The Budget Carrier LEVEL Airlines Review You Need to Read

My husband, Marc, and I recently flew LEVEL Airlines to and from France {leaving from our local airport Newark, NJ}. LEVEL Airlines is a newish budget airline in the International Airlines Group, which also owns British Airways, Iberia, Vueling to name a few. We were a bit skeptical at first when we were looking at the tickets, but the amazing price of only $300 roundtrip {not including luggage fees etc.} convinced us that it was worth giving it a try despite the really, really poor reviews that we were seeing online. We went into the flights knowing that it was likely not going to be our best flying experience, however, we were very pleasantly surprised!

Seats

When flying LEVEL, as with most budget airline carriers, it costs extra to choose your exact seat. Despite our outbound flight being overnight, we decided not to pay for our seats in advance because we didn’t think it was worth the fee. We figured we could last 7 hours without sitting next to each other lol. It was a nice surprise that we ended up getting seats next to each other both directions 🙂

I think the only benefit of paying for your seat is if you are very particular about where you sit or want to be able to check in online ahead of time and just bag drop at the airport. This was probably the only downside as the machines were down in the Orly airport on our way home, and if you don’t pay for a seat, you can’t check in online, so we had to wait in the longer line.

TIP: If you want to up your chances of getting your preferred seat {aisle, window, etc} and/or sitting with your travel mate{s}, get to the airport extra early as most people don’t pay for seats in advance so the earlier you get there, the better your seat will be.

• 

• 

Luggage

We paid for our luggage ahead of time since we knew we would be needing to each check a bag. If you wait until you get to the airport, it costs extra, so be sure to do this ahead of time. You get a total of 23 kg {50 lbs} of weight per bag, and we had read that they are very strict about it so made sure ours stayed under that, with room for anything we wanted to bring back too!

The other thing we had read was that they are very strict with the carry-on bag policy. I was concerned about this personally because I had a large carry-on plus my small mini backpack {didn’t want it to get smooshed in my luggage} and my DSLR camera bag {fairly small, just one lens, but it did not fit in my carry-on and I prefer to carry it separately for safety reasons}.

Turns out they were not strict with us at all on this. I walked on with my arms full of my bags plus a bag of food I purchased in the airport and they didn’t look at me twice. On the return leg, I also had a large bag with a purse I purchased in Paris & a bag with macarons from the famous Ladurée and they didn’t question me that way either, despite that I was randomly chosen for an extra security check and they had to check all of my bags lol.

Check out my post on Carry-On Must Haves here for all my picks for domestic & international travel!

Staff

We had also read was that the staff is horrible and really rude and unfriendly, so I was a little worried about that. I should note, I worked in customer service roles for years so I have kind of high standards for service. Turns out they were fine! Maybe not overly friendly, but cordial and helpful. Some I would even say were very pleasant. To be honest, I felt the staff were pretty much on par with the friendliness of staff on every other airline I have flown. Sometimes you get really nice ones, and other times you don’t, but I wouldn’t agree at all with the reviews that I had read prior to our flight. On our flight to France, one passenger got ill and the staff was all very caring and concerned for her.

Food & Drink

The one really important thing you should know about LEVEL is that no food or drinks are included, not even water. So be sure to grab a bottle of water and any food you might want ahead of time, or be prepared to purchase in-flight. We did not purchase food in-flight on our outbound leg as it looked like it was expensive when we checked online ahead of time, however, I checked out the menu onboard and the prices were much lower than what I would have expected.

For example, on our flight, they offered a sandwich, snack & drink combo for only 10.50 euro and the hot meal, snack & drink combo was only 12.50 euro. Beverages and snacks ranged from about 2.50 euro to 7 euro, with beer being around 4 euro and wine 7 euro. Hard alcohol drinks were slightly more expensive. And honestly the food smelled great that all of the passengers around us had so we ended up trying it on the way back & each bought a meal. I had the lasagna & Marc had goulash. They were both decent for the price {9 euro each} & came very quickly after we ordered them.

• 

• 

Onboard Entertainment

The onboard movies and music were free for our flight {I’m assuming all overseas flights are the same but don’t quote me on that} and the options were very good and comparable with other airlines. Wi-Fi was extra as it usually is on flights, but it was unavailable on both of our flights {not working & the staff said that no one uses it because it doesn’t work well}. So don’t plan to have working Wi-Fi in-flight just in case. I often have issues with the Wi-Fi availability and function on United Airlines flights as well though so this isn’t really a big surprise to me.

Bottom Line

Overall, you should just know that nothing is included other than your flight when you book. Luggage, food, water, blankets, pillows, headphones, Wi-Fi etc. will all be extra if you want them. So simply be prepared and pack these things with you or bite the bullet and buy them.

The plane and restrooms were clean, the seats had ample legroom I felt {even for my 5’10” body!}, our flights landed basically on time, and in general, the experience was pleasant. I’m thankful that we gave LEVEL Airlines a shot for our vacation despite the long list of bad reviews we read, and I honestly feel bad that they have gotten such a bad rep! With all the money we saved on the flights, we were able to enjoy more on our vacation 🙂 so I highly recommend booking LEVEL for your next trip if you are looking for a budget flight and see that the overall price {including luggage & any add-ons you feel you need} ends up beating out the other airlines you are considering!

0