Central Wings Review

Overall Rating

None

Poor company, we had nothing but trouble. Cancelled flights and misinformed us.

We booked our flight with Central Wings from London Gatwick to Warsaw Poland 2 months in advance. The price was reasonable (well would have been if all went to plan) Two weeks before our flight they e-mailed us to let us know they changed the day's we were flying. They moved them forward one day both departure and return to England. Luckily we were staying with family if we had a hotel booked it would have been a different matter.
We got to the airport checked in no problems. The flight was then delayed 1 1/2 hours due to the plane having "problems" this happens from time to time so we lived with it. We got on the plane and it seemed old. I fly quite a lot and this is the oldest plane i had seen. Anyway we got there ok and had no more problems until the return home flight.
We checked in to be told "your getting a free meal" we thought great but why? "your flight has been delayed 3 hours the plane has broken down at gatwick" This did annoy most people including us as not only were we delayed getting to Poland but also on the way home. We were told that after 3pm (the time of the flight) we could go and claim our free meal. Anyway it got to 2pm and we went to find the restaurant to see what it was like as we were bored by now. The nice lady at the door gave us all the information about coming back after 3pm getting a meal voucher and eating. We then went for a wander around the rest of the airport. At 3:30pm we returned looking to get a meal voucher unable to find anyone. Somebody near by us stopped a member of staff who called a Central wings manager over. He seemed to have great pleasure in telling us "we have cancelled the meals" we all wanted to know why and he told us "because we cancelled your flight" At the point we were all mad. Why had they waited so long to tell us. We were told to get our luggage and await further instructions. Once we finally got our bags back (at 4:30pm) this manager had disappeared. We were then given a ticket to say the flight was cancelled so we could stay in a hotel (the airport hotel) at the expense of central wings. At this point another passenger found out from their office by calling them the flight for the day after had been cancelled too. Now we were all mad. We and most other people went to book other flights to get home some people paying as much as £500 for a one way ticket on a 2 hour flight. We wended up paying £450 for two people from Warsaw to London Luton with Wizzair (good little airline). This was not till 6am the next morning so we got in a taxi to go to the hotel. We got to the hotel to be told that central wings had booked the hotel for 140 people and then cancelled it again as they didn't want to pay the 99 euro's a night. What were we supposed to do? Other people still didn't have flights lucky for us there was family the other side of warsaw so back into the taxi at yet more expense. After all this trying to call them is impossible they don't answer the phone. I have a total lack of respect for this airline and anyone thinking of flying with them should think again. I would not fly with them even if it was free let alone pay for it.

Members' Comments onGuest's Review

• einafets on 9th Jul 2008

  I found this review helpful because...This was similar to my experience. Travellers beware!