Had 2 excellent flights with Excel to Ibiza from Newcastle.

Both flights left bang on time, shame we had to check in at Newcastle 3 hours before we flew though.

At Ibiza we checked in, spent literally 10 mins in Departure Lounge, boarded the plane then flew.....no hanging about at all. And i got an extra legroom upgrade seat for free

Cracking airline in my opinion, thats 4 times we've flown with them now and had not a single problem or late flight yet!

Excel Airways is one I will not use again. Always late and when I was coming home from Kefallonia in May they were late again. I was going to Gatwick and the rep took us to a bar up the road from the airport where we were given a bread roll and fruit juice. Then the people who were supposed to be going to Bristol were told that there was no aircraft for them so they would be coming on ours and a coach would take them from Gatwick to Bristol. When we got on the aircraft an apology was made to the Bristol passengers that there was not enough food to go round so they would not be able to have an in-flight meal! Before I left the UK Excel even changed my departure time from 11am, which I picked because it suited me best, to around 3pm in the afternoon.

What a complete mess of a company. I am meant to be flying out to Dalaman on 25th September, flying back on 2nd October. Today i get a second ticket showing my return flight changed from a 6pm flight to a midnight flight getting into Gatwick at 2 in the morning. Customer services never answer but have sent them an email demanding compensation. Anyone pursued compensation for cancelled flight before?

If anyone has the email address of their legal department please let me know. I suspect i will get a much quicker response if i send a letter before action to them. Will they really want to spend time and money defending claim in the small claims court if they can give me some compensation to appease me!

Furious :-(

My friend's sister and her husband flew to Dalaman from Gatwick on Monday. They were so late arriving the lift they had arranged had already given up. Unfortunately their luggage arrived even later - four days later to be exact. As they were having no luck tracking it down at the Turkish end, my friend spent almost a whole day on the phone to Excel in the UK and it eventually transpired that it had not been loaded at Gatwick. She said Excel's Customer Services were absolutely dreadful and she is writing a letter of complaint, though reading the other experiences on here I doubt it will do much good.

Another excellent flight with Excel. We returned to Gatwick from Murcia yesterday. No problems at all and landed 10 minutes before time. The flight out the previous Saturday was very good too. We were delayed about 20 minutes due to a computer but that was replaced and we were given water straight away when captain announced a few minutes delay. And we landed in Murcia on time. Cabin staff were excellent on both flights. There was very good information from flight deck all the time too. The plane was a new 737-800 and we had plenty of space. On return leg we were given emergency exit seats so had plenty of legroom but husband who is 6'2" said that normal seats have plenty of legroom for him too.

Slightly off topic - check-in in Spain very quick. Security scanner let us take bottle of water and laptop stayed in case. Cigarette lighter was also no problem. It seems that it is all back to fairly normal now - at least at Murcia airport.

We have used ExcelAir many times now and never had any delays. Cabin staff have always been good. Have no knowledge of their Customer Services but other queries have always merited a very quick answer (son had refund within 4 days for meals that he inadvertently paid for on an Egypt flight when they were free and I had to book golf clubs extra on this recent flight and was phoned by ExcelAir about 1 hour after having sent an email on their website).

Have we just been lucky? In that case I hope our luck will last as I would not hesitate to book ExcelAir again.

Cic

we fly from newcastle on 4 october to fuerteventura with excel and i am really not looking forward to this trip after all the bad reports i have been reading, delays, bad food, poor inflight entertainment shaky old planes. i am a nervous flyer and also have 3 girls with me. please has anybody been with them lately from newcastle who had a nice experience and could put my mind at rest. thanks

carol,have flown 3 times from newcastle without a problem,in fact much the opposite,flights were on time and every thing was fine,kev

Carol - i posted this only last week:

Had 2 excellent flights with Excel to Ibiza from Newcastle.

Both flights left bang on time, shame we had to check in at Newcastle 3 hours before we flew though.

At Ibiza we checked in, spent literally 10 mins in Departure Lounge, boarded the plane then flew.....no hanging about at all. And i got an extra legroom upgrade seat for free

Cracking airline in my opinion, thats 4 times we've flown with them now and had not a single problem or late flight yet!

Dont panic, in my opinion they are a great airline!

Don't worry,I am flying with them from Newcastle on Oct 2nd,have used them many times and have had no problems.

Diane

I have used XL many times from NCL and no problems. I think it is just unlucky if you get a delay it could happen to any airline. I think you only hear about the bad experiences, the good ones get forgotten about.

Have flown with them the last few times and have yet to take off on time!

We have just had our flight times changed they are part of a package with Airtours but flying with Excel.

Both lots have the same flight numbers XLA3586 and XLA3587 Bristol to Lanzarote 16th Nov return 23rd Nov.
Dep Bristol was 10.00 now 11.35

Dep Lanzarote was 15.15 now 16.40

It's not a problem but just curious as to what happened tro the original flights.

Just returned from Mykonos to Manchester with XL. Flights there and back left on time, food was good (and free) and crew entertainment the best we've ever had.

The purser on the outbound flight was superb and regularly had a wisecrack or two when speaking to passengers during his tannoy announcements. Long time since I've heard so much laughter on a plane and it was all due to him.

One thing I noticed this year (and don't remember hearing it before on XL) was how both the captain and the crew when making announcements addressed them to ladies, gentlemen and children. Including the kids made it a very nice touch.

Maybe we have been lucky with XL. This year was the fifth we've used them and never had a problem.

Bill

Can anyone tell me if there have been any delays recently on the Friday morning Manchester to Dalaman flight ?

I know it has been hit & miss last month (my friends were delayed 6 hours in August). We are going in a few weeks but I keep forgetting to check the Manchester Airport (Departures) website on Friday mornings (busy day for me).
Hoping things have improved - touch wood we have always been lucky with XL flights too...........thus far

im not impressed and havent even used them yet, just had my july flights cancelled by xl, i only booked them 2 weeks ago and only found out because i tried to add my son on, wonder how long they would have left it before telling me and lets see how long the refund takes

i have rebooked with first choice and saved £247 so they have done me a favour in the end

Flew out from Manchester Tuesday 19th September and back on 26th, we had no problems at all, in fact we arrived back into Manchester half an hour early. Would use them again.

Hi,i was wondering has anyone used club card vouchers towards their flights and if so how do they work.I have £30 in vouchers and i believe this can give you £120 in clubcard deals,if this is the case then can book 3 flight seats for a grand total of £239 for 3 of us next August!
Any info would be appreciated.
Regards
Pat

Flew with Xl from gatwick to rhodes 30th august and returned 13th september. Flight going out not too great, was delayed after boarding as there was no pilot, staff a bit grumpy. Flight coming home was great. I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for. If we book the cheapest flight available I wouldn't expect it to be the same standard as the most expensive airline available! The flight got me there and back so I was quite satisfied.

Let us know how you get on using the clubcard vouchers Pat. I have quite a few that I could use