Stay Report: Crowne Plaza Nairobi, Upper Hill (Kenya - April 2018)

Stay Report: Crowne Plaza Nairobi, Upper Hill
comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

I was travelling to Nairobi, Kenya and whenever I asked someone which location to stay the response was always ‘Upper Hill’ so I looked for a hotel in that area and found the Crowne Plaza.  I have stayed in Crowne Plaza’s before and they are usually pretty good, and I was told this one was of the best hotels in the area; needless to say my expectations were high.  I had booked the hotel online through the IHG website, but then had to modify my booking so contacted the hotel through email.  While they did respond, it did take them a while.  The hotel does not provide a complimentary airport shuttle, rather you can book the hotel car for airport transfers at a cost; I decided to use my own transport.

The hotel itself is located in Upper Hill but off the main road, and there are two entrances to the hotel making it a bit confusing for pick-ups.  The main entrance is to the side of the road but most people see the side entrance, which is the entrance to the parking garage as this is where the large Crowne Plaza sign is; ensuring you were picked up at the right location was always a challenge.  From the outside, the hotel looks decent – not too new but not too old either.  As you enter inside the hotel, you enter into a large and open lobby.  Straight ahead against the wall are the check-in desks, while on left is the restaurant and on the right is the bar.  Every time I went to the check-in desks, there always seemed to be a line as there were always a number of guests who needed attention and a lack of staff behind the desks.  This was the same for my check-in experience, which took a long time (generally, the staff overall were neither fast nor efficient).  I finally checked in and received my key and proceeded to my room.  The elevators are located to the right of the check-in desks and are located in front of the open circular staircase.  This is where the hotel shows its age as the staircase and elevator section looks a lot older than the lobby section.  There were two elevators available, but they were slow and one broke on the second day and never seemed to get fixed.  Again, the staff never seemed to be in a hurry to fix or alleviate issues that would affect guests.

I proceeded to my room and the hallway décor continued the older look of the hotel.  When I

opened the door to the room I noticed two things: 1) the room had an older look/feel to it and 2) the room itself was quite spacious.  As you entered into the room, on the right was the closet and storage area while on the left was the bathroom.  The closet contained space for storage, a safe, robes, and an umbrella.  The bathroom was basic and contained a shower, a tub, a sink, and a toilet.  In between the bathroom and the sink was a nook/bar which contained glasses on top, a fridge on the bottom, and a tea kettle and tea/biscuits.  Complimentary bottles of water were also provided here.  

Further into the room, the bed was located on the left side of the room.  On either side of the bed was a nightstand, but in between the bathroom wall and the bed was a lot of space; just empty space.  The bed itself was decent, not very comfortable but not very uncomfortable.  It was lower to the ground than I expected and the décor of the bedroom and carpet did not look new.  On the other side of the bed was a lamp, two chairs and a small desk in front of the window.  The window was very big and let in natural light which was good since the room was very dark without it.  Across from the beds was a very table attached to the wall which contained the desk on side and additional place to store items on the other side.  Next to this was a chest with the TV on top and drawers on the bottom.  As I said, overall there was a lot of space in the room but the décor of the room and the carpet indicated the older age of the hotel. 

The hotel is full-service so there are a variety of facilities for guests to enjoy.  These include an outdoor pool, a spa, a fitness center, a restaurant, a bar, and complimentary wifi.  I spent most of my time outside so I was not able to enjoy all the facilities, but I did try the wifi.  The wif was complimentary and a good strength, but the thing I find odd was there was no password or login needed; anyone could connect to the wifi and login.  It did not seem very secure.

Overall, it was an alright stay at the Crowne Plaza.  I have stayed at other Crowne Plaza around the world and have had good experiences, and I was told a lot about this hotel so based on these two ideas I had high expectations; the hotel fell well below these expectations.  While the room was spacious, the décor and look of the room felt old.  The staff were neither efficient nor customer-friendly and were not attentive to guest’s requests.  The hotel bills itself as a high hotel and charges money equivalent to a high hotel, so in my opinion the hotel was not worth what was being charged.

Trip Report: RwandAir - Nairobi to Kigali (April 2018)

Trip Report: RwandAir - Nairobi to Kigali

         comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

I was flying from Nairobi to Kigali and on this route I could choose to fly with either Kenya Airways or RwandAir.  I was already flying on Kenya Airways on other sectors (check out the reviews here), and had heard a lot about RwandAir so wanted to try their product; so decided to book a flight with them.  On the route I was flying, there was no price difference between the two carriers so there was no real incentive to fly them other than time preferences and trying new airlines.  Booking the ticket was easy and quick on the RwandAir website, as it was very user friendly and efficient.  On the website, I was only able to book the flight and request a special meal, but I was not able to pre-select my seat.  I completed my booking and received the confirmation in email.

