XL Airways Passenger Reviews and XL Airways Customer Trip Reports

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XL AIRWAYS review : 2 July 2008 : by C Brown

Customer Rating : 1/5

We travelled with XL for the first time last week, Manchester to Faro and back. If you are about to travel with XL make sure that you do not get Row 37 which is the back row of the plane we were on. The seating room here is indescribable - words fail me in how to describe how little room there was. I was in the window seat and although not too worried about flying, in this seat I felt claustrophic and panic stricken with no room to move and the overhead locker created a boxed in feeling. There is not, as far as I can see, any justification for putting passengers in such conditions, other than money! We paid for extra legroom on the return journey, to which I greatly object but at least we had double if not triple the legroom of Row 37. Avoid Row 37 at the back of the plane at all costs!

XL AIRWAYS review : 2 July 2008 : by P Harding

Customer Rating : 1/5

Manchester to Sanford. Originally booked Tavel City Direct - XL 747. Later informed changed to XL 330-200. Arrived at Manchester and informed it was Iberworld. Disgusting flight. No leg room. Rude Spanish staff. Refused drinks as they were saving them for the return flight? Food adequate. Return flight with XL. Felt even more uncomfortable on this flight home than the outward bound. Leg room is atrocious for long haul flights. It is about time they addressed the comments on this website as the overall rating is not good.

XL AIRWAYS review : 2 July 2008 : by Dave Brown

Customer Rating : 2/5

Luton to Sharm-El-Sheikh and back. Firstly, they are Very hot on excess baggage, people in the check in queue were regularly being hit for being only 2 or 3kg over their allotted 15kg allowance and the excess charge is £8 per kilo. On the plus side they do allow and extra 10kg per passenger on production of a dive card! Secondly, at Luton they outsource check in, etc to Servisair and I am not sure these companies talk to one another. We paid at check-in for extra legroom seats, and once on the aircraft they weren't. At present XL say it is the fault of Servisair and Servisair say it is XL's fault. Thirdly, regarding the extra legroom seats, Row 1 is good but up against the bulk head. Row 15 has extra legroom as it next to an emergency exit, but as the row behind is also an exit the seats do not recline. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for, and XL are a cheap way to get to Egypt.

XL AIRWAYS review : 30 June 2008 : by R Maddocks

Customer Rating : 1/5

Manchester to Sanford - booked with Travel City Direct as had travelled on one of their planes before and had a pleasant journey. Family of 4 - 2 adults/2 children. Prebooked our seats (extra £69) to be sat 2 behind each other, couldn't move us, but assured would be sat together on 1 row on the way back - same seats on way back . Booked childrens meals, never got them. 1 meal and snack and only 1 drink offered during the whole flight, thought this was appalling. Asked for a drink of water later in the flight, stewardess not very happy with my request. Asked about immigration cards, was told to go to the other end of the plane to ask English speaking staff. Worst flight I've ever been on.

XL AIRWAYS review : 30 June 2008 : by Dave Jones

Customer Rating : 1/5

Just back from a trip to Skiathos which was booked with XL - but then stated Air Malta and then ended up with LatCharter - what an awful awful airline. Latcharter is a Latvian airline who I think are used by XL when there flights are overbooked. The legroom was shocking, the flight is around 2 hours late every week according to other passenger comments. What also made me laugh was after making customers wait for a long time to check in, my wife and I were 1kg over weight with our cases and we had to unpack and hold a towel - a great way to make those passengers queuing behind feel they are doing their best to help!

XL AIRWAYS review : 30 June 2008 : by J Huggman

Customer Rating : 1/5

Gatwick to Mytilene. How this airline can be awarded any prizes I fail to understand. Seats are the most uncomfortable of any I've travelled and it is impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep. Headphones have to be paid for (entertainment not worth the GBP 2.50 they were asking). Food and snacks, tea and coffee also had to be paid for and not pre-bookable. This service took at least 45 minutes to do half the plane! Only one bar service available. The worst part was that after being told there would be a one and a half hour delay due to operational problems we actually left 2 hours 10 minutes late and made a diversion to Athens in order to drop off a complete flight crew. This made us four hours late in arriving at our destination. A complimentary cup of tea or coffee or even a drink would have been appreciated but we were offered nothing. XL? Never again if I can help it.

