Review of TAAG Angola Airlines flight from Luanda to Windhoek in Economy

After returning from Mozambique I spent Christmas in Luanda (I don't like to spend it in a hotel, I prefer to be at home), it was a very relaxing time and I got a lot of work done in the few days. Thankfully the next part of my holiday taking place in Namibia came up very soon and before I knew it I was already headed to the airport.

Sunrise on the morning of my flight
Traffic was very smooth this morning, meaning that I got to the airport on time, even though I overslept a bit. I arrived at the terminal and notice that they added lane ropes to the check-in hall. It made for a slightly less chaotic check-in, but this may be attributed to the lack of people at Quatro de Fevereiro this morning. My check-in agent was quite confused, she printed the luggage tag out 3 times, and tore it apart every time. Only on the fourth take was the tag correct.

A slightly less chaotic Quatro de Fevereiro

The economy class check-in was emptier than the business class check-in
the security check itself is always pretty fine at Luanda, it's the passport check that's hell, they check your visa and yellow fever card 3 times before you are able to board. if you ask me that's more than excessive, it's completely useless. Anywho once I got through I had a look at some of the jets on the tarmac today.

TAAG 777-300 to Cape Town

TAP A340-300 to Lisboa
At this time boarding to Windhoek was called. I once again arrived at the gate about 15 minutes later was was one of the last ones to board the bus but I didn't have to wait, which is a plus in my opinion. The drive was pretty short since the TAAG 737's are parked near the terminal. this meant that we pulled up next to our bird in less than 5 minutes.

Information about todays flight:
Departure: Luanda (FNLU)
Arrival: Windhoek (FYWH)
Aircraft: A boeing 737-700, registred D2-TBH, aged 11.4 years, Named Maiombe
Duration: 2 hours and 25 minutes
While entering the cabin I was created by the glare of 2 male flight attendants. Oh boy, I could already tell the today would be interesting.

The legroom
I settled into my seat 6A, A window seat. Luckily the middle seat stayed empty throughout the flight meaning there was no fight over the armrests, something that I find both socially awkward and annoying. yet again I noticed that the plane was in a very questionable condition. The seats were super hard yet again and the cabin was quite dirty.

The seat next to me had a sizeable hole in it
Boarding was completed quickly and we took off into a very clear sky above Luanda. I would take some pictures outside the window, but they were so scratched meaning it was basically impossible.

A very scratched window on the 737
Then the captain made his announcement, informing us that we would be cruising at 37000 feet at Mach 0.79. Soon enough drop down monitors emerged and a movie started to screen. I'm not sure of the name of it but it had Morgan Freeman and two old white guys rob a bank and then get away with it. I found the movie quite entertaining but the sound system in the armrests was broken so instead, the movie was played aloud through the PA system. Problem-solving….I guess?

The drop down monitors

The broken sound system
At this time the two flight attendants came through the cabin with the meal. It was the same meal as the one that was served to Maputo, the chili with rice. but I mean come on, it's 10:30 wouldn't lunch be a bit more appropriate? I took the meal for review purposes., it was as good as the meal on the way to Maputo. Quite good but nothing special.

The meal
The crew knew very little English so quite comically they went around asking "You want Meat or beef", gave me a bit of a chuckle.
I then paid a visit to the bathroom which had no running water, the flight attendants were almost back in the galley so I decided to wait there until they got back so I wouldn't have to dodge them in the aisle. Big mistake, I was yelled at and escorted to my seat for standing in the galley. Now I fly a lot (in 2017 I took about 40 flights) but this level of unprofessionalism was a fist for me. Sadly I've noticed that on TAAG your crew is either Great or horrible (on the way back the crew was possibly the best crew I had all year) but this crew just outright sucked.
Around that time we started our descent to Windhoek, we touched down at 1:25, 5 minutes ahead of schedule, making up our 10-minute delay in the air without problems.

Windhoek airport

My row on arrival

Our aircraft on disembarkation
Windhoek airport has no busses eaning that you have to walk quite a while to the terminal. I did not mind though since it opened up some spotting opportunities.

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Air Namibia a330-200, which I plan to try out on it's route to Frankfurt

The walkway

The air Namibia a330-200 and a sister Eurowings a330-200 which arrived from Cologne this morning
Security was quick and I had my bag in no time, ready to explore Namibia for a week.

A few pictures from Swakopmund and Erindi