STERLING AIRLINES review : 7 September 2008 : by P Grogal

Customer Rating : 3/5

Gatwick - Billund. Firstly, they changed the flight schedule to one hour after the original time (which was slightly annoying for me) but they notified me of this a few weeks before departure. Check in at Gatwick was easy. Onboard, I found the interior very old and worn out, as were the cabin crew. However, the flight was just over an hour and very cheap, so I wasn't really complaining.

STERLING AIRLINES review : 29 August 2008 : by Alan Mackenzie

Customer Rating : 4/5

CPH/ARN/CPH. I agree with Yevheniy Kahanovych (22 August. The queue for the 9 open check in desks for my trip on a Wednesday mid-morning was huge. Luckily a Sterling employee was helpful and gave some good advice - The check in kiosk machines in terminal 2 near Sterlings desks are reconfigured to accept booking codes and credit cards for printing out boarding cards, whereas the other kiosks in the airport only give the option of passport or FFP card. The flights to and from Stockholm were good, but the plane interiors are in need of refurbishment.

STERLING AIRLINES review : 22 August 2008 : by Yevheniy Kahanovych

Customer Rating : 4/5

I used it for two short hops between Stockholm and Malmo and Stockholm and Copenhagen. Check in is a stress if you have to queue, as lines are horribly long and quite disorganized. Checking in with machines I had a hard time in Stockholm where machine couldn't recognize my credit card 4 or 5 times. Nobody around to help. Low cost - no service so far. Flights were on time. Nothing to write home about. Planes were clean, but tired. Seat pitch ok for 50 min flight. Check in in Copenhagen was ok, machine was working fine, my card was detected from the first time, boarding pass (now just a smallish piece of paper) issued. It was my first ever experience with low-coster. What can I say. I was on leisure trip, had no baggage, and had alternative options if flight canceled. For SEK560 roundtrip it was a good value for money. Otherwise I would fly full-service airline.

STERLING AIRLINES review : 1 August 2008 : by K Wulff

Customer Rating : 3/5

I have flown Sterling numerous times. Not a great airline, but fair relationship between price and quality. In Scandinavia often slightly cheaper than Norwegian, but also slightly poorer service. Beware, however, that check-in and bag-drop in Copenhagen Airport can be chaotic, especially in the morning, when loads of planes depart at the same time. I have nearly missed my flight a couple of times. You can check in at the machines, however, so if you only have carry-on luggage, there is no stress.

STERLING AIRLINES review : 16 July 2008 : by L Hansen

Customer Rating : 1/5

I have flown with Sterling 3 times in the past 3 months, 2 flights Copenhagen to London and one trip London to Copenhagen. All 3 occasions the flights have been delayed by 3,4 and 6 hours. Little information given and departure time kept getting bumped back by 30 minutes regularly. The first time this occured I was not offered any food/drink vouchers. The 2nd and 3rd time I was, however it barely covered the cost of a sandwich and drink. Staff were hard to find for explanations and quite rude at times.

STERLING AIRLINES review : 1 May 2008 : by J Loldrup

Customer Rating : 2/5

DUB-LAX-DUB. Couldn't fault the trip over to LAX as we had our own screens and on demand entertainment. Staff friendly. However on way home we only had the small screens and it was impossible to see them. Otherwise it was fine.

Sterling Airlines by Alan Mackenzie

23 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

CPH-FLR-CPH. No on-ine check in, but plenty of ticket issuing machines at Copenhagen airport ment we could get our boarding cards without queuing. Bag drop was easy. We took the option of prebooking our seats at a cost of Dkk 65 per seat, which was worth the money. We find Sterling always opens their check in desks nice and early. What was not so good was on both flights to and from Florence there were seatbacks which did not stay fully upright. Outward; the row in front of us 2 seats 5-8%. Return flight; my centre seat 6-10%, so much so that the person behind me kept pushing the seat upright during takeoff and climb, until I explained the seat was broken. (The opposite occurred with my companion's seat which could not be reclined at all!). But these, for us, were minor issues and were fully made up for by friendly and efficient FAs. On the return flight all the passengers were given free food and drink as a compensation for the lack of duty free goods on board. (No spirits though). Both trips were pretty much on time.

Sterling Airlines by Paul Jacobsen

23 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Domestic flight ARN-GOT. Self-service check-in machines are now available at Arlanda, they are quite easy to use and I could even choose my seat. On this short domestic flight I was surprised to be offered a tasty chicken sandwich and mineral water for free. If it is not a one-time event, Sterling would then be much better than SAS on Swedish domestic flights. Legroom on the B737-700 was tight, though: bearable on a 50-minute-hop, quite a challenge on longer Mediterranean flights.

