Air Europa

Madrid to JFK. I fly Madrid - New York at least 4 times a year and this was the worst flight experience I have had. I was surrounded by a group of about 20 middle school students. They were all standing sitting on each other's laps kneeling on their seats and yelling across the aisles. Obviously this was not the fault of Air Europa but I have never been on a flight where passengers were allowed to be out of their seats like that for the entire flight. I asked the flight attendant if she could say something to them and she responded that she couldn't really do anything. She murmured something about finding me another seat and never returned. I later found out the flight was not full and my seat could have easily been changed. My seat wasn't aligned properly so I had to place my feet on either side of the seat in front of me which was uncomfortable. The seats didn't have individual TVs which isn't such a big deal. Unfortunately the American-made inflight movie was only available dubbed in Spanish. I asked the flight attendant which channel was the English channel because I could not find it after scrolling through all of the options. She vaguely muttered that it should be available and said she would go ask and once again didn't return. This flight cost me about the same as most others I have taken on this route but the customer service was abysmal. Equally expensive flight for worse experience. I will be avoiding Air Europa in the future.

MUC-SSA via Madrid Barajas: As it was the best option both time - and price-wise we booked Air Europa for our trip to the World Cup. Due to the ratings my expectations were low I even feared to not arrive in Brazil on time! Back in Germany I see this airline in a different light: the seats on the regional flight (Embraer 190) had sufficient leg-room on the overseas flight (A330) it was so comfortable that I slept like a baby. All four flights were 100% on time and last but not least the crew was friendlier than on the other two Spanish carrier I chose before. What I annoyed me a bit was that headphones were not provided free of charge.

We traveled on Jun 13th 2014 from MIA to BCN via MAD. First segment of trip was delayed 1.5 hrs. Reason: crew were not showing up to the flight allegedly because they were trapped at MIA security. Finally when they came 1 hr later they were "strolling" to the plane at a very slow pace and with a defiant attitude. No apologies whatsoever. Food service inefficient and poor almost inedible food. No blankets no pillows. They attempted to charge 1 Euro for a glass of coke not a can just a little typical airline glass. Once in MAD I have to say they made up the delay pretty well. Still we had a very tight connection with BCN. The plane stopped in the middle of the tarmac and a bus took us firstly to T1 to do immigration and then we had to walk back to the very same terminal where the plane left us originally. The walk back was no less than 1 mile. Once at D gates ready to board our flight to BCN we were informed the flight was delayed another 50 mins which turn out to be another 1.5 hrs total delay - so far 3 hours. Finally we got to BCN and went to pick up luggage another 1 hour or so for the luggage to come out. Extremely disorganized airline with a terrible service. Never again.

I have flown Air Europa several times over the past few years to Santiago de Compestela La Coruna and Barcelona. The customer service is consistently below average. It is a typical low cost airlines with no free drinks or snacks. They are a member of Skyteam but they have never processed the miles with their partner on any of my flights without requiring numerous calls. Overall a below average experience.

PUJ-MAD on May 20th 2014. The worst flight we have taken! A330 Aircraft tight without operative APU awful comfort bad food and crew very basic! Delayed without any assistance for 4 hours standing on the line at the check-in desks they made us pay a 30 dollar fee per person to go back to Europe.

BCN-LIM via MAD. If you pay budget prices expect a budget airline. Each of my four flights left pretty much on time (a one hour delay between Madrid and Lima on the outbound). The food on MAD-LIM was more than edible and plenty of drinks provided but I would advise bringing some of your own snacks on board. The airline doesn't provide entertainment options bar a shared screen showing a couple of movies in Spanish. Overall the experience was satisfactory and I have had less pleasant flights with bigger brand carriers.

JFK-MAD and vice versa. I was hoping to get some sleep and if the seats weren't so tight that could have been possible. Oh well I guess I'm not fit to be sleeping on airplanes. It would have been nice to have an individual TV but not a big deal each seat had a radio with a few music channels and a movie was on the overhead screens. They gave you a nice little blanket and pillow which I would hope were clean. Dinner was a choice between chicken or pasta dish. In the morning they offered a turkey and cheese croissant sandwich and muffin hot and cold beverages. People complain about airline food but I found it to be wonderful. The cabin crew took good care of you. I got up like 3 times to ask for more water and it was given to me with no issues. People classify Air Europa as a budget airline but I was very happy. They were accommodating at the airport checkin desk asking us if we had preference to what seat type we wanted.

Just flew Air Europa to and from retro Havana. The experience was no way as bad as other reviews suggest. It was much like any other flight and better than some budget airlines. I didn't manage to watch any TV (personal seat back) as I couldn't figure it out but I could have asked I suppose - other people managed OK. The staff were friendly and offered drinks but I admit we avoided the food. On the way back I was even able to stretch out and sleep but we didn't have our own TV screens. (not a problem on a night flight). Catching your connection is stressful (We made it with minutes to spare) but that is Madrid airports fault as you have to queue and have your passport and hand luggage checked again (and they don't rush themselves). All in all not too bad but if you want to avoid any hassle and stress pay the extra and fly direct.

They sell you flights with connections but if they delay one of the trips they don't take any responsibility for helping you reach the next connection. We used this airline to go from Santa Cruz Bolivia to London Gatwick via Madrid. We had an emergency landing but we were told that in Madrid we would receive help to reach our next connection. When we arrived in Madrid the staff of Air Europa knew nothing so ended up running to reach the next gate and arriving there only to receive a "Gate closed" sign. If they were responsible for the delay they could have communicated with the gate to make them wait for us. We had to wait almost 8 hours in the airport with no food vouchers or anything. To make things worse on the way back the flight from Gatwick was delayed as well when we reached Madrid nobody helped us the security gate was closed and there was nobody from the airline who could help us - we did reach our trip eventually.

Our flight from Santiago to Gatwick via Buenos Aires and Madrid was rescheduled to give us nearly 10 hours in transit in Madrid instead of about 3. True we were offered a refund but that late on it would have been prohibitively expensive to book a different flight. What was really bad was that we weren't offered a meal voucher or even a drink for the long wait and when we contacted the airline's customer service to complain of the poor service we didn't get the courtesy of a reply. We would never use this airline again.