Back to reading and rating and trying to keep up with Ciao...
Back to reading and rating and trying to keep up with Ciao...
Member since:24.04.2005
Reviews:29
Members who trust:20
I flew with Czech Airlines for the first time this year when going to Prague. Not having had much input into the purchase of tickets etc to start with, I was unaware of what new experiences awaited me. Okay so maybe it's not that exciting. I have after all flown before.
Czech Airlines were a good choice from the point of view that they flew from Birmingham and left early Friday Morning giving us the afternoon and evening to enjoy Prague. When you have a short break you want as much time as possible in the place to which you are going, although I wasn't happy at getting up at half past four. Nonetheless I survived, got to the airport on time and joined the queue to get on the plane having duly finished my Starbucks Frappucino.
Check-in staff were friendly and offered us a choice of window or aisle. I chose window because I enjoy the view as you leave the ground. On board the plane, I realised what a small plane it was. I think it must have been a 737, but I'm not sure, it's the smallest I've been on yet with just six seats to a row. Manoeuvring around was slightly cramped,
but then I've never been on a plane that wasn't. The seating was comfortable and again the Air Stewards were friendly and helpful, so what more could you ask.
On the way out, all of us having boarded, the pilot announced that we were going to be forty minutes late due to the amount of air traffic at Birmingham Airport. This wasn't a problem for us, although I don't know how people with connecting flights would have been affected. Hopefully no-one would have had tight timing. But due to the delay, we were all offered a drink before takeoff. We had a choice of Apple Juice, Orange Juice and even Tomato Juice.
When we eventually got underway, I experienced a rather new sensation in flying. I believe due to the small size of the plane, they were moving a lot faster than usual, but it seemed barely five minutes before we up in the air and at a fair altitude. A similar experience was repeated on landing, it really felt rather strange to be going so fast.
Once we were up in the air and the safety belt lights went off, I took the opportunity to nip to the loo. The toilet, as usual, was the normal clinical type you get in aeroplanes, and a little small. Nonetheless it was clean and tidy, and not overbearingly smelly. By smelly, I mean that yukky chemical smell you get when they've been cleaning, particularly in planes. I don't know what chemical they use but I don't like the smell.
Back in my seat, time arrived for us to partake of breakfast. Now, one doesn't expect much of aeroplane food, so I didn't. Of course they gave us the usual breakfast, which is bacon, omelette, hash brown and (horror of horrors!) baked beans. Now I know there are people out there who like baked beans, I however am not one of them; I detest them! So out of a perfectly good breakfast I resorted to eating just the bacon and some of the omelette which hadn't been tainted with baked bean sauce. I will say that what I had of it was nice and sufficiently filling, but due to the baked beans I had to be grateful I had eaten a muffin earlier. Fortunately we were also provided with a very nice fruit salad and a bread roll, so that my hunger bugs were duly sated. Of course they offer you coffee and tea which I refused as I've gone off coffee and I don't drink tea I haven't made at home, as people to tend to make it too strong for my taste. However my sister had her morning coffee, and she seemed to enjoy it. They did also offer fruit juice, so I had some of that instead.
On the subject of food, our return journey was in the evening so we had a chance to sample their dinner, which was very nice. I think it was something along the lines of beef and mushroom stew, with dessert in the form of chocolate cake (my favourite) so I was well pleased. We were offered wine, beer (of course), canned fizzy drinks and fruit juice. I did however notice that we weren't given a choice, as you sometimes do, so presumably if you had special dietary needs you would need to arrange that beforehand.
Overall, I was satisfied with the service. It was a comfortable flight and apart from the baked beans, the food on offer was nice. On the return journey we were provided with an in-flight magazine which offered the usual gadgets for sale including a small jumbo jet with Czech Airline colours. Tempted as I was by this I abstained from purchasing anything though it would have been a way of using up the remainder of our Czech money. There was no in-flight entertainment but for a short flight of approximately two hours I didn't feel the lack of it. On the punctuality side while we were delayed getting out thanks to the traffice at the airport, we had no other delays and made pretty good time.
As regards the price, I am not certain how much the tickets were as it was paid for as a package including the hotel room, but looking on the website it appears that for a trip such as this leaving Friday morning and returning Sunday evening it would cost around £250 per adult. However it would be cheaper to depart on other days during the week. I'm not sure how good the price is compared to other airlines, although I would expect some of the budget ones may undercut them. Nonetheless, the service we received was good, so the price is perhaps not so bad.
The website is rather nice and easy to navigate. You can book tickets naturally but you can also book hotels. Prices for hotels are in Euros making it accessible to a broad range of people. They also have a nice interactive map of destinations. The destinations include most of Europe but they also go as far afield as the States including Mexico. Not only does it show you the destinations but if you click on them it shows all the connecting flights so you can see how you get to Salt Lake City from Paris or Toulouse. You can find their website at http://www.csa.cz/en/czechia/cz_home.htm.
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