... Well, when we wanted to go on a skiing holiday to Canada we booked a middle of the range holiday that included flights with Excel. At the time of booking, they didn't know WHO the airline would be to take us from Manchester to Calgary (appx. 10 hour flight). At the time we though nothing ... Read review
A review by ukusa on Excel Airways February 9th, 2005
Author's product rating:
Food Quality
Good
Customer Service
Friendly and attentive
Punctuality
Awful
Space
Terrible
Value for Money
Satisfactory
Advantages:
Attendants that TRY to help when they can
Disadvantages:
Very small seats both for width and leg room !
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
When you think of long haul flights, you know if you go economy class it won't be the most comfortable trip in the world as it is. You can choose to go Business or 1st Class and have a virtually hassle free flight. Well, when we wanted to go on a skiing holiday to Canada we booked a middle of the range holiday that included flights with Excel. At the time of booking, they didn't know WHO the airline would be to take us from Manchester to Calgary (appx. 10 hour flight). At the time we though nothing of it. We had booked the holiday in January 2004 for December 2004.
PRE-FLIGHT A few months later we were informed that we would be flying Excel. I had read both good and bad reviews on the airlines and usually take bad reviews with a grain of salt. However, what I did know from reviews was that the seats and leg room for European and Caribbean flights were quite small and that we should book Premium seats. When we tried to do this, we were told that we couldn't until closer to the time of departure. I thought, "No problem! There will be loads of premium seats and we will get at least one for my Semi-pro Rugby playing husband." Yet, when the time came, there were no seats available! Then we thought, "Oh well, it is a LONG HAUL flight! They will have a plane with more leg room for such flights. Right?"
CHECK-IN Check in was a muddle from the get go! They didn't start checking in people until 45 minutes before loading was to occur. I wasn't paniced about that, but others were. The anxiety of the lines seemed to grow by the minute. Oddly enough the Premium line seemed to have only a few in it. I found that a tad bit strange since it had been full. To top it off, there must have been taping Excel for some Airline programme because most of the Excel staff were pretending to sing Christmas carols in front of a video crew. Yes, I said PRETENDING because they were just mouthing the words and there was a tape in the background with a choir singing!!! I guess they wanted to look good!
When we were finally able to check in they gave me a little bit of a hassle with my passport. I have an American passport that has been amended with my married name in the back. Usually, there is a little confusion when I check in. However, they were making it a big deal when there should have been NO deal made about it. Finally, it took someone in Senior management to explain HOW to put in my details. When we got our boarding cards, we noticed that we were in the last two rows. HMMMMMMM..... we weren't too sure about that.
BOARDING When they finally posted the gate for boarding we were told that there would be a 15 minute delay. That turned into a 30 minute delay- at which point we all realised that the plane wasn't even at the gate!!!! The 30 minute finally turned to 1 hour. We were finally allowed on the plane only to find ourselves t he the VERY last row with seats to fit minature adults!! As we are trying to squeeze ourselves into these seats we were told that the flight would be delayed ANOTHER hour because now the plane was too heavy and could not hold enough fuel to get us to Calgary. We would have to land in Quebec and refuel and continue on. This would increase our flight time. HMMMMMM..... So, what time were we to get there?
At this point hubby realised he would NEVER make it in such small seats. When a stewardress came by an asked if there was anything we needed, hubby replied "Bigger Seats!" She quickly walked off and came back minutes later. She said she had a surprise for us and asked us to take our things and follow. We did and were then seated in 2 empty seats that were in the row right after Premium which had more leg room! THANK GOD!! The width of the seats were still small but at least hubby's legs were not to his chin.
We finally took off. Snacks and drinks (which you must pay for) were brought out. The prices were reasonable. A can of pop (small) was 50p and a small can of Pringles was £1. However, I had packed some drinks and snacks in my carry on so we needed nothing of them. Lunch was finally served 3 hours into the flight. There was a beef curry and a chicken dish. Hubby had one and I had another. They were both tasty and we were pleased with the meal.
