I booked a flight to Hurghada on XL.com for a week, the flight departure time was 11:30am, we boarded a little late (nothing unusual about that) but then we sat in the plane for couple of hours while we are told very little.

After about 2.5hrs we are told that the engine needs a spare and we are going to go back to the stand so the engineers can check if it's available at the airport.

Another hour or so later we are told the part is not available and needs to be sent from another place and we will have to wait about 2.5hrs more while they fix this, so everyone off back to the lounge and are given a £7 voucher to have refreshments.

By this time it 3pm!!! only 4 hours late !

After harassing the information desk we are told next update will be at 4pm, so not so bad another hour to wait.

4pm no update, next update 6pm aaaarrrrhg!

Wander around the airport for another couple of hours, by this time people are getting a little pissed off. We are told that it will either fly or we will probably have to stay at a hotel until morning, only 6.5hrs late!

Around 7pm we are told that the engine is ok and they are testing it, half hour later we are ready to board again, we should be off at 8pm only about 7.5hrs late!!!!

We all board and wait.....and wait....and wait......

Until finally at 9pm we take off for Hurghada only 9 and half hours later

I was really surprised at how a plane load of people (about 400) waited for 9.5hrs for their flight and no one got angry, they were all just happy to be on their way finally.

What can be done now, can xl.com just get away with this sort of crap? seems to me they are doing their maintenance on customer's time rather then taking planes out of service to work on them.

What is the best way to get compensation for this, is there a way?

I have had a few delays, but this was the worst ever, if I could have got my bags I would have told them to stick their plane and gone home.

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CrescentHomes real estate, TurkishLiving & EgyptianLiving forums.

Mushtaq. Your travel insurance should cover you for some kind of compensation, but the airline only has a duty to provide refreshments and accommodation if the delay is over a certain length of time. However, I could be completely wrong lol

I also had a nightmare journey with XL at Christmas, UK to Luxor.... and stupidly flew with them again last month. Our flight to Luxor ended up diverted to Nice, where we sat on the tarmac for over 2 hours while French firemen were on standby because one of the ovens shorted out (yes, the smell of burning was quite scary). We were only offered one cup of water while sitting on the tarmac, but after almost 2 hours, I think the cabin crew realised we were all getting a tad annoyed, and gave us all a full bottle of water (would have preferred a g & t lol)
However, we were the lucky ones, as the poor people who had been waiting patiently at Luxor airport for us to arrive so they could get home, were completely unaware that all the crew were nearly out of flying time. Their flight home would be via Athens....... where they would have to wait for a replacement crew to be flown out before they could continue their journey home. Poor souls didnt have a clue what was ahead of them. No hot food either because they had to disconnect all the ovens for safety reasons.

Well I'm back in UK, I was not looking forward to the return journey with Excel Airways, but it was not as bad as the outgoing one, only 4 hours delay this time.

But the seating arrangement was the worst, the most uncomfortable journey ever I think, very tight seating space, and so uncomfortable on top of that.

I will never fly with Excel Airways (XL.COM) again, I heard lot of people moaning that this was common with them and someone suggested XL stood for Xtremly Late, which sounds about right.

I know most people say you get what you pay for, but most of the time these flights are not cheap, only difference being that you get direct flights to resort destinations instead of having to fly to a hub and getting a connection.

So be prepared for the worst if you are going to fly with XL, better still find an alternative.

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CrescentHomes real estate, TurkishLiving & EgyptianLiving forums.