I few from Perth to Mauritius return in Economy. I did not have high expectations of this airline, and unfortunately even my low expectations were not met. Firstly, I found the Air Mauritius website to be highly cumbersome, difficult to navigate and archaic; the fact that we had to e-mail to airline to have our seats changed was one such inconvenience. The on-board experience was not much better.
If you ignore the fact that both our flights to and from Mauritius departed and arrived safely and on-time, I cannot say anything positive about the Air Mauritius flying experience. The appearance of the Economy cabin, on the surface, appeared attractive with some nice blue seating materials and patterns on the cabin bulkheads. Upon closer inspection it was obvious that cabin maintenance is not up to standard; the material on all the seats were tattered and coming away, some of the carpet was torn, my inflight entertainment controller didn’t work properly and on the outbound flight the base of my seat was angled in such a way that I felt as if I was sliding down the seat the entire flight.
The seat pitch on this particular aircraft was the worst I have experienced as my knees were touching the seat in front (which normally never happens to me in Economy class on other airlines). The circa-1990s inflight ‘entertainment’ system was also the worst I have ever used; the ‘touchscreen’ was highly unresponsive and the content selection was very poor, not helped by the fact that my controller didn’t work properly. I should also mention that I experienced suspected food poisoning on the flight out of Perth, I am positive it was from the food served on this flight as I began to feel unwell only hours after disembarking the aircraft and felt fine prior to boarding the flight. The quality of the food and beverages served was poor – my ‘chicken’ meal served on the flight home was tasteless and inedible.
Perhaps what was most shocking, particularly on the out-bound flight, was the customer service, or lack-there-of, from the flight crew. Serving my section of the aircraft from Perth to Mauritius were two bitchy, grumpy French-speaking women who obviously didn’t enjoy their jobs and hated each other as well. They did not smile once, were bickering amongst themselves, and didn’t even look at you as they were handing over food and drinks. Perhaps as I have mostly flown Qantas in the past I am accustomed to excellent customer service in air travel, however I was very disappointed with the level of service on both flights; the so-called ‘Mauritian hospitality’ was very much absent.
Overall, whilst not being a disaster, this was the worst experience I have ever had with an airline and would not recommend flying with Air Mauritius unless you are specifically travelling to that beautiful country, as I was. Otherwise, if you are travelling to Europe or Africa, I’m sure there are many other more credible and reputable airlines that can get you to your destination more comfortably and with better customer service.
