SATA Air Azores

✅ Trip Verified | Boston to Ponta Delgada. This airline seems to get a lot of negative reviews so I figured I'd write a review from my own experience. Check in was pleasant, boarding and departure were on time. Onboard the aircraft is older (pull down CRTs, etc), but the flight is only 4.5hrs. Full meal was served on board, food was decent. Flight attendants were friendly. Arrived less than 30 mins late. Baggage was on the carousel in PDL. For the price we paid for the flight and convenience of flying direct to Ponta Delgada from North America, would fly again.

✅ Trip Verified | We flew round trip from Boston to Ponta Delgada. The plane is an older aircraft, but the lights, vent, bathroom were functional. Seats were a bit cramped but workable for this duration flight. Entertainment with the center drop down TV style screens was lackluster, but it was only 4-5 hrs each way. Food was average at best, wines were good, onboard staff were friendly & courteous. We had a couple of beverage runs, if you wanted anything more the galley got it for you. It was not the nightmare flight I read about. We left about 30 min late each way, baggage was there when we landed. Overall an acceptable economy class flight.

✅ Verified Review | Boston to Lisbon return via Ponta Delgada. Left Boston with a delay as has been the norm for the last few years! The flight to Lisbon was uneventful of note the way SATA boards their flights: instead of calling the passengers by class, everyone camps right at the gate and so the process becomes a nightmare similar to a herd of bison on a stampede! The real fun begins on my return to Boston where I had to arrive no later than October 20th at 9 pm. I got to the airport at 10 am, for my flight scheduled to leave Lisbon at 1:05 pm, on October 20th. My bag was checked in, my boarding pass handed to me and then, I was informed that the flight was 5 hours behind without an explanation! I told the SATA representative that I was going on call at 10 pm and had to be in Boston before that! She sent me over to their sales counter where I explained the whole thing again. She was kind enough to route me to a TAP flight leaving Lisbon at 12:45 to Newark where I would then fly to Boston on JetBlue and assured me that my luggage would be taken care of. Upon my arrival in Newark, I could not find my bag so I thought they maybe I would get in when I arrived in Boston. To my dismay I got to Boston and could not find my bag anywhere! I contacted SATA, TAP, JetBlue to no avail! I got an email from TAP and JetBlue, apologizing for the incident and informing me that they would try to locate my bag. I spend most of Saturday and Sunday calling SATA in Lisbon, Ponta Delgada, and Boston being given contradictory information stating that it was not their problem because I flew TAP and JetBlue. I explained to the persons that I handed my bag to a SATA employee and had a baggage claim to prove it! That was of no use. The folks in the US basically told me to get lost because it was not their problem even though I have been flying SATA for almost 20 years! My brother in Lisbon spent hours at the airport, trying to locate the bag, since, in accordance with safety rules a bag cannot fly without the passenger so we were hoping that the bag was lying somewhere in Lost & Found in Lisbon. After several hours, he was told that they could not help him. I kept calling my agent, SATA, TAP, JetBlue without any luck. On Monday, October 23, I got a phone call from Logan Airport, Lost & Found letting me know that my nag was found on the SATA carousel and luckily, it had my contact info on the pocket so they were able to contact me so I could come and get my bag! I did go back to Logan to get it and, to my surprise, they were right: the bag flew on my original SATA flight, un-accompanied, was never opened or checked to make sure it did not pose a threat to the safety of the other passengers. Even with the baggage tag, SATA was unable or un-willing to locate and deliver the bag to me! After all, in this day and age where unfortunately so many horrible things happen all the time, I can’t fathom how a real airline can allow for such a breach of security. I called SATA again, explained the whole thing and, to my surprise, there was no attempt to offer an explanation or apology and so I decided to not only publish this review but also to open a complaint for an investigation which hopefully will prevent situations that could escalate into a tragedy.

✅ Verified Review | I was a bit worried as the reviews for this airline were not consistent. Comfortable flight. Service was excellent. Food and beverages were good. Overall pleased with this flight and services offered. Flight left on time. We would fly with this airline again.

✅ Verified Review | Boston to Ponta Delgada return. I've seen a lot of negative reviews about Azores Airlines/SATA. I recently completed four segments with them and found that most of the complaints were not well-founded. To preface this, the reader should remember that Azores Airlines is a budget carrier. The Azores are a small region of Portugal that has been historically underdeveloped. If you keep these concepts in mind and adjust your expectations accordingly, you can have a positive experience like the one I had. I flew two segments on one of Azores' old A310s (BOS-PDL and return). There aren't many of these around anymore, and I was interested to see how it had held up over the 25 years of service. The planes seemed to be in good condition, with a couple of cosmetic exceptions. Legroom was not great, the flights were less than 5 hours. On one, we upgraded to exit row seating (20A/B) and had unlimited leg room. It was well worth the $65 PP cost. The other two segments (PDL-BCN and return) were on newer A320s. These also had limited legroom, but were in good condition. None of the four flights that I took were delayed; all arrived on time. I checked luggage on each. It was not lost. The meals were terrible, and there was virtually no in-flight entertainment. But they got me there on time, the flight attendants were helpful, and I have no real complaints.

