Excel Airways

[Mike from Sussex]

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.

[Rowena & Carl]

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

[Doggie]

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  

[Mike G]

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

[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

[Mike from Sussex]

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!

[Mike from Sussex]

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

[janm]

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

[ian s]

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.

[Louisa]

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

[Graham_and_Karen]

http://www.xl.com/sparks/
SPARKS gets you £10 off plus a £5 donation to SPARKS

[Louisa]

http://www.xl.com/sparks/
SPARKS gets you £10 off plus a £5 donation to SPARKS

Thank you xxx

[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]

[George]

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...

[John R]

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