XL AIRWAYS review : 27 June 2008 : by A Ferraby

Customer Rating : 1/5

Manchester to Sanford. Flight was delayed 2 hours, although no-one told us this we just worked it out for ourselves as there was no communication from XL at the airport. We stood on the bus to transfer us to the aircraft for 45 minutes before they decided to off load us all and send us back to the departure lounge. When we finally managed to get on to the aircraft, it was shabby and had a very peculiar smell about it. The plane was a Spanish plane (Iberworld), and had part Spanish cabin crew. The seat belt which they insist on everyone wearing was too big for my 7 year old son and when I mentioned this they just shrugged their shoulders. The legroom was adequate, but we were given mono headphones and the armrests only supported a phono jack so we had to listen to the entertainment through one ear. The return flight was horrendous, it started out well, we were loaded onto the aircraft at 19.30 and the flight was due to leave at 20.30, it soon went downhill, there was something wrong with the connections at the terminal so no power could be sent to the aircraft therefore ther was no air-con, fine if your in Manchester, but in Florida when its still 90 degrees outside it was very hot. The plane eventually took off at 21.15. The plane was very short on legroom and was most uncomfortable. One of the toilets was out of order for the whole of the flight and the other toilet had no running water to wash your hands, when I reported this a very helpful english steward requested some hadwipes from a French steward, I tried to explain that I had used the toilet and needed to wash my hands, he thought this was amusing for some reason, and told me I would need to use a loo at the opposite end of the plane, I had already queued onece and explained this, he then shrugged his shoulders and told me I had 7.5 hrs to get back into the loo to wash my hands ! We has also booked childrens meals and a vegitarian meal, when the meals came around I asked for my childs menu, again another French steward gave me an adults meal with a packet of m+m's thrown on. I commented on this and he said that this was a childs meal, when I disagreed and told him that it was still and adults meal he told me I could think what I wanted. Overall the French stewards were very rude and arrogant and the English stewards spent most of the time apologising for them. We have travelled with Travel City Direct on several occasions and never have we had such appalling service. If your thinking of going to Florida use another company.

XL AIRWAYS review : 26 June 2008 : by A Cook

Customer Rating : 3/5

East Midlands to Cephalonia with children aged 5 and 3. Both flights on time, and journey was fine. Not the most comfortable seats, but children managed to sleep. Stocked up on snacks before the flights, so did not have to buy from their limited menu. were friendly and items reasonably priced.

XL AIRWAYS review : 24 June 2008 : by S Mayes

Customer Rating : 3/5

BRS-KGS return 737-800. The legroom is just adequate - I agree that the seats aren't the most comfortable but are fine for short haul. You have to pay £2.50 for headphones to listen to the flim shown on drop down screens, which was followed by TV shows. A 'sleep pack' costs £5, containing blanket, eye mask and neck pillow. Some of the cabin crew were not the most polished in appearance, but were friendly, and provided two lots of drinks trolley service on the outbound flight. Nothing at all was heard from the outbound flight deck pre take off, but an apology was made for this later. The inbound cabin crew were friendly and heplful when needed. Both crews gave a rather vague and hurried safety demo. A cheap no frills, basic service, which I would probably use again.

XL AIRWAYS review : 24 June 2008 : by L Crawford

Customer Rating : 4/5

Gatwick to Barbados return. Both flights on time. We paid for extra legroom which was well worth it. The other seats seemed quite cramped. We knew that there would be no (free) entertainment and there would only be 2 drinks rounds so stocked up on the first round for the rest of the flight. XL are half the price of Virgin & BA so the standard of service & comfort are going to considerably less. I would travel with them again but only with the extra legroom seats.

