CENTRALWINGS review : 16 May 2008 : by Giampaolo Titotto

Customer Rating : 1/5

Rome-Poznan due on May 9 cancelled unilaterally. They sent by mail a new schedule in which flight was rebooked for May 7. No way to contact them for refund, either by phone or email. a real shame. I wonder how can LOT tolerate all this, since Centralwings is controlled by them. Never I would have imagined a behaviour like this from a carrier like LOT.

CENTRALWINGS review : 10 May 2008 : by Donald Macintosh

Customer Rating : 1/5

If your flight is not cancelled then it is rescheduled to another day and those flights which depart on the date originally advertised are invariably delayed by several hours.

CENTRALWINGS review : 5 May 2008 : by I Mulder

Customer Rating : 1/5

Our flight (4th of April) was cancelled and changed 3 times even before I left Amsterdam (weekend flights were suddenly cancelled, so we had to fly back on monday, flight in the afternoon became flight in the evening, etc). That's why one of us cancelled the trip. The callcenter crew speaks very poor English and it took me 3 phone calls and over 1,5 hours to cancel the trip for my friend. Once the rest of us got to the airport, we had a 2 hour delay. Finally, we got in Krakow and even made it home with CentralWings without any delays (yes - it's a miracle!). I was offered a refund for my cancelled friend and was told to get it within 2 weeks. It's been almost 6 weeks now and still there's no refund. I've tried to call the callcenter but they're unavailable. I've also sent 3 e-mails to customer care, but no response. CentralWings is a very low-service, customer unfriendly travel agency which should only be used in cases of desperation.

CENTRALWINGS review : 29 April 2008 : by U Mirowska

Customer Rating : 1/5

Our flight Amsterdam-Gdansk planned for 21 of April was cancelled. Week later we had a unique chance to talk to somebody in the call centre. They offered us refund. Now it is already end of April and we never saw our money. I am wondering: what do we have to do next?

CENTRALWINGS review : 23 April 2008 : by Jill White

Customer Rating : 3/5

Felt I had to provide update in terms of speed with which they provided refund - within 5 days of notification of cancelled flight. Lines appear to be not avail - put simply all lines are busy and no overflow facility - however if you keep pressing "redial" you will get through (appox 4mins).Call then answered within 3 mins and handled efficiently. The above does not detract from late cancellation/loss of hotel booking costs etc - rating is for efficiency in issuing refund.

Centralwings review by Jill White

8 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Due to fly Edinburgh - Warsaw 25 April. Complete confusion with flight. Constant changes in terms of flight times and whether flight is cancelled or not. Today flight is appearing as "currently not for sale". Cannot get through on phone, approx wait time of 15 mins and still no answer - gave up! Tried to send e-mail, however there is a problem with their server.

Centralwings review by Slawomir Kocek

4 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Cancelled flight from Aberdeen UK to Warsaw on 19.04.2008 without giving reason. No chance to call them back . All phone lines not active all day and all night.

Centralwings review by J Ponichtera

26 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Cancelled flight from Poznan to Manchester after Easter without giving reason. No chance to call them back . All phone lines not active. No money back so far.

Centralwings review by Ann Drozdowski

25 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Easter Saturday : Centralwings phone number is operational. There is an automated message which is in Polish, but basically it says that the lines are busy, please wait. I waited for about 3 minutes then the phone was answered in English. I asked for a refund and was told this would be arranged. Here's hoping!

Centralwings review by K Pollard

22 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

I have had no luck in contacting them after saying my return flight have been cancelled from Manchester to Poznan. If you have taken out insurance with them of which I did I contacted them and they are sending me a claim form. The insurance company however has not heard if they have gone bankrupt etc and therefore unable to advise either. I see that you cannot make any further bookings on their website also.

Centralwings review by A Barker

20 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

A lot of us are flying to Poznan for a family wedding in May. Daughter's flights from Manchester have just been cancelled and they now appear not to be taking a bookings for Edinburgh to Poznan after end march. I have a bad feeling about this.

Centralwings review by Geoff Landers

20 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Four of us were booked on Centralwings Manchester to Poznan 4th April, return 6th April. Received an email on Monday stating that the flights were cancelled. There was an invitation to phone a Polish number (which appears to be dead ) to look at alternative flights or get a refund. I've sent two emails and no response so far. Has anyone managed to get a refund and what time scale is involved?

