Hello,

Has anyone flown with Excel Airways? If so, what are they like?

Ta

I have flown with them twice to Dalaman, Turkey. I found them fine. One of the planes out of the 4 trips was rather old and the leg room was rubbish, but other than that no problems.

Slight delay on return last year of about 1.5 hours for technical problems and the in flight entertainment didn't work but they gave us all a free drink for that. Not a massive problem on a 4 hour flight. Food okay too. Seems they often give people food even if they've chosen not to pay for it, don't know what that's all about.

If you visit a site called holiday truths there is a large thread in their airlines forum on exel, though be prepared - there have been a lot of very bad experiences with the airline.

But for me, no complaints at all and if the in flight entertainment is working you'll get a film and stuff to watch, which i didn't expect on a shortish flight.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!! I flew with them eventually after a 31 hour delay outbound and a 7hour delay on return. Will never go with them again as they couldnt care less and gave us a food voucher as compensation!!!

I have flown with them a couple of times and will be doing again in a few weeks.

As Queenstomper says = the leg room is rubbish and the planes are past there best decoration wise.

For short haul trips they are fine though - you get what you pay for!

I've flown with them once, about 2 yrs ago and the experience (on every level) was 10/10. Me and my boyfriend were flying from Kavala (Greece).
We paid next to nothing (about £40) esp. considering we were leaving the next day. When we boarded we loved the plane which had massive leather seats (felt more like armchairs!) free meal and film. I haven't flown with them since, but I've booked with them to fly out to Greece again in 2 weeks time.

I have to say though, I'm starting to get a bit nervous, reading all those bad reviews!

I've flown with them twice.
The first time we were flying to Kavala, Greece and we were delayed 9 hours going out, due to the plane going "technical" because the plane's starter motor was broken and the nearest spare one of Excel's was in Stansted. Why they couldn't have borrowed one from another airline we still don't know.....
Then on the way back, delayed 16 hours. This included us being bused at midnight from Kavala to Thessaloniki where the plane was diverted to, and this coach journey took 3.5 hours (fun!)For 12 hours Excel gave us no food or drink (we have a case with the holiday watchdog about this, because it is apparently against the rules)so in the end they had a plane full of tired, unhappy and hungry passengers!
The other time I flew with them was to and from Skiathos which was a lot less eventful.

I have flown with them twice without any problems.

1999 to Margarita

2005 to Eygpt

The stewardess told us it was the same plane! apparently they only have on wide bodied plane.

quote:

Originally posted by StargateBabe:
Hello,

Has anyone flown with Excel Airways? If so, what are they like?

Ta

i have a horror story about them.

in october, my friends who live on corfu for six months were going to fly back, but the engine on the excel airway plane fell off, they were put in a hotel for a night, but they weren't aloud thier bags of hand luggage or anything. they made a formal complaint

We flew with Excel to cyprus last summer - i too had heard lots of horror stories about them - but we had a lovely flight - very large and comfortable plane - i compared them to BA, except you had to pay for your own drinks!

i have and it was horrible the planes are shoddy and the seats are tiny!

Since my last reply about 8 months ago, I booked a further two flights with them (to Greece) and my original 10/10 has now dropped to a 2/10. One point for actually having a seat on the plane, and the other for not crashing it.
During check-in they made me buy a new suitcase because mine was too big (I was away for a month!) which they eventually lost, after having paid excess luggage weight.

It took them over two weeks to recover it, and after sending it to the wrong airport in Greece, they had to send it back to the UK, at which point, although we asked for it to be held at Gatwick, they decided to deliver to our house..only we were still away and they supposedly knew that.

After several failed delivery attempts, and loads of very costly phonecalls we sent a relative to pick it up from the airport.
Apart from having to buy everything from a toothbrush, underwear, swimwear down to clothes and shoes (no, it wasn't a fun shopping experience, I hadn't exactly budgeted for that!)
they never apologised or ever replied to my emails.

The plane itself was different, more seats squeezed in, no leg room, no free film anymore(many screens weren't working anyway), which I'd expect from easyjet, but I paid almost the same money I'd have paid for a BA flight.

Overall, I'd say they're ok if you know what to expect and potentially there's a good deal to be had esp. if you combine flight+hotel, I just don't see myself flying with them again anytime soon.

Just seen this thread, we flew via Excel to Greece, in fact to Skiathos, a couple of years ago, the seats were more than adequete, blue leather and very comfortable, the meal was reasonable for airline food and the stewards/desses were very congenial. We only had problems with 9/11 and some of the ground staff and reps, the actual airline was certainly faultless.

i flew with them to skiathos and cyprus and both times where terrible. the plane was about 50 years old and the seats where manky and tiny i wouldnt recomend them.

quote:

Originally posted by Lemon drop kid:
Just seen this thread, we flew via Excel to Greece, in fact to Skiathos, a couple of years ago, the seats were more than adequete, blue leather and very comfortable, the meal was reasonable for airline food and the stewards/desses were very congenial. We only had problems with 9/11 and some of the ground staff and reps, the actual airline was certainly faultless.

I, too, have had no problems with Excel having flown with them a number of times. I know people have had problems but we have never come across any and I wouldn't hesitate to fly with them again.

I might fly with them, or I might be careful and go with British Airways. Or maybe El Alamein.