XL AIRWAYS review : 20 June 2008 : by F Kemp

Customer Rating : 1/5

Never again. The worst I have ever experienced by a long shot. Flight to St Lucia cancelled. Mass confusion as passengers transferred to Virgin (a much better option) with much misinformation. Eventually taken part way to Barbados whereupon no representative for onward transfer present! After several hours transferred by Liat to St Lucia. Return journey even worse. XL did manage to get the plane running and almost on time. However as we took off water pouring from the ceiling into the ceiling mounted television - told not to worry about the pool of water and cabin crew member just wiped around the tv with a tissue. Cabin crew tatty in appearance and not at all helpful or confidence inspiring. Plane filthy on pick up at St Lucia as not due to be cleaned until stop over at Barbados so all inward rubbish on seats and all over floor and in seat pockets. Food quality poor even by budget standard. Delay on arrival at Gatwick by over an hour as unable to get steps to hook up due to technical problems on the ground. Appeared to be insignificant to BAA or any engineering crew!

XL AIRWAYS review : 20 June 2008 : by L Lee

Customer Rating : 2/5

Gatwick to St Lucia. Outward leg was rather uncomfortable. While the leg room was not a problem for me I'd like to know where they get their extra narrow seats. Our return flight was cancelled but we were all accommodated on the Virgin flight. Everything was suspiciously well organised and I wonder if the demand was so low for the route at this time of year that it was cheaper for them to just buy Virgin seats. All in all you get what you pay for, and sometimes you get put on a Virgin flight.

XL AIRWAYS review : 13 June 2008 : by S Blondel

Customer Rating : 4/5

Manchester to Taba, 737-800. The legroom was ample enough for a charter flight. Inflight service was a recent movie followed by various TV shows. Crew friendly and professional. The meals on the flight were pretty much standard airline food and were fine.

XL AIRWAYS review : 7 June 2008 : by R Hill

Customer Rating : 1/5

Gatwick to Sanford 1st May and what a terrible trip. We booked our holiday With Travel city direct because we have used these at least three times over the past years but never again. A few days prior to our flight we were informed that we had to stop at Halifax for refuelling which put at least another 1.5 hours on to our flight. No headset so could not listen to any entertainment. My wife and I are not professional moaners but this was the worst return flight we have ever experienced and I would say at least 95% of the passengers thought so. So take a friendly tip and never travel with travel city direct or XL airways. Award winning airline, my backside.

XL AIRWAYS review : 4 June 2008 : by A Eastwood

Customer Rating : 1/5

I flew from Samos, Greece in May 2008. After a 4-hour delay because the plane had a fault, I was informed that all the sandwiches had been sold, and only snacks (like crisps and chocolate) were available. I was informed by a stewardess that XL did not put sufficient food on board because they did not want unsold food, and customers were disappointed every trip. I cannot say she seemed to care. The chief steward told everyone that he had been told that there were a number of complaints regarding the lack of sandwiches. He said it happened every trip and that he informed XL every trip but was ignored. He asked us to complain directly to XL. Probably most will not. Like me, they will never fly XL again.

XL AIRWAYS review : 30 May 2008 : by E Lorenzani

Customer Rating : 1/5

We flew to Grenada : 1 hour late to depart from Gatwick. We had to wait 3 hours before we were offered something to drink or eat without paying (after trying to sell you everything - even a £10 small tv with rubbish audio). Ok its a cheap airline and you get what you pay for, ut I hink XL Airways should at least put more effort on training staff smile and to have some basic customer service skills. Not to mention that the leg room for a 9-10 hours flight for a 6 foot guy is very uncomfortable.

XL AIRWAYS review : 30 May 2008 : by G Meek

Customer Rating : 1/5

First and last time with XL, outbound flight to Sanford on 11 May 08 using short haul plane due to the aircraft we should have had being in for servicing. This meant a re-fuel stop in Halifax Canada turning it into an 11.5 hour flight from hell (would seem that this is the standard excuse or so their handling agent in Florida informed us). One small meal provided and one small snack for the entire flight. Started giving out the inflight entertainment systems from the back of the plane - these ran out so the first 9 or 10 rows were left with a film - same film outbound and inbound. Cabin crew did their job - no more no less and they didn't look particularly happy about that either - very sullen looking and not exactly talkative especially when passengers were questioning the poor standards. Unfortunately I feel sorry for City Travel Direct who use this airline because I will never book a holiday with them again or even recommend them?

