Primera Air 

Absolutely dreadful cancelled our flight on the day and haven’t refunded us after 6 months

They lost our luggage from Toronto to Paris. Stayed without for TWO DAYS. Just barely got it on the way out. No manager available, no help on the phone.

We paid extra for a bit of leg room. Still, no in flight videos.

Quite possibly the worst airline on the planet. Just do not use them........ever.

I've been traveling, budget, for about 10 years. This was a horrible company to deal with and way overpriced. If you can go with someone else, like RyanAir, do it! They made us check out baggage (after we already paid extra to have cabin luggage) because it was 1 kilo more. We could have taken stuff out but there weren't working with us at all. Normally, you'd pay $50 or $60 to check your bag, we paid $120 to check a cabin bag! It was so overpriced. go with Ryanair or another budget company. If you're baggage fits their measurements, you're fine and if it's too heavy they let you check it for free at boarding.

We booked 4 flights to New York, the return of which was cancelled without explanation. We had to push for compensation which was agreed in April and confirmed in June, yet has still not been paid. Every time you email to chase it takes, they say, 30 working days to respond. So despite confirming they will compensate we are still waiting, many months down the line

Flight out to Newark made an 2 hour 'operational stop due to technical reasons' in Keflavik, Iceland. Have since discovered it wasn't due to a transient fault, but because the airline cheaped out on buying planes. Trustpilot doesn't allow links, so search the Independent newspaper's website for "Budget airline promises 'nonstop' London to New York service on plane incapable of flying that far" for proof.

Apart from that, the seats were narrow, though they had ok legroom, and the meal was ok but bloody expensive for what it was (£21.99).

On the journey back, however, departure was delayed by 2+hours. We weren't warned by email, which staff claimed we should have been, unlike with the outbound 'operational stop'. As this means we're departing close to 1:30am, the captain assures use that we'll not be disturbed until morning. Staff then shook me awake after I'd fallen asleep to serve another overpriced meal!
We land 3h late, which is too late to rebook my following connection, leaving me a further €110 out of pocket - negating any saving from using Primera Air in the first place.

It's rare that I have nothing good to say about a company, but after one return flight they are my second least recommended airline (after Ryanair).

This Airline needs closing down by the air authorities . The following thousands of awful reviews attest to the total lack of care and service from this company concerning delays and cancellations every other day . There are just so many awful things wrong with how this airline operates.

Do not travel with them under any circumstances

I don't normally take to review sites to voice my grievances about big companies, but am doing so because I really wouldn't want anyone else to experience the appalling service I've experienced from Primera Air. There is a very good reason why there are so many negative reviews here about Primera - PLEASE DO NOT MAKE A BOOKING WITH THEM.

I travelled with Primera from Birmingham to Newark at the end of May and beginning of June: I live in the UK and my boyfriend lives in the US, so we only see each other every few months, and the journey can be exhausting and emotionally draining for us as it is.

My flight to Newark was unobjectionable: the plane itself was tired and had seen better days and the whole flight was being chartered by an entirely different airline. I observed several passengers complaining to the cabin crew about their seats since they'd paid extra for seats with more leg room and had been given standard seats. The cabin crew were apologetic and explained that this was because Primera didn't have the newer fleet of planes they had expected to have, but basically the cabin crew didn't work for Primera and seemed unable to do anything to help. Apart from that, and the fact that the cabin crew forgot to give me the in-flight meal I had paid for and I had to ask about three times if I could be fed, the flight was tolerable and part of the cheap no-frills experience, I assumed.

My flight home, on the other hand, was awful.

When I arrived at Newark there was an immense crowd of people queuing at the Primera check-in desks. A number of Primera flights travelling from Newark 2nd June 2018 were severely delayed, and there was a lot of confusion around which flight passengers needed to check in first and at which desk. I think I waited close to an hour to check into my flight (side note: Primera also did not let you check-in online for flights to/from Birmingham or Newark and there were also no self check-in machines). When I got to the desk no one apologised, explained what was going on or offered vouchers for refreshment as I believe airlines operating in and out of the EU are legally obliged to do by EU rules.

The experience at Newark airport itself was terrible, as the flight disruption meant that the airport changed the gate for my flight about five times in 4-5 hours I was stuck there and made everyone move - bear in that there were passengers there with very small children or who had limited mobility. No one seemed to know what was going on, and at one point one of the ground staff even mistakenly told passengers that our flight was cancelled. My flight was supposed to leave at 10pm, but by the time it boarded it was close to 3am and I was exhausted, and desperate to go to bed.

When I got on board it was also one of the same worn-out old planes that I'd travelled on, and worse still it stank of urine from one of the adjacent toilets. The cabin crew were going around spraying air freshener, which was rather like putting a plaster on a shotgun wound considering the stench. The pilot explained over the PA system that the reason the flight was late was "because we had to go and pick up some passengers from Stanstead". As if this explained anything. Since I was so exhausted and decided to immediately try and get some sleep, I then missed the in-flight meal that I'd pay extra for.

