Air Jamaica Review

Overall Rating

Free and tasty inflight meal, free champagne in coach.

Delays, delays, delays. Unscheduled change in flight plan to include stop in new location, embarrassingly bad wait in ticket line, inability to board passengers on time led to delays on both legs of my flight. Below average service in cabin as well.

Despite reading a slew of negative online reviews, I decided to give Air Jamaica a try because the fare was reasonable and the schedule fit like a glove. While it wasn't the worst flight experience I've ever had, it left a poor first impression and I will think twice before flying them again. The first leg, flight 74 non-stop from LAX to Montego Bay on 11/21/08, left 45 minutes late because the crew was so slow cleaning the cabin. It was almost comical: they announced 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time that they were about to begin boarding, and by departure time we were all still standing there waiting to board and listening to our third or fourth "We're sorry for the delay but the crew is still in the process of cleaning the cabin" announcement. Naturally the flight arrived late to Jamaica as a consequence. The onboard service was below average: the flight attendants were not mean or rude, but they seemed indifferent to the passengers and unenthused about their jobs. So while the flight to MBJ wasn't without problems, it wasn't anything I couldn't forgive. However, the flight back to LAX (flight 75 on 11/29/08) was a nightmare and likely sealed my fate as a "one-and-done" Air Jamaica customer. We arrived at the airport 3 hours early, and it's a good thing, because we spent a ridiculous 1 hour, 45 minutes in the ticket line! I don't know if they didn't have enough check-in people or the ones they had were too slow, but if we'd arrived 2 hours early as the airline industry recommends for international flights, we'd likely have missed our flight. We had the same problem with late boarding that we'd incurred at LAX, they announced they were about to begin boarding and then it took 20 minutes to actually begin. Then we get on the plane and they told us our non-stop flight had been changed to include a stop in Miami. This was shocking. We arrived about an hour-and-a-half late because of the Miami stop. Not only was that a major inconvenience for us, but as the plane was immediately returning to MBJ on a red-eye, a huge inconvenience for the passengers of that flight as well. If there were positives, they didn't lose our luggage, they didn't cancel our flight , they served free champagne in coach, the meals were free (unlike some carriers that have begun charging) and were actually not bad for airline food. But overall it was a difficult and disappointing experience, especially on the return flight. At best, I will think twice before flying Air Jamaica again --at worst, I won't fly them again.