What is going on at Excel?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: ISLE OF MAN
Posts: 780
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What is going on at Excel?
I've just arrived back from Menorca having visited my dear old Mum. This was the second time I have travelled with Excel, the first being 2 years ago out of Gatwick on a 767. This time was out of MAN on a 757.
Outbound, we had an unnecessary delay due to having to load food. Bizarre. My pre-booked seats were cocked up, which also coked up the pre booked meals.
It seems you sit everyone at the front who has food. In order to sort out my crew of four sitting together, we were bumped to row 19. This meant we got the food about 1 hr 30 into a 2 hr flight. You would think when you had paid up front you would at least get served before the pringles and baguettes.
And how I wish I had a baguette. the food was a p*ss take to be honest. It would be more honourable not to bother guys. It was a poor effort compared to what we got 2 years ago.
I forgot to mention my tickets hadn't arrived, at home, despite booking months in advance, and I had to pick them up at an agency desk( in a big queue) When I was trying to ring the 0870 number, the automated system kept spitting me out. I got a direct number from directory enquiries, which put me through to an harassed switchboard operator. Eventually, I infiltrated the system by using a derivative of the number,and got flight planning or something, who put me through to someone who could help.
Similar debacle on the way back with the food - had to move from the front of the a/c to have some semblance of seats together, which again threw the food into disarray. Some poor steward did his best to b/s me with reasons, but it was shambolic in the extreme.
Interesting amount of Duct tape used in strapping things back together too. When I was exiting the A/C I managed to knock the end of an Aisle seat hand rest off too.
Is this is the pitch you fly people to the States in? 2 hrs was the absolute max I would put up with. I had to sit half-leaning into the aisle to give the bloke next to me some shoulder room, and as a result kept getting swiped by the aisle traffic!
You strike me as a pretty good team doing your best to keep a brave face on things. My complaints are minor compared to some listed HERE but they all count.
I need to drop someone a line on these points. Who do you suggest?
Thanks
STANDTO
Outbound, we had an unnecessary delay due to having to load food. Bizarre. My pre-booked seats were cocked up, which also coked up the pre booked meals.
It seems you sit everyone at the front who has food. In order to sort out my crew of four sitting together, we were bumped to row 19. This meant we got the food about 1 hr 30 into a 2 hr flight. You would think when you had paid up front you would at least get served before the pringles and baguettes.
And how I wish I had a baguette. the food was a p*ss take to be honest. It would be more honourable not to bother guys. It was a poor effort compared to what we got 2 years ago.
I forgot to mention my tickets hadn't arrived, at home, despite booking months in advance, and I had to pick them up at an agency desk( in a big queue) When I was trying to ring the 0870 number, the automated system kept spitting me out. I got a direct number from directory enquiries, which put me through to an harassed switchboard operator. Eventually, I infiltrated the system by using a derivative of the number,and got flight planning or something, who put me through to someone who could help.
Similar debacle on the way back with the food - had to move from the front of the a/c to have some semblance of seats together, which again threw the food into disarray. Some poor steward did his best to b/s me with reasons, but it was shambolic in the extreme.
Interesting amount of Duct tape used in strapping things back together too. When I was exiting the A/C I managed to knock the end of an Aisle seat hand rest off too.
Is this is the pitch you fly people to the States in? 2 hrs was the absolute max I would put up with. I had to sit half-leaning into the aisle to give the bloke next to me some shoulder room, and as a result kept getting swiped by the aisle traffic!
You strike me as a pretty good team doing your best to keep a brave face on things. My complaints are minor compared to some listed HERE but they all count.
I need to drop someone a line on these points. Who do you suggest?
Thanks
STANDTO
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 849
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sounds like you had the misfortune of flying with Air Atlanta who actually operate the larger a/c types, albeit painted up as Excel. They bought a large chunk of Excel last year and have been working hard at ruining its reputation ever since. Excel proper (as was) only operated 737-800 series a/c with regestrations using GXL prefixes.
Anything else wears clown shoes and comes complete with spinning bow tie and comedy flower water pistol. If you've ever met an Air Atlanta engineer then you'd understand fully why the a/c are so knackered. Honk! Honk! Custard pie anyone?
Anything else wears clown shoes and comes complete with spinning bow tie and comedy flower water pistol. If you've ever met an Air Atlanta engineer then you'd understand fully why the a/c are so knackered. Honk! Honk! Custard pie anyone?
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: UK
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
AAE only operate the 747 XL routes- so it wouldn't be us. We do own some of the smaller XL aircraft- but these are painted in XL liveries and operated by XL staff, they are just leased to XL. That sounds awful and I truly sympathise- but I've never seen the inside of any of the a/c so I can't really comment- I think they do operate the long haul routes with the same 757s and 767s though... perhaps you might write directly to the company and complain about your experiences- you never know... if enough people complain they may alter the seat pitchings... after all- if noone says anything of course they're going to try and cram in as many fare-paying pax as possible!
