Plakias Forums

Plakias => Holiday Companies => Topic started by: Rowena & Carl on August 18, 2006, 09:40:52 AM

Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Rowena & Carl on August 18, 2006, 09:40:52 AM
Hi Everyone

We have booked with excel airways for the first time. I had heard bad things about them from a couple of people but just thought you can have a bad experience with any airline, but having just been reading some reviews on them i'm now now worried! I would welcome any comments good or bad from any one who has flown to Crete with them. Over the years as we do flight only we have flown with pretty much every one & generally all have been ok with the exception of a British Midland flight years ago & this June Thomsonfly, was first time with them and not impressed worst experience yet, hence now wondering if Excel will be worse?

Look forward to your comments

Rowena & Carl
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: The Lib on August 18, 2006, 10:43:59 AM
Quote from: Rowena & Carl
Hi Everyone

We have booked with excel airways for the first time. I had heard bad things about them from a couple of people but just thought you can have a bad experience with any airline, but having just been reading some reviews on them i'm now now worried! I would welcome any comments good or bad from any one who has flown to Crete with them. Over the years as we do flight only we have flown with pretty much every one & generally all have been ok with the exception of a British Midland flight years ago & this June Thomsonfly, was first time with them and not impressed worst experience yet, hence now wondering if Excel will be worse?

Look forward to your comments

Rowena & Carl

Depends what you're expecting from the flight really, I've flown with them to Crete twice now and I've no complaints.  It's pretty basic, meal isn't much to write home about but as in do they get you there in one piece then yes.  Also both times I've flown with them we've got in a few minutes early at both ends.
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: janm on August 18, 2006, 10:45:54 AM
Hi Rowena and Carl,

We have travelled to Crete with Excel twice and will be flying with them again in September.  We found them to be EXCELlent.  All of our flights have taken off bang on time and usually arrived early (coming home last year we landed about 45 mins early).  The planes have been spotlessly clean, they seem to have quite a bit more leg room, cabin crews have been very friendly and helpful, check in very quick and efficient, in fact we have nothing but praise for Excel.  We booked in January this year, and paid £375 for two adults, including all taxes, meals etc.  I haven't seen the fares quite that low since then.  All in all, I would recommend them - however - I know that others have had bad experiences with Excel, so this is just my opinion.

Jan
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: harribobs on August 18, 2006, 11:54:01 AM
i've got to agree with Jan, we've used them a couple of times and found them very good

in fact i am pretty sure they have won awards for being the best charter airline quite recently
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: janm on August 18, 2006, 12:15:08 PM
They have had the Telegraph Best Charter Airline for the last 2 years!

Jan
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Mike G on August 18, 2006, 12:58:57 PM
I'll be using them for the first time next month so can't comment directly.

However, no one is going to get anything approaching proper comfort on these low costs charter flights. Meals are usually very small for an adult and they are keen on selling you something (drinks, gifts, etc) before anyone is fed, whatever the takeoff time.

I'm 6' 4" so I hope the previous posting about the legroom is correct.

Mike
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Rowena & Carl on August 18, 2006, 04:34:29 PM
Thanks very much for the replies so far makes me feel much happier. Wasn't expecting anything amazing but it sounds pretty nice. I had heard that they had won awards but on the reviews I looked at they still sounded awful, I guess people are quick to complain and don't always mention when they've had a good experience. My main critera is to get us there safely & good customer service on board, I don't even mind delays really as I'd much rather fly on a plane that works!! We got our flight for £388 for 2 for 10 nights also including taxes, meals etc which I thought wasn't bad for a 10 night stint.

Rowena & Carl
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: paxmere on August 19, 2006, 07:39:19 AM
Rowena
We have used Excel many times and like others have found them to be very good and we have never had any problems. clean aircraft, helpful friendly staff, we'll use them again when we return to Plakias next May.
Enjoy the holiday and dont worry.
Regards
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Rowena & Carl on August 19, 2006, 09:07:35 PM
Quote from: paxmere
Rowena
We have used Excel many times and like others have found them to be very good and we have never had any problems. clean aircraft, helpful friendly staff, we'll use them again when we return to Plakias next May.
Enjoy the holiday and dont worry.
Regards

Thanks we shall & can't wait!
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Rowena & Carl on August 21, 2006, 09:15:23 AM
Quote from: Graeme
We're flying with them again for the third time next Tuesday into Chania, nowt but praise for them from us, but have read some bad reviews from other folks.
We did have problems getting receipts for money paid and late ticket delivery but thats now sorted after I kicked up a fuss ..........they then sent everything in duplicate and tickets arrived via email, thats after I was originaly told tickets cannot be sent by email  
Last year I seem to remember they sub contracted our flight to Scan Air which did concern me at the time, but the flight was fine and on time at both ends going and coming back.
Hope you have a good 'un too  

Thanks hope you too have a great time

 
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Ploppy on August 21, 2006, 11:03:16 AM
Sorry to be the voice of discord  

To be fair this tale of woe was bad luck more than anything.

