Air Algerie A330 Business Class: Dreadfully Bad, They’re Not Even Pretending To Try!

Hello from Algeria, as I flew Air Algerie’s Airbus A330-900neo business class on the 6hr50min flight from Montreal (YUL) to Algiers (ALG). As y’all know, I like to fly “interesting” airlines, and I try to approach them with reasonable expectations.

I’ve gotta be honest, I hadn’t heard many good things about Air Algerie over the years, though the airline is modernizing its fleet, so I was curious to give the carrier a try, as it has been on my list for a long time. An airline having a bad reputation is no deterrent for me! While I came in with low expectations, the airline still managed to be significantly worse than I was anticipating.

Look, I don’t want to be dramatic. Obviously any flat bed business class is better than economy. But Air Algerie generally has very high business class fares, and the soft product was just so poor across the board. Off the top of my head, in my over five million miles of flying, I can’t think of ever having a worse business class soft product on a long haul flight.

On the plus side, at least the company is consistent — it’s clear that management puts about as much thought into the passenger experience as the crews do! In this post I’d like to share some initial thoughts, and then soon I’ll have a full review.

Air Algerie’s A330neo business class seats are fine

Let’s start on a positive note — I flew on an Air Algerie Airbus A330-900neo in a special livery, and I thought that was mighty cool. That’s just about where the good news about the flight ends, unfortunately. Man, those people in the Montreal Airport terminal got the best deal of all — they managed to experience the best part of Air Algerie without spending a cent.

While Air Algerie is taking delivery of factory fresh A330neos, that’s not what my plane was. Instead, I flew on an ex-Air Belgium A330neo that the airline acquired at the beginning of the year (ah, Air Belgium, good memories!). Air Algerie clearly did nothing to actually customize the interiors, so you really have no clue what airline you’re flying on based on the cabin.

This plane has a staggered configuration, so it’s comfortable enough, and I was in a “true” window seat.

However, the cabin was in rough condition, and it’s clear that zero effort is put into maintaining the interiors. But anyway, the hard product is the least of Air Algerie’s problems.

Air Algeria’s business class amenities are really bad

Amenity kits, menus, slippers… what are those?! Air Algerie sure hasn’t heard of ’em, as none of them were available on this flight. Seriously, no amenity kit in business class on an overnight flight?!

There were headphones, which were only a little better than economy quality, as they weren’t comfortable, and had no noticeable noise cancellation. They were only handed out 20 minutes after takeoff, and were collected before landing. I’m not sure if the airline thinks people will steal those, or if it’s a “safety” thing?

There was a very large blanket and a decent size pillow. The set wasn’t very high quality, but it was substantial, at least. Unfortunately that’s a double edged sword. The cabin was hot as could be, and there are no individual air nozzles on these jets. I wanted to take my clothes off, not cover myself in a blanket that would keep me warm in Iceland in winter.

Air Algerie’s business class entertainment is terrible

This Air Algerie A330-900neo had Wi-Fi installed, back from the Air Belgium days. Of course Air Algerie doesn’t actually use that, though.

There is seat back entertainment, yet somehow there’s not even a map feature?!

The entertainment system otherwise had 100 movies and 36 TV shows, but it was definitely the “budget” entertainment package. Like, there was a single episode of “Fresh Off the Boat,” and it was the pilot episode, just to give you a sense of how cutting edge the entertainment is. I’m not really an inflight entertainment guy aside from the map, so I spent a lot of time raw dogging this flight!

Air Algeria’s food & drinks are awful

A choice of meals? What do you think this is, a restaurant? On Air Algerie you’re just served stuff, and there aren’t any options. It’s even a bit of a guessing game, because the crew doesn’t actually tell you what they’re serving you. But first, let’s actually step back for a moment.

I didn’t think Air Algerie was “dry” (meaning it doesn’t serve alcohol), but apparently they are… based on searching after the fact, it looks like the airline cut alcohol service a few years ago? Unfortunately that’s only the start of the issues. Diet soda? What’s that? They only have sugary juices and full calorie sodas, so that leaves water as the other option, along with coffee and tea.

But honestly, does it even matter? Good luck actually getting a drink. There was a single drink service with the first meal, timed oddly, as it came after the appetizers were served, and that was it. My glass sat empty for over two hours. Do you think they once offered a drink refill, or even passed through the cabin, when they didn’t otherwise have a specific task? Nope. I once asked for a refill, but it never came, so I just gave up.

As far as the meal service goes, there were no choices, but instead, everything was just plopped down in front of me, without any sort of an explanation. Below is the starter tray, which was some rather gross (watery and very fishy) smoked salmon, and I say that as someone who likes all kinds of fish dishes, as OMAAT readers can attest to. 😉 Could they put any less effort into the overall presentation of the tray?

Then below is the main course tray. The main course was fish, and I believe it was swordfish, or something along those lines. It was very cooked, dry, and tasteless.

