Air Baltic

I recently had flight from Newark to Riga with connection in Hamburg. Arrived at 6:50AM and my flight was scheduled for 8:50AM, so I had almost 2 hours waited at the gate. I had all documents, did check in Newark, only needed to pick up boarding pass at the gate when someone show up! Couldn't print boarding pass in Newark because United and Air Baltic have no agreement, so they only can confirm your check-in, but boarding pass must be picked up at the gate! When lady show up at 8:15 AM she said I'm not registered.. how did I get to Hamburg then? After she said I supposed to get there earlier to get my boarding pass... Earlier? I was there for over an hours and she got there 4 min ago! Then she said flight is overbooked and someone is seating on my seat!!! Ridiculous! No apologies! No alternative options. NOTHING! I had to BUY tickets with LOT to get to my final destination! I would give them 0 star and NEVER fly with them! NEVER !

When I claimed Air Baltic, they said I did not show up for my flight! WOW! In Riga I found out it is normal practice for Air Baltic! Please, save your nerves and money and fly with some other company!

We received a email from airboltic to check in online. We click on the check in button and it came up with a error about the webpage not responding, all other websites worked and we have internet connection. We figured like every other airline they could just click on print for the bordingpass so left it. When we got to the airport they said they wanted us to go to a sales desk to buy bordingpasses for a total cost of €60. €30 per person. We expalined because their poorly built system we couldn't check in even though we followed their rules.

Even though it was clearly there fault they didnt wave the fee and had to charge us.

Air Baltic will strip you from every Euro possible. They have added every possible trick they can in the their booking system to collect as much money as they can from the customer. Dont be fooled by the first flight price on your screen, because by the end of your booking that price will have nearly doubled. I mean 30 Euro for checked in luggage! Not to mention the disgusting technique of increasing the price of the flight while you are going through the booking process! And the price has increased only for your flight, but none of the others! Really?!

AirBaltic were a convenient option as they flew directly from Zurich to Riga, but when the flight was cancelled they were incredibly unhelpful. We called the main office immediately to explain why it was particularly important for us to be there the following day (a lecture needed to be given) and we requested being put on an evening link flight that we knew was going close to the destination (so as not to risk it). They said this wouldn't be possible and offered us two very inconvenient options instead, one of which involved 3 flights and getting in at 1:40am.

After waiting to speak to the person at the airport, he said he was unable to help (as it had to come from head office). As we were running out of time, we had to book on the link flight, because we could not risk it. We then found other AirBaltic customers from the cancelled flight were onboard the link flight, having been moved onto the flight by the airline, i.e. onto the flight they said we couldn't be moved to, even though we had explained why it was important to get there.

Then without consulting us - and too late - we were sent an email confirmation booking us onto a different flight the following morning (and this was one they hadn't even offered us originally).

So we incurred the extra cost of booking a flight and a hotel and the airline refused to compensate us anything, even though it was their fault and they would have had to put us up in a hotel anyway. They refunded the flight cost of the one we didn't take, but their customer service department has been incredibly poor and just ignored what we said and just quoted policy to us. They even said they 'do everything possible' to help and that they take into account their customers' preferences, despite the fact that they made no attempt to contact us, before booking us onto a different flight (which was too late by then anyway).

So it was just a very disappointing experience and especially so as they would have incurred additional costs to put us up in a hotel and yet wouldn't contribute towards that when we booked onto the other flight. Furthermore, they haven't even responded to some of our emails trying to take the matter further.

The airline does everything through a central booking office, so it obviously can't cope very well when a problem happens (i.e. it is slow). Even so, it is frustrating that when you make the effort to speak to them to explain something is urgent, they then gave some customers what they said we couldn't have and they didn't even take the urgency inot account - and actually made no attempt to contact us before booking us on to a flight (by which point is was too late).

