There are a lot of airlines out there that win this award or that and they probably compete on levels of service or amenities in order to obtain this honor. Then there are budget airlines that are competing on a very different level. Personally I hate budget airlines and unless the price is dramatically lower, I will normally opt to pay a bit more for a full-service airline because the difference in comfort is night and day.
Then we have airlines that appear to have kind of given up and while they may have been great at some point in time, they certainly aren't now. One of those airlines is one I had the pleasure of flying with a few years ago, and it was a bit of a nightmare. The name of that airline is Aerosvit, and it was by far the worst flying experience of my life.
Aerosvit is based out of The Ukraine and they might be a national carrier, I don't actually have any idea and I don't care enough to find out. I know that I will never fly with them again even if the value is unbelievable. There are many reasons to not fly with these guys and honestly, I had concerns about the airplane and can't really believe that it passes the tests to be worthy of being in the sky. I would imagine that these tests are rather vigorous.
For one thing, the interior of the plane was a disaster. I was on a flight from NYC to Kiev and this is not a short flight. The first thing I noticed was that the seats did not have individual screens and these days (and at the time that I flew) this is just standard equipment. I looked above me with a bit of a sense of horror because there were televisions, but they were the old cathode ray tube televisions that none of us have even had in our homes for 20 years. It made me wonder about the engines at that point.
Some of the seats had non functioning seatbelts and I saw the crew go through the usual motions in the pre-flight safety briefing and they didn't seem terribly concerned when several passengers pointed out that their seatbelts don't work.
Some of the chairs wouldn't recline. My chair wouldn't return to the upright position.
Some of the overhead lights didn't work, others wouldn't turn off. Since this was a night flight, this constant light in the person's seat next to me was incredibly annoying to both of us.
The flight was very long and meals were served several times. They couldn't even manage this as all 3 of the meals that we were served were exactly the same. Forget about choices, you are getting what they have in the back and that is it. It was very bland and I would imagine that prisoners get better meals than this.
Do you remember that story about how American Airlines saved $200,000 by eliminating one olive from every salad? Well I wonder how much money Aerosvit is saving by serving barely edible food?
There was no way to charge any electronics on board. No USB ports, no outlets, nada! So if you brought a tablet with you to pass the time because you already knew Aerosvit has no entertainment options, you were shit outta luck after about 4 hours when your battery died.
In flight Wi-Fi always sucks but of course this was not an option on this plane.
To make matters even worse there was no booze. I'm not complaining that the booze wasn't free (as it tends to be with international flights) i'm complaining that it wasn't on the plane at all even if you were willing to pay for it.
For me the worst part was that when we finally arrived in Kiev, this was not the end of my journey. My 10 hours that I had already spent on the flight was going to be followed up by another 8 hours or so as I made my way to Malaysia. I kept my fingers crossed that the next plane would be better for that leg of the journey but had my heart broken a bit when I went to board the plane and the same flight attendant was gathering tickets at the gate... this is because we were getting back on the same plane.
They didn't even bother cleaning the interior and all the blankets and garbage that was left by the people that had been on the previous flight was all over the place. Even though I hear less than awesome stories about The Ukraine, I actually envied those people that were leaving the airport in Kiev.
If you ever find yourself searching the internet for the best deal you can find and Aerosvit pops up as one of the cheapest options I am strongly encouraging you to choose the next cheapest one. I promise that a flight with Aerosvit will be something you remember forever...and for all the wrong reasons.