bottom with open arms and we got onto the bus into the terminal.

Summary
Overall the flight was certainly good; we left and arrived on time, the food was quite good and we were reasonably well looked after. The seats would have been more comfortable if there was nobody sat in the middle! The cabin was clean and tidy. Overall, quite a good flight, but a more natural and friendly crew and a slightly more to eat would have made all the difference.