I recently had the chance to fly several segments on Pegasus Airlines, between Barcelona and the Gulf and back, on both its Airbus and Boeing fleets. I was not sure whether to do separate flight reviews for the experience on each aircraft type, but finally I opted to do one single Pegasus Airlines flight report collecting elements of the experience on each of these flights, since I found that it was quite consistent throughout the whole journey.

The flights were paid by the reviewer, although the airline provided some complimentary ancillary services

Pre-flight experience

This is an interesting one, because since I booked different segments separately, I tried to complete the booking on both the airline website and the mobile app.

The outcome: very good booking flow on the website.

Let’s start by saying that Pegasus is a no frills airline, but it does offer some elements more typically associated to full service airlines, such as the ability to book connecting flights. It is one of the few low cost airlines left in Europe that still let you get carry on luggage onboard with any fare class and some nice details such as offering booking flexibility options.

In fact, Pegasus does also a superb job of selling you ancillaries and, although you can purchase bundles, you are later offered de-aggregated ancillaries, so you can pick up the ones that really interest you at very reasonable prices.

In my case, it was the possibility of adding ticket flexibility for the equivalent of around €12, which is, I think, a reasonable hedge when you are spending several hundred euros on a plane ticket.

Also of note is that the process to sign up for the BolBol frequent flyer programme and claim miles from previous trips was also quite straightforward.

The mobile experience, however, was quite frustrating. Perhaps it was due to the destinations in my itinerary not permitting online check-in, but the fact is that I didn’t manage to complete the task I was set to accomplish (check-in and get digital boarding passes) and there was no way I could figure out why. If there was an external cause, would have been nice to get some sort of explanation about what was happening.

The Cabin

Since I flew two different types of aircraft, will present them both separately. The overall experience is similar, but there were some small differences.

Pegasus A321neo cabin

First the flight on the Airbus A321neo, which happened to be on one of the newest aircraft in Pegasus fleet, less than one year old.

On this flight I had a regular seat. The seats are of the slim non-recline sort that are the norm in new generation narrow-bodies, leather( faux, I guess)-upholstered, with an extensible tray and the usual hard pocket on the back to keep magazines (there wasn’t an inflight one) and, more importantly (as we shall soon see) the catering menu. Pitch was ok for LCC standards, 30”, I think. There were no current or usb sockets.

Pegasus Boeing 737-800 cabin

The Boeing 737-800, this represents the older portion of Pegasus fleet, in fact there are plans to retire them altogether and move to an all-Airbus fleet (even as the fleet grows in absolute numbers, with the airline planning to get its 100th aircraft later this year).

I quite liked the B737-800 interiors and, perhaps, a tad more than those on the more modern A321neo. The seats, also leather-upholstered, had a more cushy feel, even if the design looked a tad older (with, for example, the net pocket on the lower part to keep magazines and other cards and brochures, instead of the built-in rigid one on the top area of the seat back).

The B737-800 mood lightning adds also to the modern feel, even if this particular aircraft was about 10 years old (not particularly old for an aircraft, but certainly older than the neos that are replacing them)

So, there may well be many operational and financial considerations driving Pegasus fleet replacement, but when it comes to passenger experience I found the differences negligible.

When it comes to the seat, on the Boeing 737-800 I had the chance to try one with extra leg room (one of those located next to the emergency exit, although not all of the extra leg-room are). These sell for a premium during the booking process….and I can see why!

The massive space in front comes certainly handy when one considers that Pegasus has some rather long sectors (in my cases, all segments were >3h in length!)

Food and drink

As a no frills airline, Pegasus offers an à-la-carte menu, with no freebies. The good news are that what they have on offer is pretty good!

If you are feeling hungry there are, let’s say, roughly two types of meal deals that you can order.

There is a selection of sandwiches and, then, proper warm meals. These are both sold either alone or in packages with drinks, snacks or deserts and coffeee.

I tried both and they were both the sandwich and a warm main meal and happy to report that they were both excellent (at least for the standards of an economy class product). I am not talking about something super fancy, but they felt like good quality, tasty and come in generous portions. The same could be said for the drinks on offer.

Above is a close up of the Feta cheese sandwich. As you see, a normal sandwich, but full of simple, natural ingredients (I hate it when airline sandwiches come with all sorts of unsollicited sauces and condiments!). Tasty.

