PRIVATAIR review : 28 April 2008 : by Tracy Miller

Customer Rating : 4/5

Flew Lufthansa Privatair all business class ORD to DUS (A319) and then regular Lufthansa business FRA to DFW (A340-300). If you have a choice between the two, do not do the Privatair, horrible seats, antiquated handheld entertainment with very little selection, mediocre food and rushed economy like service, all in all not worth the business class fare at all. In comparison, the return flight from Frankfurt was a dream, great seats, pretty good food, in flight entertainment, and a really top notch crew.

PRIVATAIR review : 12 April 2008 : by M Ludolf

Customer Rating : 3/5

DUS-EWR return: A319LR on both legs, C class only. The cabin staff was friendly and professional, both flights on time and food what can be expected of airlines in this class - nothing exciting but not all bad. Seats do not recline to a full 180 degrees which makes sleeping a bit of a problem. IFE was a handheld system with a limited choice. If possible I recommend to keep an empty seat next to you to have room to store pillows, blankets, the IFE. If there is someone next to you space is limited despite the few number of seats in the aircraft. All in all I had better LH flights with other carriers.

PrivatAir - by K Mandrysz

8 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

FRA to Newark. Seats and IFE old fashioned but still comfortable. Food prepared by Lufthansa and was ok. The service was very courteous, and liked the special check in area and the quick boarding.

PrivatAir - by Stefan Rustscheff

28 October 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

ORD-DUS. Easy booking at First Counter, miserable wait in grubby Red Carpet Club. Seat 1a. Lovely looking staff which served adequate champers and drinks as well as wine, but exactly the same food as Lufthansa. Access to Senator lounge in DUS in spite of flying business and not first. Angled lie seat was old, not particularly wide (the extra 1.5 inches are eaten up by a hard edge which is 1 inch on every side), had quite a remarkable angle downwards and was easily the worst of the following: BA; SAS; KLM; SWISS in order of excellence. IFE is on demand, but as others have pointed out, with one half of the ordinary LH programme (and the same, which makes the availability even less if You choose to go Private for just one lap as I did. Breakfast omelette was inedible. All in all a fair to good experience but with drawbacks for the chair. I suggest You sleep on your side. That worked for me. In any case flying Privatair is not flying your private jet. It is flying in a small Airbus with kind air hostesses, fast checkin, superior lounge access but a bad seat, and due to the tiny aircraft, actually a bumpy flight, something I have never experienced before. I will consider flying them again, but LH as such was actually more comfortable and just as friendly, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

PrivatAir - by Juan Vargas

5 October 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

I flew Privatair (on behalf of Swiss International) for the first time and hope to do so again in the foreseeable future. The flight was booked to capacity (when isn’t?) but the flight attendants on both flight to and from Europe handled everything with such a breeze. Immediately upon settling to our seats not 10 seconds go by and we are offered water, juice, wine, or champagne (all served in glass not plastic) and provided with menus for the evening’s meal. The outbound flight had a two hours dely but not the fault of the airline; all nyc airports were shut down to both incoming and outgoing traffic as it was the same day the General Assembly convened and all the delegates began to depart New York. Once we were airborne the meal service began; it was very impressive seeing how friendly and professional a five course meal could be handed out with a smile; this truly is a lost art among air carriers here in the US (regardless of the cabin booked in my opinion). The meal itself was quite tasty and filling and everyone seemed to get what they wanted. After the final morsel of food was presented, coffee poured, the lights dimmed and as if almost on queue everyone settled in for the remaining 5 ¾ hours of the flight. The seats themselves are pretty comfortable and they do the “lie flat thing” that everyone seems to be so enamored with but at a slight angle. I myself do not care for the lie flat type of seat whether it be angle or no angle, (I have flown Singapore, Cathay, British to name a few) but that’s another story, I just positioned my seat into recliner mode and I was good. The pillows were comfortable if not just a bit small but there were plenty to go around; the blanket was well just that; a blanket that did its job. With the delay in departure in-flight entertainment was on a request basis as the crew I’m sure was aware that the majority of the passengers just wanted to go to sleep, and that was the case as no one requested one of the hand-held personal DVD player. If there is one negative thing I’d have to say about Privatair it would have to do with the IFE; it’s not that good, plain and simple. It gets a bit tiresome having to hold the dvd player on your lap or having to take out the tray table. In addition the available movies handed out on discs are somewhat dated, and are not the films listed in the Swiss in-flight magazine. This was not an issue as I had a good book and my Mp3 player (and the window to look out of) with me so I really didn’t mind the poor inflight entertainment . I am sure Privatair has heard this complaint before and they will address this issue soon. If anyone has the chance to fly Privatair in the future please do not think twice about doing so, you will be most pleasantly surprised.

