Eastern Airways Reviews 173

Eastern Airways are advertising flights (and taking money) for flights between East Midlands Airport and Charles De Gaulle.

The flight is cancelled but they dont tell you this until you have booked it.

I booked the above flight on Oct 1 at 09.19am. At 12.56 they wrote to me and told me the flight had been cancelled.

I tried to get a refund but they said due 'to high volumes' there was a 7 working day response time. After this elapsed and no contact or refund from the airline i wrote again. After another 2 days of not responding i called them on Sunday. They told me to call back on Monday! So i did. They confirmed my case was being looked at. So after 2 emails, 2 calls and 14 calendar days, i finally got a refund for a flight that they have not intention of putting on!

All i can advise it avoid this organisation.

Having lived in Wick for the past two years, I have relied on train and bus transportation, as many people I’ve encountered here have expressed dissatisfaction with Eastern Airways' services. Despite these concerns, I chose to book a flight with Eastern Airways to experience it first-hand. Unfortunately, this decision resulted in significant losses.

I deeply regret this choice, especially as it caused my wife and 4-year-old child to endure a disappointing and stressful journey, compounded by the flight cancellation. What was meant to be a pleasant family outing turned into a distressing experience, not only financially but emotionally as well.

To add to my frustration, I now find myself having to send numerous follow-up emails for what should be a simple refund and compensation claim. In my previous correspondence, I provided a detailed calculation of the compensation and refund I expected. However, the responses from Eastern Airways have been neither clear nor responsible, with no confirmation, denial, or clarification of the amount I am owed.

I sincerely regret my decision to fly with Eastern Airways. I am so frustrated that if there was an option to give zero star I would have given that

We were really worried about using this airline after all the negative review, but in our case we had a good experience. We travelled from East Midlands to Paris CDG. The plane left about 10 mins late. On board the crew were lovely and we received a complimentary drink and little snack. No fault of the airline, but we had to wait quite a while on arrival at Paris due to lack of driver for the bus to transport us all from the plane to the terminal.
We also took the return flight. Again we we worried there would be a cancellation and spent time researching alternative flights just in case.
Eastern tell you to get there 3 hours before but don’t bother as the staff at check in don’t arrive until 2 hours before.
Again all fine on the return flight, again leaving a few minutes late, but same great service and a pleasant trip.
Really easy to take the metro in to Paris from the airport too.
Would book again. A good way to get to Paris from East Midlands.

Both flights delayed. Missed flight cost me a day of my time. Should add 2 more hours to their estimates.

Great staff and great service recommend this airline 👌😁

The flight was cancelled after my wife passed security. No information. No help or advice from the airline. No response to calls, emails, or chats. It took over 5 hours back and forth with the booking agent and Air France (the company taking her to Brazil from Paris) to get things re-booked. She’s arriving two days late (and still has to pay for accommodation she booked), my plans were scuppered, and it was a night of hell trying to resolve things. Read the other reviews, and you’ll see this is NOT an isolated case…it’s the norm. How this bunch of cowboys can have a licence to run an airline is beyond me. If Eastern is the only alternative, walk, jog, cycle, swim, train, ferry, drive instead…anything is better!

Dreadful! Flight cancelled, no reasons given. Staff in the airport said they could rebook the flight for next day but only that leg not the connections that followed. No good at all. International connections missed and connections after that as well, plus accommodation.

Please don’t book with this airline. Stranded a plane full of passengers in CDG with nothing but a phone number to ring for a refund but they waited until after the call centre had closed before telling us the flight had cancelled. Children, vulnerable people and distressed passengers literally left with no information. The flight which was due in was cancelled hours before and they didn’t bother to tell us.
Any negative remarks on social media are removed and people can’t get refunds for the £100s of pounds worth of additional travel costs. DONT book with them.

UPDATE: submitted the email with the letter 'prior to small claim courts' on the 15th August and I was PAID on the 23rd August. I hope more people find my review and can do the same to get their money back.

Original:
Our flight was cancelled just a few hours before departure on 3rd of April 2024. On the 18th April I was informed flight compensation payment would be within 8 weeks.
We are now 18 weeks and still no payment as they keep saying they have a lot of payments to do.
I submitted a letter prior to small claims court and they replied i will be paid on the next 'payment run'. Again, the reply is vague because who knows if the next payment run is next week or next year.
It was my first time using this airline and it's disgraceful the lack of professionalism.

We flew from Amsterdam to Norwich. All of our 4 KLM flights on that holiday had been delayed, the impression we got was that it was due to Amsterdam more than airlines. The first flight on the way back was an hour late so we had to run through the terminal to get to the one operated by eastern! After all that sweat turned out the flight was also a bit late. The flight itself has no complaints - same service as KLM if not a bit more friendly and awake. Hopefully they will continue operating for them! I think people are more likely to post their bad experiences here than the majority of good ones.

