Insel Air

Miami to Valencia Venezuela with stops in Curacao return. I have to say that all flights departed on time. Service was good. They served a small snack on the way to and from Miami. Planes were MD80's and looked a little old inside. Flight attendants were courteous and well dressed. Price was low ($780 round trip) which is the cheapest I've seen.

Long Haul equipment is very old and run down MD80's. The interiors are dirty baths filthy and the seats worn out. We had a 10 hour maintenance delay. The gate agents were either uninformed or embarrassed to share updates. Everyone missed connections and were forced to find a hotel room in Charlotte at their own expense. The service was poor.

Curacao-Medellin. The outbound flight had a delay of 1 hr 15 mins without warning. The single-cabin MD-83 was clean with Christmas decorations and with a fresh smell. Although the crew appeared chaotic the service was great. Fresh sandwiches beverages and coffee were served free of charge. Medellin-Curacao. Departed with a 20 mins delay. The crew behaved professionally and a free breakfast was served. The flight was comfortable uneventful and ended with a smooth touch-down in Curacao. Baggage arrived quickly on the belt. I would fly Insel Air again for the price but I prefer Avianca because of the inflight entertainment and customer service.

I have flow Curacao-Valencia / Valencia-Curacao several times. I don't have much to complain about. The flight's usually didn't have delays and most of the delays were at Valencia where local authorities decided to increase security at the airport causing delays in flights. Aircraft's look old (MD-82) but they are comfortable and clean and the crew are friendly. We didn't have food or drinks inflight I suppose it's because the CUR- VAL route is only a 30 min flight. You spend most of that time filling the Venezuelan immigration papers.

Aruba-Curacao-Aruba. The inter-island flights with a Fokker 50 had a delay on both legs. The cabin interior looked old with a few broken items in the cabin and filthy ashtrays. What I couldn't appreciate was the nasty smell coming out of the toilet and filling the whole cabin. The cabin attendant seemed grumpy. We had a smooth ride and a soft landing.

Caracas-Curacao Curacao-Charlotte. Every flight at least 2 hours delayed without warning. On the return flight (Charlotte-Curacao) the flight was delayed and ultimately cancelled. We were then shipped to Aruba on another airline (where we were forced to pay additional fees) and told by Insel employees that we would have to figure out our way home from Aruba. Their lack of organization inability to maintain a timely schedule and complete absence of reliable customer service makes this airline by far the worst airline I have ever encountered.

Curacao to Bonaire. Informed the flight was 30 mins late before arriving at the airport no further word after that. At the airport 12 of us were told our 5 pm flight "Didn't exist". We were kept waiting with no information and no alternatives. Instead of arriving 5.25 pm in Bonaire we arrived at midnight after flying to Aruba first. Luggage arrived the following day. Needless to say we were frustrated and exhausted. This is not what we wait all year for.

Had two flights booked. BON-CUR was late but got us there. The other one CUR-AUA was delayed 4 hrs (should leave at 18.30 but was scheduled to leave at 22.30) because of that I lost my flight back home and had to buy tickets from Avianca at the last moment. Their aircraft's are not reliable safety instructions are poorly conducted and the crew amateur at best.

Return flight scheduled for Curacao to Charlotte first delayed and after six hours told it was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Two more hours before taken to a hotel Insel said they would call with flight rescheduling however as expected they never called. Finally got my travel agent to reschedule through Insel on USAir Insel said they'd send a taxi to get us although this never arrived.

Pay the extra money and choose another airline. Port Au Prince Haiti to Miami and the flight was scheduled to leave at 1020am. We finally left at 8pm! They had to lease a jet to bring the travelers from Miami and pick us up. During the long day of waiting there was one update and lots of misinformation. The website was never updated. They did feed us late in the afternoon.