Sterling Airlines by Sarah Berry

12 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Stockholm to Amsterdam. I was impressed with this budget airline in my first flight with them. Check in was quick and efficient, my excess luggage was cheap. I got the seat of my choice, plane was clean and new, boarded on time and arrived at Amsterdam early! Flight crew friendly and informative.

Sterling Airlines by Mats Genberg

30 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

CPH-CDG return. I must say this so called low-cost carrier in no way offered an inferior product compared to SAS or AF that I normally fly. I took the option of booking seat 1C/1F at an additional charge of abot €25 each way. Paid a total of about €230 return. Outbound: 737-500. Half full. Had seat 1C. No one else in entire row 1. No wall in front meant unlimited legroom! A bit noisy. Spent a total of €13 euro on sandwich, coke, cofee and a cognac. All in all a "business-class experience" at low-cost carrier price. Landing at CDG T3. 10 minutes total wait for luggage. RER station a few minutes walk away. Return - empy T3 with no lines and plenty of seats. Better shopping than at horrible T1. And a lot more flightside space than AF's own T2. Best intereuropean terminal at CDG by far! But only 6 or so flights in the entire day. All in all the most pleasant Paris flight I've had in years. T3 has totally changed my view on CDG. No thrills, but no horror. It works. It's airy.

Sterling Airlines by J George

29 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

I'd used Maersk (Sterling predecessor) before but was unaware they now operated to Sweden direct from LGW. I was impressed - flights were £100 or so cheaper than BA/SAS and only £50 more than Ryanair. I flew both legs on the later PM flight, which was flown in a fairly new ex-Maersk B737NG, which was clean. Staff friendly, both legs on time. You had to pay for drinks/ meals, but these could be pre-booked on their website, and last time I flew SAS you also had to pay for these. If you're willing to pay a little more to be treated like a fare paying customer, but wish to save on the (remarkably similar!) prices offered by BA/SAS, then it's worth shelling out that extra £50 notes or so on a Ryanair price to fly Sterling.

Sterling Airlines by Robert Jan

3 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Last may I had planned a trip from Stockholm (ARN) to Gothenburg. Early flight out and late flight back on the same day. After checking in and passing through security I noticed the flight had suddenly been cancelled. At the counter I was given a one page info sheet with a summary of the EU regulation and my rights. The phone number provided led me to customer service only to tell me I could take the next flight in the afternoon. That would have connected nicely with my return trip! Other alternatives not available. Thus I claimed the compensation mentioned in their leaflet through the provided email address. Only to receive "out of use" reply. The first two letters by snail-mail were "lost" but I received a reply to the third stating that there were extraordinary circumstances and they had done all they could reasonably be expected to do. Tried to call them but that can only be done between 9 and 11 am. I'll be interested to hear what the problem was and what they had done that I was not aware of. Perhaps I was the only passenger?

Sterling Airlines by K Hudson

2 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LGW-ARL Good value. Booked months in advance for a morning departure which was subsequently removed from the timetable. Well communicated by e-mail but on checking my reservation, which had been moved to the afternoon departure, I found that the paid for extra leg room seat reservations had not been carried over to the new flight. A quick call to customer services resolved the issue but glad I checked. Very friendly and efficient onboard staff.

Sterling Airlines by Barrie John

29 December 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

First time I tried them as they fly direct to LGW from STO. Seats do not recline and food is expensive. Staff are friendly and helpful and like to sell seats with extra legroom. Cheeky! Spoke to another passenger and he wonders if they get bonus for Delay excuse of the month! Cheap no frills and you get there in the end. Do not use for connecting travel - you have been warned!

Sterling Airlines by Alan Mackenzie

4 December 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

CPH-FCO-CPH. Due to snow in Norway the outward plane to Italy was delayed, but Sterling did not abandon the flight. For the return flight Sterling had to deal with a lightning strike by the Italian Air Traffic Control at Rome airport, and again although we were delayed by 6 hours, Sterling did not give up the scheduled flight; plus they gave us passengers a snack coupon - very nice - especially as they are not responsible in the event of a strike! Good flights, professional staff.

Sterling Airlines by Terry Stokes

27 November 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

AMS-CPH. Quick check-in, assigned seating and on-time departure. Inflight service good. Only problem is they tend to use gates well away from luggage hall. CPH-CDG self check-in which is simple and fast. Again, assigned seating and flight left on-time. Inflight service again good with an early arrival in Paris. This is the first time I have flown with Sterling and for a budget airline, they are the best I have come across.

Sterling Airlines by S Flanagan

4 November 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Used this airline for the first time flying from East Midlands airport to Copenhagen. For the low price of the return ticket this airline offers great value for money. The flight staff were friendly. I would use Sterling again - its no frills but gets ypu from A to B at a great price.

