Baggage Czechs (sic)! (Czech Airlines)

Member Name: Morgenhund

Product:	Czech Airlines
Date:	30/12/00 (370 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap

Disadvantages: punctuality not the best

I flew CSA for the first time this week, flying from Prague to London and back for Christmas. I had had a lot of rubbishing of CSA (gladly unfounded) from friends, who made comments about the flight being segregated into "Swine Class" and "Cattle Class", although the seat pitch was no worse than any other airline's was, and the flight did cost me a lot less than with other carriers.

My flight out was delayed by 90 odd minutes, which would have been critical had I had a connecting flight, and the flight back was an early morning affair, and generally their Prague-London service is fairly frequent. Neither flight was completely full, with the evening flight home on 22nd being at best half full.

The food was fairly bland, although it was piping hot, and was certainly very edible. The hostesses were very pleasant, although one did snap at a couple of drunken businessmen, who had polished off a bottle of vodka whilst we were taxiing onto the runway. She offered them another drink, namely a beer, and it did look as though she may have added something to it, as they crumpled up and lay in a slumber for the remainder of the flight. All of them spoke very good English and German, in addition to Czech. The free newspapers were mainly Czech or American, although I did manage to get a copy of The Guardian.

The in-flight magazine was a bilingual affair in Czech and English, and there were some good interesting articles in it, although some information about getting to/from Ruzyne airport would have been welcome. I had no problems with baggage reclaim, and on the return flight from London, where the baggage is handled by Air France, was quite relieved to see that the baggage reclaim is after immigration so you don't have to lug you cases through.

Baggage security was a bit more lax than with other carriers, as there was none of the usual "Have you packed this yourself?..." rigamarole, but then again as
long as all baggage is properly checked and scanned, it isn't an issue in any case. I would have no hesitation about travelling CSA again if necessary, and found their service overall a very good one.

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