Prologue:

Hello and welcome to this report on another airline that I am flying for the first time.

When I was looking for a good fare to BCN I came upon a fare for $580+ RT that was all on BA. When I tried to purchase the fare the outbound on BA was no longer available and instead I was offered an alternate flight on LEVEL. This was nonstop from SFO and on an airline that I have never flown so why not?

As it turned out the experience on LV was not the best and I will considered this experience a learning lesson. I knew that LEVEL was the low cost arm of IAG so I adjusted my expectations accordingly but as I found out I did not set the expectations low enough. Let's find out why.

I arrived at the airport at about 2 hrs before dept. and the check in desk was empty. The flight did not seem that full and when I checked with the agent he advised me that it was probably 75 pct full.

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At the time I was a BA Gold (Oneworld Emerald) and I was able to attach my BA frequent flyer number to my LEVEL reservation.

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Check in was smooth and I found out that I had a neighbor next to me when I inquired about the possibility of having an adjacent empty seat.

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After security I tried to access the Virgin China Airlines and Golden Gate lounges through my Priority Pass membership but all these lounges were restricted at this time of the night so I went directly to the gate.

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Gate agents were pretty nice and I inquired again about the possibility of having a pair of seats for myself. Earlier I noticed that row 27AC were blocked and I asked if I could be moved there. The agent changed me from 25J to 27C and gave me my boarding pass. She told me that the adjacent seat should remain blocked so hopefully I will have the pair of seats for myself.

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I knew that LEVEL charges for everything and before my trip I received this email stating that meals were included with my type of fare.

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So I made sure to reserve my meals in advance and this was confirmed when the transaction concluded under "Manage my Booking". However I never received any follow up email with the confirmation of my meals. Because this flight was operated by IBERIA seat reservation had to be made under IB site and not LEVEL.

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Boarding was very orderly and with LEVEL there was only 2 cabins - Premium Eco and Economy. I was in Group 3 so I guess I boarded right after the Premium Y cabin.

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Cabin during boarding.

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Row 27 is the last row of the first Y section in the front.

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Seat pocket contents.

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Waste bag.

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Safety video.

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Once boarding was completed there were a few empty seats in the middle rows so some pax switched to those seats to lay down later on.

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As expected I did not have a neighbor. However row 27 did not recline and a crew member offered to switch me to a better seat if I wanted to. That was a nice touch.

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By SFO.

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Service commenced right after take off with the sale of blankets and amenity kits. Seats did not have complimentary pillows or blankets.

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This was followed by dinner service and this is where I encountered a problem. The flight attendant skipped some pax and only handed the trays to those pax that were confirmed on his tablet. For some reason he did not offer me a meal and I grabbed the attention of another crew. She explained that they could only give meals to those pax that appeared on the tablet but she will bring me a meal at the conclusion of the service. She asked if I wanted chicken or pasta and I opted for the chicken.

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After a good 20 min. my meal finally arrived. Apparently she couldn't confirm if I was entitled to a meal but she took my word for it.

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The meal was very basic and it was chicken with BBQ sauce served with rice a roll barley salad and a brownie.

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The "tray" was actually the meal box folded out.

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There was a total of 5 WC's for the whole Y section and only 1 WC for Premium Eco in the front. Personally I don't think there are enough WC's for this many pax and people were lining up to go to the WC's all the time.

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WC were not kept clean and after so many people using it at one point there was urine on the floor. I never saw the crew clean the WC's at any point. In addition to that they never passed offering water. If you are thirsty you just have to go to the galley and pour yourself a glass from the bottle there. One more thing that I noticed is that a few seats ahead the "call" button light was on but no crew came to check on the pax.

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Right after the first meal service I logged on the wifi and paid about EUR 5 for 1 hr to access my email and take a screenshot of the email that I received confirming that I was entitled to a meal as proof.

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During the second meal I showed my email to one of the crew and he apologized that I was skipped the first time. He and another colleague asked if I wanted something sweet or anything extra as compensation for the error. I thanked them but did not take anything else. The breakfast was very basic and I had a warm tortilla with grilled mozzarella cheese in pesto sauce.

