Kenya Airways

✅ Trip Verified | London Heathrow to Lusaka via Nairobi. Flights full on outward leg. Evening meal provided and a small "breakfast box" on 787, another small "breakfast box" identical to the original one and equally poor - a tiny croissant and a small bun on the flight from Nairobi to Lusaka. Kenya Airways food is going downhill - flown with them before and the food was more substantial. Return flight - Lusaka to Nairobi via Harare - a packet of salted nuts and a drink. Nairobi to London - "lunch" was a very small offering allegedly breakfast of a poached egg and spinach - again in a cardboard box. This is not the way for a cash strapped airline to attract or keep customers. Cabin crews were unsmiling but did the job. All flights were on time which was good - but if you are looking for seat comfort, forget it - seats were hard and narrow - the seats need refreshing.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Lusaka via Nairobi. Kenya Airways is strapped for cash and it shows. On all four legs of this trip food was very poor indeed - on three legs we were served identical "breakfast boxes" which consist of a tiny croissant,and a small cake - no butter etc that was all. On the outward leg from London to Nairobi there was also a reasonable evening meal but on the return leg the "lunch" was miniscule. There were no visible water runs and the cabin crews did little outside the "meal" service. Marketing seems to use the wrong strategy to keep customers - the whole concept of customer service seems to be going in the reverse direction. Both aircraft types are clean but the seats are so hard and uncomfortable from years of use. Having flown with them before the whole trip was very disappointing. On the credit side the flights were all on time. If Kenya airways want to attract and keep customers they should review the so called meal options and not advertise "breakfast" on the e tickets when it clearly does not apply- a breakfast box is not a meal - buy something at the airport !

✅ Trip Verified | Kigali to Dubai via Nairobi. 5th October 2019 E190 and B787-800 aircraft. All on time. Check in smooth online where I was notified by KQ 36 hours prior to kick-off. In airport things went well. Granted access to Rwandairs’ Dream Lounge as the usual Business Lounge is under renovation. On the first flight business class was full and people were cramped in 1 x 2 configuration. For solo travellers its important to select the single seats on the left (column A). Welcome champagne given provided the passengers request it, otherwise it is not offered. They had two food options (veg. or chicken) which both were ridiculous, loaded from Nairobi: 1 to pick of chicken or vegs with a ground potato cake, total some 50 grams served on a disgusting. Seats are classic Business class with limited reline. Cannot justify the high price tag for business class on short flights. In Nairobi I used the wonderful Pride Lounge to catch up with Premier League. The longer leg NBO-DXB was much nicer and a true business class experience. I had two hot kinds of hot meals and they were both acceptable (fish and steak). Staff well-rested and in a sparkling mood. IFE fine. Roomy lie flat beds. Food is deteriorating, really bad and poor compared to earlier years of glory. No quality beers and only 1 or 2 wines offered. And the 2 beer brands they offer are just industrialised mass products of low quality. However, I rate KQ fairly high due to their good lounges, good flights on widebody aircrafts, nice FAs, and ability to handle irregularities.

✅ Trip Verified | Nairobi to New York. I paid for business class roundtrip, my return flight was delayed until 2:30 am and then cancelled, I was stranded for one night in Nairobi and then another night in New York, and then they never actually booked my connecting flight. Yet they swore the entire time that I had a ticket. I have tried for a month to get a refund and they won't respond. The customer service is routed through a call center in India that is absolutely worthless. I tried calling their home office in Nairobi (no toll free number so incurred international charges) and got hung up on before anyone could help me. Twice. Emails are ignored. I am by far not the only one having these problems, either.

✅ Trip Verified | Nairobi to Mahe. Extremely poor customer service from Kenya Airways today. After delaying our flight KQ 250 by 4hr 15mins meaning everyone is missing their connection, they offer no compensation, no solution, refuse to call the Seychelles Airlines to ask them for help. I expect to receive a refund for the inconvenience.