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: ISLE OF MAN
Posts: 780
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
they did say welcome aboard this Excel flight operated by Air Atlanta, so who knows what is going on. Also, I noticed they werent on a G prefix. Where are they registered?
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: leeds
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
All the XLA 757's are TF reg & leased from AAI.
The 767-200''s are G reg & leased from AAE & the 767-300's are a mixture of TF & G regs. They are all done up in XLA colours and have XLA Cabin Crew.
The 757's don't do any Long Haul routes, thats two of the 767-300's. There is a customer feedback section on xl.com.
The 767-200''s are G reg & leased from AAE & the 767-300's are a mixture of TF & G regs. They are all done up in XLA colours and have XLA Cabin Crew.
The 757's don't do any Long Haul routes, thats two of the 767-300's. There is a customer feedback section on xl.com.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: ISLE OF MAN
Posts: 780
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I remember now, they were TF registered.
The web link to the moaning site certainly suggests some people have been long haul on the 757. If this is right then I have little to moan about.
The web link to the moaning site certainly suggests some people have been long haul on the 757. If this is right then I have little to moan about.
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Planet Earth
Posts: 57
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Wondering myself what is happening at Excel - had the misfortune to fly with them to Greece 2 weeks ago (and just returned this morning). Our outbound flight from Manchester was delayed - but we were only told 20 minutes prior to boarding. We were shunted round Manchester from gate to gate until 2 and a half hours later we were loaded onto the aircraft. After another 20 minutes sitting on the ground going nowhere my partner went up to a memberof the Cabin Crew who informed her that a pilot had called in sick the previous day, someone had forgotten to tell the appropriate person and so they were 1 crew short - and there was no one to replace them. We were told eventually by an airline rep that the replacement was coming from Gatwick!!! Is this the norm with them then??
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Yorkshire, UK
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Not just me who's had a bad experience with "Excel" then?
We booked tickets with Excel early this year for Tenerife only to find it was an Air Atlanta 747. Outbound from MAN the flight was 5 hours delayed because of a technical fault with the original 742 so we had to transfer to an AA 743, the flight crew then told us they'd have to swap around because they'd run out of flying hours...how lovely.
The service was horrendous, truly horrendous. They didn't have any vegetarians meals that we had ordered and the meal itself was pretty awful for the 10 POUNDS we had paid for them, next time it's going to be a packed sandwich and a flask.
Inbound was ok, only a few minutes late, again on an Air Atlanta 747 (the original -200 that we were meant to be on first time round). Meal had something to be desired but the new leather-esque seats and seat back tv's were a nice change.
We booked tickets with Excel early this year for Tenerife only to find it was an Air Atlanta 747. Outbound from MAN the flight was 5 hours delayed because of a technical fault with the original 742 so we had to transfer to an AA 743, the flight crew then told us they'd have to swap around because they'd run out of flying hours...how lovely.
The service was horrendous, truly horrendous. They didn't have any vegetarians meals that we had ordered and the meal itself was pretty awful for the 10 POUNDS we had paid for them, next time it's going to be a packed sandwich and a flask.
Inbound was ok, only a few minutes late, again on an Air Atlanta 747 (the original -200 that we were meant to be on first time round). Meal had something to be desired but the new leather-esque seats and seat back tv's were a nice change.
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: uk
Posts: 194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Last week we waited for eleven hours for a take-off at gatwick for a three hour flight to Skiathos. Excel groundstaff lied to us, were rude and unhelpful, treated the whole thing like a joke. We learned the truth by phoning skiathos on mobile phones and talking to travel agents.
Eventually we took off for Thessalonika and were assured that we would then travel by a chartered jetfoil and would arrive in Skiathos after two hours. In the event we were take on a four hour coach journey across greece and a three hour ferry trip on a small boat.
We arrived at Skiathos at 11am - twelve hours after leaving gatwick and 26 hours after check-in.
According to crew chat, excel aircraft are now always going tech because the new maintenance company are so bad.
How long are excel going to be allowed to carry on like this ?
Eventually we took off for Thessalonika and were assured that we would then travel by a chartered jetfoil and would arrive in Skiathos after two hours. In the event we were take on a four hour coach journey across greece and a three hour ferry trip on a small boat.
We arrived at Skiathos at 11am - twelve hours after leaving gatwick and 26 hours after check-in.
According to crew chat, excel aircraft are now always going tech because the new maintenance company are so bad.
How long are excel going to be allowed to carry on like this ?
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 849
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Well they had to taxi back on stand recently at Newcastle, having already set off for the runway and prepared for take off. Seems like the muppets miscalculated their fuel requirements and only noticed their error as they prepared to line up. Nice little delay for everyone whilst they taxied back to stand and waited for the fuel truck to arrive. Again.
I'm sure this could happen to anyone - after all, we're only human - however, that errors like this continually dog the Icelandic arm of Excel is no surprise and is indicative of the standard of operation that they are happy to accept as the norm.
I'm sure this could happen to anyone - after all, we're only human - however, that errors like this continually dog the Icelandic arm of Excel is no surprise and is indicative of the standard of operation that they are happy to accept as the norm.
