ESTONIAN AIR  Customer Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

ESTONIAN AIR customer review : 8 September 2009 by Iva Toohey

Customer Rating : 1/5

I have used this airline a few times, (Dublin-Tallinn return). This year my experience was a total disaster. My outgoing flight was brought an hour forward and my return flight was cancelled. I got no notification - no explanation or an apology for the stress and hassle they caused me. I sent about 10 e-mails looking for some explanation - no reply!

ESTONIAN AIR customer review : 7 August 2009 by E Birman

Customer Rating : 4/5

Estonian Air round-trip ARN-TLL, first leg on Estonian Air Regional Saab 340, and back on Boeing 737-5. They don't qualify as a budget airline in my book (at least, not at the level of AirBaltic) because the prices charged are only competitive with other carriers; they certainly don't undercut by much. Customer service is excellent, particularly at Tallinn Airport. The ARN-TLL leg had free food as well. The integrated check-in counters (with SAS) are very handy and they were on time in both cases. In general, they are unspectacular but deliver very solid service.

ESTONIAN AIR customer review : 21 June 2009 : by Simon Smith

Customer Rating : 3/5

Tallinn-LGW. If you think of it as a low cost airline, you won't be too disappointed. Even on a 3 hour flight, food and drink had to be paid for, although the prices were lower than some other airlines - eg. 3 euros for a beer. The only real issues were that the seat pitch was very tight and the interior needed some maintenance (eg. some seat covers were torn).

ESTONIAN AIR customer review : 19 December 2008 : by Joerg Lehnert

Customer Rating : 2/5

Tallinn-Kiev-Tallinn. Using Estonian Air is like using a scheduled bus service in best case. They will get you from A to B without any amenities. Estonian uses B 737-500. Seat pitch is average. Both flights were on time. Luggage arrived as well. On board service has to be paid extra. For a flight of about 2 hours this is not much. I use them because it is the only direct link between Tallinn and Kiev but if there was any quality airline I would prefer them.

ESTONIAN AIR customer review : 15 December 2008 : by Louise Stanley

Customer Rating : 4/5

Excellent low-cost airline to a popular destination. The staff at Gatwick moved heaven and earth to get us out despite a long delay due to snow at Tallinn and a storm over Stockholm. Although we flew out in the middle of the night we got there in the end. On the way back everything went smoothly. Would have given them 5 stars except the food and drink on board is pricey and this was not obvious at the time otherwise on the way out I would have taken some £s out of the ATM rather than spending them all at Gatwick. Coming back I managed to buy a cake and some coffee (having already eaten in Tallinn before the flight) for 45 krooni, not bad as the cake was huge. Would fly with them again when visiting Estonia rather than take a slightly more expensive connecting flight via Amsterdam.

ESTONIAN AIR customer review : 30 November 2008 : by U Johansson

Customer Rating : 2/5

I have been a frequent flyer with Estonian Air since the start of the airline. Up until the day when SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) became one of the owners Estonian Air did fine. Since then I have seen a continious increase in delays and poorer service. Late is now the rule (½ to 3 hours in general) and despite that some of the staff do their best I am looking for an alternative. Obviously there is a lack of professional management and poor understanding of what running a commercial airline is all about. The best they could do now is to get rid of SAS and start on their own.

ESTONIAN AIR customer review : 27 August 2008 : by J Slade

Customer Rating : 3/5

LGW-TLL-LGW. Check in at Gatwick easy and fast. The aircraft was a very old looking B737. It still had the ashtrays in the seat arms! The crew were ok but very dour. The flight leaving Tallinn was again late by about 30 minutes. Tallinn airport was very nice and looked new. The all male crew on the way back were more cheerful and helpful. We had a meal and a juice each and it was about EEK220 or GBP11. I think for what we paid it was very good value for money. This is a small airline trying to follow a low cost model. All in all I was pleasantly surprised.

Estonian Air - by A Mura

27 August 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

TLL-MXP First experience with Estonian Air. Good flight even if the plane seems old (Boeing 737-500) and not so confortable. They've introduced e-tickets only several months ago. Staff polite and present. Prices seems quite high.

Estonian Air - by Paul Jacobsen

1 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

ARN-TLL in Economy. My first experience with Estonian Air was disappointing. What should have been a short 45min-hop ended in a 5-hour-delay: no proper explanation given, no offer of rerouting via Copenhagen, the only compensation I got was a meal voucher worth 10 euro. Legroom on the B737-300 was standard economy class, but seats looked pretty worn-out. Cabin crew was polite but hardly smiling. To apologize for the delay soft drinks and coffee/tea were offered for free, but it is the first time ever I am being served coffee in a plastic glass!

Estonian Air - by A Tasdan

11 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

CPH-TLL return. Flights were delayed both ways. No meals served and inflight service horrible due to staff. FA onboard generally seem careless and are simply unable to smile.