Sterling Airlines by Barbara Clark

10 October 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

CPH-TXL. Thank goodness only one way. Queued for 45 minutes to check in (for a 40 minute flight), and although members of Sterling staff were standing around to help passengers check in at the machines, their reaction to my request to open more check-in desks was that they couldn't do anything about the situation. The flight was also a miserable experience. The ancient loooking, non-matching seat rows are so close together and the seats are so straight that the head rest actually makes your head tip forward. With the competition that Sterling has on the Copenhagen to Berlin route, I shall certainly not be flying with this airline again.

Sterling Airlines by Paul Jacobsen

17 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

ARN-GOT. Sterling now operates ARN-GOT and ARN-MMX on a regular basis. A major advantage versus SAS is that Sterling's low-fares are available even at short notice, at least on domestic flights. I booked my flight 3 days before travel and paid only half of SAS fare. The cabin crew was friendly and helpful. Seat assignment at check-in translated into hassle-free boarding. But the free cup of coffee has now been withdrawn. Unfortunately seat pitch has not improved since my last experience; it must be 28 or 29in at most, which is nearly unbearable even on this 50min flight!

Sterling Airlines by Anita Sjögren

13 May 2007   Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Flying Sterling from Barcelona 11 May 2007 was an interesting experience, to say the least. To find the right check-in counter was hardly a piece of cake. And after waiting in line for an hour or so (mainly due to computer failure) we were greeted with the stern message that our baggage was too heavy, 41 kilos instead of 30 for two passengers. We pointed out that Sterling had checked us in a week earlier at Arlanda without raising even en eyebrow at our 40 kilos. Why should we have to suffer for lack of info about the newly-introduced 30-kilo-rule? No sympathy was forthcoming. We were ordered to go to a different terminal to pay 8 euro per overweight kilo. Needless to say we expect to get our money back.

Sterling Airlines by Paul Jacobsen

9 March 2007   Customer Trip Rating : n/a

ARN-MMX return. Sterling is temporarily operating this route, following FlyMe's bankruptcy. The cabin crew is Sterling's valuable asset, definitely: pretty, helpful and smart in their uniforms. They even offered a free cup of coffee, a nice touch. On the downside seat pitch is incredibly narrow, it would feel very uncomfortable on longer flights. If you happen to travel on B737-700, that Sterling took over from Maersk Air, choose a seat in the first eight rows. It is much more larger there.

Sterling Airlines by Jakob Sandager

22 January 2007

Now I have tried Sterling and hopefully I'll never have to fly them again. Supposed to leave LGW 0855 on January 18th. But we didn't. Flight arrived a little late. Apparently some technical problem had occured on the way from CPH so at the beginning we expected a minor delay. This turned out to be a 4 hours delay. Fair enough, the major problem was the jetbridge that could not be moved. The only problem was the lack of information. The informed us approximately ½ hour after we should have departed and then we got a 5 Pound voucher and told we should look at the monitors in the departure hall. After some 3½ hours we could finally board and departed some 4 hours late. It took the pilots close to 45 minutes before they informed us about the flight. The flight itself was really nothing special. I really don't like the way they try to sell the seats with extra legroom. But money is money. So to sum up. It wasn't that bad had they just kept us informed. Anyway I would much rather fly SK or even BA.

Sterling Airlines by Edmund Greene

27 October 2006

Beware that if things go wrong on your flight with Sterling, you are likely to receive terrible customer service. When I came to check in for a flight recently from Copenhagen to Edinburgh, the groundstaff didn't even know whether the incoming plane was going to be 2 hours late, 5 hours late, or not coming until the next day. Then they gathered the plane would come but would be about 4 hours late, so they encouraged passengers to check in. But half an hour before the delayed departure time it emerged that there still was no plane ... no plane was even yet on the way, and Sterling was still trying to borrow a plane from another airline. Eventually, after another 2 hours a plane borrowed from a Dutch charter airline did arrive, and after another hour's delay in Copenhagen we could eventually board and have the privilege of taking off - in total nearly 7 hours after the scheduled departure time. Sterling's only explanation for the nearly 7-hour delay was 'technical problems'. So far Sterling has refused to pay for reasonable expenses incurred because of this delay, and their 'customer service' hasn't shown the faintest idea of what customer service should be. My advice: avoid Sterling like the plague. Sterling is far worse than some budget airlines, like EasyJet.

