Trip Report: RwandAir - Nairobi to Kigali
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I
wanted to confirm the special meal request as well as request a seat
assignment, so I emailed the airline.
The airline got back to me a couple of days later and said that my meal
request had been confirmed but that they could not confirm seat assignments
until the day of the flight. My flight
departed Nairobi at 3:35p and was scheduled to arrive into Kigali at 4pm (the
flight had originated from Entebbe and was stopping off in Nairobi before
heading to Kigali). The day before my
flight, I was able to check-in online and during this process I was able to
preselect my seat and receive my boarding pass.
On the day of my flight, I was stuck in Nairobi traffic so I reached out
to the airline via social media to see what would happen if I missed my flight
(as RwandAir has an afternoon and evening flight departure). To this day I still have not received a
response from them, but luckily I made it to the airport in time. RwandAir provides two checked bags for free,
but I only had one bag so check-in was very easy and efficient; my luggage was
tagged and I received my boarding pass.
The
operating aircraft for this flight was a CRJ aircraft, which generally are
small and tiny. The aircraft was parked
on an aircraft stand so boarding passes were collected in the airport and then
we walked to the aircraft. The aircraft
was laid out in a 2-2 seat layout and generally the seats were comfortable and
the legroom was extremely good (I am tall and I had more than enough legroom). Boarding a bit chaotic as there was no order
to the process, with everyone trying to board at once and people having
difficulty finding their seats. The
attendants on board were not particularly interested in helping any of the
passengers nor in speeding up the boarding process. Boarding finally completed, the door was
closed, manual safety demonstrations were conducted, and we taxied to the
runway. This is another instance where
the attendants were not really paying attention as the passenger sitting next
to me did not understand the safety demonstrations, did not understand English,
and was sitting without her seatbelt on.
I motioned twice for the flight attendants but they seemed least
bothered. It was only while doing their
final safety checks did I repeat the information to the flight attendant and
they finally paid attention. While the plane is taxing to the runway I was made
to switch to a bulkhead seat – and even here most airlines make you put your
hand-carry in the overhead compartment to keep the aisle clear. On this flight, the attendants seemed least
bothered. After waiting for a while we
finally took off for the 1hr 25m flight time.
Once
we reached cruising altitude, the inflight service commenced. The attendants came by with a drink cart and
a meal cart. Even though I had ordered a
special meal and the special meal was delivered onboard, it was not marked for
a particular seat assignment nor with my name.
Another passenger, who had not pre-ordered a special meal but requested
one onboard was given my special meal.
When I asked for the meal, they said they only had one and it had been
given away so the option was to give me the regular tray of the sides without
the main meal; I passed on that option.
When the drink cart came, it was limited as it only had juice, water,
and alcohol. I asked for a soft drink
and they said they did not have it nor could they get it for me so I ended just
taking water. In both the drink and meal
service, the attendants attitude was a ‘take it or leave it’; they couldn’t
care less. 
After
the service concluded, there was not much to do for the remainder of the
flight. There were no PTV screens nor
any inflight entertainment system. The
seats had compartment up top which held the airline magazine, the airsickness
bag, as well as the duty free catalog.
There was also a tray table below and another holder beneath that to
store other items. There were no USB
ports and I could not find any electrical outlets either. We started our descent into Kigali and the
attendants came by to do their last safety checks, and again they really did
not pay attention to seatbacks being upright nor to ensure everyone had their
seatbelts on.
We
landed into Kigali generally on time and taxied to a stand (there are no airline
bridges at Kigali International) and deplaned via the stairs. The stairs on the plane are very narrow and
can be slippery, especially when it is raining as it was in Nairobi, and
because of that three passengers slipped and fell coming down the stairs. For this reason, the airline made the
passengers go down the stairs very slowly so deplaning took a while. After deplaning we boarded the bus which took
us to the arrivals hall.
Overall,
I was disappointed with my RwandAir flight.
I was really looking forward to their flight, as I was told by others
about their good service and I see how active they are on social media. Despite my high expectations, everything the
flight was a miss. The customer service
was lacking, the inflight service was poor, and the overall experience was
lacking. The only positives about the
experience was the ease of booking the flight and the generous legroom. Given this experience, I would not choose to
fly RwandAir again.
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