We flew with them last year from Gatwick, think it was around about a 10PM flight.

We were a bit late boarding but nothing major. As we were taxiing out the Pilot mentioned that there had been a bad smell reported from the back of the aircraft (knew those egg sandwiches were a bad idea!)

I actually smelt it and was relieved we turned back. An engineer checked it out and we tried again.
Got to the runway and came back again  

We all got off after midnight and had to wait for a replacement plane.

We were given a £5 voucher to spend anywhere in the airport which turned out to be one bar as everything else was shut.

We eventually took off around 5:30AM I think, only 7 and a half hours late.

Arrived in Plakias around 1PM just in time to hit the beach. Was an early night that night for a change.

The flight itself was fine and the staff were OK, just a shame about the dodgy plane.

Looking forward to a smoother trip this year!

Paul
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Ploppy on August 21, 2006, 11:35:05 AM
Quote from: Graeme
Quote from: Mike G




I'm 6' 4" so I hope the previous posting about the legroom is correct.

Mike

At 6' I find the legroom tight and cant have my knees together, however it is is possible to request one of the few seats available that DO have loads of legroom. These seats are adjacent to the exit doors and are normaly reserved for disabled passengers. If there are no disabled then they are yours for the asking.....at an extra cost  
Being close to exit door does also have some advantages    

Is it not the case that these exit row seats are actually assigned to people who are in no way limited in thier ability to leap up and open the hatch in the event of an emergency? I know I have been asked in the past.

These seats are like gold dust to frequent flyers, hence the surcharge  

Paul
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: John & Zell on August 21, 2006, 12:15:17 PM
Not wishing to stir up a honets nest but being disabled myself I can definitly say that disabled persons are not allowed in the exit seats for safety reasons, in the event of an emergency people sitting in these seats are expected to open these doors, and I do know that they are in fact given instructions in doing so.
Whilst I can see the reasoning behind it, when there are 6 (3 either side) seats available it does seem hard that maybe 1 or 2 of them cannot be made available to disabled persons, after all it only takes 1 person on either side of the aile to open the doors.
It seems to me that it's a case of women, children and able bodied first and let the disabled make their own way after everyone else has got off safely.
John & Zell
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Mandy Harrison on August 21, 2006, 12:51:56 PM
Quote from: Rowena & Carl
Hi Everyone

We have booked with excel airways for the first time. I had heard bad things about them from a couple of people but just thought you can have a bad experience with any airline, but having just been reading some reviews on them i'm now now worried! I would welcome any comments good or bad from any one who has flown to Crete with them. Over the years as we do flight only we have flown with pretty much every one & generally all have been ok with the exception of a British Midland flight years ago & this June Thomsonfly, was first time with them and not impressed worst experience yet, hence now wondering if Excel will be worse?

Look forward to your comments

Rowena & Carl

Hi there

Harribobs and I flew with Excel a few years ago.  No complaints.  Nice seats (Leather).  Efficient and no delays.  Would go with them again for sure.  Indeed you could ship me out on shank's pony  so long as I got there.  Flight is fairly short anyhow so whatever it is like it wont be for long.  Look forward to hearing your review.

Mandy
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Mike from Sussex on August 21, 2006, 02:07:16 PM
Quote from: Graeme
Quote from: John & Zell
Not wishing to stir up a honets nest but being disabled myself I can definitly say that disabled persons are not allowed in the exit seats for safety reasons, in the event of an emergency people sitting in these seats are expected to open these doors, and I do know that they are in fact given instructions in doing so.
Whilst I can see the reasoning behind it, when there are 6 (3 either side) seats available it does seem hard that maybe 1 or 2 of them cannot be made available to disabled persons, after all it only takes 1 person on either side of the aile to open the doors.
It seems to me that it's a case of women, children and able bodied first and let the disabled make their own way after everyone else has got off safely.
John & Zell

You could be right, but it was my understanding when enquiring last year that at least 2 of the 3 seats was for a disabled wheel chair bound person+carer ? They did ask whether I was fit enough to open door as you rightly say. However I decided against the extra leg room seats in the end as we could'nt all sit together...........  
Personaly i think in the unhappy event that an incident did happen it should be disabled first followed by women and children.......

