Air Berlin

DUS-MIA-DUS in economy on the A330 new seats finally with IFE. About 12 movies (some in Arabic) episodes of US sitcoms and music styles. Seats small and with legroom only for people under 1.80metre. I got row 33 next to the toilet unreclinable. Food ok. Generous dispatch of beverages (wine or beer for meals) bottle of water before the night. Friendly staff on both legs.

Do not travel with Air Berlin if you are over 6 feet tall. Leg room is unheard of and it is just very unpleasant for flights of 3 or more hours. Cabin crew are helpful planes are fairly new and I would probably fly them again within Europe if prices are reasonable but never again for long haul! Food not terrible nor great either. Also keep in mind that the seats themselves are very small and luckily it was me and my wife traveling together or else it would be a very uncomfortable experience to be pasted up to a stranger. We are both very skinny people and yet we were all up in each others personal space. I took carry on bags and did not checked anything in due to hearing all the horror stories of lost baggage and I recommend you doing the same if your trip is short enough but keep in mind it needs to be under 10kg.

Trip from Abu Dhabi to Phuket. The plane is new the overall look is ok entertainment is ok as well (just a few movies and all in English and German). But leg room is ridiculously small the seats are very hard and the food is just ok. Adding to this a very unpleasant crew. I will avoid flying Air Berlin on long distances in the future.

2 domestic flights in mid-March (FRA-TXL TXL-MUN) as prices were very reasonable. Flights themselves were unremarkable and indeed I was surprised that snacks were handed out on such short flights (1 hr 25 mins). Biggest complaints have to do with having to take a bus to/from the gate out to the planes. Additionally the boarding process and check-in area for domestic AB flights at TXL is horrible! AB ground staff are rude and unhelpful. Ticketing/check-in/boarding area for Tegel is one of the most inefficiently planned and run CFs that I have ever had the displeasure to experience. Combine that with no train line to the airport (just a severely overcrowded and unpleasant bus route to get to Alexanderplatz or Hbf). Will avoid flying out of TXL at all costs.

Flew Abu Dhabi to Phuket . Flight was most uncomfortable hardly any leg room seats uncomfortable rude cabin crew awful food. Seat back television broke down a couple of times and had to be restarted. Would never travel with them again.

Phuket to Abu Dhabi on 17th March 2013. Booked as part of a codeshare return flight with Etihad. Having read previous reviews on Air Berlin I was not looking forward to this flight sector. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how polite the cabin staff were. The plane was clean and tidy and the overall comfort was not much different to Etihad. The meal I had was typical Plane fare and a little less presentable than Etihad but edible non the less. The seat back TV did not have as much to choose from compared to say Eitihad or Emirates but fine for a 6 hour flight. Flight was on time.

Connecting flight from OSL through TXL to FRA. Flight from OSL delayed. Connection in TXL to FRA could have been reached but Air Berlin did nothing to support connecting passengers (direct bus transfer) and even after running to the gate boarding was denied with the aircraft still at the gate! Re-booked to next flight to FRA more than 3hrs later. No support whatsoever. After finally reaching FRA suitcase was still in Berlin. Today (2 days later) the luggage still hasn't arrived.

Flight Munich-Fuerteventura-Tenerife (back: TFS-MUC). Poor service: only a sandwich although we were onboard for more than 5 hours (with one stop in Fuerteventura where we had to stay on board). From the 5 meals you could buy there were only 2 available (cost more than 10€). On the way back our video monitor didn't work and we only had 1 music channel working. Worst of all: very unfriendly crew. We flew already with TUI-fly and Condor (Thomas Cook) to the Canary Islands and had a much better service and friendlier staff on board. I won't say: never again but if I can choose between Air Berlin and another airline Air Berlin will be the loser.

GDN-TXL-TFS-TXL-GDN. In general not bad flights for quite competitive price although with some disadvantages. The main of them is Terminal C on Tegel Airport which is dedicated mainly for Air Berlin short and medium distance flights. It's overcrowded and not sufficient for big amount of departures. In result both our departures from TXL were delayed. The other disadvantage is poor in-flight entertainment. On mid-range flights it's limited to some sitcoms and one movie presented on ceiling monitors. Amount and quality of food is not sufficient for over 4 hours long flight. Fortunately we didn't experience any rudeness of cabin crew as some other reviewers did. In fact we found almost all of members of crew polite and attentive.

2 flights - Abu Dhabi to Phuket return. Insufficient leg room rude staff. We were stranded in Phuket on the return leg due to a broken aircraft. No one from Air Berlin appeared to know what was going on - we eventually left Phuket 25 hours late. Put up overnight after almost a full night at the airport in the most basic of hotels. Then our bags got left in Abu Dhabi. Will never fly with them again.