Whats the worst Airline service you've had?

Ouch. 200 euros in those circumstances would hurt.

One memorable flight was with Turkish Airlines, flying from Adana to Istanbul. The whole ambience was that of an overcrowded cattle truck, and the only in-flight meal was a moth-eaten apple and ersatz coke in a shabby white box, delivered by a very hirsute female flight attendant who positively reeked of stale sweat.
I flew into Rome Ciampino with Ryan Air a few weeks ago – everything was fine, apart from having to pay nearly 200 Euros at Turnhouse because my luggage was a few kilos over…

I remember once when I was younger, on a flight into rome ciampino with Alitalia (probably) the pilot put the aircraft down so hard, that several rack of oxygen masks came out of the roof of the cabin near the front of the aircraft!

I’m taking an Alitalia flight to Rome Ciampino next week. I’ll let you know how I get on.

The worst airline service I have experienced was on AviaJet from DUB-SFB in 2004. They were DUB based and used a single 763, leased from Air Atlanta Icelandic, for their services. The cabin was cramped, the crew were dreadful. One female FA pushed me out of the way (I was 11 at the time) to get to the aft galley. The food was disgusting, and it was worse on the way back. It was a red-eye flight and people were trying to get to sleep, but the headphones wouldnt work on the right side of the cabin, so they put the sound from the projector through the speaker system, keeping everyone awake for the flight. The air conditioning was leaking water the whole flight too. I’m glad they aren’t operating anymore.

I have just flown LBV – JNB – LBV on South African Airways. Good luck to those using this service to the world cup football. Be prepared for all sorts of problems, incompetency in the administration department, long waits in queues, apathetic ground staff…and so on. And their coffee is terrible!!! 😡

Oh and just another note. I saw the Delta crew there as well and apart from the one cabin attendant the rest looked over 50 and have been round the block a few times by the look of it.

Well just flew Arik from Lagos to Johannesburg. 1st of all security is a bit more jacked up with everyone going a scanner then everybody frisked, so looks like they have learned their leason, but anyway back to topic. Arik useually fly the A345 on this route but this has been moved to the Lagos – New York route with a brand new B738 put on the Joburg route. Okay the aircraft is brand new with tv set in each seat but now its back to an all Nigerian Cabin crew who think they are doing you a favour by serving you. At least with the A345 it was operated on behalf of Arik by Hifly so half international and half Nigerian and the service was world class but now different story. I believe they are supposed to be getting a third A345 in March so hopefully they will put it back on the Joburg route and go back to a world class service instead of a 3rd world service as just now.

Nothing too terrible on board, but a couple of shockers from airline staff on the ground. Neither recent.

1) PIA. Colombo-Heathrow via Karachi, 1984. Had one of those non-ticket thingies you have to exchange for a ticket, supposedly because they couldn’t issue a ticket for a one-way Sri Lanka-UK flight in the UK. The PIA office in Colombo stalled me for a week, apparently trying to extract a bribe before they’d issue the ticket. Kept saying I might have to pay a supplement, & that they were faxing Karachi or London for clarification, & to find out what I’d paid (hey, there’s a price on there! And a flight number, & a date . . .). 🙁 I finally got my ticket the day of my flight, when I went in accompanied by a Sri Lankan friend, his uncle (a businessman with good enough connections for me to have dined at his house in the company of relatives of the president) & the uncle’s rather large & tough-looking driver. Oh yes, & the uncle’s large expensive car was immediately outside the window, in a space marked “Reserved for PIA”. The ticket was issued immediately, with broad smiles, & no mention whatsoever of any of what had gone on over the previous week.

On the flight, I was sat next to an Englishman who had a ticket, but no onward reservation from Karachi. The same office had been telling him that standard economy was full, but he could upgrade, for a fee. He took a chance, & turned up at the airport, where they said no, there were plenty of empty seats, & they had no idea why he’d been told anything different, & apart from first class there was nothing to upgrade to & they couldn’t understand why anyone had told him otherwise, he must have misunderstood, & of course he could catch the plane, but unfortunately they couldn’t reserve him a place onward from Karachi, because it was outside office hours. He was OK at Karachi: they were very helpful. We ended up sitting together all the way to Heathrow.

