fastjet

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Harare. Do not fly this airline. I flew Qatar Dallas to Harare, Zimbabwe via Johannesburg - US to SA was without incident. Instead of picking South African Airways for the final leg to Zimbabwe I chose Fastjet to support my home airline. Big mistake. My bags were checked through to Harare but while in SA I picked up a few things requiring checking in an extra bag. I paid online to save a few bucks only to get to the counter to be told that I needed to pay an extra R500 because one of the bags I had already checked was not paid for and that they did not code-share with Qatar Airways. It’s madness and wanting to find ways to scam customers, then they started threatening that they would pull one checked bag if I did not pay extra. The bag was already checked all the way through! I will use SAA instead.

✅ Trip Verified | I was supposed to fly from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls. Two weeks before flying I received a message that all flights have been cancelled. Until now I am waiting for a refund, which I never received yet. Don't fly this airline.

Not Verified | Dar es salaam to Mbeya. I bought my ticket in October 2018 on the Fastjet website. I turned up to fly in February 2019 from Dar to Mbrya to be told by airport staff that the airline had ceased flying. Right up until the day if departure its website still showed the flight as on time. They never even bothered sending me an email telling me they weren’t flying any more! Then I sent seven emails and made five phone calls to their office asking for a refund, phone was never answered, emails never replied to. I went to their office this morning and demanded a refund – they now say they will give me my money back in 21 working days time. I will wait to see if it happens. Be warned – do not fly with this airline!

✅ Trip Verified | Victoria Falls to Harare. I brought my ticket receipt to the counter at the airport to check in, the staff told me they couldn't find my flight so asked me to go to the travel agent 200m away from the counter. The travel agent told me Fastjet didn't get the money from my credit card so they just cancelled my flight without telling me, and I have the confirmation email shows they got the money and gave me the ticket PDF file. Another customer came in too and his flight was cancelled too because Fastjet didn't get money too. I needed to pay double price again get on board. The travel agent attitude is pretty bad, she said: Lady I am helping you, I am not fastjet." Then I emailed them to ask refund they never response.

✅ Trip Verified | Went from South-Western Highlands town of Mbeya to the capital Dar es Salaam on 8 August 2018. Easy to buy ticket online, prices fluctuate a lot. Generous hand-luggage (2 pieces) – surprise for an Low Cost Carrier. Two days prior departure they change policy and now open up for everybody holding a ticket to check in 1 full baggage free and to be given snacks/drinks for everybody on board. Thus, you don’t at all get the feeling of an LCC. Homepage and check-in without problems, smooth and generous. The Embraer 190 was very nice, new, narrow body aircraft. Aircraft loaded with approx. 75% of seats. Without requesting I was given a “pay-seat”, no. 12A – a spacious emergency seat. Good announcements from captain. This was a midweek morning on a National Holiday (nane-nane). However, I was scared of any delays or cancellations as the reviews I could find were few, old, and mainly negative or even very negative talking about customers let down in remote areas. As I had international connections in Dar and the transfer time was 7 hours, I eventually accepted the risk of delay as a minor delay would still work. I kept fingers crossed to avoid any cancellation. Location of Mbeya airport is confusing as there are two airports which both claim the IATA code MBI. In reality they use the remote airport of Songwe, 21 km from town. Nice airport in its simplicity and modesty. They have a smooth shuttle service from town to airport. FAs were professional providing soft and hot drinks plus a snack. Inscribed luggage delivered within 5 Minutes. Flight took off 10 Min. before scheduled and landed 30 Minutes earlier than ETA. Can’t fault this airline. Admitted I might have been lucky as approx. 5% of the Mbeya departures says “status unknown”. The reputation that they tend to merge departures could not be verified.

✅ Trip Verified | DAR-HRE (via LUN), July 23 VFA-HRE, Aug 1 HRE-DAR (via LUN), Aug 2 After flying 3 times and 5 flights in total within a week with Fastjet, I beg to differ from the disappointing reviews here. They are probably justified, but I would like to believe that they are anomalous events in the very good way in which Fastjet regularly operates. Everything went perfectly well on my flights, we arrived at each destination about half an hour early, the planes were clean, with good leg space, the crew kind and professional, and the ground crew very helpful - to the point of refusing to charge us for our checked bag because we had so many flights with them. The flights went smoothly without glitches. Food and beverages need to be purchased, as they must be with all low cost companies, so this was not surprising. What was surprising was that most of the flights had many empty seats. My only issue was that they charged me a hefty fee of over $130 per ticket for the change of flight date, although the planes were half empty. I changed the flights literally 3 hrs before departure because of the post-election situation in Zimbabwe. I forgot to even check whether it would have been cheaper to purchase a new OW ticket, instead of paying for the modification, but I was in a hurry to leave Harare airport and forgot to ask. I find Fastjet no different from any well known low-costs in Europe, or from, say, Spirit Airlines in the US. I fly these very often and know the ropes of how they operate. All in all, a very good experience with Fastjet, if I ever come to where they fly again I will definitely use them.

✅ Trip Verified | Dar Es Salaam to Kilimanjaro. Got to the airport. Flight didn’t exist anymore (it had been taken off that days flight schedule) and I did not receive any prior information. Obviously gave me a lot of trouble because this was unexpected. Don’t get fooled by the price, the risk is too big. Choose another airline at all other costs.

✅ Trip Verified | Mwanza to Dar es Salaam. The flight never took place. The staff told us to take a flight next day which was not possible for us. Still don't get our money back. Will never use fastjet again because every time we have big problems.

✅ Trip Verified | We were supposed to fly on the 16th March with Fastjet only to receive few hours before my flight an email saying that my flight had changed to FN 154. The email that I got was not clear at all not stating which flight had changed (no flight number or departure airport was mentioned) so I assumed that the flight on the 16th March had changed. I emailed the airline but had no response back so I had to book another flight from Dar es Salam to Kilimanjaro which cost me the triple of what I had booked with Fastjet. I arrived at the airport and went to Fastjet desk only to be told that this flight was on time and I was too late (the flight was leaving in 35 min). I showed them the email and they told me that flight change refers to the returning flight. I don't understand how can you change a flight without mentioning the flight number or departure time. My return flight changed from 21:30 to 12:30. Needless to say that this flight change didn't suit me at all as I was on a safari and obviously couldn't make it. I had to book another flight coming back with Precision Air as FastJet didn't offer any other flight times and again the cost was triple. I expected a refund for this inconvenience as it was totally unfair what the airline did and the cost for the other flights that I had to rebook was ridiculous. However none of this happened!

✅ Trip Verified | The flight from Kilimanjaro to Dar es Saalam was on time, check-in was very smooth, pleasant flight, and very friendly staff, including very good safety briefing. Similarly, the flight from Dar-JRO was on time, smooth flight, very friendly and client-oriented staff. On our return flight, KLM was approaching JRO to land, so we spent few minutes circling around. The captain promptly informed us, and cracked a joke," a big bird is ahead of us and about to land, so we need to make way", everyone laughed which brought for a very good feeling.