Review of Air Namibia flight from Johannesburg to Windhoek in Economy

NMB

SW - Air Namibia

Flight taken on 18 September 2016
SW728
18:20 01h 40m 20:00
Model Airbus A319
Class Economy
Seat 22a
titi2106
6,361 · 21 · 7 · 52

Hi everyone,
Here is my first flight report on  English page of Flight Report as all my reports are usually in french, I always take a lot of pictures but I never publish them so here it is done for my first english  report.
I wanted to go to Namibia for a long time. I wanted to travel with Air Namibia but since the company was in the middle of changing its reservation system between August and September 2016, it was impossible to buy a ticket from Frankfurt, so I decided to go through Johannesburg with Air France and then Air Namibia for the flight to Windhoek.
I had bought a ticket on the evening flight between Johannesburg and Windhoek in case the CDG flight was late. I arrived on time with the AF flight 380 and when I went to check in at Air Namibia at Windhoek airport, it was impossible to change the ticket to take the earlier flight although I have a modifiable ticket and enough time to check in, the reason, the Air Namibia staff did not know the new booking system well and never managed to change my flight, quite annoying when you arrive before the flight closes and the flight is not full.
So a long wait before the next flight which only leaves in the evening at 6:20 p.m.
Air Namibia operates up to 3 flights per day in Airbus A 319 with a capacity of 112 seats in total. The flight will also be almost full because it is the last flight of the day from Johannesburg.
I will be the first to check in on the flight given my 8 hour waiting time at Johannesburg airport. Air Namibia's check-in is done by the company's own staff, two separate counters, one for economy and one for business. The staff is very friendly.


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my plane arrives shortly after I go through security and customs.


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Upon boarding the plane, the purser and the cabin crew that will both be working in the 12-seat Business Class with real Business Seats, great for a flight that only lasts 2 hours.


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The economy cabin is a normal 3-3 version of 100 seats, with 3 cabin crew (2 in the cabin and 1 in the galley)


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A first drink service is carried out then a meal passage with 3 choices (chicken, fish or beef), very impressed when we see what the service is becoming on European companies and let's not even talk about American companies. There will be after the meal a third passage with hot drinks and water and wine.
Very good meal and friendly, smiling and available cabin crew throughout the flight.


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Their Airbus has a screen that shows the route + small video clips, no headphones distributed but since these are joke type videos this is not necessary.


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What is great about Windhoek airport is that you disembark on  the tarmack, and there are no buses, so you can take pictures of all the company's planes up to the terminal, which is located a little further away.


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The city of Windhoek is a nice little town between the hills. It has a small museum on the Namibian railways and a part on the national airline which was managed until the independence of the country in 1990 by the railway company and under South African protectorate.…


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Thanks for reading

Display all

Product ratings

Airline

Air Namibia 8.3

  • Cabin9.0 / 10
  • Cabin crew7.5 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi7.5 / 10
  • Meal/catering9.0 / 10
Departure airport

Johannesburg - JNB7.8

  • Efficiency8.0 / 10
  • Access9.0 / 10
  • Services5.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness9.0 / 10
Arrival Airport

Windhoek - WDH8.5

  • Efficiency9.0 / 10
  • Access9.0 / 10
  • Services7.5 / 10
  • Cleanliness8.5 / 10

Conclusion

Very pleasant flight and very surprised by the quality of the service offered by the company, the only problem if you choose your seat on their website, impossible to change flights even if you have a modifiable ticket.
the staff was very good whether on the ground or on board, smiling and available.

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Comments (7)

  • Interesting report about this airline. Service seems to be excellent, though it surprises me to see that Air Namibia decided to swap over to their new system without properly training staff well in advance to deal with those issues. I'm pretty sure it may have caused some annoyed passengers in this period.

    Thanks for the report though!

  • Thanks for showing us a glimpse into this defunct airline's operations. It seems like a pretty decent airline when you flew it.

  • Interesting read. Service looks like it was even better than SAA

  • How cool to see a retro-report about Air Namibia! I always wanted to go to Namibia and try out Air Namibia because of their good reputation it never got the chance before they went out of business, unfortunately. From your report it is evident they deserved their good reputation. A shame they are gone. Thanks so much for sharing!

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