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.

Trip Report: Precision Air Tanzania - Zanzibar, Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya (April 2018)

Trip Report: Precision Air Tanzania - Zanzibar to Nairobi

         comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

I was in Zanzibar and wanted to travel to Nairobi directly, without having to stop or travel back to Dar Es Salaam.  There are only two airlines that fly directly on this route – Kenya Airways and Precision Air.  Kenya Airways is the national airline of Kenya while Precision Air is a Tanzania-based airline that is also partly owned by Kenya Airways.  Both airlines operate various flights throughout the day, so the choice is based on timing and preference.  I chose to fly with Precision Air for a couple of reasons: 1) I was already flying with Kenya Airways on other sectors (check out the reviews here) so wanted to try a different airline; 2) the flight timing was better with Precision Air; and 3) the flight was a bit cheaper, but not by much.  I booked the flight directly through the Precision Air website, and it was generally easy and efficient to do so.  While booking the flight, I could select the flight times but I could not pre-select seats at time of purchase.  After booking the ticket, I received the confirmation in my email.

I had previously flown with Precision Air, about 5 years, on a short, 20-minute flight from Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar (check out the review here) so I was somewhat familiar with their product.  They mainly operate a regional network of short flights using ATR, propeller aircraft.  Since the previous flight was only 20-minutes, I did not get a chance to experience the full service of Precision Air but now I would on this flight.  The flight from Zanzibar to Nairobi was the second sector of the flight, as the plane originated in Dar Es Salaam and stopped in Zanzibar before continuing on to Nairobi.  As they mainly operate shorter flights, the service is a bit limited onboard but complimentary luggage (one piece of 23kg) is included. 

My flight was scheduled for a 7:35p departure with a 9:15p arrival into Nairobi.  There was an earlier flight at 6p that I was trying to get on, and for this I had contacted the airline via email but got no response so I had to call them.  On the telephone, they told me the charge to change the flight would be $200 – which seems like a big price to pay (and frankly was almost the price I paid for the ticket itself) so I did not make the change.  24hours prior to my flight I went to the website and was able to check-in online.  Through the check-in, I was able to pre-select my seat as well as receive an electronic boarding pass. 

I made it to the airport with plenty of time before the flight, and at this time at night there were only Precision Air departures – either to Nairobi or Dar Es Salaam.  Given this, check-in was very quick and easy; luggage was tagged and I received my boarding pass.  Given the flight was supposed to take off at 7:35p, we were to start boarding at 7p but the incoming aircraft was delayed due to heavy rains in the area.  They finally called the boarding of the flight, but there was no order as we were just called to the boarding.  Once the boarding passes were collected, we made our way onto the bus which took us to our aircraft parked at the end.  The operating aircraft was an ATR4272 in with a 2-2 seat configuration.  Boarding happens through the rear of the aircraft, as in the front is where the luggage is stored. 

 

On board, the plane looked fairly new and was in good condition.  The seats were comfortable and had good legroom (especially for someone who is tall like me).  The only thing that was an issue was the lack of overhead bin space given it was not a big aircraft.  After all the passengers boarded and took their seats, the boarding door closed, manual safety demonstrations were conducted, and we taxied to the runway.

Take-off was generally smooth, which was surprising given how bad the weather was (it was raining all day).  Once we reached cruising altitude, the inflight service commenced.  Complimentary drinks were served along with a choice of biscuits or a chicken-sandwich.  There was no other option besides chicken, so if you did not eat chicken and/or meat the only choice were the biscuits.  After the service, passengers were left on their own for the remainder of the flight.  The seatpocket did contain an airline magazine, as well as the safety card and the sickness bag, so that was something to read during the flight.  Most passengers either slept or watched pre-downloaded shows until it was time to land in Nairobi.  We started our descent, the cabin was prepped for landing, and we landed in Nairobi a bit behind schedule and then taxied to the gate.

