I don’t know why I was so excited about flying TAROM business class, given that intra-Europe business class is rarely anything to get excited about. I guess there were potentially a couple of reasons:
Continue reading: Review: TAROM Business Class A318
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
They do have planew with proper business class seats, but the A318 isn't one of them. The aircraft rotation is a bit a mystery to me as often you won't find proper biz seats to LHR/CDG etc but can find them on extremely short flights (eg ATH/IST).
As for the wine, TAROM has bottom shelf plonk retailing for around 3 EUR (Budureasca). Their choice of bubbly is even worse, bottom shelf prosecco retailing at 4 EUR. Bizarelly, the same wine is also served in economy class. Go figure. It must be the worst wines on offer in the air, a shame for a great wine producing country!
I'm happy you had a decent flight as it could be much worse (broken down seats with parts falling apart, grump crew, and those menus and pillow/blanket are certainly not featured on every flight!)
Curious - do you plan on using the 'return' trip in economy at a later date to get to Europe or are you going to cancel? Thanks!
Actually, they have a 738 that shuttles OTP-AMS that has the "proper" business class seats for rows 1-4 (14 seats). The meal in economy was appalling: sludge-cooked penne with tomato sauce.
The video screens they had on board were purely vestigial. Still, it's better than the old 734s.
As Michael asked, could you explain a bit about the RT ticket purchase? Was it cheaper that way than the one-way business fares? Thanks!
Before state subsidies ran out in the ‘80s , many of those old Soviet- style airlines offered to cheapest deals around: including TAROM, Malev, CSA, LOT, Interflug, Aeroflot and others. They were always to cheapest from Asia to Europe ( and often had sectors within Asia as well, commonly Singapore- Bangkok, Jakarta-Bangkok).
In those days the excitement of getting somewhere exciting, cheaply, far outweighed any discomfort and potential danger. Now they’re all just clones: same seats, same meals, same planes.
Didn't Tarom used to operate a flight to JFK? I somehow remember seeing Tarom at JFK a few years back.
Food looks disappointing. Too bad!
TAROM 737-800 and A318s don’t have proper business class but the 737-300 and -700 do. The A318 is usually the only aircraft which does the LHR rotation.
@lucky, I’m not sure if i missed it but i thought you dad was going to do a review of your trip to south africa? Can you please advise?
@Matthew.
I flew the Tarom IL-62B FROM Budapest (BUD) TO JFK in the 80's. It flew Bucharest-Budapest-Jfk and back with same Budapest stop
All the 737's except YR-BGJ and YR-BGK have proper business class seats.
YR-BGJ and YR-BGK are in a LCC configuration with 189 seats.
All the Airbus and ATR airframes have regular seats in business class.
Lucky: “As it the norm in intra-Europe business class, the center seat had a tray on it, so you can place drinks there without taking out your tray table.”
Me: *cries in British*
they still have proper business class seats on their B733, B737 and two of B738s (BGL and BGM, ex-Malaysia)
I had some good flights with TAROM, it’s a nice ‘old school’ airline. The choice of wine is appalling indeed.
I flew their 737-300 when it was new on LHR-OTP. Flights stopped in Timisoara en route - I'm not sure they could make the route non-stop. I had the big armchair seat but the food was shockingly bad and they insisted on playing the boarding music for the entire flight (almost 4 hours). Last month I went for a day trip to BUH from ATH and went north on A3 and south on the RO 737-800 in economy. Very unexceptional flight; a biscuit and a drink. Big squishy seats and decent legroom in Y plus the evidence of in-flight entertainment that was not operational. For Euro50 I was happy. I think Blue Air keeps them on their toes.
I booked via A3 website on A3 coded flight but I earned no Air NZ*A points, and I earned no Skyteam points as I was on an A3 ticket. Miserable no-mans land codeshare.
As a side note A3 seems to play fast and loose with their Olympic operations - no points, no lounges, no benefits although sold as A3, on A3 tickets and on A3 planes; but this is for another day.
Great review. I flew a TAROM ATR once from Sibiu to Bucharest, and it was a nice flight. Friendly flight attendants with instant coffee on offer. On time and a lot better than a CFR train, though we missed out on seeing the countryside. After reading about people's experiences on the AN-24, the ATR felt safe and sound.
Chishinau to OTP on business class: Rude, very unprofessional, dirty, waste of $$$$
Flew Tarom Business Class LHR - OTP in June of 2022
On the LHR side there is no lounge access, no service desk, and no priority boarding. We were among the last to board, because we didn't think to start queueing 30 minutes before boarding. The gate was in a crowded part of a crappy terminal.
On board there was no pillow, no blanket, no food, no drinks. Not even tea or coffee. Not even if you pay. All we got was a bottle of water for a 3 hour flight.
And to top it all off, a crowded bus ride to the gate on arrival at OTP.
And our checked luggage was lost.
I would gladly take RyanAir or any other low-cost carrier over this "business class" experience. At least you can buy food on board there.