✅ Verified Review | Flight was delayed for over one hour - no explanation or apology given until the Captain of the aircraft referred obliquely to the delayed arrival of the incoming flight - hard to believe as plane we flew-on was at the gate for at least 90 minutes before we were first called upon to board. Once called to board, we were left standing in the passenger ramp for 20 minutes - again no explanation or apology - as the limited flight crew struggled to get people onto the plane, it was like the first time any of them had managed a boarding process. Once finally onboard, we had to listen to virtually inaudible announcements on a very poor sound system - the Captain sounded almost half asleep - and then once airborne we were left without any offer of food or drink for almost 2 hours. I have no idea where the flight attendants were or what they were doing all this time but, they never appeared in the aisles. Food - luke warm and tasteless - arrived with cheap wine - they ran out of red before everyone could be served. After "dinner" we were left for almost three hours with no sight of a flight attendant offering any kind of refreshment - not even water. I wandered back behind the curtains to find the flight attendants chatting and requested water to take some medication. Movie "selection" was four movies - three of them b-rated action movies. A grand total of two TV shows available. None of the other entertainment services - map, etc. were available. The toilet on one side of the airplane ran out of water for flushing. De-planing took forever - again, managed by what appeared to be a very inexperienced crew. All in all - perhaps the worst flight experience I have had in many, many years and I fly domestically and internationally frequently.

✅ Verified Review | I did a trip to the Azores with my family, flying from Vienna via Lisbon to Ponta Delgada, then later from Ponta Delgada to Pico and from Horta via Lisbon to Vienna. Flights between Lisbon and the Azores LIS-PDL and HOR-LIS) as well as between Ponta Delgada and the Island of Pico were operated by SATA. All flights were on time, staff were very friendly and check-in and boarding went smoothly and on-board service was according to European standards for short and medium haul. The flight from LIS to PDL was carried out in an old A320 with worn seats and very little legroom. All other flights were just fine even in these terms.

✅ Verified Review | I arrived at Toronto Airport 2 hours before the flight with SATA, only to find out that this flight was marked as 30 minutes delayed. I waited for almost another hour at the gate and the departure time kept on being pushed back with no announcements. Eventually, the plane started boarding and only after passing the gate as passengers were walking onto the plane, a manager was standing there and informing passengers that the flight (which was advertised and sold as a direct flight from Toronto to Lisbon) would be making a stop in Punta Delgada in the Azores. There was no explanation or apology and when I told him that this would be unacceptable he simply told me that I could get off the flight if I preferred. Extremely rude. In the end, the flight that stopped in Punta Delgada for an hour to pick up passengers there. We were told at one point by cabin crew that this was because there were passengers that were stranded there. But when I asked the passengers that got on the flight, they said that they were not stranded at all. They were getting on the flight at the right time and had bought their tickets months in advance. What became quite clear was that the airline basically decided to divert the direct flight and pass-through Punta Delgada to make use of the empty seats on the flight and fill it up, not caring at all about the inconvenience of hundreds of passengers on board. As a result, my flight arrived in Lisbon 3 hours and 15 minutes late. Not only were we not offered any sort of compensation for this, we were not even offered a simple apology. I should add that the food service was absolutely terrible and the quality of the meals served was poor. Upon researching this SATA after this experience, I see that it has been rated the worst for customer satisfaction, and I can now fully understand why. I wish I had been aware of those ratings before buying my ticket.

✅ Verified Review | I booked and paid for 5 adult flights from Boston to Ponta Delgado, Sao Miguel in the Azores for a birthday trip destined to leave Boston Logan at Saturday 9:15pm. We were told the flight was delayed "for technical reasons" until 2am Sunday morning. After waiting 5 hours, Azores reps told us the flight was canceled; they had no more information and "to check back tomorrow". They offered a phone number to call, but the office is closed until Monday morning. At this point, the crowd became very agitated and we noticed that they had called the Boston State Police to control the crowd. Two passengers got into a fight over waiting in line. We were told that this happens on a regular basis & the State police were called out the previous Saturday. After calling around, we discovered that every hotel in Boston was booked for this Saturday night. Most people wound up sleeping on cots in the terminal. We finally found a Best Western 30 miles outside of town, arriving at 5am. The most frustrating part was that the airline representatives would not provide anyone any information at all. We returned to the airport the following afternoon and were told that we would be on the 9:30 flight, "IF... they had enough crew show up". Two other outgoing flights were delayed, another fight broke out and the State police showed up again! We finally departed at 2am on Monday morning. During our 2-day delay, we heard from several of the Boston Logan airport staff that SATA airlines does this on a routine basis. The desk agents promised I would be reimbursed for our hotel and taxi fare, but after two weeks of emailing them, I have yet to hear from them. I was recently sent an email from Sata letting me know that their company was going on strike at the end of August. I will update if they ever refund my expenses, but for now avoid this airline at all costs.

✅ Verified Review | Boston to Lisbon via Ponta Delgado. Worst experience ever. Our first flight from Lisbon to Boston had a 3 hours delay and the seats are tiny. Now is the return, I'm still in the connection flight now and I have time to write this review since they take an hour delay in each step. (Get in the first airplane with delay, taxi and take off with delay, connection in the airport packed so with delay, and now that I'm in my last place, we are still waiting.) The last thing that made me smile, after leaving the airplane I took from Boston to get my connection flight, I got back into the same airplane, yes, the whole airplane did the connection. I'm not even talking about the quality of the aircraft, I think they have the oldest planes ever, Lisbon/Boston without Screens nor Sound system.