Royal Brunei Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Overall a decent experience with Royal Brunei and I would fly with them again. There was no sign of any of the horror stories that some other reviews talk about. The cabin was clean, crew were helpful and friendly, food was good (especially the warm croissants for breakfast) and IFE choice was enough for a 14 hour flight (although more language / subtitle options would have been appreciated). The biggest highlight was an overnight layover in Brunei in which we breezed through a really easy-to-navigate airport and spent a comfortable night in a hotel.

✅ Trip Verified | This lot make Ryanair seem comfortable. Everything about this airline, it’s airport and sky “lounge” is third rate. Sure, you save money as it’s always one of the cheaper fares but you will have to carefully consider it it’s worth it. On board food is almost inedible. They take all your water bottles before you board (yes even after you have gone through a security scan!) and then you have to beg the two staff working the entire economy cabin for a cup of water any time you want a drink on a 8 or 16 hr leg. Thinking you might make the journey a little more bearable by buying the $49 sky lounge pass? Don’t bother. Grubby tiny lounge, with no edible hot food options, and barely edible cold sandwiches. Filthy toilets.

✅ Trip Verified | Appalled at the complete lack of customer service following a complaint. Prior to my 21 hour flight I purchased a better seat for £120 - only to then have a broken seat on the second 14.5 hour leg of the journey: resulting in being more uncomfortable than anyone else. I’ve reasonably requested the refund of the extra £120 I paid but all I’ve received is a meek apology.

✅ Trip Verified | Bandar seri Begawan to Kuala Lumpur on 4th March. When I saw my seat with bread / or biscuit crumbs, I ask the cabin crew if i can have a napkin to wipe it off, but without hesitation, the female cabin crew uses her hand to wipe off the crumbs across my seat. I put on my seat belt, very shock to see the seat belt had a stain, IFE screen had a fingerprint and so does the window. I spoken to the crew about this incident and hopes the airlines are aware of the cleanliness.

Not Verified | In December 2019, My wife was travelling with my 3 young children using Royal Brunei Airline from Melbourne to Kota Kinabalu transiting at Brunei. Then with connecting flight (Malindo Air Kota Kinabalu to Kuching. No Notification of flight delay We were only told of flight delay till 2130HR (vs original departure at 1845HR), after waiting in line for 45mins at Melbourne Airport to check in. We would appreciate if the airline could send us an advanced notification about the delay but NOT upon check in. We have arrived in Melbourne airport by 1520HR. Having the young children to wait at the airport for 7 hours till departing time 2230HR, without any assistance extended was not a good experience. Making matter worse, we were declined our request for a simple meal arrangement. This was not a very considerate and responsible gesture – as you can tell the delayed flight hour had passed the dinner time and we didn’t request for anything unreasonable. Poor arrangement on Connecting flight: We repeatedly express our concern of how this delay would impact our connecting flight, ground staff reassured us that the delay will not affect the connecting flight to Kota Kinabalu. She affirmed that the flight will definitely wait for my family to connect to Kota Kinabalu as many passengers were transiting as well. It was obvious enough, from frequent traveling experience, having 30mins time to transit was quite impossible but we were once again reassured that we could make it. As expected, my family missed the connecting flight. My family was stranded and had to wait for the next available connecting flight to Kota Kinabalu at 2330HR on 11/12/2019 (vs original flight at 0030HR on 11/12/2019). As a result of above delay, the connecting flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching were forfeited, costing us extra expenses to purchase a new flight ticket. When venting our frustration with Brunei Airline ground staff, the lady tried to reassure us that they will try to help to get a reasonable reimbursement and even attempt to negotiate with Malindo air to reschedule a connecting flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching. My family were then quickly shoved onto a bus full of other waiting passenger to a complimentary hotel and asked to wait for the update but no phone calls or follow up message received. When we called up the next day, the airline staffs denied any arrangement or promise being made, and deterred all responsibilities. No apologies made. We were feeling helpless. The original trip was supposed to take only 1 day to reach the final destination but the whole journey was prolonged to 2 days in the end. Sadly, there was no empathy or service assistance throughout the whole journey, which made it even more painful to travel.

