TAAG Angola Airlines

Flew Luanda/Lisbon on business class. Boeing 777 very clean. Inflight entertainment system was not working and the reading light also so the only available option was to try to sleep. Meals not very good but the crew was very friendly.

LAD-DXB. Was surprised with the level of service provided on the flight. Following the check in at Luanda the flight was pretty good. Departed 30 mins late and arrived early in Dubai. Flight was not very full so plenty of space to spread out. Food while basic was of good standard and the drinks service was good. The plane was a new B777. IFE system is basic but being a late night flight didn't really use it. Having a basic understanding of Portuguese helped but all crew spoke and understood English. Overall after reading previous reviews I was pleasantly surprised.

LAD-JNB trip in economy class. Noticed a big improvement with the staff at the check-in counters. The entertainment was ok and we were offered a hot snack. One thing that never changes though is the rudeness of the flight attendants.

LAD-CPT-LAD. Check-in easy no problems. The flights were uneventful but the interior of the planes were very old and it appeared that at least one armrest in each row was broken as they were taped up or visibly falling apart. Seats from LAD to CPT were quite comfortable but there was no IFE for a nearly 4 hr flight. CPT to LAD the seats were very uncomfortable. IFE on this flight on drop-down screens but the audio was played over the PA system so it was difficult to hear. Overall customer service was typical of Angola - non-existent. I would only recommend for the convenience to CPT from LAD.

LIS to LAD. The flight was delayed seven hours - first because of a mechanical problem and then because of the airport curfew in LIS. This left only 30 minutes to make our connection in LAD for our flight to WDH. TAAG put us in a hotel for the night free of charge. The staff in LIS were helpful and friendly. We ended up making our 30 minute connection because a TAAG agent in Luanda had checked us in for our connecting flight and escorted us to our Air Namibia flight to WDH. The flight was operated by a Boeing 777-200ER which was comfortable. There is AVOD mood lighting footrests and winged headrests on this aircraft. The food was tasty and cabin crew friendly.

TAAG's good air service is sabotaged by the Luanda ground service staff. We have flown once from Luanda/Cape Town and once from Windhoek to Luanda. Those three flights left almost an hour late but once in the air the service in Economy class was pleasant. We received free drinks and a hot meal. The attendants were very pleasant as well. The ground service in Luanda for international flights is acceptable.

As I arrived in JNB from Cape Town I noticed that my flight to Luanda was cancelled. No explanation from anybody I found out that all TAAG flights earlier the week was cancelled. Just to be told tomorrows flight will be first come first serve I had to arrange and pay for my own accommodation in JNB. Next day check in at 09h00was informed plane was late sit at the airport until that afternoon. No food or drinks was offered to the passengers only boarded plane at 1800. I noticed my booked seat was taken I showed my pass to one staff member and I were pushed into another seat staff very rude and unhelpful. Onboard entertainment poor.

I have flown with SAA before and with TAAG. The flights on TAAG have not been to bad I unfortunately do not understand or speak Portuguese and this I find a problem. With regards to the service I cannot complain. I have a complaint about the airport personnel at Luanda. They are rude pass comments on all foreign clients and give us a hard time in general. Should you have any dollars with you they confiscate them and tell you that you cannot keep the money with you. This I have a problem with. If you cannot keep your dollars on you how are you supposed to buy any cold drink or food while you wait for the flight? This is not complimentary from TAAG. The airport is dirty to boot. Today I am struggling with my ticket back to JNB and will most certainly not make use of TAAG again. I will use SAA in future as I can depend on them.

TAAG business class a few weeks go from Luanda to Johannesburg and was astonished at the poor and unprofessional service encountered from check in to my destination. I arrived at the airport at 0530 which was the check in time written on my ticket by the lady at the TAAG office only to find that check in for the flight will only start at 0630. When the check in eventually started I was confronted by a security guard who told me to go to the back of the economy class line despite my business class ticket. Two hours later I was checked in and besides the customs official who wanted to confiscate my camera because it had rechargable batteries in it and the fiscal official who demanded a detailed explanation for the $1100 I had with me I went to the business class lounge. There was no coffee no tea and only four bottles of water in the refrigerator and four bunched up sandwiches with what looked like ketchup on it. I asked the lady attendant for some coffee. She did not reply disappeared and I never saw her or the coffee again. Boarding late due to some delay (B747) went fine and I was in my seat with no trouble - which I had to clean and get rid of a handful of dried bread crumbs. The cabin staff were an unfriendly bunch of which only one could speak a very broken English on an international flight. I fortunately speak reasonable Portuguese which helped. Service had a taste of rudeness in from most of cabin staff. Food in the business class was appaling. The beef was cold and served in exactly the same holders as economy class and with plastic utensils and cups. The bread resembled good old fashioned rusks as I suspect that it came from the previous day and coffee was cold. Passengers needed to request the attendants to remove meal trays after an hour had gone by in which they were giggling away in the galley area and not attending to passengers. The toilets on the aircraft were filthy. Onboard entertainment was a movie with no earphones available. When disembarking at Jhb - Oliver Tambo - the one air hostess rudely refused an economy class passenger a quick exit before business class passengers as he was running out of time to make check in for a connecting flight - even though he produced his ticket to the air hostess and the TAAG flight left Luanda 45 minutes late. TAAG should pull up their socks if they want to become part of global economy in the airline business. Their business class service at the airport is poor to say the least and onboard service even worse. Their cabin staff need a course in manners and professionalism and quality control on the aircraft needs to be addressed. Passengers pay extra for business class service but plastic eating utensils and poor quality food and service hardly justifies that.

Initially the flight was supposed to leave at 12h00 midday. On our arrival at the airport we were told that the flight would leave at 22h00 that evening and check in start at 17h00. Long story short we only left the following morning at 05h20. The business class lounge had no more drinks at 20h00 not even a glass of water. No apologies offered. The food was terrible and the service unfriendly bordering on rude. Inflight entertainment non-existing! Our connecting flights all missed no accommodation offered. A trip from Luanda to Goiania that should have taken me 12 hours took 28 hours of travelling. The return trip was scheduled to Leave Luanda on Tuesday 11 March at 18h00. I left the interior very early on Tuesday morning (04h00) arriving at Rio airport at midday ready to check in. I was informed at 14h00 that the flight was cancelled and that I should return the next morning at 05h00 to be on the stand-by list! No accomodation offered. I booked into a hotel at my own costs and returned the next morning at 05h00. Finally got on the plane by 10h00 and the flight took off at 10h30. Inflight entertainment was a movie with sub-titles in English but no microphones offered. The food was absolutely horrible. Needless to say there are no other airlines flying this route and beggars cant be choosy!