TAAG Angola Airlines - by C Niemann

19 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Initially the flight was supposed to leave at 12h00 midday. On our arrival at the airport, we were told that the flight would leave at 22h00 that evening, and check in start at 17h00. Long story short, we only left the following morning at 05h20. The business class lounge had no more drinks at 20h00, not even a glass of water. No apologies offered. The food was terrible, and the service unfriendly, bordering on rude. Inflight entertainment non-existing! Our connecting flights all missed, no accommodation offered. A trip from Luanda to Goiania that should have taken me 12 hours, took 28 hours of travelling. The return trip was scheduled to Leave Luanda on Tuesday 11 March at 18h00. I left the interior very early on Tuesday morning (04h00), arriving at Rio airport at midday, ready to check in. I was informed at 14h00 that the flight was cancelled, and that I should return the next morning at 05h00, to be on the stand-by list! No accomodation offered. I booked into a hotel at my own costs, and returned the next morning at 05h00. Finally got on the plane by 10h00, and the flight took off at 10h30. Inflight entertainment was a movie with sub-titles in English, but no microphones offered. The food was absolutely horrible. Needless to say, there are no other airlines flying this route, and beggars cant be choosy!

TAAG Angola Airlines - by R Mackay

23 August 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I used to fly TAAG back and forth to Paris. What a shambles - delays were the norm, with no explanation from anyone. A delay at Luanda airport we could handle (just) as long as the bar was kept open, but when they shut the bar at 10 with no warning, that was it! As for the flights, meals on the plane were practically thrown at the passengers, and I can honestly say that the staff were often quite rude and in no way helpful to anyone. Why they were there I can only guess, and I think it may have something to do with the drinks trolley. The planes until very recently, were more suited to sitting in a museum. Thankfully, our company have now refused to allow us to fly with this mickey- mouse airline, and given the choice, I would never fly with them again.

TAAG Angola Airlines - by F Dominguez

2 August 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Lisboa-Luanda, Luanda-Rio de Janeiro. First leg of the trip, on Boeing 777. Very nice, confortable seats. PTV's with AVOD, ok. Food, normal. The breakfast was tiny. Second leg of the trip, on Boeing 747 Mixed. Seats, more confortable than the 777, but the inflight entertainment, was disappointing.

TAAG Angola Airlines - by Karl Pfeffer

15 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Boeing 777 configuration was 3-4-3 in economy class. The flight was almost completely full in Economy class, not sure about Business or First class. Seat was comfortable, legroom was okay and had a foot rest and a normal size PTV. Oddly enough the jack for the head set was straight in front instead of in the armrest. They had big pillows and blanket at every seat. I was seated towards the back in row 32; last row was 38 on TAAG’s 777. The seat also had the “winged” headrest to make for easier sleeping. Candy (honey) was given out - a nice gesture. Fairly soon after take off, dinner was served. During dinner the crew came around again with a second round of drinks including wine. The crew in general was a bit reserved but friendly. There was the new mood lighting but only in F and C class. I tried their inflight entertainment system which is AVOD and it was okay. Water was offered once during the flight by the flight attendants. Breakfast was served about 1.5 hours before arrival and was very small; smallest I have ever seen but very good. To sum it up, TAAG was a very pleasant surprise, having heard of horror stories and also since they don’t have a functioning website. TAAG was just as modern, comfortable as European carriers and it was a great experience.

TAAG Angola Airlines - by J Kinge

4 November 2006  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

TAAG Angola Airlines are a complete shambles. Our flight out to Luanda from Windhoek was delayed 18hrs. We are currently (2 November 2006) still waiting for our return flight after our flight was today cancelled for the third successive day. The worst part is that they tell you the flight will leave early and then end up stringing you along all day at the airport before you finally find out there is no plane. I have now wasted 3 days at the airport. No one seems to have a clue what is going on, there is no information provided on delays or reasons and it has proved impossible to identify a ´responsible´person. I could go on an on about the problems we have experienced. Avoid using them at all costs!