PrivatAir - by René van Zijl

11 December 2006

Had flights between Dusseldorf and Newark recently in Airbus 319. In a way I like the concept of having a limited number of paasengers, 48 in my case. The service is adequate and so is the food and the wine. Not good are the seats with a sliding down effect. Why not directly horizontally, a trend that cannot be avoided! The IFE is a personal DVD player, which is quite unpractical. An integrated system into the seat would have been much better, as there is hardly room to place the device and the extra cables are a pain in the neck. The movies on the way to Newark were the same as on the way back. A Swiss lack of fantasy I presume. All in all I give them three stars as a maximum, since seating is the most important point to me, besides flying on time!

PrivatAir - by Andreas Calatzis

6 September 2006

IAH-AMS 737 - regarding the other comments the 319 LR seems to be more comfortable than the 737 they use on this route. The plane is quite loud inside, seats were less comfortable than the Air France 777 to paris that goes IAH-CDG. Food OK, good service. Next time I will fly over Paris with Air France on this route.

PrivatAir - by Johannes Boecker

21 February 2006

MUC to EWR. The new seats are quite good: fully flat and lots of space. The flight attendants are friendly (much better than Lufthansa) and tried very hard to satisfy every customer. The meals are standard Lufthansa business class meals and really nothing to write home about. The light meal before landing was horrible. There were frequent drink patrols and a water bottle in every seat pocket (unlike on Lufthansa). The amenity bag is also much nicer than Lufthansa's normal bag and actually contains ear plugs and moisturizing cream (which are much needed in the standard Lufthansa bag). The only downside is the lack of personal entertainment. You do get a dvd-player but there is only a choice of 5 movies (Lufthansa advertises on their website about 20 movies but they only carry a selection of these on the Privatair flights). After having finished one movie, the dvd-player was taken away and my request for another movie was gently declined. There is also no audio entertainment. This is okay for a night flight when you want to sleep but not really acceptable for a day flight. Arriving in EWR is a real treat: no waiting times anywhere, you usually get out of the airport 20 minutes after landing.

PrivatAir - by Thorkild Lykke

2 October 2005

MUC-EWR. I chose it as transfer in MUC is much easier than in FRA and I also flew the same route in 2004. Again the service given by the PrivatAir cabin crew was excellent. Boarding started early and the crew had good time to seat the passengers, take the coats etc. Meals are the usual Lufthansa C-class meals. Normally I never choose LH for the culinary experience, but this time it was really good. The selection of wine was very much to my liking and the crew let you have a taste of the wine first before having the glass filled up. The pitch is generous, but the seats are a bit old-fashioned considering what is getting to be the standard for long-haul flights these days. To keep up with the competition I would suggest they get new IFE instead of the oldfashioned individual video players (though you have the same selection as LH F- class) and also in-seat power for laptops. Still, the service level from the crew and hazzlefree transfer in Munich as well as the fact that you arrive EWR with only 48 pax and therefore shorter waitinglines for immigration would make me choose them again - and also this routing was appx EUR1.000 less than the direct SK-flight from CPH to EWR on a return ticket!

PrivatAir - by Majed Koleilat

11 July 2005

Flew with them from Newark to Dusseldorf. They use an Airbus 319 LR, all business class seating. Comfortable seat recline well and very wide, excellent legroom. Cabin crew very attentive and spoke french german and english. Food very good. As for audiovisuals, they use small LCD players somewhat old. Overall very good to excellent.