2) BA, at Istanbul, 1986. THY had consolidated two flights, because of lack of passengers. It went earlier than my flight, & because I’d been in the wilds of the east until the previous night, I’d missed the change – and hence the flight. No problem, THY said, they’d put me on the next flight to LHR, which was BA. Filled in the forms, sent me off to the BA desk. Officious jobsworth git there rejected the form, saying there was an error. Back to THY, who phoned him to find out what he objected to, changed it, and sent me back. This happened three times. Each time, he flatly refused to check any further once he’d found one thing to reject it for, & each time the THY staff had to engage in a long conversation with him in which he seemed reluctant to say why he considered what they’d put on the form unacceptable.

THY plied me with tea, & assured me that if I missed the BA flight, they’d get me home that day with Swissair or Austrian. They seemed totally baffled by his objections, telling me that everything on the form was normal, standard, routine stuff. The changes he demanded seemed pointless to me, tiny amendments to wording. The last thing he tried was saying that a corrected form wasn’t acceptable, they’d have to rewrite the whole thing. The THY office manager lost his temper at that, & the BA bloke backed down.

The PIA thing I could understand. The office manager was trying to exploit every opportunity for baksheesh. But the BA bloke I cannot understand at all. He seemed angry with the world, & was going to take it out on me & THY.

My other experiences with BA have all been fine. That was my only flight with PIA.

bmi are quite shoddy at times.

Very rude and lazy F/As with dirty accents who have seemingly forgotten the concept of customer service, and even basic manners.

Looking back I would say my worst had to be a charter with Iberworld. Left Glasgow at 11.55pm routing to Gran Canaria, after being awake all day I boarded the plane already grumpy. Alot of PAX were drunk and rowdy, really tight legroom and crew were doing there best to hide behind the galley curtain. I guess those few things just added up to p##s me off.

Also used to fly Thomas Cook quite alot for hols with the Mrs. Consistantly crap would be my description of there entire opperation. The legroom on the 757s was boarderline criminal. Cabin crew looked uninterested most of the time. I understand leg room is now improved on TCX flights.

One thing that does seem to stand out from the posts on this thread is that one bad experience can ruin an airlines reputation from a personal point of view. I guess it’s hit and miss when we base our opinions of an airline on it’s crew, but it does seem to follow that most poor crews have a bad airline behind them.

While I remember, I felt somewhat let down with BA. Only took 6 flights with them but they all rate quite low on my scoreboard in terms of quality/service. Quite dirty interiors too.

For the record Singapore Airlines are at the top of my list with SWISS a very close second(both Long Haul and intra-European)

Iberia…sadly, Iberia.

Flew with them often to Argentina and across Europe and on nearly all occasions had the pleasure of dealing with the 60+ year old cabin crew. This wouldn’t be an issue, if it wasnt for their attitude.
Too many years of flying for them perhaps- but they were rude,grumpy and seemed like they didnt want to be there. At one point on the A340 during the safety announcement one of the cabin crew stopped doing the demo half way through…oh well if we crash in the sea, at least we know how to fasten our seat belts!!

Also- delayed and with missing luggage..no apology and imposible to get through to the Iberia customer service centre. They treat their passengers as cargo almost- get them from A to B with no extras. Food was disgraceful, and during the 13 hour flight from MAD to EZE they were missing for around 5 of those hours…TERRIBLE DISGRACE OF AN AIRLINE!!! Its embrassing…

Usually restrictions on where pax can sit with light loads is down to weight and balance issues

I was also told on 1 occasion that because the flight wasnt full the captain said the front row must remain empty.

That’s a new one!???

Service i have to say the worst was Ryanair I flw with the last feb and all flight they were trying to sell you stuff,Scratch cards,O2 sims,duty free etc,but the icing on the cake was that on this flight from Poland to EMA they refused to take Polish money!! it was a very cold night and nearly everyone wanted a hot drink.

