Ukraine International

✅ Trip Verified | New York JFK to Kiev. Absolute worst experience I have ever had when traveling internationally. My husband and I were an hour early and coming from a connecting flight. The counter had shut down check in an hour before the flight was scheduled to leave. I talked to the manager, supervisor, and online support to see if someone could help us. Everyone refused help. We already had reservations in Yerevan that we now missed. Our flights were non-refundable. These flights were booked over three months ago. They wouldn’t issue a boarding pass even though we had an hour. I have now spent over $5000 dollars on airfare tickets when my original tickets were $1625.

✅ Trip Verified | Like the flights to Bangkok was once again impressed. First flight on a 767 so no at seat entertainment, only the big screens. Seat very comfortable, good legroom. Both lunch and second (cold) meal were delicious. Once again crew although polite lacked smiles but crew worked hard, not just spending most of the flight hidden away like so many long haul flights I've been on and again calm with no attitude. Again easy transit in Kiev and crew more smiley on second flight. One thing to point out on this flight given all the complaints on here about hand baggage and getting charged. I couldn't believe how much hand luggage passengers were taking into the cabin, actually delayed the flight as wouldn't all fit into the overhead lockers. Lady sat next but one from me had a suitcase that was clearly oversize plus the biggest rucksack I've ever seen, how on earth was this allowed? Crew handled all professionaly despite this, this sort of luggage should go in the hold and it's not that expensive but should be free. Both flights on time, and once again for the cheap fare I was perfectly happy.

✅ Trip Verified | Gatwick to Bangkok via Kiev. Don't agree with having to print my boarding pass off but had no problems. First flight crew were excellent, smiley and worked hard. Legroom not great and no entertainment, pre ordered the Chicken Kiec, got that plus two other meals not that I'm complaining, had to give one away. Have to pay for alcohol but big size beer cans and small wine bottle, not just poured in a cup unlike many airlines. Transit in Kiev an absolute doddle, decent airport with smoking lounges. Second flight crew not smiley but no attitude and dealt swiftly with requests. My pre ordered Beef Fillet was delicious, chicken roll for breakfast less so. Comfy leather seat, good legroom, reasonable entertainment on the 777. Bit late arriving due to winds against us but for the cheap price I paid perfectly happy.

✅ Trip Verified | Berlin to Kiev. Horrendous service, rudely nickel and dimed every single passenger, charging an extra 80€ for second carry-on items such as even purses or duty-free bags (not me because I had paid for checked luggage. The airline insisted on weighing and measuring every passenger’s bag despite being already an hour behind schedule. This company is in effect a monopoly in Ukraine; one need only look at the discrepancy between high tickets prices and service that is lacklustre at best, outright rude at worst. Will never fly with this airline again until Ukrainian skies are more open to healthy competition and this airline changes its ways substantially.

✅ Trip Verified | Minsk to London via Kiev. Airline website seems designed to foil you. Staff are scammers and will take your money. On-line boarding pass is available on the outward journey but for the return the website “locked up” and prevented us from retrieving the passes. At the check in desk we were told we had to pay 15 euros each to get passes printed. They would not take payment at the desk and directed us to a non-existent ticket office to settle it. Not knowing what else to do we arrived at the gate and explained. They demanded cash. When we offered it they took it and one member ran off with it to “check all is OK”. No receipt, nothing. He literally ran away. We were then told everything is OK and we can board. Still no receipt. This is corruption and extortion, plain and simple. Crooked airline, crooked staff.

✅ Trip Verified | Lviv to Kiev. I had read the horror reviews and hence I checked with the airline on arrival to see if our baggage was acceptable. They were very helpful and told us that our ticket only included one bag so we madly combined bags and had our coat pockets full. I don't think it was necessary as no one checked through the boarding process. It was only a short flight. We got free water. I had contacted the airline previously to cancel a baggage booking we made and immediately they told us we could get a refund and organised it politely and efficiently. So for the money we paid and the staff quality is 10/10 from us. Thanks

✅ Trip Verified | I have been flying Ukraine International regularly between NYC and Kharkov, via Kiev. Lately, they have become a showcase of incompetence, greed and generally bad service. I can no longer recommend it. And will stop flying it myself. For example, I lost two days on one of my recent trips because they made a mistake in issuing my ticket and could not correct it in time for my flight. Mistakes do happen. What should never happen is the airline representative who instead of apologizing and trying to help had decided to shift the blame for their mistake to me, the customer. I lost time and money but received nothing as much as an apology from the airline. Shame on you for treating your regular customers this way. Another recent instance when I was charged a fine for the excessive carry-on luggage. The luggage itself was a very light and think carton box (I'm attaching the picture). Its about an inch thick and weights 300 grams. I can't comprehend this can be determined to be "excessive". But either way , that's not the real kicker here. You see, I was actually permitted to check in and board at the origin airport with that same box just fine. I was however then fined midway through my flight! During the layover in Kiev. Imagine my surprise, when after already completing the first 9h flight, I am suddenly stopped and told that I can't continue the trip unless up pay up airline fine. What nonsense! Where have you been when I was checking in? When I had time, and ability to just put that package in the luggage? And if you told me once that the package is fine as a carry-on, how can you stop me half way and fine me? Basically it all comes down to general incompetence. They were given the book with rules, but were not taught to also use their head in order to avoid idiotic situations like that and alienating their previously loyal customers.

