Pakistan International Airlines Reviews 164

Never use PIA they are corrupt money making Airline.
My father passed away on 20-12-19 15 of us flew to Pakistan paying £1,070 each. Within 7 days i had to be back with my son, as he has blood transfusions. i was at the airport 4 hours before as they recommend and due to there poor customer service flights were delayed and ques to the check out points were in the car park.
when we finally got to the check in point they had our luggage on the bags and then decided to say sorry you missed check in time and there was still an hour left to board the plane, due to there poor customer service they didn't care at all it was there fault. In fact they knew i was desperate to get back to Birmingham because of my sons health they said if you want to catch the next flight to Manchester pay us £400 which i did as my sons health was getting worse. please never use PIA as they are corrupt in money making easy wages for them

Thanks PIA,
I have Traveled on Pk786 Dated 15th Dec 2019 London-Islamabad with Human remain. Due poor visibility at Islamabad flight diverted and Landed at Lahore airport. The dead body was belongs to Lahore and i was going to take it to Lahore via ambulance. After flight landed at Lahore Airport I contact PIA staff, explain the the situation and requested to let me Exit at Lahore instead of Islamabad.
One of the crew member Mr Asad contacted a Senior Officer of PIA Shuaib Khan at Lahore airport who help me very much and make extra efforts for Off loading me with Human Remain, in a very short period of time he done the arrangement to fulfill immigration requirements as well as to deal with cargo to help me to off load at Lahore. He also guide me to the Cargo Terminal and explain the whole process which i was no aware off.
He also helped to off another family of death case who belongs to Jehlum and requests for Off loading in Lahore.
Here I also mention a cargo staff who also help me in all process of clearing human remain from cargo.
I along with the relatives of Human remain are very thankful to these competent officers who are very caring and helping, I also Thankful to PIA Management who Improve the services. What PIA have done for me on that day, I will never be able to pay back. Thank you PIA. Thank you M Shuaib Khan, Mr Asad and cargo service.

Great people to fly with

Recent improvements by new CEO are really reflecting in the service. Always hearing good feedback from travellers.

I would never recommend anyone to use PIA as there customer service is poor when the situation involves a refund a lot of Pakistani agencies like PIA take away people consumer and basic financial rights by not providing a refund when they are entitled to it I spent 3 weeks trying to get a refund (full) but travel up agency and PIA decides to only provide half of the money I paid £851.69 for this flight and due to critical circumstances I had to cancel however they did not help they did not understand my situation and I rate their overall service inadequate and time wasting and fraud

What a disgusting and nightmare of a flight me and my family endured.. Travelled on pia many times before but NEVER had such a horrible flight, no in flight system children crying and screaming.. Toilets not working, water not in taps.. Disgusting smell throughout the plane no one able to sleep as so uncomfortable.. So angry and disappointed.. How long does it take to hoover a plane and spray airfreshner..

Been using PIA for the last 30 years, have had some terrible experiences in the past, but have noticed improvement recently.
Good= Direct flights, spacious seats, good food, pleasant staff, 40kg luggage allowance.
Things to improve: Online check in, Onboard Entertainment, update aircrafts. Contact centres.
Have noticed a lot of empty seats, in order to remain profitable might need to discount seats to achieve higher bookings rates.

bought the ticket for 1493 pounds last year and change after six month charge me again 55 pounds near to my dep got surgery want to change the date again charged me 255 pounds intotal 1800 then i was very upset asked airline to refund got only 1200 pounds 600 going to airline for nothing now desided not travel any more just riping off

On my Nov 13th flight from MAN to LHE, Ahsanullah and Imran Qayyum - best at providing service. PIA is struggling and there’s a lot to improve from bookings and their customer services to seeing passengers off. Planes need proper overhaul and additional benefits like AV setup etc.

Farooq Sheikh, PIA Manager at Manchester airport is an asset to this business. Guess the higher management need reshuffle so new ideas can be introduced.

Muhammad

Plans are too old and no entertainment system on long haul flights from last 20 years making journey very very difficult.

Last time I travelled on PIA was 05th of Oct 2019 on flight 701 (Islamabad to Manchester) and found insect in food and when I informed flight attendant, I was told rudely not to eat it! rather than apology or any other explanation.

