Air Europa

Travelled to Cuba from Gatwick via Madrid December 2013 return Jan 2014. Seats reserved in advance via the charged service on website. Outward journey seats as booked return journey seat booked had already been allocated supervisor unable to change them we had queued for 2 hours at Havana airport because there were only two desks open. Inflight staff were generally unhelpful food was awful.

We had Air France tickets from Malaga to JFK and back from MEX connecting flights to/from Paris with Air Europa. Air Europa does not provide 24-hour online check-in. We arrived 80 minutes prior to departure at check-in in Malaga to find a huge queue that moved very slowly. 3 check-in staff only ours was rather unpleasant and grumpy. With 20 minutes to go for departure we were running to security leaving behind about 30 more passengers waiting to be checked-in. Arrived at the gate to be told to rush onto the plane. Onboard the most uncomfortable airline seat old and worn and hardly reclineable. They are also too short so half your thighs don't fit the seat and it inclines downwards so one has the unpleasant feeling of sliding off! Despite the delay we made our connection in Paris. On the return we checked-in online via Aeromexico (still all on AF tickets) but the Air Europa connection Paris-Malaga did not yield seat assignments nor boarding passes. At check-in in MEX we were told they could not help us because when you check-in online this apparently messes up the boarding pass/seating process on Air Europa. Once in Paris AF staff at the connection counter finally printed boarding passes for Air Europe. Yet again the seats were very uncomfortable and old and barely acceptable for a 2-hour flight. Staff just like on the outbound were very indifferent. If at all possible I would avoid Air Europa in the future. I can handle unpleasant staff but I would avoid them purely because of the discomfort of the seats on their B737 that seem to be at least 20 years old.

London to Havana with a connecting flight in Madrid. The planes are dated there is no space between you and the seat in front. The seats were so uncomfortable. The staff acted as though passengers were an inconvenience. On a 10.5 hour flight the so called 'all inclusive' food and drink meant you were given one small plastic cup with your meal then 7 hours later a disgusting pie thing. I asked for water as soon as I got on and was told to wait for 2 hours. Perhaps Cuba Direct were at fault by telling me that it was similar to a long haul Virgin flight. The only similarity was being in the air. Suffice to say avoid at all costs.

Flight UX-076 Lima - Madrid January 4 2014. Delay of 5 hours. Direct lie from the staff of the company calling weather problems as a main reason for delay (as we learn upon arrival at Madrid airport they had a technical failure issue). We missed 2 connecting flights (one from Madrid to Paris with Air Europa the other one non- refundable flight to Copenhagen from Paris). 6 hrs spent in line to get to company's staff extreme inefficiency bad management and non-existent customer support.

I flew LON-MAD MAD-LON in Air Europa's so called business class which is described on their website as 'we make you feel special'. The reason I took this airline is that the scheduled times were the best for me but in future I will certainly not fly with them except in economy if I must. The flight was an hour late departing from Lon but no announcement was made until it was already more than 30 minutes late. The flight to Madrid had the newer seats which were comfortable but that is where the business service ends. The flight crew (minus the purser) were rude and uninterested in their business customers I had to ask 3 times for a bottle of water when I asked if they had English language newspapers I was asked 'por que?' (possibly because the flight is from London?) and the food was sub-standard wrapped in cling film and plonked down on plastic. When I asked for wine she simply banged one down and walked away swishing the curtain behind her. The return flight was also sub-par with two slices of cheese and two leathery pieces of chicken constituting breakfast. Such a disappointment it would have been better to save the extra 300 euros and bought food in economy.

I took an intercontinental return flight from Madrid to Havana. It was a daytime flight and except from the comfort of the seat this was an incredibly bad experience. The service was by far the worst service I've had in an airplane. The crew were very unfriendly and not co-operative at all. With dinner you'll get 1 drink. Apart from water or orange juice you have to buy all other drinks. The crew started serving food at a slow pace afterwards they came 3 times with coffee/tea and immediately afterwards the whole crew started to have dinner themselves. The stewards/stewardesses also didn't respond at all to the service lights you can switch on at you seat. I don't expect much from airplane food but this was one of the worst I've had. Air Europa also doesn't provide a personal entertainment system. It is still done by some general screens from the ceiling and was only broadcasting a movie in Spanish. Worst of all the movie was restarted 3 times and wasn't finished in the end. On the return way we had to wait an 1.5 hrs to get checked in. There was an enormous queue all the way through the departure hall. About half of the passengers still had to check in after us. So we asked for window seats (25% of the seats). We were told these weren't available anymore. So we asked for Aisle seats (50% of the seats). The ground stewardess told us she would fix this. In the end from the 10 people we were traveling with only 1 had an aisle seat and the rest were scattered through the whole plane on centre seats. Luckily this was a night flight and we were all tired. So we slept most of the way and didnt have to deal with the service or Spanish movie. The food was of the same standard again: really bad.

I must say that I was hesitant to take Air Europa after the reviews but found the experience to be really good. Granted our luggage went missing connecting in Madrid to Lisbon but the inbound flight was operated by Delta so who knows where the blame lies and I strongly suspect Delta. Service was good food much better than expected and flights on time. Cabin was comfortable. Someone's putting effort in here.

We travelled by Air Europa on 19th December to Cuba and returned 28th December - or started our return then! Both the outward and inward flights were delayed by around 3 hours both for different reasons. The delay of the return flight to Madrid was handled very badly by the airline. Even though the airline knew we were delayed and connecting flights were missed no arrangements were made to cater for this even though they had 8 hours to prepare! It took an extra 2 hours at the airport to get onward flights arranged for the following day after queuing multiple times and being sent to two separate terminals. They were woefully understaffed. The inflight entertainment didn't work on the return flight the sound was not being transmitted. There were only several large screen available which made the visibility of the screens fairly poor. The plane was fairly antiquated communication was very poor on why we were delayed on both flights. The stewardess's were miserable. I would not use this airline again.

Madrid to Sao Paulo last week. Airplane wasn't very new or clean and as we found out later on during the flight it had just come back from doing another route less than two hours before. Purser and flight attendants were extremely good and nothing was too much trouble they kept offering food and drink throughout the flight. Quality of the catering was average. No IFE during the flight so we were handed some iPads instead not many movies but plenty of games etc. Overall and considering how much more expensive the other tickets were with other airlines I can say I was fairly satisfied with the flight hard working cabin crew doing their best with probably not the best tools around.

Dec 7th flight from Montevideo Uruguay to Madrid Spain (12 hour flight): I was very concerned when I read reviews after purchasing my ticket. However I must admit the boarding process was efficient the plane was very clean and my vegetarian meals were above average in terms of airline food. The gate personnel and flight crew were very attentive and courteous. After a pleasant trip I reminded myself that a good review was in order given all the negative reviews I had read. Yes I would recommend this airlines and hope to fly them again in the near future.