SATA International

Not Verified | This was my return leg to Boston, as I flew into Ponta Delgada via TF Green / Rhode Island Airport in Providence via a A321neo, on their only A330 with its whale livery. Needless to say, Azores Airlines, as they are advertised as that, need to improve on some fronts. In flight entertainment was shallow for a 5 hour flight, as there are only 4 movies, a couple of TV shows and some songs available on the seat back monitors. No games, no map, nothing else, either that, the in flight magazine or whatever you brought inside the plane. Those on the A321neos need to get a app to access the same in flight entertainment as on the A330, as well as Wi-Fi, which they provide on said A321neos for free. Food was not traditionally Azorean, as we had spaghetti with meatballs, which tasted average for a flight. There was some bread with Azorean butter though. Seat was average, cabin staff was average, and everything else about the flight was average. The Azores themselves are interesting as islands, but getting to these interesting islands from America requires a bland airline that needs to improve somewhat.

✅ Trip Verified | Toronto to Ponta Delgada. Our flight was due to leave Toronto for Ponta Delgada, Azores at 9:15 pm but just before leaving for the airport, I learned it had been cancelled. We were put on a flight to Montreal, early the next morning, arriving at 9:30 in time to catch SATA's 11:45 flight to Ponta Delgada. That flight was also cancelled. We waited in the Montreal airport for 14 hours, flnally at 11 pm. boarding a plane that SATA had hired from a Spanish company called Plus Ultra. I had been wary of booking SATA in the first place after reading on this site about their frequent cancellations but since they offer the only direct flights from Canada to the Azores, we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Never again. After two cancellations in a row, I'd say these people need to get their act together.

✅ Trip Verified | August 2018, my husband, myself and my sister in law traveled from Toronto to Ponta Delgada in what we assumed was going to be SATA plane. As it turns out when we arrived at the airport we were redirected to an "infield" wherein we boarded a Plus Ultra plane, as we can assume this was a Spanish plane with Spanish speaking crew. The plane was old and rattled, my chair the headpiece kept falling off I'm going to assume that the air condition was broken as it was incredibly hot (little children had to be with just their diapers) and not one single representative from Sata made themselves available if there were on board. What a horrible experience if this had been our first time travelling with SATA needless to say we would not be travelling with them again. The food was horrible, but I don't expect much from aeroplane food. Hopefully, there will be more choices of airlines in the future if we ever decide to travel to Portugal again.

Not Verified | Avoid booking with SATA, if at all possible. I took a trip on July 31st from Boston to Ponta Delgada in which the final destination was Terceira. The flight from Boston was delayed 5 hours which caused me to miss my morning connecting flight from Ponta Delgada to Terceira. Needless to say, SATA booked me on the very last flight to Terceira, which in turn, was delayed twice for a total of 2 hours. By the time I arrived in Terceira, I had lost an entire day of my vacation which was not long to begin with. Anyone choosing this airline is taking a huge gamble and risks not being able to return to work as planned. As I mentioned earlier, this review has no impact on SATA, the actions of its administration, or even the government that oversees it but will serve as a deterrent to any future travelers who plan on visiting the Azores. Do yourself a favor and find an alternate way to get there, or an alternate vacation spot for that matter. Keep in mind that we are not talking about a budget airline. Passengers pay top dollar to travel on SATA. Meanwhile, politicians have been elected, members of the administration are collecting fat paychecks, people are paying their taxes, and these issues will still be here for years to come.

✅ Trip Verified | I have been traveling with this airline for the past 20 years and each year it gradually gets worse. Seriously, if there was another airline traveling from my area to the Azores I would take it 100% over SATA. They never fail to have delays on every flight, and none ever seem to be less than 4 hours. Customer Service is absolutely, terribly rude so you’re better off complaining to a wall because you wont get your way with them. I am currently stuck in a 13 hour delay on an island I'm completely unfamiliar with while traveling alone, all because they fail to know how to run a proper airline. I was supposed to arrive at Pico at 9am, and I will now not be arriving until 9-10pm. Lost an entire day of vacation that could have spent outside of a miserable, metal airport. And if you think you’re getting even a small portion reimbursed back, you’re better off seeing God himself. I wouldn’t recommend Sata/Azores Airlines to anyone, you’re literally better off swimming here. I have never been so disgusted and irritated with an airline and I’ve been on a handful of awful ones, and SATA by far is the absolute worst.

