Riyadhair Avis 

My experience booking with Riyadh Air today from Manchester to Islamabad has left me extremely frustrated and concerned about their customer service and app functionality.

I carefully selected Manchester as my origin and Islamabad as my destination. However, while scrolling through the app, it secretly reset the origin to Riyadh without my input, issuing a ticket from Riyadh to Islamabad instead.

I caught the error and contacted their live chat within 2 minutes of booking to explain the app's mistake and request a correction.

Despite pointing out the app bug instantly, they still deducted some taxes from my refund and gave me back the rest.

Customer support refused to own up to the glitch in their software, punishing the customer for a system error on a brand new airline.

This is Unacceptable. Charging fees when a mistake is flagged within 120 seconds shows a complete lack of customer first thinking.

For a brand new airline trying to build a reputation, having a bug that quietly changes flight routes during browsing is a massive red flag.

Blaming the customer for a system side glitch instead of fixing the issue or offering a full refund is terrible business practice.

This is a very disappointing start for Riyadh Air. If they treat customers this way over a clear app error, I would advise others to think twice before booking through their airline.

From booking to landing everything about this airline needs improving

Riyadh to Manchester flight booked in Sept. No email or notice from Riyadh Air - destination changed to London. No apology, no compensation just 200 extra miles to travel by land after arrival. Little interest from customer service.

Customer service poor over the app, the chat system didn’t work at all well. Did manage to arrange a call back and the agent was super friendly. But no apology or compensation for change to flight.

On arriving in Riyadh for check in the queue was huge and just didn’t move - a flight to London and Madrid due to take off within 30 mins of each other - all customers waiting in the same long long line with no staff communication - staff completely uninterested from airport and in RH uniforms.
Managed to finally check in 50 mins before take off - rest of the airport perfect as usual, no queues and easy made it to gate.

Gate area filthy - food everywhere and not enough seating by about 150 seats- squashed in a small holding pen - then told flight would be delayed by 30.

Aircraft experience- most staff look exhausted - they were pleasant and helpful but given the flight is by now full of angry people it’s hard to win people round.

Biggest problem - the seating. Aircraft seats should not have this much tilt or movement - they bounced around all flight causing arguments due to lack of space and the ability to push all the way back.
Felt dangerous when turbulence hit with no space to manoeuvre.
My seat was pushed and shoved by angry passenger but this was not unique happening all over the plane everyone just seemed really annoyed with their experience. Seats themselves are thin with no padding - very uncomfortable and poor quality.

Exceptionally poor service, from booking to meals to in flight attendants.

First of all, the mobile app is very buggy, throws error for different changes, which are normal functions for other airlines, e.g, changing seats. Spoke 2 times via in app chat with help desk to get seat changed, yet the app displayed old seat numbers. This was forced contact bcz during checkin at airport , the staff ignored my request for middle row aisle seat despite many available. Also there is no online check in available in app.

Next is meals, very poor quality and taste, far far away from regional rivals, and then during breakfast service, the attendant past by me and didn’t brother to ask for or serve breakfast. I then used seat attendant call button which stayed for 45+ minutes yet no one showed up.

In next round of drinks, finally someone came and i pointed this and they apologised saying they are ‘busy’. I wonder does that imply other airlines don’t get busy.

They seriously need agile trained staff and to invest in customer experience. For now, i wouldn’t fly again with them when regional rivals have much better service

Extremely Disappointing Experience – Denied Boarding Based on Incorrect Information
My family was denied boarding on our RUH → DXB flight based on the claim that our UAE residence permits were not valid. This information was incorrect, as our UAE residence permits were valid at the time of travel.

As a direct result of this decision, my family missed the flight and lost the value of our tickets, causing significant financial loss and disruption to our travel plans.
This was an extremely frustrating and disappointing experience, particularly because the boarding decision appears to have been made based on incorrect information without properly verifying the validity of our residence permits.
I expect Riyadh Air to take full responsibility for the consequences of this incident, investigate what happened, and provide an appropriate resolution and compensation for the losses incurred.
Very disappointing experience.

I completed the boarding-pass process through the airline’s app several hours before departure. The app showed the completion animation, giving me every reason to believe the process had succeeded.

When I arrived at the airport, I was suddenly told that no valid boarding pass had been issued. I contacted customer support, but they said there was nothing they could do. No one warned me about the technical problem before I travelled to the airport, and no meaningful solution, accountability, or compensation was offered.

Because of a bug in their app and the way the situation was handled, I lost money and wasted approximately eight hours. A failure affecting something as essential as boarding should be treated urgently—not dismissed after the passenger reaches the airport.

This was one of the worst airline experiences I have had. The complete lack of responsibility and respect for my time destroyed my trust in the company. I will not fly with them again and cannot recommend relying on their app or customer support.

Without a doubt there are issues that Riyadhair needs to sort out mainly their website and app. And you would think with so many teething problems they would be offering incredible deals, but not really, they are almost as expensive as Saudia. However to be fair I must point out how polite and empathetic their staff was both on the ground and on flight. They were very quick in admitting their mistake and very apologetic. Even when I lost my patience and cool, their staff didn’t lose theirs and was very polite and supportive. On board I faced another issue and the stewardess was incredibly understanding and helpful. Daria and her colleagues were so nice. Something Saudia Airlines does not do unless you are first class. We had to transit via Riyadh while travelling from Jeddah to London and they had their staff waiting to make sure all passengers would make it to the departure lounge on time. I would still choose Riyadhair over Saudia just for the professional and polite attitude of their staff, since high demand and popularity has got into Saudia's head as of late. I hope Riyadhair manages to improve their performance and maintain the excellent customer service. They still have a while to go for quick and efficient check in, boarding and tech. Also they need some more senior (age and experience wise) staff on the ground as currently they all look like they just left high school and started working here. That is fine but they still need training and mentoring.

Riyadh Air – Great Aircraft, That's It.

Riyadh Air had so much hype going in, but honestly, the aircraft is the only thing "new" about the experience. The food was awful, the cabin was practically empty, and the crew seemed stressed and fake. Customer service at the airport wasn't much better - slow and indifferent when I needed help. For the price and the promises, I expected way more. Too much AI and too little empathy. I'd rather fly Qatar Airways in the future.

What's the point of giving you booking options z(Manchester to kuala lumpur) if there are no flights available on any day...sort your website out and show destinations you actually fly to

Booked a return flight London to Riyadh in premium- fare £1,314. Sadly my dog was not well and I needed to return 5 days early. I asked to change my flight and was quoted £650. As I can book a return instead for 1,100 I asked to cancel the return leg and get a refund.
No refund - but they asked for £2,260 to cancel my return leg!!!! What a rip off.