✅ Trip Verified | I am traveling from Jeddah to Bali using this airline for the first time and will be the last. Flight No. BI002 on 1st Feb 2020. Our flight had to land in Dubai due to a passenger critical health case which had him to be hospitalized urgently. However after waiting for long hours, we have been informed that flight has been cancelled, lost our transit flight and still waiting at Dubai airport for very long hours with big mess, no Hotel, no idea when is our flight. Thanks to Royal Brunei Airlines for making from our honeymoon bad experience.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Melbourne via Brunei. Checkin procedure online was a shambles, with no wallet ticket available. The system broke three times whilst checking in. The first flight was fine, but the entertainment system was incredibly poor with most films being old and none of the recent releases. After landing in Brunei we were advised our flight had been changed to a small aircraft due to a “fault”. 7 hours stuck in a small seat and only 2 toilets is far from ideal. Since this flight I have contacted RB customer service several times. It’s taken a month to have a reply from them. They seem to have no issue with passengers poor comfort and service. They have simply stated that as the flight landed and we arrived safely that’s all that their charter covers - the fact that we had no room, delays and a horrific flight doesn’t seem to matter. My advice to anyone is avoid RB. Pay the extra money and go with a proper airline with a good reputation for customer service. Enjoy the service you would expect elsewhere.

Not Verified | We chose to fly Royal Brunei business class from Melbourne to Bangkok. The first bad experience was the lounge in Melbourne - the Maharajah Lounge. The food was old - stale and cold. Absolutely disgusting. Having boarded the aircraft for the Melbourne to Brunei Sector, and being directed to our business class seat, that was the only good thing about the flight. The service was shocking . The attention to detail by the unfriendly staff was surprising for a so called business class flight. The food selection that was offered on the menu was unavailable and I had to settle for an economy meal that was inedible compared to food on other airlines that we have used The remote control on the entertainment system did not work properly. The entertainment selection was extremely poor. The staff were nowhere on seen throughout most the flight. No offer of soft drinks or refreshments. The only good thing was the legroom on the seat. The last straw was the unfriendly way that we were asked to return the menu card given to us at the start of the flight. Rude staff who should be ashamed of themselves. The 12 hour layover at Brunei airport would have been extremely difficult had it not been for the staff in the Sky Lounge who helped arrange for a temporary transit visa so that we could stay in a hotel in Brunei for a short stay. In fairness, the short second sector from Brunei to Bangkok was better. The cabin staff were much more attentive and friendlier than our experience in the first sector. Overall, this was a substandard Business Class Service which did not represent good value for money. Sadly, I will have to endure the return trip on this disappointing airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Melbourne to London via Brunei on 11th January. The flight on the way there from London to Melbourne on the 28th December had a 1.5 hour stop over in Brunei delayed and changed to a 9 hour stop over, and we were only informed the day before the flight. Assuming there wasn’t enough people to fill my flight so they cancelled it and just forced the poor people who happened to be on the flight to a much later one. Tried to call customer service twice, expensive International calls because the local line was shut as it was a weekend and was told both times they would send over hotel and compensation details in a few hours .. 24 hours later I had to get on the plane with no information about what would happen on arrival and it ended up taking another 2 hours once there to even figure out where to put us with most of the staff not even knowing that the flight was even delayed at all. I thought it couldn’t get any worse and was hopeful on the return flight that I would get home on time but no such luck. Flew from Melbourne to Brunei without an issue then the flight took off from Brunei to London but within an hour had turned around and force landed back in Brunei. The staff at the airport had no idea and were not helpful in the slightest. There was no wifi to contact anyone to let them know with the exception on using a horribly connected hotspot from one of the staff for about 10 minutes. The airport was freezing and they said it would likely be around 8 hours before the flight could take off. They said they couldn’t put us into hotels as “there weren’t any available” so we were just expected to sit in the airport for all this time with no guarantee of the flight even leaving. The communication was so bad that no one ever knew what was actually happening or where to go, and unless you specifically went and searched the airport for the few and far between staff and asked them there was no information given. In the end we landed in London almost exactly 12 hours later than we should have. I cannot believe how bad the experience with Royal Brunei was and I will never fly with them again.

✅ Trip Verified | Melbourne to London via Brunei in August 2019. The first flight was Melbourne to Bandar was meant to be a 787, and when we boarded it was an A320, claustrophobic and uncomfortable it was for a 7 hr flight. Trapped in narrow seats, with hardly any leg room. I upgraded at quite a cost to business class for this leg on my return flight as we did not want to undergo this again. Bandar to London was OK, very average and nothing much to comment, but the airline did not apologise for the inconvenience of the first leg, let alone making any amends. All in all not a good experience, and I would never fly this airline again .. just a 100-200 dollars cheaper than others. Not worth it.