Overall, it was generally a pleasant flight with Precision Air.  The flight time was 1hr 20minute and for that short flight time you got a comfortable seat with decent legroom, complimentary luggage and drinks, biscuits or a sandwich, and decent service.  My only complaint was that the price for the flight was a bit high, given the short distance and the minimal service, but other than that a good flight onboard Precision Air,

A Trip Report: Kenya Airways, Dar Es Salaam to Seychelles via Nairobi (January 2014)

A Trip Report: Kenya Airways
Dar Es Salaam to Seychelles via Nairobi

comment below and let me know your thoughts :) 

There are many airlines to choose from while travelling to and within Africa, but most passengers stick to the top three: South African, Ethiopian, and Kenyan.  Out of these three, Kenyan Airways is the smallest but seems to be the one that is strategically growing very fast.  While all three airlines are part of alliances - South African and Ethiopian are part of Star Alliance while Kenyan is part of SkyTeam - only Kenyan seems to be using the alliances to expand its reach across the world.  While South African and Ethiopian are adding new destinations and routes, Kenyan is looking through partnerships and alliances to grow their network.  They connect with Delta and KLM through their SkyTeam alliance, and recently they announced a partnership with Etihad to increase the connections to the Middle East.  The increase in partnerships means Kenya Airways can focus on becoming a better African airline, which some people will like; but it will also mean that its reach is limited and this some people may not like.  I write this all to say is that we flew from the U.S. to Tanzania and then was looking to fly from Tanzania to the Seychelles (my flight to Tanzania was in December 2013 and to the Seychelles was January 2014).  Instead of choosing one airline, we choose 2 different African airlines because 1) I wanted to experience both airlines but also 2) what I had mentioned above in that an airline can either be a great regional carrier or a great international carrier, but its hard to be both.  

We flew from the U.S. to Tanzania on Ethiopian Airlines (a great flight which I reviewed in an earlier post) and we choose Ethiopian because it had the best connections and timings from the U.S. to Africa; the reason for this is that Ethiopian flies non-stop from America to Africa.  Kenya Airways does not fly to the U.S. but instead partners with its SkyTeam partner to connect from the U.S. to Africa; however, there are many stops and the timings are very inconvenient so that is why we did not fly with them.  When we were looking at flying intra-Africa, from Tanzania to the Seychelles, we choose Kenya Airways because they had a good service with good timings and connections (and lots of options); Ethiopian was priced competitively with Kenyan but the timings and connections were bad.  Kenya Airways bills itself as the 'Pride of Africa' and after experiencing the service, they are doing Africa well.

Booking:  Based in the U.S., it was hard booking an intra-African flight on Kenya Airways.  While the website is very nice, it is a little clunky and not as fast or as modern as other sites (such as Ethiopian).  Also, for some reason the Kenya Airways site would not take my American credit card; when I inquired about this they informed me that I could put the reservation on hold and pay for the ticket in a ticket-office within 24 hours - very convenient if you are within Africa, not so convenient when you are in America.  Because of all these reasons, I booked my flight through a travel website.  While Kenya Airways has many flights from DAR to NBO (Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport), they only have one flight from NBO to SEZ (Seychelles International Airport in Victoria).  Depending on which flight you choose out of DAR, you can either have a very long or very short connection in NBO to the next flight. 

After I had booked my flight on the travel site, I contacted the airline to ensure the reservation and the details were correct.  As I previously did not know that Kenyan flew many flights from DAR to NBO, I was unaware that the 11-hour layover I had in Kenya was unwarranted; in fact it was the airline itself that informed me of this.  (I will come to that part later on under 'service').  Because all this happened within 4 hours, I was able to cancel my original booking and rebook myself on the flights with the shorter connection:
KQ489 departing DAR @ 5:10am and arriving NBO @ 6:30am (using Embraer 190)
KQ450 departing NBO @ 9:05am and arriving SEZ @ 13:15/1:15pm (using Boeing 737-800)

Service:  Kenya Airways has excellent service, both prior to an on-board the flight.  After I had booked my ticket through the travel website, I contacted the airline to ensure the reservation was confirmed and the details were correct.  I had contacted the airline via email and within 2 hours I had a detailed response from a Kenyan Airways representative.  The quickness and the detailed level of response was very impressive.  The travel website had originally booked me on a 11-hour layover in NBO but the Kenya Airways representative informed me that other Kenya Airways flights were available with shorter connection times and they had plenty of availability.  I was able to cancel my original booking and book the shorter connection times.  I later emailed the airline about seat assignments and emailed one week prior to my flight to confirm my booking, and each time the responses were quick and detailed.  A great customer service touch.  On board, the great customer service continued.

On-board:  The first flight was KQ489 which was an early morning 1hr 20min flight on a Embraer 190.  The plane was already parked at the gate when we arrived and boarding commenced for an on-time departure.  Once on-board, the aircraft looked new and clean.  There were leather seats (with a nice seat pitch) and each seat had a personal TV screen -- on an Embraer! 