Estonian Air - by Martin Mueller

8 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

FRA-TLL-FRA. Meal was really poor, and they did not offer a choice. Cabin staff service also very poor.

Estonian Air - by M Letts

5 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Staff need to go to charm school. OK so their natural temperament may be reserved, but these people are working in an international setting where they will by definition be meeting customers from many different cultures. They should be trained in basic courtesies such as smiling and not looking disdainful when asked for anything.

Estonian Air - by C Emmorey

6 September 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Since the flight from London to Tallinn is 2 to 3 hours, not being served a full meal is not such a big problem and you can buy on board snacks at reasonable prices. For what you pay you get pretty good value for money.

Estonian Air - by Boris Korchemkin

25 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

I've been Estonian Air customer for many years, and until recently I had considered it to be a reasonably fine airline. However, my last 3 flights were a total disaster, so something must have changed with the company. All 3 of my last flights were late by between 2 to 9 hours, and 1 flight was cancelled. The flight cancellation was totally mismanaged by Estonian Air's Tallinn staff. There were about 100 passengers queing in line to get redirected at a desk serviced by 2 ladies who appeared to be totally clueless on how to manage it. It took us (4 adults & 2 kids) 90 minutes to get rerouted via Riga. At the end a flight which intended to last some 1 h 30 min ended up being a 9 hours flight. No apologies or compensation was offered - a total mess! When we were boarding our plane to Riga 1 and 1/2 hours after our scheduled departure time to Moscow there were still quite a few people waiting in line to get served. The management should definitely do something to make the airline more efficient and more professional.

Estonian Air - by Faye Courtney

19 January 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Never in my life have I been on a plane with such an appalling lack of legroom. I'm a 5'7" tall woman but my knees were jammed into the back of the seat in front and it really was a very uncomfortable 3 hours to Tallinn. I don't know how men or taller people manage but it was shockingly cramped. On the way back I asked for an aisle seat so that at least one of my legs wasn't in danger of getting DVT. Another thing which I found ridiculous in this day and age was that you can't get electronic tickets by e-mail with Estonian Air. I had to pay £15 to have my old-fashioned paper tickets sent by courier because I had booked at short notice. Apart from that, the staff were quite friendly and the check-in procedure very efficient. The perfect airline for short people and technophobes

Estonian Air - by Ian Drew

3 August 2006

Arrived at Gatwick on July 29th 2006, having pre booked with Thomas Cook. Mix up between Estonian Air and Thomas Cook meant that we had been issued with electronic tickets, whereas Estonian Air Agents only let you on board with paper tickets. The Estonian Air ticket Agent's desk (Aviance) looked like the last helicopter out of Saigon, with people milling around trying to exchange electronic tickets for paper tickets. Far from helping us, and despite the fact that they had two seats booked in our names, that we showed them full booking details, that we could demonstrate our identity and that the Thomas Cook Agent even came along personally to vouch for us, the Estonian Air Agents would not issue us with paper tickets, so we missed our flight. BAA should insist that these small airlines employ at least one person at the airport who can help genuine customers, not prevent them from flying. We had prepaid, valid bookings, but couldn't get on the flight.

Estonian Air - by Alan Mitchell

26 June 2006

LGW-TLL return. Flexible economy ticket - £300 allows passengers to sit in the business class cabin, which was worth it as no complimentary catering in the Y cabin. Food okay - served on china tableware. Metal cutlery. Poor selection of drinks though with white wine very lukewarm. Overall a decent product at a very decent price for a 2.5-3 hour flight. Estonian are the only airline to fly direct LGW-TLL and for that alone I'd recommend them.

Estonian Air - by David Rang

10 June 2006

I have flown Estonian Air many times and have generally been pleased with the service. Estonian's natural temperament can appear stand-offish at first, don't be fooled into thinking this is deliberate rudeness. I think they do a good job.

Estonian Air - by William Cheng Chung-hang

11 January 2006

Stockholm to Tallinn on a 45-minute flight. We were originally booked on a Frankfurt-Tallinn flight, but delayed arrival at Frankfurt means we had to take a more convoluted route to Tallinn. FAs were generally polite although there wasn't much of inflight service. Had to pay for the mineral water, something I had read about on this site, so I wasn't at all surprised. Safety was by far the most memorable thing about this flight, to this the airline should be given credit.

Estonian Air - by Phil Lawrence

30 December 2005

I have often used Estonian Air and regularly have visitors from the UK to Tallinn on these flights. The biggest recommendation I can give is eat before you fly - the inflight food is appalling. Also be careful if you are flying to Tallinn from LGW on a Thursday or a Friday and back to LGW on a Sunday - seat yourself as far away from the rear cabin toilets as possible because they can be extremely well patronised by the stag party crowds.

