Middle East Airlines

Customer Reviews

3 star Skytrax Rating
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Seat Comfort 12345
Staff Service 12345
Value for Money 12345
Customer rating from 110 reviews
6/10
3 star Skytrax Rating
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6/10

"An expensive, low-cost Carrier"

(Lebanon)

Verified Review | An expensive, low-cost Carrier. I've been flying in and out of Riyadh/Jeddah non stop on a weekly/biweekly basis for more than 8 years now. I believe I can fairly and precisely evaluate Middle East Airlines. 1) Flights departing from Riyadh/Jeddah are almost always late. I can recall a few times when flights took off as planned, but those were rare events. Such disorder does not serve business and frequent flyers well. 2) Seating comfort is abysmal! MEA seats used to cause me lower back pains until I started stuffing extra cushions underneath me. I have recently learnt that many other travelers share my pain. 3) Prices are exorbitant for a 2.15-2.20 hr flight time. I am aware that this track is their cash cow, but do they have to go and drain the milk dry? 4) Compared to many other respectable airlines I have flown, their movie count and the rate by which they bring in new movies are both on the low side. Good thing my Ipad is here to support. 5) Commercials, Commercials, Commercials, televised commercials they make you watch. Its not enough that they rip you off, they also make you suffer going over the same commercials every time. Not cool! Finally, you might be asking why not change airlines. The answer is simple: Convenience and Duration. MEA and another airliner are the only two with non-stop flights to Beirut. MEA having the lesser flight duration and most convenient outbound and inbound timing for business travelers. I hope that more airlines service this route just to topple MEA's monopoly and drive it to improve its services and lower its prices.
AircraftA330-200
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Riyadh
Date FlownNovember 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
2/10

"one of the worst airlines ever flown"

(Australia)

Verified Review | Beirut to Cairo. MEA has to be one of the worst airlines I have ever flown. BEY-CAI-BEY and saw 10 cabin crew over two flights and only saw one of them smile. Flights departed and arrived on time and the cabin crew worked extremely hard both sectors with a full meal service, tea and coffee and duty free but they were surly and abrupt. Flights smooth but the aircraft were old and worn out. We were put on MEA due to Qatar Airways no longer flying to Egypt and the difference between the two carriers was highly evident. The ground staff, however, were the friendliest and most professional I think I've ever come across, both in Beirut and Cairo. Bags were transferred to and from our connecting flights to Melbourne without a hitch which was excellent.
AircraftA320
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Cairo
Date FlownOctober 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
8/10

"If you want Lebanese hospitality"

(Lebanon)

Verified Review | Beirut to Abu Dhabi. The food out of Beirut in economy is delicious and good quality but out of Abu Dhabi it is not good at all. The crew good are well presented and friendly. Seat comfort needs to be updated they are not very comfortable at all. If you want Lebanese hospitality in the air this is the airline to fly.
AircraftA321
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Abu Dhabi
Date FlownOctober 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
yes
6/10

"5 hours 20 minutes delay"

(Lebanon)

Verified Review | Beirut to Al Najaf. This is the case of a Silver Cedar Miles Member. Flight was originally scheduled at 14:20 then changed one day prior to departure to 15:15 which is written on the ticket, surprisingly the flight took off around 20:35 with 5 hours 20 minutes in delay, in August this was not the only delay case, almost every flight with MEA suffered from this with no compensation for making people sit at the flight gate for hours. I use MEA almost for all my flights, the service is good, in-flight entertainment for each passenger, seats are a little narrow. They should get some help to manage their flight operation during peak season.
AircraftA320
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Al Najaf
Date FlownAugust 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
yes
1/10

"worst experience ever"

(United Arab Emirates)

Verified Review | Dubai to Beirut. My worst experience ever! We came early got our boarding passes 80 min prior sceduled flight take off. When we got to the gate we were informed that the flight got delayed by one hour, same was mentioned on the message board. We went to have some food and were all the time looking at the board or waiting a vocal announcement as usual. The board was still showing flight delayed then we saw final call we ran to the gate (5min far from restaurant) and we were told by Station manager that flight already left 5 min back and we were reported as no show! Interesting. They did not bother to run a vocal announcement about gate is to be closed like any other announcement we were hearing. No one even bothered to explain our rights for what i call here involuntarly Denied Boarding! The guys at counter asked to rebook again our return flight at spot rate (which is 50% higher than what you see on their website) and they need more money to remove the lock of no show so in total we will end up paying double. They even mentioned that we bought it on promo! We ended up spending 7 hrs at airport to arrange exit from customs and collecting our luggage back! It is my first and last time.
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteDubai to Beirut
Date FlownSeptember 2017
Value For Money 12345
no
5/10

"overall a good experience"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | Beirut to London. A fairly decent flight. The in flight entertainment on the way back was extremely limited, and it was a smaller plane too. The meal was very standard - I had the chicken, and it was dry and not very flavoursome. The cabin crew were quite good. The seats aren't great, and they don't actually recline, instead, the seat itself can adjust and move forward which was annoying. Considering I slept for some of the time, and it was a relatively short flight, it was overall a good experience.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to London
Date FlownJuly 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
yes
4/10

"No priority boarding"

(United States)

Verified Review | Beirut to Paris. No priority boarding for families with infants. We weren't allowed to take our stroller in Paris Airport, despite a layover of 4 hours before our United Airlines flight it had to go direct to Newark. Luckily we had the baby carrier. One of the crew members gave us the wrong infant seat belt. Few are experienced with hooking up the baby bassinet!
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Paris
Date FlownJune 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"service onboard is not good"

(Lebanon)

Verified Review | Beirut to Jeddah. The service onboard is not good at all, if you need water it takes the hostess one hour to get you, or to answer your inquiry (literally one hour). I've requested coffee around half an hour after departure and received it 10 minutes before landing and without sugar and milk to add. Another passenger next to my seat requested water and the plane landed without receiving the water. I also requested an item from the Duty Free and the hostess was not sure whether they have the item requested so she had to check with her colleagues. The plane landed and the hostess did not come back to me. The ticket is so expensive compared to the services provided, no access to the lounge for Silver loyalty program card holders. You can travel 29 flights in a calendar year and end up not having any privilges or benefits from their loyalty program. No wifi on board and so much more.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Jeddah
Date FlownJuly 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
3/10

"service is really bad"

(Lebanon)

Verified Review | The service on Middle East Airlines is really bad and the crew's attitude is poor. I'm a frequent traveler and it's not the first time I see such behavior. They're frowning all the time and are rude when talking to you. On my flight from Beirut to Jeddah, I pushed the flight attendance call button and 5 minutes later it was off without nobody showing. I clicked again and looked to the back and saw the staff turning it off without even bothering to show up. I did it for the 3rd time and the same thing happened. So I went to the back and saw the 3 crew members having a meal and heard them laughing. They should really work on their service and honestly, if it wasn't my company's choice to book me flights, I'd never travel with them.
AircraftA320
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Jeddah
Date FlownJuly 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
2/10

"we had 3 hours of delay"

(Lebanon)

Verified Review | I had a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on June 9th with Middle East Airlines. 20 minutes after departure the captain told us that he needed to return for an AC problem. Back to Beirut airport where we stayed for 2 hours waiting for a second plane to be ready, thus, we had 3 hours of delay. My stay in Istanbul was only for two days, so a 3 hour delay had an impact.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBeirut to Istanbul
Date FlownJune 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no