Not Verified | My flight from Dubai to Mauritius to transit through Nairobi was so bad. They delayed us in DXB for 2 hours and when arriving at Nairobi the flight to Mauritius already left. I had to reconnect to Johannesburg waiting for 8 good hours without any help of any rebooking or a hotel to rest. Arrived in Johannesburg at 1 am the morning I have to wait for another 9 hours before the flight to Mauritius. The journey of 1 day takes almost 3 days. I wouldn't recommend. They have wasted my time.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Paris return. Kenya Airways does the job but don't expect much more than flying from A to B. On the good side, flight hours are convenient from Johannesburg to Paris and route is short. Flights were all on time, with short connections. KQ is part of the AF-KLM Flying Blue programme and that's very convenient (I'm Silver and got 3x23 kilos). FAs were fine and as already experienced on KQ they tended to be very generous on alcohol. On the downside KQ offers very poor service. IFE is extremely poor, with a very limited choice of films, most being rather old films, and the selection did not change between late July and late August! Besides IFE did not always work fine (sound problem on one flight). Food was very limited and very bad, particularly on 8 hour flight to Paris: no real dinner but just a fat meat roll, breakfast very bad - but food better from CDG as on so many airlines. NBO airport is small and clean, it was not crowded but very dull and very limited service. Ground staff at OR Tambo wanted us to pay for our children's car seats (about $ 400!) because on the website it was written that car seats were free for "infants" and they said children (aged 4 and 9) are not "infants" - very absurd rule! Hopefully the agent at the ticketing office was shocked by the price and sorry for us and finally they dropped the surcharge (as always, be kind with ground staff and stay calm!). Yet we saw latter the same ground staff member telling very rudely to a passenger going to Malawi that he would have to pay for a not-so-big cabin bag he was carrying. KQ's service is clearly very poor and among African airlines SAA and Ethiopian, while far from being perfect, offer better service, particularly IFE, food and cabins.

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Harare via Nairobi. My first leg flight from Bangkok to Nairobi was delayed by 5 hours on 30 August (from 01:40 to 6:10). On arrival in Nairobi I could still have caught my flight to Harare but was told it had been cancelled. They were trying to put another flight together. I was told to sit and wait. I waited from approximately 10:00 am to 13:00 pm. I was told that a mistake had been made as I had been rebooked to go to Lusaka. At approximately 15:00 I finally got a new boarding pass and was taken to a hotel. By the time all procedures were done I arrived at the hotel after 17:00 pm. We were told to return to the desk by 20:00 Hrs for the 11:59 flight. I eventually arrived in Harare at 02:00 am on Sunday instead of 15:40 Pm on Saturday. On my return a week later, the Harare/Nairobi leg was fine. On arrival in Nairobi I was told to go to transfer desk and knew instantly that another ordeal was starting. The flight had been delayed by approximately 6 hours again. "The flight is leaving tomorrow morning and we have booked you in a hotel," they told me. I had to take a crowded old bus with loud music playing. We arrived at the hotel late and had just over two hours before our departure for the airport. Throughout all this, I never got an apology or any kind words. I resolved that I would never take Kenya Airways as long as they cancel and delay flights this way.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to London Heathrow via Nairobi. I can’t fault this airline. Faultless journey, great crew, new aircraft, flights on time. My second trip to Europe with Kenya Airways in the last couple of months, they are now my airline of choice. Thank you Star Alliance for doing me over with your hard to find small print, otherwise I’d have never tried KQ.

Not Verified | Cape Town to Addis Ababa via Nairobi. I booked two weeks ago to attend a hospitality conference Addis Ababa. Flying there by night booked business class and economy for my return as it is a day flight. The transit time is good on both legs. Until yesterday when I was informed that timetables have changed and I now have 5 hrs to wait at JKA for the return flight to Cape Town. As a frequent flyer KQ, I asked their customer service if I could be given a voucher for the business lounge as they had made the changes. The short retort was 'No'. My retort to Kenyan Airways - I have now cancelled my booking and will be flying Ethiopian Airways direct from Cape Town to Addis Ababa return. No wonder Kenya Airways is also experiencing hard times, it all relates to service, on the ground and in the air. You have now lost $930 plus what I may have spent at the airport duty free, and my views of flying 'The pride of Africa' has changed.