Centralwings review by Ann Drozdowski

20 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

We were due to fly to Warsaw from Manchester with Centralwings on 8th April. They e-mailed to say the flight has been cancelled. The telephone number which they gave in the e-mail is not operational. I phoned LOT and they said they were aware of the situation but had no information. It looks as though this company has gone bust. There is a complete lack of information about the situation.

Centralwings review by A Kilner

19 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

I have booked flights to Krakow which were cancelled and then rescheduled to beginning April but today I have had an email saying they are cancelled again! I cannot get through to the company to arrange for a refund - is anybody else having the same problems? I think maybe the company is no longer trading?

Centralwings review by N Samsoniuk

15 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

My flight to Warsaw was cancelled. Reason given: they don't have enough passengers. Shocking! Luckily I found a flight with Wizzair which cost me extra money. The customer service - very poor and unpleasant.

Centralwings review by Aneta Marciniak

13 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Flight from Szczecin to Edinburgh for the 27 March is cancelled. They don't care that it is a return flight to UK for people who will be for Easter in Poland. No reason given! Outbound flight week before is still active what makes the situation even more ridiculous! 2 weeks ago they cancelled the same route on the 6th and 10th March, they refunded me at least. Not to recommend.

Centralwings review by Chris Green

26 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Edinburgh to Gdansk flight cancelled (as was the other one to Szczecin), no reasons given. Luckily I got on easyJet plane the same day, same route. Upon arriving in Gdansk there was no information of flights being cancelled - actually, they were not even shown on aririvals info displays, no mention whatsoever! Like they never existed. Puzzled, I investigated this and met some disillusioned staff. I found out it is CentralWings usual' practice to cancel flights if they did not sell enough tickets to cover the costs. They disregard passengers and the staff. Couple of weeks later my friend was going to go to Szczecin with them. Again both flights to Szczecin and Gdansk were cancelled. Instead he was offered a seat on a plane leaving for Poznan later that afternoon, but had to organise trip from Poznan to Szczecin himself, as well as pay for it from his own pocket. TIP: you are most likely to avoid cancellation on their most popular destinations: Krakow and Warsaw. I would recommend avoiding less popular towns, like Szczecin and Poznan.

Centralwings review by Simon Growcott

17 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

We have flown to Gdansk and Warsaw from Edinburgh with Central wings. Good friendly service and good value for money. Centralwings plane superior in comfort to easyJet and crew better at people skills. We are off to Szcecin soon with Centralwings - a bargain price. £45 return for two.

Centralwings review by C Bedford

17 October 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

After waiting 7 hours in Krakow for our return flight to Gatwick, they decided to cancel the flight. There was no reason given, other than the plane was broken. It was now 11.30pm and they refused to put us up in a hotel or offer a guarantee of how we were to get home. A flight was offered the next day (Saturday) that might (or might not) have 5 seats available, which wasn't really adequate as there was around 200 passengers trying to get on it! My wife and I had to book a flight home with another company on Saturday morning after a very uncomfortable night spent in the airport. The only flight available took us to Leeds/Bradford and then we had to make our own way back to Cardiff. all at our own expense. Central Wings have only responded to our first e-mail acknowledging our complaint and then nothing since, even though we have sent them several e-mails.

Centralwings review by B Hewer

3 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Gatwick to Warsaw return 12 June 2007. Flight slightly delayed outward - not fault on Centralwings, just usual congestion at Gatwick. Luggage delays at Warsaw. Return flight on time. Flight crew attentive and polite, refreshments reasonably priced. A good experience.

Centralwings review by Sandra Collyns

14 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

LGW-KRK. This airline seems quite average to me. The plane looked quite old, but the flight attendants were very friendly and nice. The flight was delayed by 20 minutes due to bad weather, so not the airlines fault and not really a problem. So, quite an enjoyable experience and i would fly with them again whenever cheapest.

Centralwings review by Tony Osborne

7 February 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

LGW-KRK-LGW. Outbound delayed by 5 hours because of a technical fault but can't really grumble about that. Ended up dozing all flight. Return flight had been moved from 1355 to 1810 and I'm glad I checked as there is nothing to do at Balice - the thought of getting there 5 hours early by mistake makes me shudder. Return was with a 737 leased from Lot. Ran to schedule and no complaints with attendants on the ground or in the air. Never heard a peep from the flight deck though. We only paid about £60 return so no moans at all, I see that their summer flight out of LGW is a lot later on in the day so not sure if we'll ever use them again unless it reverts back to a morning flight.