So I think the airline is reasonably priced, but do be aware that if something goes wrong, the customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

I do not like air Baltic since they are stingy. Their whole approach is how to squeeze you from a few centimes. The prices are far from cheap and more expensive then top companies like Lufthansa or SAS yet you do not get even a minimal service. I was a VIP with over 150000 miles and could never get even basic reward flight

Baggage didn't arrive on Friday afternoon on flight from Amsterdam to Vilnius. Sent email to Air Baltic and no reply. Phoned Call Centre at least 10 times to explain that I needed them to make sure that my case was sent to Vilnius on Saturday as I would be leaving Vilnius on Sunday morning. Told that it was in Riga and would be sent to Vilnius on Saturday night. The baggage agent in Vilnius then contacted Air Baltic and was told that it had not arrived in Riga. Spoke to Air Baltic again and then told that it was not in Riga! Contacted KLM in Amsterdam who were arranging for the baggage to be despatched and was told that it had been sent to Riga on Saturday morning! So who do I believe?

I certainly will not be flying to Vilnius from the UK via Amsterdam with KLM/Air Baltic again. If you are travelling to Vilnius (as I will be doing several times this summer) take a direct flight with Ryanair - they are fine, reliable and on time. Don't spoil your visit by travelling with Air Baltic - unreliable, awful customer service and haven't got a clue what they are doing.

My little girl has done several assisted minor trips between Lithuania and the UK. The last one was Christmas time. Unfortunately this always involves transferring via Riga in Latvia. They have a room for minors, but she told me on the flight out she was not offered a drink. That was a 2-hour stopover. The return involved a 7-hour stopover. I discussed this at check-in. The lady said she should just ask. Also the assistant at Gatwick ensured she got a bottle of water. However this was confiscated during the transfer process. She asked the lady in the children’s lounge if she could have some water, but was told she had to pay. As she didn’t have Lats, the currency of Latvia, she couldn’t do anything about it. She then didn’t get a drink on the flight to Lithuania either. She was quite ill when she arrived there.

I was outraged when I heard this. For assisted minor travel you have to pay full fare for children plus just over £100 for the assistance. And they won’t even give you water! I have written to Air Baltic about this 3 times and they have just fobbed me off. I wanted to hear them say they would be adopting new procedures, but no such assurance.

She has previously travelled with Lufthansa and was well looked after. Please pass this on. I’d like people to know about this.

I really had bad experience this year with airbaltic. Customer Service is the worst. I'm really sorry I've booked some many flights in advance using the same carrier airline.

1st flight: The flight from London to Riga successfully.

2nd flight: connecting flight was cancelled without alternative to fly to the destination on the same day.

3rd flight: the tickets were cancelled without notification.

Currently, I'm still awaiting for AirBaltic response for over a month without any refunds so far.

I have recently traveled with airbaltic and I can truly say that it was the worst experience I had with an airline from the beginning until the end. I chose this company as it had good fares for our trip; however, by the end of the trip, if I sum up all the expenses it required along the way, I could have bought tickets for a better airline that provides all the needed services.

To start with, we had to pay 10 eur per person to do the checkin at the counter. Who has ever heard of that??? We received an email a few days before with the online checkin and it didn't state ANYWHERE (and I checked and rechecked every piece of the content) that if we don't do it online, we will have to pay in the airport. Not surprisingly, in the airport everyone who was in the same flight with us had the very same problem. Not to mention about a crew member at the desk who kept pointing towards a piece of paper that had this 10 eur checkin rule. Was I supposed to come to the airport to his desk beforehand to see the hidden fees that I couldn't find anywhere in my email? Moreover, do I HAVE TO be stuck to the internet during my vacation in order to do checkins for my flights? What if I had no access to internet?

The company is not transparent at all with its customers and it uses these hidden fees so they can cover up their margins. Not to mention that we had to pay extra for every 20 kg piece of luggage, seats, transaction fees and there were no meals during the flights. So adding up all these costs to the initial price of the ticket, I could have easily flown with an all inclusive airline.

Coming to customer service, it seems that airbaltic has no idea what that means. One crew member was extremely rude during the onboarding process and started shouting at me in front of the other passengers regarding my pieces of luggage. She replied to my questions in a very rude way as if they would do me a favor to fly me home for free.

It is sad to see that for some companies the idea of customer service is still a new concept, if not unknown. One thing that is definite is that I will never use any of the airbaltic services again and I am pretty sure the other passengers that I met in the plane share the same feeling.

C'mon you cant check in before 72hr each way, who the hell is in charge there???? I don't want to be rude but that is just stupid. Example, my one week holiday in Spain on the 18th, i had to look everywhere for a place to print my tickets, do you really want to do this on your holiday, answer is no i don't. What can i say, they really want to be different, well they got their wish.