The primary reason for my trip to Tunisia was to fly Tunisair from Tunis to Montreal onboard the flag carrier’s flagship A330 aircraft. Was I in for a pleasant surprise or a great disappointment? Sadly, I walked away disappointed even with guarded expectations.
TunisAir A330 Business Class – First Impressions
After travel vlogger Josh Cahill drew national headlines and was even ordered to delete his pictures and video by immigration officials after a very negative review of Tunisair, I hoped that the airline would have used that feedback to make improvements to the onboard product.
While Chaill only flew shorthahul, I booked a paid business class ticket ($955) from Tunis to Montreal so that I could get the full experience. One Mile At A Time reviewed the same plane on the same route five years ago and I was curious to see if anything had changed for the better…or for the worse.
While I’m not ready to call the airline a national disgrace, I walked away disappointed. It all started so promising. I checked with a huge smile on my face and the agent, sensing my excitement, agreed to be photographed for my report. She hardly spoke English, but was lovely.
Then a colleague proceeded to lecture her for letting me take a picture…
The lounge was fine. Unlike Cahill’s experience, I thought the lounge was pleasant enough and I certainly did not find cigarette butts and trash on the floor.
Boarding was chaotic, but I managed to board first and noted the cabin has not changed. It’s a shame really, as these are relatively new A330-200s, but Tunisair chose to install outdated business class seats that are not even angled lie-flat. It felt like stepping back in time 10 years.
As I was taking pictures of the cabin, the purser waved at me to stop…something we often see on smaller flag carriers where flight attendants really cannot understand why anyone would take cabin pictures, except for nefarious purposes.
Not only was the seat dated, but it has not aged well, with the green faux leather very worn and cracking in many places. The cabin was also not clean, with grime and dust present.
During the flight, a panel fell off the seat in front of me:
Here’s where the flight got strange…for me at least. None of the flights attendants spoke English (or at least let on that they could speak English).
All announcements were only in French and Arabic, including the safety video. I realize those are the two languages of Tunisia and Montreal is primarily French speaking, but I was surprised that the flight attendants did not speak a world of English the entire flight.
We ran into a ground delay of over an hour (the pilots never filled us in on what happened, but after pushing back on time we returned to the gate, the jet bridge was re-attached, and the door opened) and I got up to ask if I could use the “bathroom.”
Two flight attendants looked at me like I was an alien. One said something to his colleague in Arabic and the other shrugged. I finally said toilettes and they suddenly looked like they just had an epiphany and opened the (locked) lavatory door for me.
You can imagine my interactions with the crew were limited considering they refused to speak English and I don’t speak French or Arabic.
The front lavatory was blocked for use by the crew and the restroom behind the business class cabin remained locked. When I got up to use the lavatory midway through the flight, the flight attendant unlocked it for me. The sink was clogged…
Comparing my experience to Ben’s, there was no menu, no amenity kit, no canapes, no soup, and no menu choice at all. I was handed fish for my first main meal and chicken for my second. It was just plopped down. There was no alcohol onboard either…
That said, I did like the dishes and the food was edible (not great, but certainly not bad). I would rank the dessert the highlight of the meal.
Pre-arrival meal:
Despite poor-quality bedding and a seat that did not go flat, I managed to sleep for several hours since I had been up the previous night.
Not only did we encounter a departure delay, but we encountered strong headwinds, meaning an arrival into Montreal almost two hours late…it made my transborder connection quite precarious.
To add insult to injury, the door was stuck and it took several minutes and several flight attendants for it to be opened.
CONCLUSION
The experience on Tunisair was sadly worse than I expected. The good news is the carrier has a lot of potential. But the bad news is the airline doesn’t even get the little things right.
That doesn’t look fun… I hope you entered Canada on your connection at YUL and didn’t attempt an airside connection. YUL seems to make it more complicated than it needs to be, especially if you’re a traveler that knows what they’re doing.
I did enter Canada…wasn’t expecting too. Huge headache actually.
Where is Noel Phillips when you need him 🙂
I agree the flight seems horrible but I honestly can’t hold the language thing against them.
I don’t think English speakers should expect the entire world to linguistically revolve around them.
I mean you use your German when it’s convenient on LH and it certainly scores some brownie points with the FAs.
