phuket air review

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By Izzy001 on 12th Apr 2005

Izzy001's Ratings

Flight Date	April 2005
Flight From - To	Bangkok to London
Ticket class	Economy
Flight on time?	0/10
Customer service	0/10
Comfort on flight	3/10
Quality of food	3/10
Value for money	0/10
Overall value	0/10
Izzy001's recommendation

Good Points

Courteous Cabin Crew

Bad Points

Aircraft are dangerous and do not meet mandatory safety standards

General Comments

I rather foolishly ignored all the adverse reviews written on this site and booked a cheap flight with Phuket Air - NEVER AGAIN. The outbound journey from London to Bangkok on 22nd March was OK. I was a little concerned that my seat, along with many others, was permanently reclined even during take off and landing - this was uncomfortable for an 11 hour flight. My daughter's seat back tray kept falling down and the cabin crew told her to hold it with her hand during take off and landing. My life jacket disconnected from its mounting and was taken away by the crew. My headphones did not work and some of the TV screens did not function - but I regarded this as a minor inconvenience.

The return Journey from BKK to London on April 9th was like living hell. We reconfirmed our flights and arrived at check in to be told that the flight was cancelled due to "technical problems". I later found out that the UK CAA had grounded their flights for safety reasons. The ground staff were totally incompetent and spent all their time on walkie talkies and ignoring passengers. Despite Phuket air knowing that the flight was cancelled they had checked my baggage through to LGW from Phuket - knowing it would never get there. I therefore spent 2 hours trying to find my missing bags, before I joined the check in queue again. I was told that the next flight to London was in 3 days time. I received no apology or explanation for the delays. After a near riot some passengers were offered flights to Amsterdam at 10:00 the next morning. We were given hotel accommodation for the night, but it was already past midnight and we had to check out at 07:00. We arrived at check in at 07:20 the next morning to be told that the flight was delayed until 2 pm. This was further delayed until 9pm. Phuket air refused to transfer us to other flights insisting that this was only a minor delay. Suddenly at 11:30 the 14:00 flight was back on. There was a mad scramble at check in and we all waited eagerly at the gate for an imminent departure. 2pm came and went. We finally boarded the flight at 15:30 and then sat on the tarmac for two hours without any air con in temperatures of about 36 celsius. Two passengers collapsed, one was later taken away by ambulance. During this time a maintenance man was seen working on the left hand engine and fluid was dripping all over the run way. Cabin crew refused to tell us what was going on. at 17:30 we were towed back to our stand and told we had to return to the terminal building. Several passengers thought the flight was unsafe and refused to fly. The captain made an announcement that there was a "minor" engine problem and the hospitalised passenger's baggage would have to be unloaded. Boarding would start again in 30 minutes. In fact we did not board the flight until 4 hours later and there was a further delay before take off. The flight departed at 23:40 exactly 24 hours late. We had been provided with no adequate food or drink for 18 hours. we were promised some food before boarding, then promised food whilst boarding. The food boxes were brought on board and stored in empty seats at the rear of the aircraft they were never distributed. However the alcoholic drinks were flowing freely - not really what most people wanted. They food boxes were off loaded at Sharjah and put in a garbage truck. Same problems with the seats etc on the return flight. Arrived in Amsterdam 14 hours later and a maintenance crew immediately came out to inspect the left hand engine again. We were flown back to Gatwick on a charter aircraft with the assistance of KLM who were absolutely brilliant. My total flight delay was 27 hours and I have never dealt with such a bunch of incompetent cowboys in my life. They should be banned from operating internationl flights before there is a serious loss of life.

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