Rwandair

Not Verified | About the service is been so wonderful in helping us navigate the checking process. Food wise need to improve more. Travelling with a special child is always challenging but with the help of staff it’s been less stressful, and for that I’m forever grateful. Overall service was good.

✅ Trip Verified | Lusaka to Kigali 12 October 2022. Few days before departure I contacted the airline’s office in Lusaka as the flight appeared not to be to sold anymore and hardly could be full. They answered back within 1 hour and gave detailed confirmed, entire itinerary (incl. coming flights). Check-in counters opened pleasantly early, 3½ hour prior departure, so no queues or waiting time. The man at counter advised on seating and showed me configuration and options on his computer. We selected the best options, though I was later further upgraded onboard to have the most spacious seat in economy. Security, health documentation, immigration took less than 10 Minutes. Their partnership with Qatar rendered me access to Pearl lounge in the terminal. There was some discussion whether I was qualified, but in 5 Minutes after some photocopying, they let me in. The lounge is 3rd party, and acceptable with Wi-fi, hot foods, wines and cold beers. Onboard, my preordered special meal though I had to remind them, and it took some time to avail it. Drinks and customer care onboard was very pleasant, nothing was too much, but it took a lot of time as the FAs discussed and recommended drinks to almost every passenger. IFE was only a flight monitor, but the music channels offered a lot. Had to use own headphones. No WiFi, old aircraft, but well maintained. Good announcements from pilots. Noisy aircraft, this B737-800. Flight on time, we arrived 15 Minutes earlier than scheduled. Luggage arrived before I even passed immigration. DreamMiles to their FFP was given me after just 1 day after landing. Recommended.

✅ Trip Verified | Excellent service starting from the booking of my ticket - off and on the flight. Really good food. very comfortable seats and keep time. Perfect landing. I will definitely travel with Rwandair again. Airport lounge in Kigali is spacious, nice and quiet and very clean.

✅ Trip Verified | Third time using Rwandair business class to Kigali in the last 5 years and I am quite impressed by the consistency and professionalism of the airline. Recently, I had to deal with the customer service department and was even more impressed by their professionalism : emails answered promptly and perceived issues explained and dealt with efficiently. Nice to see an African airline punching above its weight in this business.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew Doha to Lusaka via Kigali 10-11 Sept. 2022 on two different Boeing 737 versions. This, in conjunction with QR from Bangkok. Qatar Airwaysis new partner of Rwandair and it functions despite some hiccups on ticketing, pricing, FFP. Partnership with Qatar Airways is incomplete and unclear: e.g. issued tickets are only partly compatible and manageable on both airlines. Both flights on time. Very noisy aircrafts, very limited IFE. Food very good, as always. Special meal delivered to perfection. Additional meals were offered and I tested them as also being good, and well cooked. FA’s are very friendly and caring, all stunning elegant, more than 6 feet tall, well rested, humorous, and confident. Transfer in Kigali smooth, was granted access to Pearl lounge after a short discussion (de facto, its not clear whether a QR gold card should give you access as most QR-frills do not apply for their partners like smaller, non-OneWorld airlines. Luggage: no issues. Flights on time. IFE poor but present. Manage to change FFP from Qatars’ Priv. Club to Rwandairs’ Dream-Miles at the gate in Doha to maximise earnings on both programs. The airlines’ frequent flyer programs are reciprocal only within limitations, thus I had to split the Mileage earnings to 2 programs according to sectors.

✅ Trip Verified | Worst flying experience I have had. Hand luggage was weighed prior to boarding, and a lot of hand luggage was checked-in right before boarding. There was no air conditioning in the flight until 30 minutes after take-off. Even after that the entire flight was very warm. No COVID protocol was followed on board with most passengers wearing masks under their noses and some not wearing one at all. Our checked baggage did not arrive in Kigali. Waited for 3 hours to enter the airport and collect my luggage when the next flight arrived 2 days later, and missed work because of this. Never flying with RwandAir again.

Not Verified | I was flying from Dubai to Gabon and my boyfriend and I had one carryon bag each. Once we got to the departing time at the gate, they begin to weight everybody carryons bag and asked people to pay for the extra weight. They told my boyfriend and I we have 5kg extra each and we need to pay $500 for it. At the cashier we gave them our credit card to pay and the refused saying they only take cash. We didn’t have cash so they asked us to just throw the extra weight to trash if we want to fly. We were in one of the most developed city in the world and we couldn’t use our credit card. We even ask them if they can keep our bags so we can pay cash for it once we get to Gabon because we couldn’t find cash right now at the airport we already spent our daily cash withdrawals limit. They refused all our proposals and asked us to pay cash or trash our staff. At the end they were about to close the gate and we had no choice but the leave our bags there and take the flight. Once we got to Kigali we asked to speak to an agent and he said they don’t deal with issues regarding Dubai and there is nothing they can do about it. Same thing in Libreville.

✅ Trip Verified | Nairobi to Kigali, then Kigali to Dubai. First of all the Flight from Nairobi to Kigali (WB 403) arrived 30 minutes late. At the Nairobi first check in counter, nobody informed me about filling up a Covid passenger locator form online which was request at the second check in counter. Upon boarding the flight it was so uncomfortable journey. Cabin crews served snacks and drinks but not even a wet wipe was provided to passengers despite the whole world facing a pandemic. Upon arriving at Kigali to connect my flight to Dubai (WB 304) I found all passengers having boarded and the flight was almost departing, an inconvenience that was caused by delayed flight from Nairobi to Kigali but was not communicated to the flight to Dubai and no one apologized for the inconveniences. It was such a horrible experience.

✅ Trip Verified | I have the utmost disappointment, anger and frustration over the service of Rwandair. I flew from South Africa on 23rd December 2020 to Tanzania. I arrived at the airport for check in 3 hours prior to flight departure and checked in successfully. Upon arrival at Kilimanjaro, Tanzania i was informed that my luggage had not arrived and was left in South Africa and that i should find a way to go back to the airport the next day at night at 20h00 to collect my bag. The first problem with this is that they said the system was showing that i had checked in only one piece of luggage whereas i had checked in 2 pieces. On 24th i called to confirm before heading to the airport and was told that they located both bags but one of my bagts was sent to Nigeria and the other was in South Africa. Everyday they say my bags will be sent to my final destination on the next day but this does not happen. Neither do the staff seem to care about rectifying their negligence. It is the 27th tomorrow and i still have not received my bags, i had to cancel Christmas plans and spend Christmas without my belongings or presents for family and friends. I would urge anyone not to use this airline if you have any choice whatsoever, you will be utterly disappointed! Even the inflight movie sound could not play properly, it kept on breaking up and then switching from English to French sentence after the other.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew Kigali to Dar es Salaam (on 8th November 2020) and back a week later. Convenient flying times (mid-day out, and afternoon home). Both flights were on the same aircraft, a De Havilland DHC-8, called “Dash 8”. This is a propeller, which is small (80 seats?) and noisy. Not many passengers on the outbound, but full on homebound. Cheap, promotional ticket (250 USD) with generous luggage allowance, 2 x 23 kg plus handluggage. Both flights on time. Free seat selection at check-in. Special seafood meal accommodated both ways and extra food provided on request. Check-in smooth and Cabin crew polite and efficient. A short stop in Kilimajaro airport on the way back went smooth. The Covid tests requirements (both ends, and again on arrival Kigali, total 3 tests!) are a nightmare and costly (150 USD); further comes 1-day quarantine at arrival in Rwanda, but one cannot fault the airline for this.