XL AIRWAYS review : 28 May 2008 : by Roger Gould

Customer Rating : 1/5

I booked in July 2007 with Travel City Direct using XL Airways 747 Gatwick to Sanford Florida on 2nd May 2008, with upgrade to upper deck. October 2007 advised that 747 being replaced by 767-300, hence no upper deck, no upgrade seats remained therefore economy only. Travel City Direct would not transfer me to a new date with upgrade seats, so I cancelled and made a new booking to fly one week later. Two weeks before departure 767-300 being taken out of service for 9th May and replaced by 767-200 all economy, and refuelling stop required at Halifax, but return flight would be 767-300 with upgrade. Flight took off 2 hours late and with refuelling arrived Sanford 3.5 hours behind original schedule. Checked in for return trip, advised that flight would still be 767-200 all economy no upgrade. Flight took off 1 hour late, despite having arrived on time, and with refueling at Halifax after aborted attempt to refuel at Bangor, arrived at Gatwick 2.75 hours late. Small print excludes any liability on airline, no compensation, therefore fault must be with passengers for flying with XL Airways.

XL AIRWAYS review : 22 May 2008 : by J Garratt

Customer Rating : 4/5

Travelled to Taba, plane was fairly new 737-800. Booked extra leg room and would advise to all to get it (via the internet) was quoted £69-50 return via phone, internet price £37, prices on the day £20 - if available each way. Plane clean, staff smart and cheerful. Had a meal on board, no bells or frills but hot and tasty. Return flight the same. I really cannot say anything bad about my experience.

XL AIRWAYS review : 19 May 2008 : by C Dixon

Customer Rating : 5/5

Just returned from Sharm el Sheik with XL Airways, both ways on what appeared to be a new 737. Aircraft spotless with leather seats, legroom acceptable, crew friendly and efficient. No meals provided but choice of sandwiches and hot food to purchase, several opportunities to buy drinks, and watched 2 recent films each way (not bad for £2.50). For the price we were more than satisfied with the level of service.

XL AIRWAYS review : 16 May 2008 : by D Graham

Customer Rating : 2/5

Booked with XL but flight was chartered to Air Malta [LAT Airways] Manchester-Corfu return. Minimum legroom and seating and left an hour late outbound and an hour and half late inbound. Corfu - Man no food available and headsets only worked through one earpiece. The only thing they are any good at is offering apologies.

XL AIRWAYS review : 13 May 2008 : by E Saunders

Customer Rating : 1/5

The only positive aspect of our experience with XL airways was that we got home safely. Flight was 5 hours delayed, we had to stop in Canada to refuel because they were using a short haul plane on a long haul flight. The flight entertainment did not work. I would advise anyone reading this to pay that bit extra and do not fly with this airline. We flew with them on a return flight from Orlando on the 9th May 2008. The leg and seat room was ridiculous, there was no physical way you could have got into the brace position if you needed to. After the 5 hour delay when we had finally boarded the sorry excuse for an aircraft we were kept sitting on the runway in the dark for 20 minutes with no announcement or information. The staff did not attempt to alleviate the situation, they were abrupt and rude and casually dismissed anyone who dare ask why none of the headphones worked. We sat for 9 hours with no entertainment whatsoever expect for the 4 fuzzy tv sets that were placed throughout the plane, you could look at them but no one on the flight had any way of hearing anything! We were travelling in a plane that could not fly no longer than 5 hours so we had to stop in Canada to refuel. I understand that this is a budget airline and you get what you pay for but there is no excuse for all of things that we had to put up with. We were given a drink and a meal at the beginning of the flight and were not offered anything else for 6 hours. An hour before we were about to land we were told that the bar was now closed, the bar that we were not told even existed! I have flown with several budget airlines and had bad experiences before but I have never experienced anything like it.

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