JET2 & HiFly Review - LS820 - RHO - MAN

Flight review LS820 RHO > MAN July 5th

As part of a family holiday, my return flight back to Manchester, UK was with low cost airline Jet2.com. This part of the flight was ment to be operated by the leased Airbus 330 from Airtanker, however, during our holiday we were informed that the aircraft was changed due to operational reasons, Behind the reason was that the front tyres of the Airbus aircraft were torn apart whilst landing at TFS (Tenerife South Airport) and the aircraft was put out of service for at least 3 weeks. The A330 operated on a Wednesday and whilst our hotel offered views of incoming aircraft into the airport, the flight before my scheduled date to return home was operated by 2 Boeing 737

-800 aircraft to cover the delay.

Check-in

The check in at Rhodes, Greece airport was different in many other airports, The Greeks operate their procedures different to many other airports. We approached the check in desk for our flight, informed by the night before a message from jet2 stating that the aircraft has changed and it is operated by Hi Fly and Jet2.

Since the aircraft has changed and it was the second day that Hi Fly operated it, The agent told us that the seats we pre booked around 28 days before we departed from Manchester are not extra legroom, the jet2 website said they were extra legroom seats. The manager have told us the situation and told us to read the letter that they have provided on check in.

" Please be advised your Jet2 flight today will be operated using a hi fly airbus A330 aircraft.

You will still receive the full jet2.com service from our cabin crew and members of the Hi Fly crew onboard your flight today"

The letter didn't explain about the extra legroom seats that we booked. So after our bags have been tag we actually do not drop off the bags at the airline desk, at this airport we have to drop them off at one of the customs check points between the check in desks. Rhodes airport is a small airport, all the security screening and immigration were located on the upper part of the airport within a small area, which can generate big queues.

Airside at Rhodes airport has all the facilities that you would need for a flight. The airport has holding rooms for the gate and the flight, when agent comes for the boarding, The queue is always out the door and my advice is to get their early. Boarding was a free for all and you have to wait on the ramp outside before a bus to pick you up as their are no air bridges at the airport.

The flight -

Flight number - LS820

Route - Rhodes (RHO) - Manchester international Airport Terminal 1 (MAN)

Aircraft - Airbus 330-200 (CS-TFZ)

The first thing that caught my attention was the layout of the aircraft as it was split into two sections, first half was a 2-3-2 so like a premium cabin type area, our original seats were ment to be in that section as stated on our online boarding passes which was useless as were issued new ones on check in and in that section was extra legroom seats! So it made the experience a little disappointing.

Our seat was 25A which was located near the emergency exit in the second part of the cabin where the seat layout was 3-3-3 which I never seen before. The ground staff mentioned extra legroom at check in clearly it wasn't as the door and emergency slide compartment was in the way of my legs so I was a little squashed for the flight.

I worked out straight away that Hi Fly crew was looking after our safety onboard whilst the Jet2 crew only came out when it was the In flight service during the flight, there was a representative onboard too to answer any questions that the passengers had, they were complaints i heard about the different aircraft and a lot of them had also lost out on their original seats.

The captain didn't speak on the intercom and the route was a little different to the same route as my flight LS819. majority of Hi Fly's crew were Portuguese and most of them only spoke basic English, they informed me that they were called a few days prior to our flight due to the operational reasons a few days before.

Boarding was soon over and I noticed the aircraft was fitted with an inflight entertainment system, sadly it was never activated during the flight however, the usb charging points were active for the trip so it was useful to charge my phone during flight.

Taking off from Rhodes on the single runway and you are able to see the other side of the island and the beautiful mountains of the countryside, it's a beautiful sight to see, I prefer it when it's sunset as you get a spectacular view.

And before you know it we were back on our flight path towards home, we flew over Mainland Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and treated to some amazing views of Amsterdam yet again before heading across the North Sea back into England and into Manchester airport.

The Service -

With a mixture of Hi Fly and Jet2 crew working together, it was nice to see 2 crews from two completely different airlines working together as one, As jet2 did the service onboard with the assistance of Hi Fly crew, the products and services were the same as my last flight.

Although the Portuguese crew didn't like Jet2's up selling Tactics or their announcement on up selling products that passengers do not want to buy, it was our last chance to use our euros but we get change in pounds as crew carry both currency and yes, you can get a small water for £1.80 and its 200ml, one of the smallest bottles I ever seen.

The crew from both Jet2 and Hi Fly were friendly during the sales, but it was mainly Hifly crew did most of the legwork, after all it is their aircraft and you can still find most of the stuff you find in a jet2 seat pocket but in a Hi Fly aircraft. Since it wasn't a full flight.

Most passengers make their own entertainment up by watching a movie on an iPad, played a game of uno or some just slept, I thought the ife would work so I can track the progress of the flight.

Overall -

I had quite a lot of opinions about this flight as it was more Hi Fly than jet2, The ground staff at RHO made this review a lot more depressing by not letting have our original seats and let other passengers who checked in way before us to have the premium cabin seats in the section we were ment to be in..... But after the experience I decided to book to Rhodes again next year on a different carrier and aircraft to compare their experience to Jet2.

You Can View The Full Flight Review On My YouTube Channel Here -