Air Berlin

Alicante to Lisbon via Palma de Mallorca. First leg with AB second leg with FlyNiki. Both new comfortable planes. Pleasant crew. On time. Unfortunately at PdM instead of boarding the Lisbon flight my suitcase went to Frankfurt. However I was very impressed with the speed with which it was discovered and dispatched on the first available Lufthansa flight to Lisbon and was in my hotel before 9am the next morning. Got a numbered seat and a snack all for the same price as low cost companies like Ryanair and Easyjet.

MIA-DUS Business Class. Boarding quick and on time arrival in Dusseldorf on time. Business class is not comparable to others as the seats don't fully recline. This was more than compensated by very comfortable seats and a seat distance which is quite generous - you can easily step over neighbours seat. Crew was friendly and attentive. In view of the price business class is value for money if you don't need full recline on your seat but favour more space and friendly service.

YVR-DUS A330 DUS-STN - Q400 DUS-NYC A330 flights all enjoyable. Service friendly and included nice extra touches - candies as you board chocolates as we got off one flight overnight pack on long haul. Two hot meals on YVR-DUS-NYC tasty by airline standards. Seat width and pitch as you would expect. The inflight entertainment was shown on overhead screens rather than PTV on demand. I'll take low fares and great service with limited entertainment.

MUC-HAM A320. Passengers greeted with staff busy chatting amongst themselves. Announcements by pilot in English and German. Seats beside me were dirty. Served salty or sweet snack with choice of cold drinks juice and coffee. Flight landed on time.

HAM-MUC B737-700. Acceptable leg room for tall person. Announcement by pilot in English and German. Flight was about 45% full. Passengers served bread roll coffee and juice. Toilets were dirty. Since we did not get landing on Munich airport we were flying around for about 45 minutes. All in all a pleasant experience.

London Stansted to FMO Munster. Fast check-in and easy boarding. Full plane but even on a short flight crew managed to give everyone a snack and a drink. Seats ok for a short flight and English papers provided. Munster airport large but very little traffic luggage unloaded quickly. Perfectly acceptable flight but not cheap.

Business class Vancouver to Dusseldorf. AB uses the Priority Pass lounge at YVR which was fine. No current newspapers due to a delivery problem but when asked about this the concierge immediately went and purchased a copy. Business Class was only half full at the end of AB's summer schedule. Food was fantastic - a choice of four entrees plus a fifth 'special' dish available. Seats in Business are old type non-flat bed with limited video choices however they were comfortable. On time arrival in Dusseldorf which is an easy airport to navigate. A great bargain and a great flight.

Dusseldorf to Vancouver in Business class. The AB lounge is about 10 yrs out of date only one English language newspaper limited seating no wifi. On time departure with Business Class cabin only 40 % full. Onboard only one English magazine. Four meal choices and good service (2 attendants having little to do with only 10 passengers).

Crowded flight from Dusseldorf to Nice. Departure delayed for 1 hr due to incoming flight being delayed. No announcements made - one had to inquire at the desk of disinterested staff. No English language papers available and AB's inflight magazine had little English content. Snacks consisted of cookies or a fat filled salted dry sausage roll in a hard bun packed in a tube. Arrival at Nice late made worse by a 40 mins wait for bags and again with no explanation. Good value for money but service appalling.

TXL-CGN-TXL. Booking and check-in online was easy. A new and clean A320 to Cologne. Nice staff and good snack. Arrival earlier than scheduled helpful for me because of train connection. In the evening back to Berlin with 15 minutes delay due to problems before boarding. Plane was an older B737 but fine. Staff helpful and snack tasty. All in all good value for money. Professional and friendly attitude gave me two relaxed hops which I enjoyed.