Note: only one side of the plane's PTV's had been turned on; I was sitting on the turned off side so I asked the FA to turn it on, and they said due to the short flying time they could not -- luckily there were empty seats around me on the working side so I switched over


Even though it was a short flying time, the FA's still served breakfast along with coffee, tea, and juices.  The breakfast was simple with fruit and a croissant (in a box-type presentation), but it was a nice touch for the early morning flight and the FA's were very cheerful and smiled throughout the early morning flight.  We landed on-time at NBO and parked at the terminal and deplaned; those with connections were told to take the stairs up to the terminal while passengers staying in Kenya were asked to board a bus to take them to the luggage and customs.

Our next flight was 3hr 10min flight - KQ450 - on a Boeing 737-800.  This plane looked nice from the outside, but unfortunately it looked old and used from the inside.  I know that Kenya Airways was in the process of upgrading their fleet, and I don't think this plane had received its upgrade.  The seat pitch was tight, the seats were not leather but were cloth and seemed worn out, and there were no personal screens (how can a 1hr flight on an Embraer be so nice while a 3hr flight on a Boeing 737 be so bad --- i have experienced this on other airlines and it shocks me every time!)  The plane did have video screens running down the main aisle, but nothing was shown on it except for the flight path.  

On this flight, we were served lunch about 20 minutes after we took off and the lunch was decent.  Drinks, tea, and coffee were served as well, but after the trays were cleared there wasn't really that much to do for the remaining 2+hours (water was served drink refills were available upon request).  The seat pitch was very tight and the seats were uncomfortable so it also made sleeping uncomfortable as well.  We landed at SEZ on time at 13:15 and proceeded to deplane and walk to the terminal (Kenya Airways operates one flight from NBO to SEZ and only flies 4-times a week - Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun - so this plane has one hour to deplane, clean, and reload passengers before it returns back to NBO).

Transit:  Note: most of the planes at NBO are parked at stands and are not connected to jet-bridgets.  Only the European-bound flights seemed to be using the jet-bridges while everyone else deplaned using the stairs and took the stairs up to the terminal.  When we were to board, we took those same stairs back down to the plane.  There is not a lot to do in NBO.  There are many gates and a lot of passengers, but the terminal seems very narrow.  While it never felt claustrophobic, it certainly did not feel spacious (note: this was the time when a terminal at NBO had caught fire so all the flights had to be put into a single terminal so everything was a bit more cramped than usual, but never chaotic).  In this terminal, there was free wi-fi and while it wasn't the greatest speed it was free and did provide enough strength to send a basic email.  The terminal resembled a long hallway - with coffee shops/restaurants on either end.  note: the duty free shops accepted international currency and sold coke/sprite/diet coke at cheaper prices than the restaurant!  When you walked from one end to the other, on one side was the runway and the gates along with some duty-free shops, and on the terminal side were the restrooms and connections for passengers coming in from the outside. (note: the restrooms were small/tiny and did feel claustrophobic, especially when a plane came in and all the passengers went to the restroom at the same time!)   The duty-free shops were small and basic, but provided local souvenirs that you could purchase.  Other than that, there was nothing much to do but wait (if I had a longer wait time, I think I would've become very board very quickly!)  After a while, they called our flight and we proceeded to the boarding area (through another security check) and waited for our flight.   This is where a bit of confusion took place.

Once you enter security, you can either proceed to the right or left depending on what gate you departing out of; however there was no clear direction as to where passengers should be sitting or going so those who should have sat on the right were sitting on the left and vice versa.  This meant that different flights were being called on the announcement and then airline representatives were going through the gates announcing the correct flights they were boarding (it happened many times that they called 'boarding' but failed to mention which flight was boarding until you got down the stairs and they checked the boarding passes, which meant fighting the other crowds who were coming down to go back up to sit in the waiting area --- i'm sure it had to do with the terminal fire and the chaos surrounding that, but it was still a mess.)  Finally, our flight was called and we proceeded down the stairs to the runway and then walked to our waiting plane.

Overall:  In the end, it was a nice and pleasant journey on Kenya Airways.  I got to experience both the new and old Kenya Airways, and while I prefer the new airplane, both had good customer service and attentive and smiling FA's - and to me that is what matters most.  Yes, new planes with fancy gadgets is very nice (and makes the time go by so much quicker) but I would much rather have good, quality customer service on the ground and in the sky and that is what Kenya Airways has.  I am not sure if Kenya Airways will start operating to the U.S. - their Dreamliner 787 is coming into service shortly so service to the U.S. may be in the near future - and I am not sure it is the right move for them as they are the smaller of the African 3 (South African, Ethiopian, and Kenya).  If they do expand, hopefully they will be able to maintain their good customer service both on ground and in the sky.