Sterling Airlines by Tim Salter

13 October 2006

Sterling need to get their act together and be more consistent. Flew with them LGW-BLL on Monday this week and on check-in asked for an Exit aisle seat. No problem they said and I was given 10C. On the way back yesterday I asked for either a row 1 or an Exit and was told you I couldn't as I had to pay more for these. "OK, I said, how much more?" to the check-in agent. "I don't know" she said. "So how do I get to know and who do I pay" said I. "I don't know" she said. So then I went to the Sterling office. "Ah, you could pay on board, its 149DKr for an Exit row and 49DKr for row 1" said the helpful girl. So on-board I asked and the FA said "no both row 1 and Exit seats are 149Dkr". More inconsistency resulted with my hand-baggage. At LGW they just looked at the dimensions and said it was OK. At BLL they weighed it and said it was too heavy. I then had a lengthy argument and it was only when I said it was considerably lighter now than coming out as I had left some equipment behind did they relent. COmre on Sterling, get some consistency in your operation.

Sterling Airlines by Andreas Larsen

26 August 2006

ATH to OSL on a seasonal summer service. I wish it could a year round service though. Excellent service, expecting low quality and but yet the aircraft interior was top notch, excellent temperature (due to air conditioning) after a stay in a warm summer day in Athens, cabin crew young and efficient not to say very professional. The buy-on- board menu was good with fresh products and even the possibility later to buy ice-cream for just Kr10! We were also given from the Athens check-in staff (OA Handling, very efficient though) exit row seats with excellent legroom. SAS should start taking some lessons in what service and efficiency means. At least from this particular flight (ATH-OSL). All in all a very pleasurable experience and the fare paid for three people was extremely low, lower than the domestic flight from SKG to ATH.

Sterling Airlines by Tom Grant

22 August 2006

FRA-CPH-FRA in early August. Both segments on time. Pleasant experience on board with very attentive cabin attendants and comfortable seating. The only complaint we had was the very long check-in process at Copenhagen, Sterling really needs to add a few more counters!

Sterling Airlines by Christoffer Madsen

21 June 2006

As a university-student with many friends abroad, I usually book my tickets through Sterling as I cant afford SAS' and other of the traditional carriers' fares. However, in the past 12 months I have had so many unfortunate experiences flying with Sterling, that I will strongly consider to fly less but pay more, to secure a more reliable service. First of all, Sterling never seems to be on time. Delays of 30+ minutes seem to be a part of the company's mission. Lack of information when things go wrong, slow check-in and old, worn-out planes could easily be part of it as well. Secondly Sterling doesnt allow people to eat and drink their own stuff on board. In other words, you are forced to pay indecent prices for average sandwiches and drinks, unless you eat in the airport prior to the flight (which is also costly if the airport is CPH!). It's bearable on short intra-european flights, but forcing people to pay 8 euros for a coke and a sandwich on flights to e.g the Canary Islands (5 hours from CPH) is ripping off the customers. Today I got back from Madrid flying with Spanair and I noticed what a difference it was from Sterling. Refreshments were much cheaper, we were on time, FA's smiling and friendly, all information given in Spanish, English and Danish, and they even put on a film - a thing I've never seen on intra- european flights before!

Sterling Airlines by Y Billis

10 December 2005

I recently flew from Copenhagen - Athens - Copenhagen on Sterling. I bought the ticket on the internet and it was very cheap. Check-in at Copenhagen was hectic but the flight was good, departed on time, the service efficient and the aircraft was satisfactory. The return flight was also good. During check-in in Athens I was told to take two pieces of luggage (out of four) through a different conveyor belt for "irregular objects". These two pieces of luggage stayed in Athens and didn't arrive to my house until the next evening. Apart from that incident, which is probably the fault of Athens airport (that coneyor belt is used to check-in irregular objects for all the airlines), I can only say that Sterling was very good value-for-money.

Sterling Airlines- by Alexander Michael

22 September 2005

I fly Sterling quite regularly between Rome and Copenhagen and generally find the quality of the product to be consistently high. Sterling is an ex charter airlines founded in Denmark somewhere back in the Sixties which has reinvented itself as a low-cost carrier. Because it's an airline with tradition, and because crew members are not all twenty years old, one actually feels like being on a "real" airline that knows what it is doing. What I most like about Sterling, however, is the fact that the website advertises the price that one will actually end up paying with taxes and supplements already included. I think that is honest, rather than piling surcharges on top of the advertised fare, as most other airlines do. That said, I recently experienced a glitch. Having entered my credit card information, I got an error message. I tried making the reservation again and was successful. Subsequently, I received two confirmation e-mails, because the first reservation had gone through after all. Thus, I found myself holding two reservations made within two minutes of each other. I called up Sterling in Copenhagen and quite frankly had to argue far too much to have the second reservation cancelled. Sterling uses pre seating (must be a reminiscence of its charter days) which can be annoying, but it makes boarding procedures smooth. Check-in has never been a problem, far better than SAS in Economy actually. Of course inflight meals are a rip-off, so don't buy them. Sterling's fares are not particularly low, but when you get one of the lowest fares, the value-for-money is indisputable.

 

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