✅ Trip Verified | Toronto to Lisbon via Ponta Delgada. We fly with some frequency and this is by far and away the worst airline I’ve ever experienced. Rude, zero customer support, vague, and no accountability when flights are delayed. Getting a coupon for lunch doesn’t really recoup over 24hr of lost travel time and hotels. Awful experience.

✅ Trip Verified | Lisbon to Horta. It is infamous for being unreliable due to having an ancient fleet and the temperamental weather in the Azores. My own experience with the airline is reasonable once on board, but very negative on the way there. Initially, I had booked a Business Class ticket because these are flexible and the website promises "free" changes and refunds, and because of the luggage allowance and comfort. When I asked to change the ticket to a different flight on the same day, staff asked for an "admin fee". I pointed out that the website promised this was free, but they ignored this and insisted. I showed them screenshots, showed them the terms and conditions of the ticket, but they would not budge. Ultimately, I cancelled the ticket (which also cost an admin fee despite being promised this was free) because this airline is dishonest, and doesn't deserve the extra revenue. So I booked an economy ticket. When, I realised that the luggage allowance wasn't going to suffice, I checked the website to see if I could pre-pay for extra luggage. There was no such option, but some quick maths revealed that it was cheaper to buy a ticket than to pay for the 23kg of luggage allowance each ticket includes. So, after again looking through the terms and conditions and not finding anything which precludes passengers from buying more than one ticket, that's what I did. (Incidentally, I did the exact same thing for the British Airways flight taking me to Lisbon). After checking in online and choosing two adjacent seats for myself, I turned up at the airport to drop off the luggage. Things did not go well. Staff told me they were cancelling my second ticket. Not only that, but they told me "this is a no refund fare" so they cancelled it without refunding, then charged me the full amount for the extra luggage. I repeatedly asked them to show me which terms and conditions I had broken (none), and which policies they were following (also none), but to no avail. They would not even answer the questions. I pointed out that British Airways had accepted the same solution without a problem the day before, but they just shrugged. It was like talking to - and asking questions of - a brick wall. As I was the only customer there, it wasn't even as if they had a queue of people to worry about - they just would not try to resolve the situation. If you look at the Azores Airlines website, you'll see that their rules and terms are rudimentary. They look as if they were copied from a template document, without being updated by anyone. When faced with any scenario they aren't used to, staff will try to make the problem go away, without any regard for passengers' rights, or legal contracts. They also will not respond to your written complaints (I complained over a month ago) or the Online Dispute Resolution Service their site links to. Unfortunately, when booking a flight with Azores Airlines, you take the risk that the airline takes your money and doesn't hold up its end of the deal. The flight itself was uneventful. On-board staff were ok, and a ham and cheese sandwich was served. There was no vegetarian option (even though I ticked a box during booking), but for a 2.5 hour flight, it's not the end of the world.