Recently the attitude of Wizzair staff has een pretty sour too,they opereate a “sit where you like” system and as i am tall i try to get either front row or Emergency exit seats but last few times i was told the seats were reserved then after sitting somewhere else i was told that i could sit in the Emergency exit.So obviously i was lied to.I was also told on 1 occasion that because the flight wasnt full the captain said the front row must remain empty.

Air France.
Manchester to Paris , the service was poor and that is being kind.
All we got was a stale french bun of some sort and a cup of what can only be called gray water.
At CDG we was delayed for 4 hours coming back (that did not bother me 4 more spotting hours ) but was was sat in a hot waiting room and all we got was a can or warm coke WTF
Coming back we got the same gray water and a sandwich ,with on it was some sort of meat that Iam sure was not really dead yet , completly uneatable.

Qantas, Heathrow to Bangkok a few years ago. Never seen such a surly, bad tempered cabin crew. I remember a little lad in the seat in front of me, all of 5 years old, and excited at what seemed to be his first flight on a plane. At least until they came round with the soft drinks, and he wasn’t sure which to take off the tray. “Look,” the stewardess berated him, “It’s juice or water. Just GO for it, yeah? Thank you…” Barely a peep out of the poor little fella after that. If that’s the “Spirit of Australia” they know what they can do with it…

Delta from Chicago to some Eastern European destination I’d say. Unfriendliness and Casper behaviour (vanishing when needed) at the counter (some pompous old bitch trying to tell me I can’t check in at biz/first with a cattle class ticket, though I had at that time a gold Skymiles card), then chaos, zero coordination and idiotism at the gate, terrible food (not that I ate it, this kid here ain’t so dumb, but I saw what the others had), then the plates were not removed for four hours, later I had to basically fight with a male stewardette to get a cup of water for my wife, then a toilet flowed over with the crap flowing down along the wall, and finally as “breakfast” microwaved sandwiches with ingrained molten plastic foil (didn’t eat it either).

As far as most airline food is concerned, the paper towel that comes with it is more nutritious.

Delta from Chicago to some Eastern European destination I’d say. Unfriendliness and Casper behaviour (vanishing when needed) at the counter (some pompous old bitch trying to tell me I can’t check in at biz/first with a cattle class ticket, though I had at that time a gold Skymiles card), then chaos, zero coordination and idiotism at the gate, terrible food (not that I ate it, this kid here ain’t so dumb, but I saw what the others had), then the plates were not removed for four hours, later I had to basically fight with a male stewardette to get a cup of water for my wife, then a toilet flowed over with the crap flowing down along the wall, and finally as “breakfast” microwaved sandwiches with ingrained molten plastic foil (didn’t eat it either).

My worst experience was in July last year. At shannon airport at the hands of everyones favourite low-cost airline ‘Eire o’Flot’.

No ambulift despite it being pre-booked and confirmed as booked. I had to carry my wife both on disembarking and boarding at Shannon. Very dangerous, especially when using the 737s steep and narrow onboard stairs. I almost fell carrying my wife up the stairs.

Never flying with them again.

Flew back from Toronto to Gatwick in 1993 with Air Transat on a 757. Near the end of the flight I asked a flight attendant if I could have a drink of water, to which he replied, off handedly, I could get some from the toilet. I wasn’t sure if he meant the tap or the bowl :eek:.

There are some good stories at work from some of our Assembly & Integration engineers that have accompanied some of the satellites we build to launch sites in Russian in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Not sure how true they are.

On entering the a/c the stewardess were standing by the door having a quick tab & chatting. They stayed there during take off hanging on to the partion.

Half of ones seat belt was missing, but being an engineering type he found enough “bits” on the floor to secure it. He found the toilet inflight by following the smell.

As one read a book he noticed the letters on the page moving, turned out to be fleas, allegedly from the blanket he had been given.

One flight, upon landing the fire engines were ready & followed them down the runway at speed. They had to wait before they could leave the aircraft until the fire service had extinguished the brake fire – standard practice apparently – saves a bit of money on brake pads.