Below is the warm meal. You have the possibility to pre-order it during the online booking. How it works? The crew has the list of who ordered what and delivers them one by one to the respective seats, before passing the cart to offer everyone else to have a chance to order as well.

Btw, if you are ordering something on the spot, it is significantly cheaper to pay by card than in cash!

Apologies for the picture qualities, this was a night flight and the meal service passed when the lights were dimmed!

IFE and Amenities

If the food was one of the positive surprises of the experience, I can’t say the same of the IFE platform that is, supposedly, available on the flight, but it wasn’t really.

Interestingly, the B737-800 seats were fitted with these arm-rest audiovisual control features. Is this from a legacy system Pegasus used in the past? They have no use nowadays.

In the past I have collaborated professionally with Pegasus’ IFE provider, Immfly, so I really was looking forward to experience the system as a passenger. And, in fact, I had received complimentary IFE access vouchers from the airline to be able to enjoy the service.

IFE, which is a streaming service that gives access to a library of movies, series and other audiovisual and reading content, is sold as an ancillary at €2.99 per flight and passenger.

You can purchase it ahead of the flight and then you are sent an access code that you can introduce when logging into the platform.

However, it was not to be on this particular journey, since the system wasn’t working on anhy of the flights.

I later managed to confirm with the IFE supplier that the A321 fleet is not yet fully fitted. In the case of the B737-800 it must have been that on that particular flight the system was not operational.

Since I had my Kindle and plenty of other stuff to do, this was no big deal, but I guess if I had purchased this service in advance it would have been rather more frustrating, not so much because of the cost (at €2.99 is cheaper than most items on the menu!) but because of the unrealized expectations. While I understand these types of services may not always be fully available on all flights, a bit of advance warning or an explanation from the crew (which seemed to be unaware of what was happening) would have been nice.

As a final note, I would like to add that I am familiar enough with the Immfly IFE platform installed on Pegasus’ fleet to be able to say that it is really top notch in its category. For transparency: I am not neutral on this particular point!

Our take:

Pegasus offers a very good value option to travel over a vast region covered by its network, from Western Europe all the way to Central Asia and the Middle East. While technically a low cost airline, Pegasus offers the sort of flight connectivity and some of the services that you would traditionally associate with full service carriers.

Connecting at Sabiha Gökçen airport (SAW)

By the way, it may be useful to have a word also about Sabiha Gökçen airport (SAW), since a significant percentage of Pegasus’ passengers are connecting there.

SAW is Istanbul’s second airport. While it is not as big as Istanbul’s new airport (which I haven’t visited yet) or the former Ataturk hub, it is a rather modern facility with plenty of shops and services. It also has the advantage of being a rather compact facility, so you don’t have to walk huge distances.

Having said that, I got the feeling that it is reaching the limits of its capacity. On both occasions I connected flights there (one in the evening, the other in the early morning), it was absolutely packed, every single space of the airport buzzing with activity. It was even difficult to find a place to sit down.

There was also a very long queue for international transfers that, while moving relatively fast, was a source of stress (because an earlier flight delay we had little more than an hour to make the connection).

This is, in a way, is a sign of success, mostly of Pegasus Airlines, which is, by far, the main operator at SAW!

When it comes to the product, I think it is also pretty good for a low cost airline and the extras are, such as leg room, inflight meals and flexibility options, are reasonably priced. Add to this the scope and diversity of its network and it makes for a rather solid product.

There are, of course, some things to polish, for example, the fact that IFE was repeatedly non-available (when it had been pre-sold on the site). Some of these glitches, as in the inability to complete the check-in on the app, may be due to external causes, but, in these cases, a little bit more of communication about what is happening could go a long way!

Another suggestion here is that offering some sort of lounge access at Sabiha Gökçen airport (if this ancillary exists, I did not find it on the website).

If as reasonably priced as the other ancillaries, could be a very compelling proposition, particularly in view of the crowdedness of the airport’s main terminal and also the fact that Pegasus Airlines offers many options to travel between Europe and the broader Middle East via Sabiha Gökçen airport (SAW) at great value.

Flight review: Pegasus Airlines A321neo and Boeing 737-800