Which airport are you flying from?

manchester

Jamz

There are 2 flights that day, I go on the 20th..The Xl is due to operate on the Boeing 737-800 and the later flight is a BMI sub contract and is operated on an Airbus-A320 (I`m going on this one).

how did you get this information

long Story

Another negative experience I'm afraid

No disrespect for yourself, or any other posters, but sometimes I think it can be very easy to jump ion the bandwagon of "Excel are awful"

Four hours, while inconvinient is not a massive delay. The Excel aircraft had techinical problems

The number of times that 'technical problems' and 'Excel' appear in the same paragaph on this forum doesn't bother you?! 'Technical Problems' seems to be their middle name.

and Excel charetred in an aircraft to operate your flight. In the meantime they gave you refreshment vouchers. Chartering in an aircraft for 200+ passengers at little, or no notice at all is very hard, to have that arranged and gone in four hours is very good going. What more would you have liked?

It's not to do with what more I would have liked. The topic is about how good or bad Excel might be - I merely added my negative experience to the others here.
Reviews consist of good and/or bad experiences - it's not a matter of jumping on the bandwagon, but telling it as I found it. I see no-one saying that people who report positive experiences are 'jumping on the 'Excel are great' bandwagon'!

The landing was terrible. The return flight was on time and in a nice newish plane, but the landing was still one of the worst I've experienced - it felt like they came in to high and too fast. I thought it was just me, but having read other comments to that effect, maybe it's not!

While I appreciate being a nervous flyer cannot be pleasent, I wonder how qualified users of this board are to make statements like that. Excel are a British registered airline who's Pilots have to have licenses up to the CAA standard, and are tested on this once a year. Not all landings can be perfect there are many different factors affecting aircraft landings.

I have not claimed to be 'qualified' - only to report it as I found it. I have taken many flights, but have yet to be on a flight which dropped so suddenly, so frequently, on the final stages of the approach. People were actually groaning, so I guess I'm not the only one who noticed.

I'm, sorry to pick apart your post, its not a personal dig at you, just demonstrating that Excel may not be as bad as the picture painted here.

Indeed. From reading this forum and others, I can see that my experience was one of the least problematic! The situation appears to be much worse than I thought!
I have flown with a number of other airlines - the only serious delay I have ever experienced was a 24 hours delay when the fog was so dense and never lifted all day, that the incoming plane simply couldn't land. We got a night in the Copthorne for our trouble. As far as I know there was not much which could be done about that, and it certainly wasn't the fault of the airline.

I would be the first to agree that Excel are not the most reliable of charter airlines, but a 4 hour delay isn't that big a deal, you are just as likely to have this with any other charter airline. Excel provided refreshment vouchers, and undoubtedly worked very hard behind the scenes to get that Air Italy plane in. yet they still get a scathing report...

That was not a 'scathing report'! There are many scathing reports around here - I just added my 'review' as many others did.

IMHO Excel have simply expanded too far, too fast and have spread too thinly - they should concentrate on providing good customer service to a core number of planes and routes as a priority and slow down on the simple task of making money by getting ever-more bums on seats.
It does make people nervous to hear that a plane has 'technical problems' - when so many of Excel's flights seem to have 'technical problems', it doesn't exactly inspire confidence. When travelling by air, you want to know that the fleet is well-maintained by competent mechanics, not that they can bus another plane in from another airline (which must cost them money) when it goes wrong. These 24 hour+ delays and cost-cutting exercises are simply wrong, and I would hope that we can expect better from an airline company.

Even the BBC travel programme Holiday Hit Squad picked on Excel this week when they highlighted flight delays. Whilst mentioning that they had received complaints about a number of airlines they did mention that the airline they had most complaints about was Excel.

What a surprise.

Awwwww pants!

The flight we'll be on in 7 weeks was delayed by over FIVE hours today! Due to take off at 2.30pm and took off at 7.51pm!

Please God it doesn't do that for us or it's going to cause us no end of problems - our transfer for a start and keeping the kids occupied in an airport for 8+ hours does not fill with me joy!

hi tis

oh that is such a shame
i hope it is just a one off
just to rub salt in the wound ours last week was on time but i don't know about today as i was out!!

please pray for me next week that it is on time again!!

lou x

My parents arrived back from Fueterventura into Gatwick 20 minutes early on saturday.

Miop the grinding noise you heard when the flaps went up and down is totally normal, you will hear this on old and brand new aircraft.

Please don't past judgement on my fellow pilots that the landing where the worst you ever had, I would love to see you come up and have a go! You do not know what the conditions where like, the aircraft may have felt like it dropped suddenly this was probably because air traffic control held them at a high altitude causing them to decend at a steeper angle than most and jets are NOT supposed to be landed as soft as possible this is the wrong technique, the quote in the Airbus and Boeing operating manual is that landing should be FIRM and precise.

'Aircraft fault grounds tourists'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/5112794.stm

My Uncle was on that aircraft and he's never been so frustrated with an airline.

No information was passed out, they were initially told that some of them would be going to London, Manchester, Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow and then transferred to Newcastle

The lack of information was his biggest gripe. Things got quite heated yet the airline staff apparantly disappeared.

My son has just returned from Egypt with Excel air. Good flight and they landed 29 minutes early. I have also travelled with them and never had any problems with delays or anything else, always found cabin crew very helpful and pleasant.

Cic

We flew with excel from gatwick to fuerteventura and we were happy with the service we received.

Both flights left on time no delays whatsoever the plane was clean and comfortable. The cabin crew were polite and helpful and we were given activity packs for our 2 children with colouring in things,games to play and an inflatable ball which we used on holiday!! its a small thing but as any parent knows its a bit of a bonus to keep the kids quiet for a while!

so we will definately be flying excel in the future!

I have been ringing around for quote for flight seats out to bodrum from bristol on the 24th july for a 6 week stay returning on the 4th september.I called several and they just quoted on the phone , a couple had to ring back which they did a couple of minutes later. XL I called on monday and they never got back i have rang them every day since and they still never had a price for me yesterday they said the controller had been away for 3 days and they would give me the price today.............so when they never called I called them again and was told the email hasnt yet come back with the quote but she would ring me at the end of the day and let me know what was happening............well she just called and advised me to book elsewhere as she still hadnt had a response and she didnt think they were going to give her one.............ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! Im baffled!! All I wanted was to know the price of a ticket for heavens sake!!!
Anyone else had a similar experience?
off to book elsewhere now ........Tina

have been trying to get a price from Excel all week for bodrum flights for a 6 week stay............no joy at all they never come up with a price for me!! kept saying they would ring back etc., and then the department was closed for 3 days????!!!! now say book elsewhere as she didnt think they were going to give her a price for me!!
all totally confusing..........but would liked to of dropped them an email or phone call but the reservation girl said they are not allowed to give them out!!
so just wondered if anyone out there had a number or email address......many thanks

Tina

Dont bother with them Tina.
Take your custom to someone who will give you satisfaction.

Gene

Tina- Found this number on SayNoTo0870

Excel Airways 0870 1690169 01293 410727
Reservations & Customer services menu

Cic