Kenya Air - not quite the 'Pride of Africa' that they claim! (Kenya Airways)

Member Name: cawatkins10

Product:	Kenya Airways
Date:	18/06/09 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price? Ummm can't think of anything else

Disadvantages: Everything else

We went to Tanzania in February of this year and took a Kenya Airways flight via Nairobi to get there. We decided on Kenya airways simply because it was cheaper than Virgin - BIG mistake and one which I will never repeat. We booked our tickets through Opodo and they cost us £615 certainly not cheap but the cheapest we could find.

Out flight was supposed to leave Heathrow at 19.00 on Friday and arrive at 06.30am the next day. Because the layover in Nairobi was so long (11 hours!) we decided to do a bit of sightseeing and stay over at a hotel to try to get some sleep before or flight out at 18.10 the next night.......However....
This was not what Kenya airways had in mind.

We arrived at the airport, at the suggestion of Kenya airways, two hours before our flight and checked in - no problems there, all going well so far. However, once we got to the other side and checked the board we discovered that our flight was delayed by an hour. Oh well these things happen we thought, no need to work up a sweat about it. So we went to get a drink and did a bit of shopping, came back and made our way over to the gate.

Hmmm lots of people milling around here and they all look quite cross, I wonder what's going on. Again we have a look at the departure board and it seems that our plane is now 'delayed' yep that's right just delayed not expected at such and such a time but delayed.

OK so we try to find someone official looking (not an easy job I can tell you) to ask what is going on but funnily enough none of the staff seem to know anything.

One hour passes, then another, then another. During these three hours we have been told that there is a 'part' that needs fixing on the plane but that this part isn't in the UK as you would expect, oh no they have to fly it over from France! We're told the estimed time of arrival is 10pm, so we all wait and wait and wait.

Bear in mind that by this time no one has offered us any compenstation and there are people with young children and babies in tow that haven't even been offered food or drink! I suggested that some of them might be able to use the first class lounge but this was met with 'but that isn't our policy madam'.

So 10pm comes and goes and, yep you guessed it, no word from the wonderful Kenya airway reps until finally (when everyone has just about reached breaking point at around 10.30pm) it is explained that the part wasn't put on the plane and will have to be flown over on the next one. At this point there was talk of having to fly out the next day instead which was no good for most people as they had to catch connecting flights (us included).

Cutting a long story short they finally flew us out at just gone midnight (they had to get special permission from Heathrow Airways as they don't usualy let planes fly out that late).

Right excellent you'd think I'm on the plane and I can forget about it now and just go to sleep (very very tired by this point as you can imagine). But noooooooo the plane is roasting hot (and I mean roasting) I was stuck in a middle seat and there are no call buttons on their planes (whose ingenious idea was that then) so you couldn't get the attention of any of the staff as they were all at the back of the plane having a natter. When I did finally get someone's attention for a drink of water she came back with one of those small plastic cups and promptly went away again for an hour, not much good when you're dying of thirst. If it hadn't have been so late and everyone was asleep I swear I would have shouted across the plane at these guys!

The upshot of all this is that we missed part of the day we had planned in Nariobi and we were tired and irritable that day which meant we couldn't enjoy the city properly.

I wish I could say I had a good experience on the way back as well but we didn't. Rude staff, delays (again although nothing like it was on the way out).

I would never ever fly with Kenya airways again. Their customer service is non existant and for the sake of £100 I would rather go with Virgin or BA anyday.

Summary: Complete rubbish