I agree about announcements etc, but this was an intercontinental flight to a country where English is very prominent (even if Montreal is more French-speaking). They should have at least one crew member that can speak a bit of English.
@PM, maybe they did, but not in business class.
I’m a little surprised the safety video did not include an English component. That is relatively common even in regions where English is rarely spoken. Otherwise, I tend to agree that focusing on language skills is not a very reasonable metric for a good flight. There are ways to work around it and French language terms for food are pretty easy to fumble through. While I appreciate the review, I do also question the premise of choosing this flight. Other reports have noted taking pictures on the flight is not well received. That was the experience here as well. For any FA that might have spoken some English there ain’t a lot of upside to going out his/her way to help the guy taking pictures. Language aside, this did not appear to be a great flight but if I was traveling with another person on a daytime flight $900 for extra space of a business class seat is not terrible and I wouldn’t necessarily avoid.
To be clear, the crew was not hostile after the photo incident – I don’t even think they were indifferent – but there truly was a huge communication barrier.
Truly, $655 for economy or $955 for business…100% worth the upgrade.
Ugh… surprised it took so long for some sniveling about English. Second comment! The SJW’s here are really slacking. And of course some clown has to make it a racial thang… you are nothing if not predictable, albeit laughably so.
Mr. Klint writes for an overwhelmingly English-speaking audience. Whether or not the crew speaks English is an absolutely important and germane point in any review.
Amazing that they managed to assemble a crew that didn’t speak any English between them,and on a flight to Canada to boot! There is a huge amount of tourism in Tunisia and I just don’t get how they couldn’t ensure they had at least one English speaking FA. I am thinking that there might even been some kind of meal choice that wasn’t presented to you because they were too timid and/or too lazy to try and describe what you could choose from!
Reads like an episode of Like-moi!
The blanket and pillow, wow, horrible. It’s like what you got in economy in 1984.
I do love their livery though, which is good as no way I will ever set foot inside their plane with that kind of offering.
I never understand why people flying on a carrier from a country where the language is not English expect the crew to speak English. Not everyone does and they never will. As a Brit, I like trying to engage in other languages, I’ll even try American at times if I have to really scrape the barrel.
Because, at least in 2022 (who knows for how long), English is the international language. I would have been happy to converse in German as well, but English should have been available – it is not being presumptive, as far as I am concerned.
See this report:
https://www.sheffield.com/articles/why-aviation-english-is-important
I can anticipate the retort – flight attendants are not included in the list. That’s true. It’s just the first time I’ve ever been on a flight (other than a domestic flight within Cuba) that announcements have not been made in English and the local language(s).
LATAM don’t make announcements in English (or even Spanish) on their domestic flights in Brazil, even though they obviously have a lot of pax connecting internationally.
Lol. Why would domestic flights in a Portuguese speaking country have Spanish announcements? Weird.
I can’t recall a flight where at least the major accouncements have not been in English and where the crew cannot perform basic functions in English.
This includes international flights between countries neither of which have English as a national language and even domestic flights within countries that don’t speak English.
I see it as a global aviation standard. I would definitely expect English announcements and at least some crew that are willing to serve in English on a flight to Canada.
admit it Matthew, you are a terrorist and should be in a Tunisian prison.
when you’ve chiseled “TunisAir was better than my high expectations!” on all the prison walls 10 times over, you could be released.
😉
nice review of 4 Seasons. Maybe I’ll make it there soon…when they allow unvax in w/o quarantine.
just checked Travel Sherpa…I can enter as unvax w/o quarantine to Tunisia! woo-hoo! Changed as of Feb 15!
4 Seasons here I come?
Of course…it’ll change when winter rolls around later? Best to travel before!
Let me know so I can stay away,seeing how you dont care about others,are you american I presume
Stay in your basement for the rest of your life then. This “pandemic” is just about over…even liberals know their fear mongering doesn’t work anymore. So I say enjoy living in fear for the rest of your life, pretty sad…
Sounds like a horrible experience but you get what you paid for.