Then there was a cheese course, which wasn’t terribly inspiring. Things were piling up, since they didn’t remove the main courses when they brought out the next course (and I already had to specifically ask them to remove the appetizer).

Then there was a fruit course, consisting of two whole apples. I’m sure they were washed thoroughly, and it’s always fun to try to cut into apples with a dull knife. I mean, I can’t fault them for throwing this in between the cheese and dessert course, it just seemed random.

Then there was a dessert, with three little tarts.

What about bread service? Bread was placed on the tray by hand, rather than using tongs, and for that matter, the tray was disgusting. It clearly wasn’t very clean, and even my knife was sticky when I opened it up from the packaging.

Breakfast just consisted of bread and some fruit.

It was served exactly two hours before landing, with the cabin lights being turned up all the way. Mind you, the initial meal service took nearly three hours (I don’t understand what they were doing), so there ended up being just under two hours between when the lights were turned off and when they were turned back on. Talk about a culinary journey, when five of the nearly seven hours of the flight are dedicated to eating!

To be clear, the food as such wasn’t that offensive. Instead, the issue was the service flow, presentation, cleanliness of items, lack of drinks, lack of clearing things, having to use the same cutlery for all dishes, the insanely drawn out service, etc.

Air Algerie’s service is really subpar

I don’t want to say the crew was rude. I’m sure they were all nice people, and I’m sure they’re very hospitable to others in their homes. But my gosh, on duty, they couldn’t have been more indifferent or less engaging if they tried.

I don’t think I once saw them smile at passengers, or engage in any sort of a typical service interaction you’d expect in business class. Service was just a complete mess. There were never refills, service items were never cleared from the seat, there was no communication about anything, etc.

Everything was just poorly timed. For example, they served the cheese course, and then a full 10 minutes later, they came around with the bread that accompanies the cheese course (again, no tongs!). They served the breakfast trays, and then a full 15 minutes later they offered people coffee or tea. Literally everything was poorly coordinated.

The flight attendant working my aisle also just didn’t speak English. I guess that’s fine because it’s not like she was communicative in the first place. But any time I did have a question, she was of absolutely no help (which is why it would be nice to have menus, so I at least have a sense of what’s on offer!).

“Drink?”
“Do you have wine?”
“Soda, juice.”
“Do you have Diet Coke?”
“Coke?”
“No, Diet Coke.”
“What?”
“Coke Zero? Diet Pepsi? Pepsi Max?”
*stares blankly*
“I’ll have a water, please.”
*serves me Sprite*

“Coffee or tea?”
“Do you have any tea without caffeine?”
“Coffee or tea?”
“Tea please, but no caffeine.”
“Coffee?”
“Tea, please.”

Side note, not that it’s directly reflective of service — I think this may have been my first flight out of North America where there the safety demonstration and announcements weren’t in English. Everything was in French and Arabic. And speaking of safety, the crew didn’t do any sort of pre-takeoff safety checks to see if people were buckled in, etc. But thank goodness we didn’t have access to those dangerous headphones before takeoff. 😉

Honestly folks, this preview would be so much funnier if I were writing this slightly buzzed from onboard the flight, rather than totally sober. But alas, here I am, on Air Algerie. I’m sure things will only get better from here, though, during my layover at Algiers Airport, and my connection on a mystery wet lease operator, before connecting to my downgraded Tunisair flight… right?

North Africa is always an adventure. If Algeria wants to join Egypt in taking a stance against me, it wouldn’t be much of a loss. 😉

Bottom line

Air Algerie might have the all-around worst business class soft product I’ve ever experienced. Honestly, put me on basically any other airline, and I’d have a better flight. I’ll gladly take Turkmenistan Airlines over them. Heck, even stick me on a Delta Boeing 767-300ER, I promise I won’t even say a single bad thing… I’ll even spend the whole flight talking about how premium Delta is, and how no one cares about fast Wi-Fi! I’ll even take that awful “top/bottom” Philippine Airlines A330 business class product, for all I care. Just not this again.

It’s sad, because it seems like fixing this product wouldn’t actually take a huge investment. I mean, it would take a culture change at the airline, which is easier said than done. But the soft product improvements shouldn’t be that hard or costly. Just… stop being incompetent.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at how the refreshing towel that sat on top of my tray for much of the meal had the slogan “Air Algerie — Always caring for you.” I’d love to see what not being cared for looks like!

Lastly, let me just briefly acknowledge one point — Air Algerie is an airline heavily targeted at the domestic Algerian market. Algeria doesn’t even want tourists, they make it a pain to get a visa. Air Algerie isn’t really trying to be very competitive in connecting markets, so maybe this product is “good enough” for their purposes. But still, I can’t imagine anyone who flies other airlines with any frequency would take this flight and say “what a good experience.”

What do you make of the Air Algerie business class experience?