Air Berlin

SZG-HAM-SZG on A320 both ways. Long time ago since I last flew with Air Berlin and it was a positive surprise. Both flights on time. Cabin was very clean and spotless seats are nice and not cramped. We even got coffee and tea on this one hour flight. FA's very friendly. Overall a very good experience and I would fly Air Berlin again on European routes.

After a long trip from Sydney-Abu Dhabi and a stop time of 3 hours (+1/2 hour delay) the more than 7 hours flight to Dusseldorf started. After almost 2 hours flying finally the staff offered us a small sandwich (with beef or cheese) and one cup of coffee. Another 2 hours later we got a bottle of water. Doing nothing but trying to sit compressed between my seat and the extreme tilted seat in front of me I really felt hungry. When I asked for another piece of bread I got one and the promise that there would be more served in 20 minutes. Indeed we got food. While collecting the rubbish we were offered a drink coffee? No only cold drinks. Before my experiences with Air Berlin were ok but this last flight was really unpleasant.

JFK to DUS. Great flight. 8 hour trip non stop great entertainment and staff service was excellent.

DUS-AUH on December 24th 2013. Air Berlin 7460 code-shared by Etihad. The seats don't offer much space but I was very impressed by the personal entertainment system. It basically looked like a tablet - very sharp display touch screen fast response. I've haven't seen such a great system anywhere else yet (I only fly economy though). When somebody's unit stopped working the flight attendant brought a replacement! The only drawback of this was the fact that it was a night time flight so I tried to get some sleep rather than spend the time watching movies.

ZRH to TXL and back in mid-November 2013. As an OW Sapphire member I was able to reserve a seat for free in advance additionally because I made the seat reservation only 3 days prior to departure I was able to obtain an XL seat free of charge which is something that Air Berlin normally does not offer its OW partner members. On the flight to TXL the plane type was changed without advance notice so I ended up with a normal seat but on the way back I enjoyed the larger legroom. I must say that if you're taller than 6'2 the normal seats are at the limit of what one could call comfortable. Though there is no pain or pressure in any way. The fare cost less than 5$ the rest made up of various taxes and fees and it ended up costing me around 120$. I like the fact that overall the service was good enough for this amount of low fare. Along with the good public transport connections in ZRH and TXL door-to-door cost me 135$. Departure was on time in both cases. Staff was friendly in both cases though there was nothing special about food and beverages being offered. No inflight entertainment at all bring your own.

STN-DUS-TXL. After I read lots of negative feedback about Air Berlin over here I was a bit terrified to use this airline. Actually my both flights were just fine and I can't say nothing bad. It's just 3 star airline so expect 3 star service. Cabin crew not smiling that's true. I read that on intercontinental flights lots of tall pax struggle I was just fine and picked an aisle seat as precaution. Seat comfort - just normal. Flights were departing little late but arriving on time. Check in luggage arrived with me into destination. The small plane this airline is using on route from London are extremely loud.

My reservation was for LAX to Dusseldorf to Salzburg. After I made my reservations I got 6 changes from Air Berlin. I paid for the XL seats (more leg room) from LAX to Dusseldorf. After all their changes I am now traveling from LAX to JFK to Dusseldorf to Salzburg and they gave me XL seats only from JFK to Dusseldorf and I now have a 12-hour layover in Dusseldorf. They have rude clerks on the phone. No one can make a decision without a manager and managers only work 8-5 European time.

I flew to and from Abu Dhabi to Norway and return. I was very disappointed in both the seat comfort quality of food and general service. The seats were narrow with poor leg room. In fact there was more leg room on the short flight from Oslo to Berlin than the long flight from Berlin to Abu Dhabi and they were hard and generally uncomfortable. The food on the way over was unrecognizable let alone edible with a business class passenger asking me what is was while we were awaiting customs clearance so they obviously got the same thing. The return flight food was marginally better. The staff were friendly and polite but did little to help a woman who had a 4 month old baby and a toddler who had booked a seat with a crib and didn't get it. She was basically told 'bad luck' and they left her to ask 2 other passengers if she could swap seats with them to accommodate her sitting with her child in the crib which attached to the wall. The toilets were also in a revolting state by the time we arrived at both destinations because they were not cleaned at all. I will not use this airline again. I had expected better from an affiliate of Etihad airlines who are excellent.

I am only 5'3" tall a frequent traveller and have never had any issues with legroom. Flew Budapest to Chicago round trip in economy class and was shocked at how cramped it was. If the person in front of you reclines their seat at all it is impossible to even move in your chair. The monitor was literally just a few inches from my face. I have never felt so claustrophobic on a flight before. Flight attendants do their job but with a bit of attitude. Also I had one piece of extra luggage (not overweight) on the return flight and I was charged $200 USD. Their fees are written very clearly on a piece of paper when you arrive at the airport but are very unclear and confusing on their website. Considering most airlines charge anywhere from $50-70 for an extra piece of luggage $200 is beyond ridiculous.

We paid extra for seats with leg room from Chicago to Berlin and on to Salzburg. We did get the leg room seats. However it seems that Air Berlin seats are exceptionally narrow. I did not measure the seat but my guess is that even an inch or two makes a great deal of difference. As we were taxiing in (both directions) the air conditioner condensation came dripping down onto my legs. On the way to Berlin this was a significant amount of water less so on the way back. The flight attendants who were sitting facing us and just smiled and said "condensation". While on the plane after I read for a while I attempted to turn off the overhead light. It would not go off. The flight attendant said that it had to be turned off by the computer which for the life of me I could got get into place. After he helped he could not get the computer to turn off the light. He switched computers and that still didn't work. We asked if we could change seats but there were not leg room seats available. The flight attendants tried to be very helpful. Berlin Tegel is a grey stone cold airport. Cigarette butts all over the place. Even people who were cleaning just bumped into you with the mop without a word of "excuse me" like the whole row of waiting passengers was supposed to get out of our seats while she mopped. I would not recommend Air Berlin.