Centralwings review by Jeroen van Marle

19 January 2007

Wroclaw to London Gatwick. I had checked both the Centralwings and WRO airport websites for delays, but none were mentioned so I got up at 4am to get to the airport. On arrival, the flight had been shifted to 11am, with the check-in staff mentioned something about flight attendants who had worked long hours the day before and weren't allowed to fly yet - but no apology for not contacting passengers about this (compare: Germanwings once even tracked down the number of my parents to tell me of a half hour change of schedule). Check-in was still closed at 7.15 and the staff went away - I saw one late passenger denied boarding despite the plane sitting outside for another 3 hours. Despite the 3 hour delay which according to EU law entitles us to this, we were offered no food/drink vouchers. On the plane, not a single word from the staff about the 3-hour delay - apparently it's normal and nothing for them to apologise about (compare: in the train from Prague to Berlin even if they run up a 5-minute delay, they announce at all stations that they apologise for any inconvenience). Before this episode, they cancelled all the Cologne-Wroclaw flights in December '06, refunding my cash for my 24 Dec flight but leaving me with a travel problem. I took the night train and was pleasantly surprised by the service, price and comfort. I think I've found a better alternative to Centralwings and it's Polish Rail.

Centralwings review by Pete Lowe

5 October 2006

LGW to KRK - 5 hour delay due to 'delay in arrival of incoming aircraft'. KRK to LWW - 4 hour delay due to 'delay in arrival of incoming aircraft'. How is this possible on a 2 hour flight? If they haven't got enough aircraft to fulfil the schedule then why not drop a couple of routes rather than leaving customers fuming at the lack of announcements and lack of apologies. Strangely enough of all the departures this afternoon, only this outfit had 'delayed' next to them on the information board. A total of 9 hours sitting around airports and 4 hours in the air. This is not acceptable and I will never use them again. A shambles, not acceptable.

Centralwings review by David A Pioli

13 September 2006

Centralwings low cost, low service, low regard for passengers. How can an airline operating from Gatwick have no representatives at the airport, No one to inform passengers when a flight is delayed for 10-12 hrs. No one to assist passengers with small children during the delay. Booking agents who can only repeat 'we are giving you refreshment vouchers sorry but that’s all we can do'. What a great help when your baby has been kept up all day and with all the security measures you no longer have fresh nappies, food or drinks but don't worry you have food voucher. To get more information go onto the internet it is more informative then the so called 'booking agents'. Then you find out that the flight which is due to take off from Gatwick in an hour is in fact still in Krakow so it will not be ready for a least 3 more hours but don't worry here's another voucher. Centralwings low cost airline a disgrace to the air and customers.

Centralwings review by Max Smith

18 May 2006

Central Wings seem to have got the low cost versus low service balance about right. LGW-KRK-LGW was 20 mins late both ways, but the service was fine and the food / drinks good value. There was no hard pressure selling, Ryanair style and the only thing between a full sevice airline and Central Wings was the lack of a free meal. Krakow airport was pretty well bursting at the seams both on arrival and departure, but was clean, modern and efficient. Would definitely try the airline again.

Centralwings review by Bryan Hewer

30 March 2006

Travelled from Gatwick to Krakow shortly after this airline commenced operations. On board staff could not have been more attentive. Web site said that as a budget airline meals were not provided, but a trolley provided refreshments at 'substantial cost'!! Thought that either the Polish person who had prepared the English info for the website had got it wrong, or the airline were being delightfully honest! The truth was that there was a good variety of food and drink on the trolley, and all very reasonably priced. On my return, found Krakow Airport a bit of a scrum, due to building work. Going through Security took ages, but Airport staff all very helpful. . Flights on time both ways. Can certainly recommend Centralwings, especially if you can book early.

Centralwings review by Ray Mullen

27 March 2006

LGW-KRK-LGW. The airline is a low-cost subsidiary of LOT, and appears to get LOT`s older B737s. That said the aircraft were comfortable enough, leather seats as standard. Seats allocated on check-in. FAs friendly and efficient. Inflight service consists of the usual trolley purchase system, although every passenger was offered a free chocolate bar.




 

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