✅ Trip Verified | Porto to Ponta Delgada. Well, we started with a 2 hour delay with no properly explained reason, one time they said it was due to snow when the airplane was leaving Frankfurt on a prior flight, another time they said it was due to bad weather in Portugal. Check in was quick and I have to admit the ground crew was really good on briefing me about what could happen and at what hour I should go to the airport but I could notice they didn't really knew why the plane was so late. The flight was moved from 22h00 to 1h15 and we were told although we were entitled to a meal voucher all restaurants were already close and that was indeed true. So I went to the waiting room after a 2h delay, having had a early meal to be able to meet the original departure time (I had already had my meal when I was informed that the flight had been delayed) and was already hungry and sleep when I arrived at the waiting area. Once there, and after waiting for almost an 1h one of the staff member appeared and simply said that our flight had been postponed for another 2h30 with no more explanation and immediately went away. Very rude. We were left for 2h30 in a extremely cold and drafting waiting area, with no food, no drinks, nothing. Not even vending machines could be used. After about 5h delay the plane took of. It was old, clean but not very comfortable. Crew was ok but never nice, and food was boring and unremarkable to say the least. No inflght entertainment or wi-fi was available and the crew never dimmed the cabin lights. It was very frustrating, we were sleepy, late, tired and needed to get to work soon in the morning and they didn't even let us have some sleep during the flight. Horrible. We finally arrived at 4h45 local time, when we should be arriving at 23h. I lost part of my work day the next day and had an horrrible night. It was not a nice flight, the crew was not nice or sympathetic and I was very disappointed with this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | A mess of a company. Booking was fast and simple and I even got a very good price for my flight. Check in was also ok but then came the notice that the flight had been moved from 22.00 to 1.30am. I called the counter in Porto and they were very polite (as usual) and very professional, explaining that the flight had been moved so was the limit for luggage drop off and even warning me that due to the incoming bad weather I might not be able to fly at all. Arrived at the airport, the girl on the check in was very nice and I decided to go to the company's counter to check if I could be compensated for the delays, they were excellent, giving me the legislation, explaining in more detail the reason for the delay and told me they could give me a voucher meal but that because of the late time (almost midnight) all restaurants were closed. I thanked them and refused the offer as it would be of no use for me and decided to go to the boarding gate and that is when it all went bad. When at the boarding gate, we were told with no further explanation that our flight had been moved yet again to 3.15am, the reason being that snow at Frankfurt had delayed the departure of the plane early on, except that no other flight form Frankfurt had been delayed more than 2, maybe 2.5 hours. We had to wait in a very cold corner of the airport, with no drinks, no food, no assistance and no heating. Finally we boarded the plane, old plane, in good shape and very clean. Not the roomiest seats, no entertainment whatsoever and no wifi. Crew were ok but not nice and food was acceptable. What was not acceptable was the fact that they refused to dim the lights so we could sleep or at least rest during the flight. We finally arrived at our destination, after a very slow flight (not only were we delayed but the plane flew slower than usually) and it was about 5.00 when I got my bags, way behind the 23.20 schedule. Of course I couldn't make it to my work merely 3h later, very bad situation and it messed up my entire week. Cheers for the Porto ground staff at the counter, they were very nice and helpful!

✅ Verified Review | Porto to Ponta Delgada. The waiting times for check in were simply absurd for a 180 passengers flight. One line for regular passengers and 3 for priority is not acceptable. Waiting to board and the flight was late (as usual) and the company didn't bother to tell the customers and staff at the gate were totally oblivious of passengers, almost as if we didn't exist. Boarding was long and confusing because this airlines lets passengers carry everything they want into the cabin and then there is not enough room for passengers to store their belongings. Seats were not that roomy, they were ok but the new Airbus seats on the TAP and EasyJet give so much more space and are much more comfortable. No entertainment apart from some small and far way screens showing some boring adverts about the Azores, with no sound. No music, no usb port or mains to charge the mobile and no Wi-Fi. This could be ok if the flight wasn't that expensive but it was. Plane looked clean, the key word here being "looked" because as soon as I opened the seat pocket in front of me to store my wallet I noticed how dirty it was. Cabin crew was not helpful or friendly by any standards and serving the meals was embarrassing to say the least. They started serving from the front of the plane and took forever, then for no logical reason they started collecting the trays from behind leaving no time for passengers to finish the meal and even trying to hurry them up. Very rude. For some reason, although I had finished, the steward didn't collect my tray and even after 2 passengers seating next to my tried to call his attention he didn't care and ignored them so another passenger standing in the aisle, next to the cart did his job for him and very nicely took my tray and put it in the cart. Cabin crew's chief was the worst, bordering on rude. He looked very experienced but he was very pretentious and when he asked me if I would want coffee or tea and I replied with "can I have both, please?" - he stared at me as if I was asking for the most outrageous thing in the world. That was nothing compared to what he did to the passenger in front of me. He asked the lady if she would want sugar or cream with her coffee and she said yes please, one bag - so the chief of the cabin crew asked her of cream or sugar? and the lady replied very politely I said a bag, so sugar, please - and he lost his temper and shouted almost as if talking to a toddler. "Lady, one bag can be of cream or sugar, I don't guess what you want!" News for him, cream was not being served on bags but sugar was. Food was dry, without flavour and the bread was very hard to chew. We did arrive late, as always and no apologies where presented. Redeeming grace for the this company: When still at Porto I had to contact the SATA desk and those people over there were amazing. Very professional, very nice and kind and with a great sense of humour.