This is not personal opinion!

For the airline industry, safety is measured in deaths per million passenger miles. The cabin staff (whose main purpose is not to serve us meals etc.) are trained that, in an emergency, the aircraft be evacuated as quickly as possible. Any slowdown in the procedure could mean passengers getting killed in a fire or explosion, when they could have been safely out of the aircraft. The rule is, therefore, able bodied first, the old and infirm last. Ruthless, but logical.
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Mike from Sussex on August 21, 2006, 04:54:05 PM
Quote from: Graeme
Quote
Any slowdown in the procedure could mean passengers getting killed in a fire or explosion, when they could have been safely out of the aircraft. The rule is, therefore, able bodied first, the old and infirm last. Ruthless, but logical.

Thinking logicaly........I'd have thought that trying to stumble around/over disabled/blind people in an emergency would slow things down ?  
Lets hope its not put to the test !

Woops...sorry if this has gone of topic  

I agree and that is why most airlines only put able bodied people into seats by the emergency exits.

To be on topic, If Excel won't let disabled passengers have the leg room seats, they are following industry norms. As you say let's hope none of us gets put to the test.
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Rowena & Carl on August 21, 2006, 05:52:53 PM
Quote from: John & Zell
Not wishing to stir up a honets nest but being disabled myself I can definitly say that disabled persons are not allowed in the exit seats for safety reasons, in the event of an emergency people sitting in these seats are expected to open these doors, and I do know that they are in fact given instructions in doing so.
Whilst I can see the reasoning behind it, when there are 6 (3 either side) seats available it does seem hard that maybe 1 or 2 of them cannot be made available to disabled persons, after all it only takes 1 person on either side of the aile to open the doors.
It seems to me that it's a case of women, children and able bodied first and let the disabled make their own way after everyone else has got off safely.
John & Zell

We have sat in Emergency exit seats a few times before they realised they could make money out of it! I refuse to pay I think £30 for two one way. But yes you do have to be fit & able to open the door in the event of an emergency you just have to pay for the privilage & responsibilty....!

Rowena & Carl
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Doggie on August 21, 2006, 09:31:51 PM
We've flown with Excel for the last four years to Heraklion from Glasgow and we will possibly fly again with them BUT as another 6'4" laddie, the flight out, if you can't get the extra legroom seats is not a problem...excitement of heading to Plakias etc!! but the return flights which leave at 01.00 hrs when you are knackered from the days departure logistics, but not yet all holidayed out, are a nightmare for anyone with long legs. We sat in the second row behind seats otherwise empty except for the three cabin crew lassies who spent their non working hours reading Hello and OK mags and loudly discussing "celebs" and their own boyfriends. We asked to be moved forward and offered to pay on the spot but were politely told it was not possible.

This year's return flight was the most miserable I've had as an able bodied longlegged person so what it must be like for someone with any disability needing additional space I can't imagine. However as others have said the airline's own and IATA's safety regs for emergency and wing exits probably exclude anyone not fully able physically from occupying these seats.

Totally unrelated add on: I'm sending a 6 kilo package to Toronto and a 1.5 kilo package to Singapore as samples of a surface coating material for local demonstration and trials, and the costs are going to be £305.00 and £ 293.00 respectively. So when I next pay £ 250 for each of our air tickets for Heraklion, I won't complain!!

We had a blast in Crete this year and I wish everyone heading there as happy and renewing a holiday as we had.

Doggie  
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Mike G on August 22, 2006, 12:50:01 PM
Quote from: Rowena & Carl
We have sat in Emergency exit seats a few times before they realised they could make money out of it! I refuse to pay I think £30 for two one way. But yes you do have to be fit & able to open the door in the event of an emergency you just have to pay for the privilage & responsibilty....!

Rowena & Carl
Totally agree. They ought to keep them for tall people- it's not my fault I'm tall; blame my genes. 4hrs in a normal seat is just about bearable, unless some thoughtless person wants to recline their seat. Ryanair has non reclining seats I think.

Mike
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Rowena & Carl on August 24, 2006, 06:16:49 PM
Quote from: Mike G
Quote from: Rowena & Carl
We have sat in Emergency exit seats a few times before they realised they could make money out of it! I refuse to pay I think £30 for two one way. But yes you do have to be fit & able to open the door in the event of an emergency you just have to pay for the privilage & responsibilty....!

Rowena & Carl
Totally agree. They ought to keep them for tall people- it's not my fault I'm tall; blame my genes. 4hrs in a normal seat is just about bearable, unless some thoughtless person wants to recline their seat. Ryanair has non reclining seats I think.