Estonian Air - by Wier Chrisemer

2 December 2005

Dreadful service between Copenhagen and Tallinn. Seats in economy class were astoundingly close together. "Meal service" - they ran out of tea! Generally ignored by staff. It's too bad, because Tallinn is such a wonderful place.

Estonian Air - by David Wallace

13 October 2005

Flew BC LGW-TLL on 6 Oct. Absolutely appalling service level on both legs of the journey. The seats were exactly the same as the tiny ones in economy. The food was some dreadful salmon thing with chocolate (I use the term loosely) dessert. The crew were unfriendly to the point where they were almost offensive. I'm still trying to work out what my BC fare got me. I could have flown BA via Helsinki. I shall be taking this long way round, or maybe even fly with one of the budget airlines rather than give this lot my money again.

Estonian Air - by Christian Hodson

21 July 2005

MAN-TLL return for a short break on 16th July - good, safe airline - on time departure and arrival in both direction. It appears that Estonian Air have done away with the meal service and are now operating a " buy on board " service, although it has to be said at very reasonable prices. Legroom seemed slightly better on the return flight although it was the same aircraft type (B737-500) - I was seated in row 19 towards the back of the aircraft so maybe this is a good one to go for. Sat on the plane at Manchester on the return for 30 minutes as the ground staff did not have any steps available (we were parked on one of the remote gates at Terminal1 ), but this was not the fault of the airline. Would reccomend this airline as it is the quickest way of getting to the great little city of Tallinn.

Estonian Air - by John D Atherton

19 July 2005

Travelled TLL-MAN and LGW-TLL. On-time arrival on both sectors, despite 30 min departure delay on return sector. Excellent economy-class cabin service, including the usual small portioned but good quality food. Would not hesitate to recommend Estonian Air as one of the better airlines serving the growing east-European market.

Estonian Air - by MacKenzie Nash

21 April 2005

Flew from Dublin for a weekend. Flight was about 2hrs 15min. No complaints about inward/outward flight, everything was spot on. Recommended.

Estonian Air - by John Beevor

1 April 2005

As a regular traveller on the London/Tallin route ,travelling economy and I have always found the service reliable and the cabin crew both helpful and competent with several languages including English . Sure there are odd occasions when slip ups happen ,but when they do Estonia Air has always tried to put matters right. Leg room is certainly adequate for short haul as generally the catering is adequate if not exceptional and is comparable with other European major flag carriers.

Estonian Air - by Nick Pratt

7 February 2005

Flew from LGW to Tallinn in economy class on Friday 28 Jan for quick weekend away. Flights both way were on time although flight out took 3hours despite the cabin crew announcing the flying time was 2hours 10 and the captain saying we had 90mins to go 40 minutes after we had departed. Language problem, I guess. Hot meal was okay but dessert of the shaving foam variety. Wine and beer was served and contrary to previous reviewer we were given two glasses each and later, a potent cream liquor. Cabin crew nice and friendly both ways. One tip, you can pre-assign your seats in economy by calling Air Estonia (we booked on our seats on their website). Row 9 is good if travelling as a couple as the window seat has been taken out for the exit door.

Estonian Air - by Donald Mackenzie

3 December 2004

Since my last post the standard of catering has certainly gone down hill. The meals are tiny and often tasteless - a waste of time serving them. Drinks served are now limited to beer or wine and definitely only one round! I understand that they are trying to keep ticket prices low but come on it is now encouraging people to use alternative airlines.

Estonian Air - by Donald Mackenzie

21 September 2004

I've used Estonian Air several times from UK to Estonia. I've no complaints about the service and the aircraft themselves are always clean and comfortable.

Estonian Air - by Inga Ashworth

11 September 2004

To Andy Baker. Since, May 1 , 2004 when Estonia joined European Union there are no cigarettes or alcohol to be sold as Duty Free on the aircraft.

Estonian Air - by Andy Baker

3 September 2004

I flew with Estonian back in May of this year (2004) from Tallinn to London Gatwick. I wasn't particularly impressed with the service or the food - being an early morning departure (8am) we were served breakfast, which was a tiny portion of watery scrambled egg with some slices of red and green peppers. This didn't exactly get my day off to a good start, especially when I found that one of the slices of pepper was actually a strip of plastic - could have been nasty if I'd swallowed it! The roll was OK though. After breakfast I then sat and made my selection from the tax free choices in the inflight magazine, only to be told that there was no alcohol or cigarettes available on that day's flight - had I known beforehand I would have bought more in the excellent tax-free shop at Tallinn airport. The flight attendants weren't particulary friendly either, but then maybe they didn't like the early start either! Altogether it was a mediocre flying experience, although their 737's do look great in their livery - infact I have a model of one on my desk, which was one of the few tax-free items available on board that day!