This was the first time I had flown with Kenya Airways. The flights were booked for me as I was on an organised trip through a travel agent. On the way out my entertainment system didn't work properly. A fellow passenger asked the staff if they could do something in which the stewardess replied we will reset it. She didn't reset it. In general on the flight the staff were few and far between, seeing if passengers were OK and all them seemed unhappy to be there. It was quite depressing. When we arrived in Nairobi before waiting to get a connecting flight, were were not given any information and had to find out for ourselves. The return journey was the flight(s) from hell. With a code sharing partner our flight leaving was really delayed which meant we missed our flight from Nairobi to London. When speaking to the staff at the transfer desk all we were told was that we would have to get the same flight the next day. I managed to find out there was a flight to Amsterdam leaving first thing in the morning and asked if we could fly to Amsterdam and then London. After waiting 1 1/2 hours a member of staff came back and said they would do this. They then took all of our original luggage labels and told us to come back nearer the time of our flight. We were told we would be able to sepnd a few hours in a hotel which wasn't to far, but representative never turned up, so we spend the night in the airport. Leter that morning still not having seen our luggage, we were given the new labels after going back to the transfer desk. The flight to Amsterdam left late, which means we almost missed our connection. Agin the staff were not great on the plane. The randomly gave out blankets, when I asked for a drink the steward initally got my request wrong. When coming in to land we were told all flights before 17:00 to go to the transfer desk. The biggest annoyance is, is that they hardly give out any information. They need to be more helpful to passengers in transit.

Frequent cancellations, inexperienced and unatractive inflight crew

I booked flights for my partner, my infant son and myself from London, Heathrow to Harare, Zimbabwe on Kenyan Airways with Flycheapest and it was not a good experience. The intial problem was when i tried to book my infant son and the airline kep referring me to the travel agent that had booked tickets for my partner and myself. they didnt want to book the ticket for some reason and kept saying I could book it on the day of travel which meant i was going to pay more for the ticket. Finally i managed to make the booking after countless frustrating calls and some customer service agencies hanging the phone on me. Only after I got help from an employee named Kate who was very helpful. On day of travel we got to heathrow and Kenya Airways didnt have my son's ticket on their system, luckily i had printed the e-tickets. they also didnt have my boarding pass which was strange. to make it worse they gave me and my partner seats away from each other when we had requested seats next to each other to make it easy to look after our son. the attendant assured us that he will rectify the problem by the time we get to boarding and he did not do that. it turns out they just transfer the problem to the next person to get it out of their hands. we were transitting via nairobi and had only 1 hour to change to the next flight to harare and on trying to board in nairobi we were told that we needed new boarding passes. with less than an hour we had to go to the customer service office which insisted that we produce paper tickets otherwise we could not board. this seemed stupid since we had boarding passes from heathrow and and the system showed that we were on transit. only after shouting at them with frustration that they let us board. they insisted that the problem would be rectified no our return travel but this was not the case. we had to go back and forth at harare airport for more than an hour trying to sort the problem out. finally we teavelled back and were given seats next to each other. the most frustrating issue for me was the shambolic customer service when were having all these problems. also the blatant lies by the customer service agents that they will solve the problem and it wont happen again when they will just transfer the problem to the next person. Also hanging the phone on you when you insist that they deal with your issue. the only person who was professional and very helpful is Kate at Kenya Airways, Heathrow Airport. Thank you Kate.

the in-flight equipment was broken, and the staff did not care. The food was terrible. The staff did not respond to the bell, or help sort anything. I will avoid this airline from now.

Kenya Airways is probably one of the most appalling airlines I have flown with (on average I make 40+ flights a year) and its shameful they call themselves the Pride of Africa. They are hardly ever on time (the only airline to proudly boast on their website that they have a 54% 'flight on time' rating, i.e. 1 in 2 of KQ flights is delayed), delays of 6 to 8 hours are no exception on their flights within Africa especially the Nairobi - Lagos route (which I fly at least 6 times a year), ground staff have absolutely no customer service skills (or common sense) and are quite often plainly rude, the on board food is appaling, they off load passenger luggage regularly in order to make more room for freight, the aircrafts used on African routes are old and dirty (broken toilets, personal entertainment systems which don't work, tables which fall into your lap when you open them). I would gladly never fly KQ again if there were alternative options on routes within Africa. For the sake of Africa and the reputation of African aviation I hope KQ can drastically improve their services, of course that's if anyone from KQ management even bothers to read these types of reviews.....

Flight from Kigali to London Heathrow via Burundi and Niarobi. I am quite realistic with flying, you get what you pay for etc. So, I found the inflight food acceptable and the inflight safety experts (thats what there now called or something like that) were adequate for the role. What was amazing was the sheer incompetence of the ground staff at Nairobi, we boarded a plane in Kigali and told that we had been checked in at Nairobi and just needed to get a boarding ticket as they couldn't be printed in Kigali, our luggage was checked in for the full journey. Apparently not, the service desk at Niarobi had a 3 hour queue and we had 2 hours! the staff were so incompetent, un-sympathetic, ignorant, rude it was not a surpise to see the staff being shouted out. I overheard a woman say to a team leader that she had 30 minutes before here flight left the most helpful comment the 'team leader' came out with was, well thats tough! How the lady didn't punch the 'team leader' was beyond me. We were shocked, we went to the checkin gate and had to literally drag a member of Kenyan staff to the transfer desk and force her to help us. That is not exaggerated either! The two people behind us missed there flights! USELESS ground staff that should all be replaced, UK budget airlines easy jet and ryan air provide a much better service. Kenyan airways shame on you!

We arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on May 24 at 7:00 AM. Our flight to Mahe Island, Seychelles was scheduled for 9:05AM. The gate attendants started taking passengers for our flight through security and into the waiting area at 7:55AM. We all sat around waiting. Finally, around 9:15AM, someone finally came to announce that our flight was delayed due to a mechanical problem, the plane was being refueled, and they were planning on a 9:30AM departure. At 10AM, another passenger asked for an update, and was told that it would be another 40 minutes because of a fuel leak. Around 11:30AM, we all started demanding answers, and we were told we would take off at noon. I asked the woman if it was guaranteed, and she said “yes”. At noon, a woman named Cynthia came to tell us that the plane could not be fixed, and that we would have to wait for another aircraft to get to JKIA, which would not be till 4PM, so we would take off at 5:15PM. (Despite this, we saw numerous Kenya Airways planes, which were the same size as the one we were supposed to be on, departing for other destinations.) She told us to go to the Simba Lounge for lunch, but no one gave us directions on how to get there. We finally found it, but the food was barely edible, and there weren’t enough seats for all the passengers. We went back to the gate to wait for another 4 hours. We looked up at the board, and the departure time had been changed to 7:15PM. There was no announcement and no Kenya Airways representative at the gate to answer questions. A large group of passengers went to the Kenya Airways Transit Counter to get details. We were told that the flight was further delayed because they needed to wait for another crew. Needless to say, mass hysteria broke out with almost an entire plane’s roster (including the Seychelles tourism ambassador to Tanzania) demanding a resolution to the problem. Did they not know at noon that another crew would be needed for the 5:15PM flight? We finally departed at 7:15PM, MORE THAN TEN HOURS LATE! We arrived on Mahe at midnight, and had to find our way to our villa on an unfamiliar mountainous island in the pitch black of night on unmarked and unlit roads with no guard rails, and driving on the opposite side of the car and road as what we are used to - all because of the incompetence of Kenya Airways. We lost an entire day’s worth of activities and exploring on Mahe, all because of the ineptitude of Kenya Airways’ equipment and employees. We were given multiple stories and departure times by Kenya Airways’ employees. No one was willing to help or give a straight answer. No one would take responsibility or accountability. We called the US embassy for help and were given six different Kenya Airways phone numbers. Every single one of them resulted in being hung up on as soon as we mentioned our flight number. The employees lied to us repeatedly! We asked for the manager on duty numerous times, and were continually told that “he’s on his way”. Finally, one of the men behind the Transit Counter started claiming to be the manager, despite the fact that his badge said he was the “shift supervisor” and he’d been sitting there most of the time we’d been demanding a manager. There are a million things they could have done better or differently to have rectified the situation so that we would have only been a few hours late. However, no one took responsibility. Everyone just made up lies and blamed someone or something else. They should be ashamed to call themselves the “Pride of Africa”. Africa has so much more to offer (or at least the Maasai Mara did). All I can say is NEVER AGAIN! If your itinerary includes Kenya Airways, choose a different itinerary!

If only I could go back in time and buy a ticket with a better airline. This airline is the worst I have ever taken. I have travelled to over 65 countries in the world and been to many places, but this really takes the cake in the rankings of terrible-ness. Problems on the ground include: - cancelled flights - delayed flights - missed connections - inaccurate information boards - staff that consider their only job to get rid of you by whatever means necessary - normally by telling you something that isn't true and sending you to another line. This is then followed by queuing in new said line for an hour before being told the opposite of the last thing and redirected back to the first queue. This can happen several times before you refuse to re-queue again and a manager is called. That manager will then probably make a promise to you that is also a lie. - incompetent staff (takes 30 minutes to process each person when it should take two - this means when there is only 4 people in front of you in line it could still take 2 hours or more) Problems in the air include: - Being allocated a seat that didn't physically exist on the plane (I'm serious) - There system can not cope with 2 people with the same surname on the same flight - if this happens you will find you are both allocated the same seat. - majority of toilets in the aeroplane out of order or blocked (6 our of 8 out of order on my flight Nairobi - LHR). - turning off the cooling system in the plane while passengers are asleep until you wake up sweating (how cheap can you be!?) - faulty entertainment systems or none (on 4 long haul flights with them, not once did i have a system that worked) - buttons on my armrest controlling other's peoples systems (pressed my light button, the light for a passenger in the row in front of me came on!) - absolutely ZERO care for any problem (My screen was broken and constantly flickering, it gave me a headache quite quickly, when I asked for it to be turned off or for another seat they just shrugged their shoulders). Problems at Nairobi airport include: - No air conditioning - People all lying around sweating and sleeping on the floor - No room to get down the corridors it's so crowded - One Kenya Airways staff member on the transit desk, if there are 30 people transitting expect to wait 3 hours for your next boarding pass. - It's truly horrible if you get stuck there. Sorry to go on, but there really wasn't any factor that made it pleasant. They were absolutely terrible on the ground, avoided answering anything, were late, didn't care about you, put you in seats that didn't physically exist on the plane, everything broken, terrible service, I got stuck in Nairobi for 20 hours and missed work. And I was one of the lucky ones, - others in our line had been bumped for the last 3 days. I was hell. Please let this be a warning. WARNING: Booking a flight to africa with KLM may result in you being placed on a Kenya Airways flight. Double check!