Mike

Yes bring on non reclining seats I say! Two years ago flying to New York the people in front who I must add had extra legroom! reclined the seats for the whole 8 hours making it nearly impossible for us to get out of our seats & meant the TV screen was about 4 inches away from our faces!

Rowena & Carl
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Mike from Sussex on September 01, 2006, 04:15:41 PM
Quote from: Rowena & Carl
Hi Everyone

We have booked with excel airways for the first time. I had heard bad things about them from a couple of people but just thought you can have a bad experience with any airline, but having just been reading some reviews on them i'm now now worried! I would welcome any comments good or bad from any one who has flown to Crete with them. Over the years as we do flight only we have flown with pretty much every one & generally all have been ok with the exception of a British Midland flight years ago & this June Thomsonfly, was first time with them and not impressed worst experience yet, hence now wondering if Excel will be worse?

Look forward to your comments

Rowena & Carl

To go slightly off topic, has anyone noticed that Excel's holding company bought Kosmar earlier this year?

I wonder what changes that will bring. We have used Kosmar a lot in the past, by no means perfect, but understand Greece better than many other companies.

We fly out to Chania on Excel next Tuesday. Nothing on their website about upping the hold baggage limit!
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Mike from Sussex on September 20, 2006, 04:00:29 PM
Quote from: Rowena & Carl
Hi Everyone

We have booked with excel airways for the first time. I had heard bad things about them from a couple of people but just thought you can have a bad experience with any airline, but having just been reading some reviews on them i'm now now worried! I would welcome any comments good or bad from any one who has flown to Crete with them. Over the years as we do flight only we have flown with pretty much every one & generally all have been ok with the exception of a British Midland flight years ago & this June Thomsonfly, was first time with them and not impressed worst experience yet, hence now wondering if Excel will be worse?

Look forward to your comments

Rowena & Carl

We flew out from Gatwick to Chania on the 10.15 XL flight on the 5th and returned on the 17.45 yesterday. The plane was a wide bodied 767, the seat pitch being JUST sufficient for my, not excessive, 5ft 11in frame. The meal was pretty mundane both ways, but normal charter fare.

The outbound left on time and arrived 15 minutes early (more than lost by Kosmar in the transfer!), but the return flight was delayed one and a half hours. Seems the crew of a plane in Corfu became time expired and our flight dropped off a replacement crew; all pretty normal for charter operations.

The whammy was the outbound flight on the 12th. Seems there was some difficulty in getting a disabled passenger out to the plane. The auxiliary engine was out of order, so the aircon was not working whilst parked. Some passengers complained about the heat and the captain instructed that the rear door be opened to try to get a through draft going. A stewardess, apparantly on her first "live" flight, tried to open the door, but in doing so deployed the evacuation chute. This needed to be replaced before the plane could fly. The replacement was driven down from Luton and the flight was 8 hours delayed, the Plakias bound passengers arriving in resort at 4am. Such things can happen to any airline, but the very busy aircraft utilisation of charter airlines means bigger delays if it happens to them. If you fly chartered it goes with the territory.

Mike
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: janm on September 20, 2006, 04:14:13 PM
We arrived back last night as well, but from Heraklion.  We were delayed 2 hours and got the same reason as you Mike.  But I must say this is our first delay with Excel.
However your story about the evacuation chute brought back memories.
Several years ago a similar thing happened to us.  After everything was set for take-off a crew member open a door which apparently wasn't shut properly, and of course the evacuation chute immediately deployed.  As the aircraft don't carry spares a new one had to brought  from Gatwick to be fitted before we could take off.  Problem was we were in Turkey - 19 hours delay!!  (Not Excel I have to say!)
Jan
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: ian s on October 01, 2006, 01:15:27 PM
Have just returned from Plakias having flown with Excel for about the 8th time.  Never experienced any delays (though we were diverted to Prestwick because of fog at Glasgow) and on many occasions we have been ahead of schedule.  So can't fault them for service or price.  Already booked for next year.