At the beginning of the flight we were offered headseats for the celing tv screens. From my seat, it was VERY hard to see. So, I just read my book. Hubby had a good view and said that the movies showed were mostly BRAND NEW and never shown in the UK yet.
Sometime during the flight I was able to fall asleep only to be woken up by the captain saying, "On your right you will see the coast of Canada. That is Goose Bay. We will be landing their shortly. Please prepare for landing." WHAT??? Weren't we to land in Quebec? What is wrong? No answers of course. It was snowing and you really couldn't see anything. We feel the plane going down to land and then all of a sudden pull up sharply. The captain again comes on and says, "Sorry about that folks! I couldn't see the runway. We will try again!" WHAT? What place were we landing at. I have NEVER been scared about landing before. But, this landing was VERY scary. The plane rocked back and forth and shook! Finally we landed and were told it would take 1/2 hour. This is also when we were told that we had landed at a military base because we didn't have enough fuel to get to Quebec and it was an emergency landing!!! Well, 1 1/2 hours later we finally took off.
16 hours after we boarded, we disembarked!!!! A 10 hour flight took an extra 6 hours!
FLIGHT HOME
When we landed we immediately asked our holiday rep to see about booking us premium seats for the way home! We keep on her about it and 2 days before we left she confirmed that she had gotten premium seats for us! YEAH!!!
Check in was very quick with the premium seats. The seats themselves are wider and have more leg room. You also get free drinks through out the flight. After that, the flight was not much different. This time I could see the tv screen but my earphones did not work! So, I took some sleep medication and slept through the entire flight home. This time it took only 7 hours!!!! CAN YOU imagine??? Flight in- 16 hours Flight out-7 hours!!
OVER ALL
Food- Good quality! Better than a lot of airline foods I have had in the past. I found no difference in quality in the economy and premium class. The only difference is the dishes it is served on.
Customer Service- Check in staff were poor and could only deal with the normal everyday problems. If there was something different for them to deal with they got all flustered.
The flight crew were better with excellent marks for seeing to my hubby's needs on the flight out.
Punctuality- POOR!!! That is all I can say about that!
Space- WHAT SPACE??? It is better in premium. However, there are only about 30 premium seats on a flight that holds about 300. You are VERY lucky if you secure one of these and they are a bit pricey if you are on a budget. A one way premium seat from UK was £300 and from Canada it was £100. We were never able to work out why there was that difference.
Advantages: Punctual, Leather Seats, Friendly Staff Disadvantages: None for me personally
...I flew to Luxor,Eygpt with Excel Airways, I had only heard about this airline via a friend who said they were famed for their punctuality and comfort, this I found out to be was very accurate………
= About Excel Airways
Excel Airways has only been flying since 1999, however don't be alarmed as it is one of many trading division's of the Excel Group and is fully bonded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Air Transport Organisers ... ...divisions…… Excel Aviation: the commercial selling division of the Excel company and its main interests are the bulk sale of its seats to many major Tour Operators
Excel24: which concerns itself with the arrangement of chartering not only its own aircraft but acting as an agent in charting other carrier's aircraft. excelairways.com Excel Airways: the actual airline itself which sells its tickets via the web and travel agents, bookable also at excelairways.com ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: smooth flight,good food,entertainment,helpful and friendly attendants Disadvantages: delays, cramped
...Gatwick to Larnaca, Cyprus with Excel in Economy class. This is around a 4 and a half hour flight each way. I was overall very satisfied with my experience with this airline but, as with most things, there was room for improvement!
The worst thing was the delays, I was delayed both ways. On the way out we sat on the runway for an hour and ended up taking off around an hour and 15 minutes after the scheduled time. On the way back we were also delayed ... ...I was very impressed with Excel Airlines. The plane was clean and the temperature was perfect as often planes are too cold (in my opinion). The food was of a higher standard than other airlines, the flight was smooth and the staff helpful, friendly, aware and conscientious. The entertainment was above average as were the majority of aspects of this airline. Do not be put off by the lack of space as the problem of leg room is present on the majority ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Friendly staff, nice flight Disadvantages: loosing my bagge, slow response from airline
...Tenerife. We were flying EXCEL airways. We have never flown with these before but my mum had on a couple of occasions and couldn't fault them.