We took your flight from Paris to Southampton on 12th of August. When we arrived to Southampton and was waiting for our suitcase we were told that our suitcase stayed in Paris ?!?

This is the first time something so weird happened as a frequent flyer. Then we were told that suitcase would arrive one day after and we said OK. Already passed 3 days and today we were told that our suitcase still is not in Southampton ?!?

We are on a road trip and we are quite victimised due to this absurd situation. We have everything inside of our bag and they are making our life impossible.

Please never, ever use this company.

Witnessed what I believed was racial discrimination towards a passenger from eastern airways staff at Newquay airport. Contacted customer service to let them know - they didn’t seem to give a toss - just said they’ll forward it on. Really poor to not take something like that very very seriously.

Terrible airline. Booked a flight from Southampton to Paris. Turned up on the day to find the flight didn’t exist, even though it was on the boards at the airport so was stranded with a queue full of other people.
Went to claim compensation. Was originally wrongly advised this had to be done via third party, but eventually accepted claim. Was told payment would be in 8 weeks. This was 4 months ago. Have just been told it will take another 12 weeks. Will not be using again

My rating should be a 0 star,they cancelled our flight to Paris due to plane technical issues on the hours before the flight and extended no assistance at all,the airport personnel at Southampton was the only person who managed to contact them and Eastern airways declined to help us in any small way due to the fact that we bought the flight with Opodo, and they stated no assistance will be given to us because our money is with Opodo! Wow! How low can this company be? How can companies like this allowed to operate in the UK.I made a review here for Opodo already and got a response a day after that a refund is to be done in the next ten days.Well see…..

Horrendous customer service, and seems to be a common theme with having to wait over 14 weeks for compensation which was due under UK261 regulations.

Our flight from Gatwick to Newquay was cancelled after making us wait over 3 hours in the airport with absolutely no customer service or updates in that time. As we left we were told that a replacement bus might be organised, but they weren't sure if/when it would be approved, and instead had to make costly arrangements to travel by train and have someone collect us to drive the further 2 hours.

Compensation claim made immediately and told to wait 6-8 weeks, then another 4-6 weeks, and then told it "should" happen after that but they could not confirm when that would be. On recommendation I sent a "letter before small claims court claim" and had the refund on the same day.

Would never recommend.

The planes break down all the time and the customer service is dire. Expect long delays and cancellations. Then, if you want to make a claim against them, they'll be as awkward as possible in the hope that you give in.

I booked the Southampton to Paris Orly Flight, 6.30am February 29 2024. Delayed and then cancelled at 8.30 with alternative option offered from Cardiff at 16.30 that day with a coach transfer. No other choice but to use this option. Arrived in Paris with 9 hours delay.

I contacted the customer service team who offered a compensation. They said it will take 8 weeks to arrive and I still have not seen the compensation. I have chased several time and every time they said the compensation will take another 4-8 weeks delay...
This is very frustrating

They got me to Amsterdam from Manchester and no complaints there but what was really striking was the cabin crew - not attractive, young twentysomethings but burly, middle aged blokes that wouldn't have looked out of place working in a shipyard - and they were great! I have flown all over the world on many airlines but they did they job better than most of the cabin crew of better known airlines. Ten out of ten for their efforts, I was really impressed.

12 weeks and still no compensation. Seems to be a theme here with other reviews. Time for Small Claims Court. Shame. P.S. Subsequent Letter of Intent to take to Small Claims Court has provided instant settlement. Coincidence??

They cancelled our flight to Paris from Southampton at the start of the year with one day of warning meaning we had to cancel our trip.

Filled in all forms to claim compensation which they acknowledged and set an expectation of an 8 week turn around.

8 weeks later when I chased them up they said they were missing my address details (I definitely gave them this previously and they never contacted me to say they didn't have it).

I reconfirmed and they said it would be another 8 weeks. After 8 weeks I called them to check on progress. Without taking any details from me to see who I was, the lady on the phone started getting angry and telling me I had to wait, she then hung up.
I called back to be told that there were delays but payment would be imminent.

Another 2 weeks went by so I email them and was told that it would be another 6 weeks due to a backlog. WOW!

I contacted them on Facebook messenger to see if that would get a better result. I was given an email address for someone senior to complain to and after speaking with him he has arranged for the compensation to transferred within a few days.

I was told that they make payments every week so I have no idea what takes so long. I can only assume they are in financial difficulty.

Only went with them as they were flying from my local airport but I would never look to use them again.