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Soon we were descending into BCN.

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I never felt so relieved upon landing and just wanted to get out of this plane as soon as possible.

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This is my second time in Barcelona and I feel that it is such an exciting and unique city. The food scene is excellent and this is one of the tapas bars that Oauf and I visited during our stay.

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Ciutat Comtal is near Passeig de Gracia and is a solid choice. It can get very crowded during peak hours thanks to its popularity.

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We ordered a few delicious tapas for lunch - razor clams.

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Grilled foie over beef tendon.

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Fried squid tentacles.

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Sardines and small peppers.

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Eggplant fritters with molasse.

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Beef cheeks over potato mousse.

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Dessert.

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Chocolate 3 textures.

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Torrejas Sta. Teresa. Sinfully satisfying.

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Roscon borrachin.

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========== San Francisco Intl Arpt (SFO) - ==========



Security/Immigration efficiency: 9/10
Access and parking: 10/10
Services and activities: 9/10
General cleanliness: 10/10

========== LEVEL - Airline ==========



Cabine comfort: 7/10
Crew: 6/10
Entertainment: 6/10
On-time performance: 9/10
Appetizer: 0/10
Starter: 0/10
Main Meal: 5/10
Main Meal-2: 0/10
Cheese: 0/10
Desserts: 0/10
Alcohols: 0/10
Mid-flight snack: 0/10
Breakfast or light meal before arrival: 4/10

========== Barcelona Arpt (BCN) - ==========



Security/Immigration efficiency: 8/10
Access and parking: 9/10
Services and activities: 9/10
General cleanliness: 9/10

Summary:

I knew that LEVEL was low cost but I didn't expect that there were glitches in data communication across different platforms. The fact that I had to go to the IB site to reserve the seat instead of the LV one because the flight was operated by IB but in reality it was a true LV flight was confusing enough.

Don't get me started with my meal ordering fiasco. Apparently my meal reservation was never sent over to LEVEL and that is why I never appeared on their onboard tablet as a qualified pax to receive a meal. When I brought up this issue the one of the crew insisted that they can only go by what their tablet says and this is verified by my seat assignment. I wonder if the fact that I changed my seat assignment at the gate contributed to this problem but there has to be a better way to verify meal qualification.

As mentioned on my report WC's are not enough for the amount of pax and there was always a constant line of people using the toilets. To make matters worse these were never kept clean and one of the doors kept making a squeaking sound every time it was opened.

I don't expect much service from a low cost airline but I was surprised that not one crew member offered water to any pax during the whole trip. Basically they just hide after the meal service and reappear during the second meal before arrival.

The quality of the meals are basic but comparable to what some US carriers serve.

The only positive thing about flying LEVEL is that it offered the only nonstop from SFO to BCN but to be honest I don't think that I will fly them again after this. I will take a connecting flight with a legacy European airline over this any day.

6 Comments

  • Capoune


    Hi Adan!

    An overall disappointing service, it's a shame not to have been able to access the lounges before this flight.
    On the other hand, the bonus is superb and makes you hungry!!
    Thank you for this beautiful sharing and see you in 1 month friends!!!

    Reply
    jetsetpanda
    Hi Seb,

    When you cannot access lounges as an elite frequent flyer the other alternative is to be a member of Priority Pass and gain access that way. As more people learn about lounges it is becoming more difficult to use them even with a membership. In SFO the majority of Priority Pass lounges are restricted during the evening hours because of contracts with major airlines to accommodate their J pax.

    BCN is quite a foodie city and I can highly recommend the food scene.

    See you soon for the next trip. Thank you my friend.
  • Thomas


    You're a brave man.. what a shame and bad experience.

    Reply
    jetsetpanda
    Hi Thomas,

    You live and learn my friend. ;)
  • Bibopaul


    Such a bad airline.
    Thank you for sharing

    Reply
    jetsetpanda
    Hi Paul,

    My pleasure and thanks for stopping.

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