As an English-speaking Canadian, if I were to take a flight to return home to Canada, no matter the port of entry, I would be concerned if no staff spoke English. Never mind the inconvenience, what if I became ill and seriously needed to be able to communicate? What if there was an on-board emergency, and they needed to be able to communicate with me? I think it is rather dangerous to have a flight to or from a country with nobody able to speak the language of that country.
Funny, that’s how Canadian francophones feel on domestic and international Air Canada flights that supposedly have a constitutional obligation to provide in-flight services in both English and French, but seldom do in reality. We’re talking FAs not understanding ‘je veux un Sprite s’il vous plait’ level of bad.
Sorry but Tunisia official language is arabic and Quebec’s ONLY official language is french. I don’t see why you expect flight attendants to speak english. Same thing regarding the alcohol : while Tunisia has great wines, I think you can expect this without being offended. it’s not an airline problem, just a cultural difference.
It’s too bad you focused on those non-problems, I guess there was much too say on other subjects, while the review sounds unfair here
A few observations:
1) Canada is a dual language country thus French AND English should be available on a flight to Canada Period.
2) The blanket looks like North Korean issue.
3) What was that orange blob next to the chocolate dessert ?
That was honey. Honestly, not too bad.
Not Montreal… That is very much a French speaking city.
From wiki:
“French is the city’s official language[20][21] and in 2016 was the only home language of 53.7% of the population, while 18.2% spoke only English and 18.7% spoke neither French nor English at home.[22] 9.4% spoke a mix of French, English and a foreign language at home.
This may be true – however I flew KLM from Amsterdam to Montreal a few years ago (BC) and they made announcements in Dutch, English, and French.
I’m sure they did, as the overwhelming majority of Netherlands residents speak and understand it, and it’s a common place that english speakers would be. It’s also a 1st world western country (and company; KLM). Both of these realities are completely different than Tunisia.
This was good. A change. But for being an ex usaf you are fairly guarded on your trip and airline choices. Time for more adventures.
Another blogger was adventurous but then got married and started pushing credit cards.
You might recall we used to go to places like Uzbekistan or Saudi Arabia together. I miss those days.
Have you tried SAA(south African Airways)?
I am Tunisian and I feel very sorry for the crises that the national carrier has faced over the last decade due to political and economic conflicts and financial corruption in the country , No one cares about reforming the company. The issue is very complicated and they claim that there is no budget for reform. There is a privatization project, but the Labor Union objects also , for the English language concern yes it is an issue , Tunisians should surpass the French Language in all the institutions ,I m not trying to be sharp but It is a universal truth now that you can consider someone who doesn’t speak English ignorant but you can not consider someone who does not speak French ignorant , As simple as this ! Tunisians have lost hope concerning Tunisair and every collapse that occurs in the institutions is the result of the people and governments accumulation of actions of not working hard and not carrying a culture and thought that makes a developed country.
The FA understood you, they have to during international flights. Did you travel during a Tunis National Holiday? Or maybe during Contact problem. English language fluency is required on International Flights
This is false. There is no EU/ICAO regulation on the languages a FA must speak, only the pilots. This is easily searched and verified…
This is typical white man thinking the whole world need to adjust to their needs for them to have a pleasant flight. I don’t find this review very relevant especially when you book a whole 8 hour flight on business for the price of $900 expecting Emirates treatment for a 5k usd 8 hour fight on business.
I took a domestic flight from Victoria to Montreal one time on air canada rouge and none of their staff spoke English yet I haven’t seen english speaking gringos complaining. Tunisair needs improvement, however not based on your standards.
Disclaimer: Influencers do these biased reviews based on what they get from businesses.
Respectfully,
No surprise there. I lived/worked in Algeria for a year, and here’s the main take away from these similar north African countries.
They know they suck, they don’t like the outside world to know it. They definitely hate pictures being taken of just about anything, which is why the agents boss and FAs acted the way we did.
I was dining at a very nice (for Algeria) restaurant, and saw someone get admonished there for taking a picture, and it was of their fantastic looking meal. It’s just ingrained into their culture, I’m sure Tunisia is no different, them being neighbors and all.
As far as the english thing goes though, you’re well traveled, don’t be that guy that wants or assumes english should be the default, because outside of the western style countries, it most certainly is not.
I didn’t get english on my flights from Algeria to italy/france/Germany, nor did I expect it.