✅ Trip Verified | Tel Aviv to New York via Kiev. I was lied to, threatened and scammed by the Ukrainian International staff at Kiev airport, who tried their very best to charge me 150 Euros for hand luggage they claimed was too large (this was a connecting flight, from Kiev to New York, and the luggage was the standard carry on size that was fully approved and included in the ticket price during the first leg of the flight, from Tel Aviv to Kiev). Right before boarding the plane of the connecting flight, they put up another barrier at the gate consisting of three Ukrainian staff whose sole job was to scam passengers for 150 Euros per bag. Like many other airlines, they were equipped with luggage-size boxes, used to determine whether your baggage exceeded the permitted size. The woman seemed to be letting some passengers with luggage identical to ours through without any bother, but selecting foreigners to try and fleece them for 150 Euros on the spot. The lady asked my friend Jane to put her carry on it the box, she did. It fit in the box perfectly, since it was the standard carry on size sold everywhere for precisely that purpose. "Your luggage is too big," claimed the lady, and pointed to a yellow line going literally down the middle of the box, saying that the baggage was too big if it wasn't behind that line. In other words, the luggage had to be half the size in order to be considered a carry on (notwithstanding that it was literally the standard, minimum size of all carry on luggage, with which they were letting all other passengers through without a hitch). This was a blatant lie right to our faces, and we were both told we needed to pay an undisclosed fee to have our bags checked. The woman blocked the entrance bodily, and wave through other passengers with identical bags through as she forbid us entry. The flight was leaving soon, and the woman said we would not be permitted to board if we didn't pay the fee. "We have a dog in the cargo," I told her (this was true). "We’ll leave the dog here too,” the staff exclaimed. “You want that?” She picked up a phone, clearly faking that she could call someone to fish our dog out of the cargo hold at the request of this bottom level employee. “Boarding ends in one minute,” she said. Holding the phone to her ear and pretending she was ready to dial, “what do you want to do with the dog?” Rapidly, she got out a credit card scanner and put it in front of us. “Just 150 Euros for the oversized bag,” she told us. “But there’s two of us, and our bags are an identical size,” I said. “So you’re giving us a discount, then?” “Yes, a discount,”. By this time, her manager arrived at the ruckus we were causing. “This is blatant robbery,” I said, appealing to her. “Looks what’s happening here.” I pointed to the bags and waved my phone with the e-ticket on it. “These bags are included in our tickets. They literally don’t sell luggage smaller than this. What makes them too big!?” Show us." She couldn't reply. We were last to board the half empty plane.

✅ Trip Verified | Kiev to New York, Something has changed or maybe I got lucky before but they added some measures to make more money. I arrived 2 hours early stood in line to check in. Guy says they charge additional money so go to self check in. I go to self check-in and it says closed. I go back to the counter and they said 15 euros. No big deal, just another scam to make more money. Another customer had a backpack. Airline said it was too big, have to pay another 30 euros. Ukraine airline is pathetic with these schemes for exploit people.

✅ Trip Verified | Helsinki to Bangkok via Kiev. Beware plane type change on their long haul routes. I got a very tempting economy ticket offer from UIA on route HEL-BKK (only 150 euros one way base fare) on their B777. Shortly after booking I was offered to upgrade to business class for an extra 280 euros and I pulled the trigger knowing the good reviews on their business class on B777. I thought that a long haul business class ticket at this kind very low price was almost too good to be true, which turned out to be exactly what it was. However, about two weeks before the departure I got an email notifying about schedule change for one hour earlier departure time in Kiev. That was all the information which was given. At this point I should have already guessed the reason for it. Everything went smoothly as expected until I stepped onboard the plane which was charged for their much older B767 type in Kiev. These planes are known to have very bad reviews for their comfort, not only in economy but also in the business class which is comparable to today's premium economy class at its best (e.g. seats are reclining nowhere near flat as in the the B777). Not only these old planes have very noisy cabin for modern standards, they also are slower which means longer flight time (hence the advanced departure time), not to speak of such luxuries as in-flight entertainment, adjustable air ventilation or wifi connection. The cabin temperature was also unbearable high and I had to notify about it to the cabin crew several times before they adjusted it to the lowest possible level (according to them), which meant that the lavatory and cabin crew resting area in front of the business class cabin went extremely cold (undoubtedly the reason why the crew wanted to keep it higher). There were a couple of small children which were screaming all the time and would not settle to sleep until the cabin temperature got lower and the mothers were told about the disturbance they were causing (which the cabin crew reluctantly finally did). Needless to say that even after that there were no question to get any real sleep due to the horrible cabin noise and limited recline of the seats. I am absolutely certain that the airline was completely aware of the plane type change well in advance and that was the real reason for the advertised cheap fare price. I call this a deliberate scam from the airline. This a certain way to lose returning customers so all in all never again UIA.