MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES   Passenger Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  9 December  2009 by W Staab   (USA)

Budapest-Paris, plane clean, comfortable seats. Check in was prompt, service onboard was polite and professional. Announcements in Hungarian and English (not in French). Served a sandwich (ham or cheese but the ham was bologna), drink run and then later coffee/tea served. Malev now again has printed timetable available which is a plus. Arrival on time and a pleasant flight

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  1 December  2009 by Stephen D'Arcy   (Belgium)

Brussels-Budapest return. Flights on 737-700 comfortable in economy: plenty of room for overhead baggage (less and less the case - sorry, no pun intended! - see my latest review of Brussels Airlines). Pleasantly surprised to be served ham or cheese sandwich, then choice of cold drinks inc. red/white wine, then tea/coffee at no charge. Staff polite and efficient. Malev have several promotions at present, not only on fares (I paid EURO 73 return all-in), but on luxury hotel packages and even a "dental tourism" package - yes, I have signed up for New Year. They offered cut-price mini-bus transfer from the airport to anywhere in ther capital for HUF 2990 return (around EURO 11) - a real plus when your flight arrives after 22.30.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  15 November  2009 by S Mladenovic   (Netherlands)

AMS-BUD-LCA, Malev is my preferred airline when I fly home to Cyprus from Amsterdam. Check- in in Amsterdam and Larnaca is smooth, transit in Budapest quite efficient, especially in the evening when it's less crowded. The hub in Budapest is undergoing a renovation and looks and smells a lot better than it did a year ago! The flights are comfortable and punctual - food consists of simple, small sandwiches, so bring some extra food! Cabin crew never made a huge impression on me but never made problems either. Excellent value for money but no frills.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  24 October  2009 by Joerg Lehnert   (Germany)

Berlin (TXL) via Budapest to Odessa. Both flights were on time, luggage arrived and planes more or less clean. Malev has quietly abandoned most of its onboard service for Economy Class passengers on its short and medium haul connections. Of course they did not announce this deterioration. You basically get an orange juice and a tea/coffee. Forget a meal or newspapers. That is acceptable if the flight has a duration of less than 60 minutes. However if you use their Budapest hub for changing planes it will take you much longer than just an hour. Sadly Malev has become a low service airlines, which does not necessarily mean a low cost airline. Would I use them again: only if they are the cheapest.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  16 October  2009 by Jean Louis Vergaert   (UK)

Budapest to Sofia Business Class : check-in speedy but impersonal. Lounge is acceptable, not luxurious and no free internet, but roomy. We had to board through buses, which adds to the confusion. A comfortable business class cabin, large, comfy seats, and you have a free seat next to you. Orange juice before take-off, main course nothing outstanding. Decent wine served with a smile. Fortunately the arrival at Sofia was to a jetty, so no more chaotic bus ride. It is nothing outstanding, but cabin is very good and there is nothing to complain about.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  13 October  2009 by T Deasy   (UK)

London Gatwick to Budapest. Staff were friendly (not overly so) and efficient. Plane looked to be fairly new. We got a sandwich tea+ coffee/soft drink/water and Hungarian wine (don't know if you get other alcoholic drinks) free. Nobody hassled us to buy duty free or lottery tickets or any other refreshments like some airlines. You don't have to check in online, if you don't want to. Check in was efficient and staff were helpful. We asked for a window seat and sat together - and got one, no problem without having to pay anything extra. You don't get any extras but what you get is value for money and on time flights.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  18 September  2009 by B Kovacs   (Hungary)

CDG-BUD-CDG 6 times in the last half year, 5 flights with Malév (7 with Air France), on Boeing 737-600 and 700, Economy class. Very basic service from tired-looking FAs, never accompanied with a smile, they often complained among themselves in Hungarian while serving the passengers, often saying disrespectful things about pax not understanding their language : an extremely big negative point. Planes overall in excellent condition, equipped with overhead entertainment system, showing Oneworld and information about the flight. Online or self- service check-in unfortunately not available from Paris at all, from Budapest only if your flight is operated by Malév and you have a Malév ticket. Self-service check-in machines at BUD are often frozen, or not working at all. Legroom is generous, seat width is OK. Does not matter which flight you take, you will only get a small sandwich, not too much for this 2 hour flight. Once upgraded to business class: a different service from 2 attentive FAs, frequent rounds to satisfy all our needs, delicious hot meal. Personal space is a bit bigger than on Y class, but Malév still puts 3 business class passengers on 3 seats next to each other - I prefer the Air France and Lufthansa solution, where the middle seat is left empty.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  30 August  2009 by P Hyvönen   (Finland)

HEL-BUD return economy. Morning flight to Budapest was ok, although cabin personnel do have quite reserved attitude towards customers (even by Finnish standards) and service was not too overwhelming. Return was spoiled already at the check in - terminal 2A ended up being a big mess. Only few Malev flights, long queues, too little desks open (and too little personnel to take care of queue) it ended up in chaos where quite a few missed their flights. I was lucky to make it, started queuing 2h15min before flight and got my boarding pass just over 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Easy to guess that while writing this the bag is still on the way!

