I fly a lot, actually I'm one of those who commute every week. I find its hard to say I will never fly this airline again as: 1) I have to be flexible with the availability and 2) it would probably delete all options as there will most likely be unfortunate circumstances one time or another. Air Berlin is in a league of its own. The flights are usually delayed out of Budapest and not that its great, but its doable. But what I don't get is the incredible lack of communication. No one informs the 20 some passengers that the connecting flight will be there waiting. They don't at all care about the stress the passengers are in. Side note: If you are unlucky to be parked in another terminal (20 minutes left to your departure), they will not take any effort whatsoever in informing you where to go or even update the screens signalling delays. Then you're hit with a one lane open security control, again they don't care if the flight you're about to take is leaving in 5 minutes its slow. Yesterdays flight, once we got in the bus, the driver hacked this thing causing most of us to almost fall over and then once out of the bus, they refused to open the doors cause there was another group let in from another plane in the connecting terminal. Now we were running extremely late and running to the gate. All gates had the destinations show on the screen as is usually the case, except for the one going to Stockholm, so we ran up and asked and were brushed off. They tell us to go outside and what do we find? A bus parked right by the gate a plane right in front of us and one far to the right and again, nothing is marked. I mean, when you fly Ryanair or Wizz Air or any of these cheepy ones, its all marked. Why is this so difficult to figure out? Well obviously it is not, it is due to the lack of care. They think their passengers are a painful must. No communication whatsoever. All this anxiety and stress for the passengers, especially when you're taking the last flight out is unnecessary. Last time I flew them, my luggage got stuck in Berlin for 4 days. I have one more ticket in my pre-purchased pile and then that's it. Never again. All the issues with Air Berlin could be mitigated with care and communication. But I guess they have so many they don't have to worry about it.
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