I arrived in Birmingham the next day close to 4 hours late, still exhausted. My boyfriend, who had booked a flight with Primera to come and see me in the UK in July, also got an email from them shortly afterwards saying they'd suddenly pulled the entire NYC - Birmingham route and that his booking was cancelled.

When I got home, I submitted a request for compensation immediately. That was June, and I am still waiting for it.

It took Primera Air 6 weeks to send any sort of response to my initial request - be aware that the claims team who deal with any compensation requests do not have a phone number because of "legal requirements" and you can only communicate with them by email. When they eventually replied, they got my details wrong and told me they would pay me €600 because my flight had been cancelled. When I replied saying that my flight had been delayed not cancelled, they suddenly backtracked on this and said they would pay €300. I've tried to question this a number of times, have gone back and forth with them via email waiting literally weeks between email responses, only to get robotic two line responses that don't answer any of my questions. I got so fed up of this that I asked if they could signpost me to their formal complaints process so I could make a complaint about their bad customer service; this has been completely ignored.

Today was the absolute last straw as I checked my bank account and found that instead of paying me any compensation Primera Air had in fact CHARGED ME instead. I called their customer service team, and the lady I spoke to had no idea what was I talking about and again told me to email Primera as her team does not process compensation claims, saying she would let the claims team know about the charge. She apologised, but I felt like didn't really care about the fact that I'd had such a bad experience with Primera. She's probably heard it too many times, and in different languages.

Consider this very lengthy review as fair warning that Primera may offer cheap flights, but clearly do not have the means or resources to run them properly. And when things go wrong - which they do with some regularity if the other reviews here are to go on - Primera really does not care about handling them quickly, competently or even empathetically.

Booked a return flight (PF41/PF42) for myself and my Daughter in November 2017 from Stanstead to Newark as the website stated that transatlantic flights are direct and are on a airbus with charging points for electronic devices. Two days before the outward flight I got a text to say that the flight was stopping at Iceland with no explanation as to why! I found out this was because they had changed the plane to a smaller aircraft (which did not have charging points) and therefore had to stop and refuel. This added an extra one and half hours to the arrival time at Newark which meant I had to change my transfer. On the way back I got a text the same morning as the return flight to say the flight would be again stopping at Iceland! Again it was a smaller aircraft. These planes are unsuitable for long haul and at no point were we told the aircraft would be down graded or offered an opportunity for a refund due to the changes. I emailed customer service to complain about paying for a direct flight and not getting this and I was met with a rude reply telling me that as I know, they made a little refuelling stop and no one left the plane so no compensation was applicable. The meal was awful and not worth buying. My Daughter had a child’s meal and was told she could not have a bottle of water with this only tea or coffee.
I will never fly with Primera Air again.

This was my first flight with this airline. I can only summarise as “Awful”! The return flight to London delayed about 2 and a half hours. I’ve received 3 different emails from them which were giving completely contradictory information about the delays. I had to wait 128 minutes for luggage to arrive! Awful awful service. Never again I use this airline!

I was affected by the cancelled Birmingham-Newark flights in June. While I was still able to fly out from Birmingham, my return flight was cancelled. How did I find out that my flight had been cancelled? I read about it on BBC News. Despite claiming to have contacted affected customers, I received no communication whatsoever from Primera, so if I hadn't read that article I would have been stranded on my way back home.

Having found out about the cancellation just two weeks before my holiday, I emailed Primera - I attempted to call them but could never get through on their very choppy phone line. After failing to hear back after a couple of days I rang them and managed to get through to a very rude customer service agent. The line was still extremely bad (and I know this was an issue on their end as I'd had the same issue when attempting to call them previously and had no other problems calling other people). While the lady I spoke to did rearrange our return flights so we were on the Stansted flight, the bad line made it very difficult to hear her and she became very snappy and irate with me when I had to ask her to repeat herself. There was no apology for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation; they just do not seem to care about their customers.

No issues on the outbound flight, but the return one was delayed by half an hour for no apparent reason. The planes were not even Primera planes however, just another airline flying on their behalf.

As we had to get a taxi back from Stansted to Birmingham, I emailed Primera to claim the cost back shortly after returning home (as instructed to do so by the airline). I received an auto reply saying it could take up to 30 working days to receive a reply and Primera made sure to stick with that deadline, replying on the 30th day exactly...to tell me to email an alternative address! Thankfully the other address I emailed did respond much faster, although I have now been told it could take four weeks to process. So despite having returned from holiday in June, I may not receive the money until October....

All in all I would not recommend this airline - there is an extreme lack of communication and awful customer service - both in terms of politeness and time taken to respond. I won't be using them again, and having read they have cancelled yet more flights they seem to be totally unreliable.

