Cubana Airlines

I flew out to Havana on 15th March. Delayed because of fog. Staff were friendly the food ok. The flight was half full. I was asked if I wanted a couple of blankets put my ear plugs in spread out over 3 seats and fell asleep. Return trip was cancelled. Turned up at the airport to be told "be here tomorrow at 15.30". They would have paid for an airport hotel but I went back to the city. Journey back was hassle free and pleasant. The bonus was that I wasn't charged for my bicycle. Although my total luggage weight was about 40 kilos!

LGW to Havana via Holguin and Havana to LGW. Outgoing flight left an hour late but arrived on time. The food was fine and we got one alcoholic drink. Staff were friendly and as the plane was not full there was plenty of room to sleep over 3 seats. Toilets were fine. No inflight entertainment. On return the flight left on time. There was inflight entertainment. Staff were friendly. Toilets clean and the food again fine although you got what you were given. Able to spread out as the plane was not full. Given it was an economy cabin I thought that it was value for money.

LGW-HOL and HAV-LGW. At the airport we stocked up on magazines drinks and newspapers. The inflight entertainment is shocking make sure you buy drinks etc at the airport because half way through the flight to Holguin they ran out of everything but beer and rum. Dinner was either a choice of Chicken or Beef on both flights and wasn't that bad. The seats were extremely uncomfortable and staff can barely speak English. Outbound to Holguin the plane was half full so we managed to move towards the back of the plane into a seat of two in the middle which meant more legroom. Couldn't hear the announcements whatsoever on both flights and couldn't hear the safety video. To be honest Cubana wasn't as bad as we were expecting just make sure you're prepared with entertainment and drinks etc.

CUN-HAV-CUN. Both flights delayed for over an hour and although service on the first flight was good the second flight was terrible. Try to avoid or just be patient.

Flight from Gatwick to Holguin was smooth and I was impressed with the food and legroom on the plane. However our next flight with them was a different story. We were flying to Havana at the crack of dawn and were informed there would be a stop off - after only 15 minutes in the air we arrived at another airport and had to disembark before we took off for Havana. If I thought that flight was bad I was in for a shock regarding the last flight home. 4 hours before we were due to leave to the airport we were told our flight was going to be delayed 11 hours. Returning to our hotel room we were told that it was delayed yet again but didn't have any idea for how long. Waited overnight to find out that another 18 hours delay was expected. When we finally got the airport there was a further 4 hour delay! So altogether a 33 hour delay which resulted in us missing our connecting flight back to Scotland and an overnight stay in Gatwick. Flight home also consisted of ham and cheese twice and no inflight entertainment and filthy toilets Will never fly them again.

We flew out to Holguin 24 hours late so we lost a days holiday. The service was poor the food going out wasn't too bad but the only drink we had was served with the meal apart from water. The inflight entertainment was non existent which isn't good on a 10 hour flight. After a while the toilets were awful dirty with no soap or toilet paper. Staff didn't seem to care and had no interest in passengers. The flight coming home was delayed 6 hours the food wasn't good - cold meat and cheese for the main meal which was very dry and then for breakfast we were served a dry cheese and ham roll with no butter. Delays are apparently very common with Cubana. The flights spoilt what would have been a good holiday next time we will fly Virgin.

Outbound - My partner and I were travelling Gatwick to Cuba for a two week holiday. We got on the plane to discover the rubbery arm on my seat hanging off. As we took off my partners seat reclined along with the passenger sat in front of her. This continued every time we had a slight incline throughout the flight. About an hour into the flight I asked the stewardess if there would be any films to which she replied "sometimes we do sometimes we don't". Needless to say on this occasion they didn't provide any. When the food cart arrived we learned that they had already run out of wine and as the flight progressed they started to run out of every other liquid content. Inbound - An hour delay we had still not boarded no representative at the gate to advise us. Yet again there was no inflight entertainment with no explanation. We had an average meal which needless to say was our only highlight to this journey. My partner and I are frequent travellers yet have never experienced such an embarrassing display of customer service.

CUN-HAV. We flew both legs of our journey on a newish Tu-204 which is similar to the 757. To be truthful I was disappointed that the flights weren't on the Yak-42D. The Tu-204 was modern and comfortable although the seats were a bit hard. Flight staff were friendly and attentive enough certainly on par with their US counterparts (which probably isn't saying much). The only downside was that both flights took off about an hour late.

LGW-HOG. Economy class. Awful journey inflight entertainment non-existent - crackly DVD showing Spanish cartoons and headphones system did not work. Seats broken and uncomfortable. Service very poor and could not hear any of the announcements. When I signalled for a stewardess to come and speak to me I was shrugged at. Temperature was high in the cabin throughout flight. HAV-LGW. Upgraded to Business Class this was really worth it. Staff attentive and the food great. The entertainment (although audio still not working) was better quality. Upgrading to Business Class was like upgrading to get the quality of most other airlines I've flown with in Economy Class.

Gatwick to Holguin. A technical fault delayed us for 5 hours and we were put up in a hotel. We had a 7.30 am call to be told we are going back to the airport but we were without food and drink vouchers. Finally at 6pm we get told to go back to the airport. We check-in for the second time wait and sit on the plane and wait. No communication from Cubana staff for over an hour we are all getting more and more upset and frustrated. We had to get off the plane and told we couldn't get our luggage as Servisair had all gone home. We had to go through passport control again and by this time all passengers were upset and really angry. Cubana left it up to Gatwick staff to look after us and gave us blankets and mats to sleep on the floor which is a joke! We cancelled our holiday with Cubana and booked it with a reputable airline.