Not Excellent, just average (Excel Airways)

Member Name: Madge11

Product:	Excel Airways
Date:	16/10/06 (676 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: they got us there and back

Disadvantages: none really

We booked our flights with Excel Airways back in January, for travel in August.

BOOKING
We booked through the website. It was very easy to use. We paid a deposit of £120 (£40 per person) and the balance was automatically debited from my credit card in June, exactly on the day they specified, eight weeks before we left.

There is an optional charge of £12 per person to reserve your seats, but we didn't take them up on this.

Our tickets arrived in the post, about a week before we were due to leave. There were no luggage labels! Is this a cost cutting exercise? A quick trip to Smiths to buy some was undertaken.

AT GATWICK
We arrived at the airport in good time. Their website states that the check-in desk will be open at least three hours before departure, but in our case this was more like two hours. Quite a queue had built up by the time they started work. Eventually we dumped our bags and went off to find some food and do some duty free shopping.

We were called to the gate and set off on the long walk. By the time we got there it was pretty crowded. We hadn't been there long when it was announced that there was a fault with the plane and we would be delayed approximately 45 minutes. Immediately everyone tried to leave the gate (to go to the toilet, or to have a smoke) and chaos ensued. If there was a problem with the plane, why did they call everyone to the gate?

Only a few people had managed to get away when there was another call to say that the plane was fine and we would be boarding shortly.

Eventually we did set off about thirty minutes late, but managed to make up time during the flight so that we were almost on time when we landed.

THE FLIGHT
I have to say I hate flying (lots of deep breathing and mental relaxation exercises called for!) so no matter how good the flight was, I wouldn't enjoy it.

Suffice to say, it took four long hours to get to Dalaman in Turkey.

The seats were leather, pretty small, and pretty close to each other. My son is 5' 10" and his knees were touching the seat in front.

We had to pay £2.50 each for headphones which didn't actually work that well. The film they showed was the animation "Over the Hedge" which my fellow travelers seemed to enjoy. There was also a selection of music channels to listen to.

We had opted out of paying £10 each for the in flight meal. As far as I could tell, very few people did have the meal, but the stewardesses came round with numerous trolleys containing drinks, snacks, duty free, and all the other stuff they try to sell you on board aircraft. For the hungry they did sell Paninis for £3 each, but having eaten at Gatwick we weren't hungry.

We landed safely. Phew!

CHECK IN AT DALAMAN
Again we arrived early; in fact we were second in the queue waiting for check in to open. This time it was under two hours before the flight when the desk opened. The lady on the desk was rather officious. She asked all the necessary security questions in a rather brusque manner, but we weren't asked where we'd like to sit. When we got our boarding cards we discovered we were right in the back row, by the toilets, not my favourite place.

After check in we went upstairs, checked out the duty free shop (just in case I missed something at Gatwick!) and went for a very expensive beer.

Our flights were called and we duly went to the gate. Expecting a long wait, my husband went to the café (yes, there was a place selling food and drinks in the waiting area for the gate) and no sooner had he got in the queue than they started calling us for the flight.

We set off just ten minutes late, and arrived back at Gatwick also ten minutes late.

THE FLIGHT HOME
The flight home was totally uneventful. We already had our headphones. The film this time was Ice Age 2. Being right at the back I couldn't see the stewardess giving the safety demonstration, but being a nervous flyer I wouldn't complain about this. If the plane crashes, I know what I'll be doing - panicking! I had a drink of hot chocolate, which while expensive, was very nice. For other details, see previous flight!

We were given a questionnaire to fill in about how we had found traveling with Excel, the prize being either flights or holidays with Excel. They also gave us pens to fill in the surveys, which we kept!

CONCLUSION
We're home, no more flying for ages!

Seriously, there is nothing particularly good or bad I can say about the flights and service from Excel. It was a typical charter flight, the seats were small, the drinks were expensive, but they got us there and back again.

Bon Voyage!



www.xl.com

Summary: It was OK