AWFUL. FLIGHT DELAYED BY 16 HOURS, WHICH WE ONLY FOUND OUT WHEN ACTUALLY AT THE GATE! NO PRIMERA AIR STAFF AROUND, OTHER AIRLINE STAFF HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON BECAUSE PRIMERA AIR HAD NOT CONTACTED ANYTHING TO THEM. THE ACTUAL WAY WE FOUND OUT WAS BY A FELLOW PASSENGER RINGING THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE LINE - ONLY THEN WERE WE ADVISED THAT OUR FLIGHT WAS SUBJECT TO A 16 HOUR DELAY!!!!!! CHAOS. HAVE EMAILED THEIR CLAIMS TEAM OVER 20 TIMES SINCE, AS I AM ENTITLED TO BOTH A REFUND AND COMPENSATIONS. NO ONE IS GETTING BACK TO ME, AND THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE LINE SAID THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO AS THEIR CLAIMS TEAM DON'T HAVE A DIRECT LINE NUMBER! WORST AIRLINE EVER - I WILL NEVER IN MY LIFE FLY WITH THEM AGAIN. AND I WILL NOT STOP EMAILING RE THE 45O EUROS I AM LEGALLY ENTITLED TO. LEGAL ACTION WILL SOON BE TAKEN.

Disappointing 1st experience and will be last.

3 hour delay to Malaga from Birmingham on 22.08.18 due to a crew member not turning in and the only replacement needing to travel from Stanstead to Birmingham via TAXI! 7am departure due, 10am actual departure. arriving 2 hours 45 minutes late into Malaga.

Unorganised shambles at boarding gate. Called passengers to board to then wait 30 minutes to be told to go back to lounge with an update at 8:30am, said update arrived at 8:45am with a update of ''next update at 10am'' . This update then changed again 10 minutes later with ''boarding gate 49'', within 20 minutes (max) they were calling final call.

Arrived at gate for the 2nd time, for them to load all passengers on 1 bus even though 2 were available. resulting in 2 passengers only riding on the 2nd bus and a dangerously over crowded 1st bus.

Then sat on the plane for 50 minutes whilst pilot informed us the crew member still hadn't arrived. Safety demonstration rushed.

I am not a nervous flight passenger at all, but to say the pilots turning manoeuvres during this flight were worrying is an understatement!!

I checked this flight the day we were due to depart and the same flight path had been delayed again for the same amount of time! clearly a regular occurrence! (luckily we returned with a different operator!!)

Never again to save a few £

I flew on flight 23 from Paris to Boston on 9/1/18. I was not feeling well, and getting dehydrated. The stewards knew I was in the bathroom at least every hour if not more.
I asked for water and a soft drink, I did not have a credit card, only cash, in euros and American money, but they would not let me have a drink because they only took credit cards. I finally begged for a cup of tea which they gave me for free. That is the only beverage that I had for 8 hrs. When I asked again, please can I have water, they said no.
Shame on this airline for not helping someone who clearly was sick. I will never fly with them again. Horrible.

You don't expect much from a budget airline but primeraair take budget to the next level into being just awful when it comes to customer service. A query that they themselves quoted to be resolved in 4 weeks is still unresolved after 12 weeks. Their staff are rude and honestly look like they would rather clean toilets than be on the plane.

Primeraair are cheap so understandable why some may opt for them, but beware that their staff are not happy you are flying with them and their customer service just do not care at all about any inquiries you might make.

Stranded in London while trying to return home to Canada after a sudden, unaccounted for cancellation right before boarding.

In the aftermath, Primera representatives instructed us to book new flights with another airline to get home and that we'd be reimbursed; 11 weeks later, at the writing of this, they are ignoring my request for a refund and many other travelers are in the same position. It is getting shocking that they are allowed to continue operating their business. Avoid at all costs.

This airline is a complete joke and should have there operators license taken away, I had a 36 hour delay with little to no communication about what was happening. As for getting compensation that I am entitled to I have sent loads of emails to which I have had no response and it is impossible to get them on the phone!!!!

Changed a flight time with less than 24 hours notice. Had a text to say check in was still at the same time.

Called their customer service line and spent and hour and 10 minutes on hold!!!! To be told that we were fine to check in later, and check in would close at 12:50 for the new departure time.

Arrived at the airport to the check in desks closed and several other families a little lost also.

No reps from the airline, no ground support staff, the airport staff had no idea what to do or what to suggest.

Finally after pressuring check in Staff from another flight they opened and checked us in.

They obviously don't have enough aircraft to cover all of their flights, and then it brings me to their aircraft. Narrow seats, cramped and dated.

Will certainly not be considering them again.

Primera air continue to break EU Law by not giving customers their money back for cancelled flights! I've sent thousands of emails to multiple email address as this company owes me thousands of pounds for a cancelled flight. No one is responding and I still do not have my money after months of chasing. AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!

I booked the flight PF42 long time ago from stansted to newark directly , the flight is for tomorrow. less than 24 hour before flying I received a message that there will be operational reasons and they will stop in KEF and arrive EWR 4 hours later . I tried to call for hours with no reply !
I will never book again with this company , I feel this company will go bankrupt soon for the customer service they provide