fastjet

✅ 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.

✅ Trip Verified | Kilimanjaro to Dar es Salaam. fastjet cancelled my flight during the night and I didn't receive any news. When I came to the fastjet office in Moshi to ask for the airport shuttle I was told there is no bus and no flight. There was nobody reachable and I had to try to get my connection flight by myself. Until now there was no answer from fastjet. Nothing. No refund, no email, no call. There was not even a single hint why they cancelled the flight. Better to book with any other airline than fastjet. If you want to throw away your money book with fastjet.

✅ Trip Verified | Dar es Salaam to Lusaka via Harare. Fastjet cancelled flight and put me on one 2 days later, without my consent. Notified me via sms. I called in 7 times , sent 2 emails and drove to their branch at airport, to get a refund in process. Finally received email confirming refund would take 5 to 7 days. Been 2 weeks and still no refund.

✅ Verified Review | Kilimanjaro to Dar es Salaam. Fastjet is a terrible airline. Normally my flights are cancelled but I had to go with them as I did not have any other option. I paid for 40k luggage as I did not want any issues, but of course got to the airport and staff were rude as one bag was a couple kg over 20kg whilst my other bag was only 13kg. All up on was under 40kg by a number of kgs. Staff were rude with zero professionalism - especially one of the fastjet staff. My two son's flights got cancelled so we're stuck on their way to boarding school. Of course the staff of fastjet did nothing. Super cheap and nasty airline.

✅ Verified Review | My honeymoon flights from Johannesburg to Zanzibar was cancelled 2 weeks before the planned flight, with no warning. I got an sms saying that my flights were cancelled and that they have been moved to different dates, 5 days after my initial flight plan. Obviously this is completely unacceptable for a flight to a honeymoon destination. You cannot change your wedding date and cannot change expensive resorts bookings which was made months in advance. My whole honeymoon length and location was based around this low cost flight and I will never make the mistake again to use Fastjet. I had to buy new flights on another airline for a very large amount, and also depart on a date and time which is not preferred, but the only flights available. I have not received any money back for extra costs incurred from FastJet. Only a refund for the flight which is very cheap so worthless. Any proper airline has to compensate you for extra cost incurred due to situations which is completely their fault. This is their response: :"We understand that because of the delay there was a negative cost implication on yourself however since delays are possibilities which we advise you of pre-flight, we do not offer compensation or guarantee reimbursements" I did not even have a delay, my flight was cancelled. They could not even respond personally, just this mass generated email. I advise all other people to avoid Fastjet completely.