Nice service
Highly recommended
Thanks

EXECUTIVE ECONOMY
PIA is offering business class seats at the rates of economy class. In a bid to reclaim the top spot, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is offering a mega deal to its flyers. You can enjoy all the comforts of business class, including a meal while paying for economy class fares;

After reading above description of executive economy from PIA, I upgraded my ticket to ex,economy for my return flight from islamabad to dubai at the cost of 27000 pkr on top of what i had already paid for economy ticket.
Lounge at isb airport was acceptable, Very disappointed once boarded the plane, No audio or visual entertainment , Seat were same as economy with bit of extra legroom only,NO BUSINESS CLASS SEATS,as advertised, just a flimsy little curtains dividing front 12 seats from rest of cabin. Meals were bit better then economy, Staff was good .
certainly not worth paying for. unless you can think of it as a donation to the country.
I hope PIA will one day get its act together again.

best airline... ;*

Probably the worst airline in the world..made the mistake of booking a flight with them! Had to change the dates for the flight and the web link did not work at all, so after calling all the numbers for pia uk I realised they had ALL been disconnected.. so had to call pia in pakistan which on the website said toll free but guess what it wasnt.. was charged about £50!! Only to be told I had to go to a ticketing office to change it and they couldn't do anything. So had to go to london and have them changed.but today I found out from another source that my return flight is cancelled and now I've had no communication to tell me this and if I hadn't been told about it from someone else I'd be none the wiser. The airline is a joke and should be shut down until the standards for the operation is much much higher!!!

What can i say about this diabolical airline that other reviewers haven't already said ...

Don't listen to the lies from other reviewers. No entertainment system, what the??? Think these guys who left these fake reviews don't realise that PIA DO provide a wonderful entertainment system you just need to switch it on. Shame the remote is hidden away inside the seats or is near impossible to take out. Once you manage to go through this hurdle, and then figure out how to switch it on. What do you get??? WHITE NOISE? Yes absolutely nothing bar some fuzzy lines across the screen, best entertainment system ever LOL

The food, anyone who calls it palatable needs to get a fresh set of taste buds. My kids & I all felt sick shortly after landing, all thanks to the dog food they provided to us. And if you think Business Class is any better you have to be kidding me, its just as bad! Best food they provide on the plane is the bread roll.

My issue with PIA bar what's happened on previous travels with them (NO more though PIA will get NO more svce from me in future) recently came to a head when i visited Pakistan a few weeks ago. Booked the tickets as usual. Plane ride there we were held @ heathrow airport for over 2 hours, thanks to the pilots incompetence or PIA overbooking the flight & late arrivals. We were provided with hardly any drinks or food to compensate. The plane was SO stuffy & clammy. Food provided during flight was as bad as ever.

On our return back to UK, our flights had been confirmed we arrived @ the airport approx 1hr45mins before the flight was to leave. We were then held up by security. Once we'd gone through that we arrived @ the check in desks all of which were open & letting other PIA passengers through. We were told by them they wouldn't let us board as we were "too" late, yet other passengers were still being let through. We were in a group of 9 with 27 pieces of luggage, 18 of which had to be checked in. I think PIA saw the luggage & said NO we're not letting them on, let them pay for extra flights! We were told to go to customer help desk. When we got there spent 10-15mins there we were told dont worry about it go back to the check in desk no 1, they will let us through.

So we went back to check in Desk 1, the guy there who didnt understand customer service or being courteous. Insisted we couldnt board, i then informed him what the help desk had said and he came back, after checking our passports. Saying they had 7 seats only available, so PIA had overbooked the flight & we were being penalised for it??? I then turned around as i was with my elderly mother who needed constant medication for her heart condition & blood thinning (her drugs were also running out so we had to get back to UK to top them up) and told her what the check in guy had said by the time i had turned back to him he said there's no more seats available. So whilst we were waiting there, the other check in desks were allowing passengers to board, but we weren't? The way this guy treated us was unbelievable, then to top it off whilst we were arguing with him he then turned around shortly after & left his desk? At this point he'd logged our visit to him at 12.42pm [later PIA via email stated as we were 2 mins late we werent allowed to board yet we weren't 2 mins late infact we were at the desk on time & then told to go away].

As a result of all of this they wouldnt let us onto the flight. Our group of 9 were then forced to rebook the flights, we were told that the next available were 10-14 days. Our kids had to go back to school, also my pensioner mother needed to take her medication & would've run out - all of this we informed the nasty check in guy (who didnt really care).