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  21 August 2009 by S Gregorn   (Croatia)

BUD-TGM-BUD on quite old Dash 8. Flights on time, FAs friendly enough, service acceptable for a cheap 29 EUR flight, but I wouldn't be happy with it paying 420 EUR what flight for ZAG costs. However, there are definitely better airlines in middle Europe than MALEV.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  14 July 2009 by Christopher Adam   (Canada)

Budapest-Sarajevo return. Service onboard Malev has deteriorated significantly over the past two years, making this a below average airline. Check-in at Budapest Airport chaotic and disorganized, and the self-check-in machine was out of order. Flight attendants offered passengers in economy class small boxes of artificial orange juice and inedible chocolate wafers. There was no choice at all when it came to drinks, with the exception of tea or coffee to complement the juice box. Add to the poor service the fact that Malév prices on its Budapest to Sarajevo route are very high. Malév could once pride itself on excellent service, but now it pales in comparison to what British Airways offers on its short-haul routes.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  27 June 2009 by S Gregg   (Spain)

BUD-MAD on a 737-700. One of the perks Malev offers you is online checkin which is seldom used by most people flying with Malev. Combine this with the absurdly low number of Biz pax and you get Biz seats for grabs! Service will be still Economy (sadly declining sharply over the past 2 years). The only attractive thing about Malev is they fly this route cheaper now than the usual Wizz tickets.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  25 June 2009 by Shane Larkin   (Ireland)

Booked via my company to fly from Dublin to Budapest - After being in the check-in queue for almost 20 minutes (no electronic check-in in Dublin) . Got to the desk and told there was a problem with my ticket in that I didn't have a seat on the plane as they have changed the aircraft to a smaller one - this I heard also happened to 50 others! Now bearing in mind I had booked an early flight to catch an important meeting in Budapest at 13:00 - the only option I was given was to catch a plane to Paris and then onto Budapest and I would arrive there at 18:00! Never again will I risk to fly with them - Malev should be ashamed of themselves !

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  15 June 2009 : by B Boros  (UK)

LGW-BUD-LGW in business class. I fly BA on this route very often and decided to give Malev a go for a change. The service is frankly shocking. Surly, unsmiling ground staff at Budapest, an every-man-for-himself scrum at the gate once boarding is announced, a 20 minute wait on a packed hot bus to be shuttled to the plane, followed by a 20 minute wait on the tarmac as a full aircraft boards through one stairway. The flight attendants tried hard, but were clearly frazzled, and the meal consisted of dry chicken in sweet and sour paprika sauce served on a white napkin. If considering flying Malev business class, my advice would be to save your money and fly BA economy - it's better in almost every way.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  1 June 2009 : by T Hentunen  (Finland)

Seems like the standards at Malev are going down. This time had a return flight from HEL to BUD. Service was very poor in economy. Got an upgrade to business on a way back, in which the food and service were quite nice. But in economy, Malev feels like very low-cost. If I had a choice, I would rather fly a airline like Turkish, Lufthansa or Finnair, which have much better standards on same routes.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review :  29 May 2009 : by Simon Smith  (UK)

OTP-BUD-ARN economy on Malev. OTP-BUD on very old and noisy F70. Service provided was a bag of pretzels and a drink. Connection at BUD was okay, queues not too bad but buses to/from planes, and airport very busy. Due to BA exec club status I used the Malev lounge, which was small, basic and crowded. BUD-ARN was on B737-800 which was newer but uncomfortable due to a combination of high cabin temperature and plastic covered seats, which got hot and sticky. Snack was a small cheese roll with 1 piece of lettuce. The only good thing about the flight was getting out of the plane into fresh air at ARN. Would avoid Malev in future where possible.

MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES customer review : 25 May 2009 : by C Rocha

Customer Rating : 3/5

MAD-BUD-MAD Economy Codeshared with Iberia. Plane clean and staff attentive, on return check- in at Ferihegy was fast and courteous. I think they don’t serve alcohol on economy. A small sandwich juice or water and coffee served free of charge. Again flight personnel were attentive and friendly. The plane was a Boeing 737-700 and was new.