SATA International

Ponta Delgada to Lisbon with SATA International. Boarding was totally chaotic. The aircraft seats were old and uncomfortable, and close together. Cabin crew were totally disinterested. I couldn't wait for the flight to finish.

Flying SATA from Boston to Porto via Ponta Delgada, and they have abandoned us here in the Azores for the last ten hours. An airline of total amateurs. I've never experienced such a poor airline and complete lack of service as SATA.

Very positive experience flying SATA from Porto to Ponta Delgada and back in. Departures and arrivals on time. Very friendly and caring cabin crew on both flights. A bit older aircrafts with the old school airline seats.

SATA International flight from Boston to Lisbon was a horror show. Plane lost power right before departure, they made us sit there with no lights or ac. Plane had to be towed back to the gate. Passengers were terrified and complaining. On the way back we had to wait on the tarmac for an hour until a gate was available. Not to mention we were already one hour late. This was the worst travel experience I have ever had.

Five hour delay at departure, with no prior alert to clients. At check in no explanations. "boarding is at 2:30 and here is your voucher" So that's it. now we have to try to get hold of the rental car. The aircraft was old, dirty and my sons seat cover was torn with the sponge exposed. On return we had lay over in PDL. In LIS there was delay, I was given two boarding passes for me and none for my son, couldn't go by security, retuned to counter, they gave me a hard time to fix their error. In Lisbon there was a delay again. There was so much confusion, no one knew if it was flight 221 or 225. Once in PDL we were sent to boarding right away, when passengers to Boston were called we went to board and were told to sit we were on another flight, minutes later after everyone was boarded we were called over the intercom, the plane was waiting for us. When we arrived in BOS our bags were not there, we requested a SATA staff member, they were paged but did not show. Our bags were on the second flight, we waited three hours by the carousel for them, with nobody to assist or provide any customer service. Next year, we will go through the work of using another European airline into another country then to LIS, not to use SATA again. We paid over $1000 on our tickets. We can't say "you get what you pay for" with SATA. This year was beyond bad service.

My wife and I have just returned from a "stress-filled" vacation to Portugal, compliments of SATA International. The flight to Lisbon was scheduled to leave Boston at 10.15pm. It was close to midnight when, without an explanation, passengers were called to board the plane. I had paid $130USD ($65pp) for what they call "comfort seating". Upon entering the plane I was told that I had "regular" seats because "this isn't a SATA plane", "but you can go online to get a refund". It got worse on the return flight. The check-in to the flight Lisbon-Ponta Delgada required the "good sense" of a ground-crew manager to overrule the arrogance of the check-in "clerk" who, with inappropriate comments, decided to "pick" on a carry-on extra weight (5kg accordingly to her but only 2 according to the manager), knowing that we were staying in Ponta Delgada overnight and had no access to our luggage. I will say that the manager went out of the way to please us, even checking us in for our next days flight to Boston and promised us that we wouldn't have any further problems or surprises. Unfortunately, she could do nothing about what happened next. When, the following day, we got to the airport in Ponta Delgada to catch our 3.15pm flight to Boston, we were informed that the flight had been cancelled and we would have to take a 6.30pm flight instead (because of a problem with the plane, they said, but really because they had too many empty seats, I found out). We finally took of at 7.30pm. This company has zero consideration or respect for their passengers.

Our flight leaving Boston was supposed to leave on a Thursday night at 8.35pm. The day before the flight we got an email informing us that the flight would not depart Boston until friday morning at 5.30am, a nine hour delay. Then the next morning we get to the airport and we didn't end up leaving until almost 7am. We lost a whole day in Portugal. Then when we were supposed to leave Portugal and go back to Boston our flight was delayed an hour and a half which soon turned into almost three hours. We were supposed to arrive in Boston at 4.45pm but did not arrive until 7.30pm. Very bad first experience with this airline.

I have flown overseas many times. SATA is always delayed. Unfortunately this is the only airline to fly from Canada or USA to the islands so we don't have another choice. I have lost many connecting flights over the years and this airline is a constant disappointment. Booking online is a hassle because if you search 2 or 3 flights all of a sudden the flights double or triple in price so you have to wait a few hours and try again. Very disappointing every single time.

FNC-PDL-YYZ. Easy web check in and baggage drop in Funchal. Both flights (Q400 and ageing Airbus 310) were full and the friendly crews worked hard to make sure everyone was happy. Lots of progress announcements from the flight deck. Even the food showed improvement from my previous experiences with some imaginative Azorean touches - the first flight was only 2 hours long but we were served a tasty grilled carrot and turkey sandwich as part of the café service. The second flight had a full meal with a soft white cheese salad and a smoked bacon piece atop roasted chicken. Generous wine pours and beverages always available at the rear of the plane. Helpful staff in Ponta Delgada airport. Flights were about 15 minutes late but who cares when you have received courtesy and good service from happy and hard working crew.

YYZ-PDL-FNC. A really mixed experience. Great ticketing service from SATA office in Toronto. Great price. Great check in experience at YYZ. Full meal service on a 5 hour flight. Old but reasonably comfortable Airbus. Lousy inflight entertainment. But after that there were some real customer service issues. The inbound flight arriving in Toronto was almost 3 hours late but passengers were informed of outbound delay only when they arrived at the airport. Automated e mail advice system was useless because it lagged actual airport announcements. Once on board there were no announcements about PDL connecting flight arrangements food was inedible and the inflight staff was indifferent to say the least. They virtually threw the inedible meal at passengers and retreated to the back of the plane to avoid passengers. The big glass of wine served was a nice touch. Fortunately SATA held our connecting flight to FNC and we boarded it about 1 hour after its scheduled departure. Love the Bombardier turboprop Q400. Inflight staff was courteous. A ham and cheese sandwich was served on a 2 hour flight and we arrived at our final destination one hour late.