We finally decided to go on the waiting list for the following day. The next day, we arrived @ the airport in the early hours well before the flights leaving that day. We managed to finally get my mother & sister in law on the next flight to Birmingham, PIA forced us to pay full price for their flights again 90k

We stayed behind as we were told there were 11+ seats available for London which was a later flight. A few minutes before flight was leaving, a family (wife/husband & KIDS???) got caught smuggling drugs out of the country. I know this is bad but we all smiled thinking YES we've got more of a chance to get on the flight. Again we were told there were more than enough seats. Just a short while later a few mins before flight was to leave we're now told ALL the seats are gone??? What the? Someone on the help desk then came back said they can do 3 business class seats & rest in economy. So we had to pay 500k rp approx to leave the country & this was done in a rush, 1 of our hand luggages had to then be put into hold (AFTER we'd gone through the 2nd lot of security). Later this piece of hand luggage with NO locks or labels got lost by PIA.

Overall the way we had been treated & are still being treated by PIA is a joke. They even confirmed on a recent email we werent allowed on as we were 2 mins late?

PIA is a JOKE, and sooner or later once the elderly folk pass away PIA will go bankrupt. The only reason that they are still being used or the main reason is that the elders love to use PIA as its "their" airline. Us younger folks are then forced to tag along.

PIA does not care about customers, they LIE, they manipulate the situation to THEIR advantage and at extra cost to the passengers. AVOID this abysmal airline. BA is now flying direct to Pakistan use them instead, yes baggage allowance is lower but you can cargo items back from Pakistan to the UK very cheaply. If you dont need a direct flight use Turkish Airlines, Etihad, Gulf Air ... In-fact anyone other than PIA

I'm currently trying to sort out my situation with them but the customer service there is attrocious, they just don't care. My family & friends after my predicament have decided to avoid PIA for all future flights, i do hope anyone reading this also does the same.

My flight was from
MANCHESTER TO LAHORE DIRECT

This airline needs to show more respect and dignity to its customers. As soon as we boarded the plane and it took off, the lights were dimmed down for the first 2 hours of flying! No refreshing towels, nothing for the kids.
A big negative was that the entertainment system remained down, even for business class! NO FILMS/MUSIC/GAMES NOTHING. JUST A BLANK SCREEN FOR 8 HOURS STRAIGHT!
There was no explanation as to why this was. Reading lots of the other reviews it seems like a regular thing on their flights that there will be no entertainment. Even in their newer aircrafts, which I was on.

Food was served well into the flight which was OK. You get rice, daal and chicken or lamb on the side. As soon as you have ate things are quickly wrapped up and yet again all the lights are turned off!

I'm not a harsh reviewer but I was really disappointed and bored on this flight.
If you want to get from A to B direct and want to catch up on sleep then this airline is brilliant for you.

I paid a lot of money for this ticket and really regret it. Even if your entertainment systems are down just give an honest explanation and have something else in place. I mean we couldn't even use our mobile phones as there are no charging points on the aircraft.

I will not travel PIA ever again.

Late!! No activity books or something to engage children with on board specially if all the screen are down, food was so stale & smelly me and my children vomited upon landing!!! When we complained we were told the food was fine when it was clearly not!!! Badly organised & absolutely no forward planning of any kind!!

Very very bad services! Very rude people. Do not recommend at all!

Lost luggage, no support or tracked my items. Very low payment offered as everything has been declared lost; still fighting my case, not really getting anywhere with them. No customer rights support. Very disappointed.

Avoid at any costs.

From London to Kabul
My baggage was delivered very late.

From Kabul to London
My flight got cancelled and PIA offered no help. Now I am stuck in kabul. If anything happen to me PIA is responsible.

8.5 hour flight. No inflight entertainment for anyone including business class because monitors not working. Stewards were rude and unempathising. No USB port or means to plug my laptop or mobile phone into. When I asked what we would do for 8 hours with no entertainment, the stewardess said ' we will give you very nice food and then you can go to sleep'. It was 2pm!!!
During flight I was walking around like other passengers then the same air hostess told me not to walk around so much and to sit down because it might unbalance the plane. This is when I realised the level of stupidity I was dealing with.
Food was below average and the whole experience has made sure that I will never fly Pia ever.
I hope the airline shuts down permanently.