P.S. got clobbered for excess baggage in Glasgow on the way out so beware.  There again we were way over the limit.
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Louisa on October 02, 2006, 02:32:26 PM
Hiya i've been looking on the excel site to book on to the last flights to crete, i am hoping to go on the 10th till 31st but waiting for the kids passports to come back!! If not then mayb the 13th, but i can't seem to find any flights for 18 nights! 13th to 31st, can anyone help? Or does anyone know the promotional code for excel at the mo??? Thanks xx
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Graham_and_Karen on October 03, 2006, 08:30:21 AM
http://www.xl.com/sparks/ (http://www.xl.com/sparks/)
SPARKS gets you £10 off plus a £5 donation to SPARKS
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Louisa on October 03, 2006, 08:23:16 PM
Quote from: Graham_and_Karen
[url]http://www.xl.com/sparks/[/url] ([url]http://www.xl.com/sparks/[/url])
SPARKS gets you £10 off plus a £5 donation to SPARKS


Thank you xxx
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: jen & neil on September 05, 2007, 11:10:39 PM
 End of Sept we are flying into Plakias with excel yet again... Never had cause to complain in the past... the fact you actually get a meal on a low cost airline is a bonus... Neil is 6'2" and I am 5'11" leg room is not the best, but not a problem. EEEEE can't wait to get there  AGAIN.....[font="Lucida Console"][/font][size="3"][/size][color="#0000FF"][/color]
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: George on September 06, 2007, 08:22:59 AM
Quote from: jen & neil
End of Sept we are flying into Plakias with excel yet again... Never had cause to complain in the past... the fact you actually get a meal on a low cost airline is a bonus... Neil is 6'2" and I am 5'11" leg room is not the best, but not a problem. EEEEE can't wait to get there  AGAIN.....[font="Lucida Console"][/font][size="3"][/size][color="#0000FF"][/color]
Hi Guys

Just got back and flew with XL. Try and get row 16 (737 A300), it's by the emergency exit, didn't have to move when someone had to get out, legroom galore!  

george g...
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: John R on September 06, 2007, 10:37:53 AM
Quote from: jen & neil
End of Sept we are flying into Plakias with excel yet again... Never had cause to complain in the past... the fact you actually get a meal on a low cost airline is a bonus... Neil is 6'2" and I am 5'11" leg room is not the best, but not a problem. EEEEE can't wait to get there  AGAIN.....

I have just booked XL airlines for 2008 - about a week ago (free Tesco token flights). Looked in again today and see that they have changed their return flight from departing Heraklion at 12:00 Midday to 0800 in the morning and it is a Viking Airways Flight instead. Our outward flight on a Friday is still XL. Looks as if their Manchester Tuesday Flights now use Viking and their Friday Flights use XL. Last year when I booked my flight from Newcastle to Chania (for my impending visit in 2 weeks time) they cancelled the flight altogether. Had to rebook with BA from Manchester.

John R
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Alex&fran G on September 06, 2007, 08:50:07 PM
Quote from: John R
Quote from: jen & neil
End of Sept we are flying into Plakias with excel yet again... Never had cause to complain in the past... the fact you actually get a meal on a low cost airline is a bonus... Neil is 6'2" and I am 5'11" leg room is not the best, but not a problem. EEEEE can't wait to get there  AGAIN.....

I have just booked XL airlines for 2008 - about a week ago (free Tesco token flights). Looked in again today and see that they have changed their return flight from departing Heraklion at 12:00 Midday to 0800 in the morning and it is a Viking Airways Flight instead. Our outward flight on a Friday is still XL. Looks as if their Manchester Tuesday Flights now use Viking and their Friday Flights use XL. Last year when I booked my flight from Newcastle to Chania (for my impending visit in 2 weeks time) they cancelled the flight altogether. Had to rebook with BA from Manchester.

John R
Hi John I have just booked my xl for 2008 from Glaggow and it seems they have done away with Friday flights I could only get Tuesday Out and Wednesday back and unfortunately they only return flight is at 2.30 in the morning.  Alex
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: Alex&fran G on September 06, 2007, 08:54:25 PM
Quote from: George
Quote from: jen & neil
End of Sept we are flying into Plakias with excel yet again... Never had cause to complain in the past... the fact you actually get a meal on a low cost airline is a bonus... Neil is 6'2" and I am 5'11" leg room is not the best, but not a problem. EEEEE can't wait to get there  AGAIN.....[font="Lucida Console"][/font][size="3"][/size][color="#0000FF"][/color]
Hi Guys

Just got back and flew with XL. Try and get row 16 (737 A300), it's by the emergency exit, didn't have to move when someone had to get out, legroom galore!  

george g...
Hi George, I got row 16 but had to pay £30 for it, how was the holiday? Alex
Title: Excel Airways
Post by: George on September 07, 2007, 08:43:00 AM
[/quote]
Hi George, I got row 16 but had to pay £30 for it, how was the holiday? Alex
[/quote]

Hi Guys

I got row 16 on the way back, I just asked for an aisle seat and that's what she gave me!!  

Great meeting you guys and yes it was as ever really brill!!

Full report when I get my working head back on, I'm still a bit fuzzy after a session on Babbis's Raki.

george g...