On arrival at Gatwick with tons of time to spare we thought we'd go and see where to book in thinking it was early and we'd be at the front of the que of people...how wrong! Excel had about four flights checking in on as many desks so the que was pretty massive. It moved steadily and soon we were at the front. ... ...of the batterys. The Excel staff and the captain kept us up to date during the 2 and half hour delay. Finally on board and ready for take off. Staff were very helpful and friendly. They went through the safety procedures and done the checks before taking off. The flight itself was generally fine, no better or worse than any other flight I had been on. Leg room as always on these types of flights was cramped and was worse for us as we couldn't put ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: they got us there and back Disadvantages: none particularly, in my experience
We booked our flights with Excel Airways back in January, then I read some of the reviews on Ciao, and thought, Oops!
BOOKING
We booked through the website. It was very easy to use. We paid a deposit of £120 (£40 per person) and the balance was automatically debited from my credit card in June, exactly on the day they specified, eight weeks before we left.
There is an optional charge of £12 per person to reserve your seats, but we didn't take ... ...post, about a week before we were due to leave. There were no luggage labels! Is this a cost cutting exercise? A quick trip to Smiths to buy some was undertaken.
AT GATWICK
We arrived at the airport in good time. Their website states that the check-in desk will be open at least three hours before departure, but in our case this was more like two hours. Quite a queue had built up by the time they started work. Eventually we dumped our bags and went ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Quick check in at Gatwick, good food, reasonable price Disadvantages: Cramped seats, worrying anouncements from the captain
...good.
Baggage - took 45 minutes to arrive at both Larnaca and Gatwick.
Overall impression - if your travel dates are flexible, and you don't mind slightly cramped seats, Excel seem to offer a good service at a reasonable cost. However, check in at Larnaca could be improved. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: legroom space, price, service Disadvantages: choices of food and beverages offered
...Malaysian Airlines is Malaysia's leading airlines and their well worth of their title. I have been using MAS for long and short distance flight and is well worth the money you spend. Their service is great - remember flying with them to India.... service is very nice, food, might need a bit improvement on the taste and choices on menu. Other than that you get ample leg space compared to other airlines. Once i have travelled on their Business class and it was excellent compared US airways and Jet Airways.
Well, advice to passengers who might want to use this airlines: sign up as a MAS offer membership (its free). with this you would be entitled to their offers which are regularly updated on every weekends. Compare this airline in every aspect and you will never go wrong.
Well at times, you might think the price is high.... Yes, if...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Lots of choice.Reasonably cheap.Well maintained villas.Helpful staff Disadvantages: Additional villa cost if own flight booked.
...do this, (which we did not) then you have to add on 20% to the cost of the villa.
Another nominal charge per person that is made, and is shown on the final holiday cost, is for breakages whilst in the villa.
We eventually found the villa of our choice and booked it through the internet.
The airline used by James Villas was ExcelAirways through Freedom Flights.
On contacting James Villas re our wheelchair passenger they informed us to get in touch with the airline about taking the passenger to the departure gate at Manchester Airport. We did this by e-mail and received confirmation that this was acceptable to the airline. When we arrived at Manchester Airport and checked in, our seats had been pre-booked by Freedom Flights. This was a very pleasant surprise to us.
We had no problems with ExcelAirways and the plane...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Smaller, Friendler Tour Operator Disadvantages: None that we found
...Booked a short notice with Libra on recommendation from our agent. The accomodation although 2 star was adequate for a couple. The Libra Rep, Dan, was excellent by far the best rep we have come across. Was extremely professiinal when we broke down in our hire care in the mountains of Tenerife, organised our recovery and arranged for taxi to bring use back, he refunded the fare to us the following morning.
We would certainly use Libra again, the airline that use ExcelAirways.com, also a professional outfit, with helful and professional cabin crew. The flights out and back were on time, even though the in the previous 2 days there had been an air traffic controllers dispute in France and a General Strike in Spain....
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
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01.08.2009
25.06.2002