TAAG Angola Airlines - by Francois Grau

2 November 2006

Jo'burg Luanda September 2006 - The flight was scheduled at 15.00 delayed until 16.30 further delayed till 18.00 and finally 22.00. During that time no announcement were made and ground staff were left in the dark. Boarding started and then was interrupted when the Captain found a technical problem in the cockpit - 2 dozens passengers who had boarded decided not to flight when they heard the engines of the vintage 747. I decided not to fly and could not retrieve my suitcase which eventually flew to Luanda much later on that night. TAAG promised to return the suitcase the following day but failed to do so. I eventually retrieved it when I flew to Luanda with SAA a month later. As far as I am concerned this airline is a clear no go.

TAAG Angola Airlines - by Robert Njuguna

8 July 2006

You've never seen anything like it. After an eventful week in Luanda, I was forced to use TAAG to JNB since SAA had no seats available. According to my ticket, the flight was to depart at 09H00 on 24th June. Given the perennial traffic headaches in Luanda (exacerbated on this day by the fact that the country's national soccer team was expected back from the World Cup in Germany after a second round elimination) , we left our hotel at 06H00 and were at the airport by 06H30 to find it virtually deserted. we looked around (in a bit of a panic) for someone, anyone to let us know what's happening but we couldn't find anyone to enlighten us. Stilted conversations with the security staff at the airport were hilarious since we don't speak a word of Portuguese and they didn't speak English! We had to get a local colleague to make his way to the airport, and after disappearing into the bowels of the airport (past immigrations) in search of answers, he finally came back with the news ... the flight had been postponed to 16H00 and we need to come back at 11H00 to check-in. No apologies, no explanations, nothing. So, good people that we are, we headed off for breakfast and some e-mail and were back at 11H30 and we then sat (or slept) in line until 16H30 when we were finally checked in. During the check-in process we learned from fellow passengers that the delay was apparently occasioned by the diversion of the aircraft (a vintage 747 with an analogue entertainment system!) to Germany to pick up the soccer team !!!! An entire 747 to pick a maximum of 50 people !! Mind boggling... and still no apologies! We finally take off at about 19H30 and only land in JNB a few minutes to mid-night which, if you consider that we had an 00H40 connection to NBO on KQ (which was cancelled ,, but that's another story), is a disaster. No accomodation offered, no apology - nothing. With this experience under my belt it is totally unlikely that I will ever again in my life see a TAAG boarding pass

TAAG Angola Airlines - by Mark Roxburgh

28 July 2005

My recent experience flying with Angola Air (TAAG) began with mild irritation and ended in disgust. The time of departure on 24 June 2005 changed from 15h00 to 16h00 for no apparent reason. The queue at the check out counter was badly organised. At one time there was an official shouting out that the queue that passengers were pushing into was only for 1st Class passengers resulting in further aggravation. The queue at the boarding gate allocated to TAAG had no seating facilities resulting in many passengers sitting on the floor and, with the increasing delays (without explanation), this was significantly uncomfortable. All onboard announcements were made in Portuguese. English speaking passengers had to ask for translations from fellow Portuguese speaking passengers. When I enquired from the senior flight attendant about the delay I was told that we were waiting for passengers. I later found out that in fact all the passengers were on board but that TAAG were trying to locate two Flight Attendants that had temporarily gone missing. The first and only apology that was made in the plane was finally given only after an hour into the flight. Despite the in-flight magazine promising in-flight entertainment such as headsets for music and movies nothing was offered. That magazine was the only entertainment. Due to the fact that there were delays in exiting the aircraft some passengers noticed that the Business Class exit was not being used anymore and started using that alternate exit route. A male flight attendant intervened by shouting at me in Portuguese and pushing me back aggressively to the static queue (the other economy passengers “escaped” through the business class exit without harassment). I retreated to the static economy class queue once again while the attendant continued to hurl, what I could only guess, as abuse at me. A Portuguese passenger who realised I didn’t understand what was being said interceded which resulted in a screaming battle between this flight attendant and this kind passenger. This happened in front of many passengers on the aircraft while they were trying to exit.



 

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