Pegasus Airlines Review – #FlyingExperience with Pegasus!

Arul Prakash Samathuvamani and Arul Prakash Samathuvamani

11 months ago

This is my experience with Pegasus Airlines along with all you need to know before you fly with Pegasus airlines.

Where does Pegasus fly?

Pegasus is a Turkish low-cost carrier that connects popular destinations in Turkey like Izmir, Antalya, Istanbul to the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and Asia.

I flew Pegasus airlines from London Stansted to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport on an overnight flight that cost 200 GBP round trip.

What does Pegasus Offer?

Pegasus offers 4 flight packages – Basic, Essential, Advantage and Flex with latter being the most expensive one. Basic gives you a bare minimum package of single hand luggage. Your hand luggage needs to fit the baggage dimensions if not, you would be charged hefty prices at the airport.

I made my flight booking using Cleartrip which offered many discounts for my HDFC credit cards.

Advantage package is the one that would fit most people’s needs. It offers full flight service which includes seat selection, 20kg baggage allowance and a sandwich + in-flight entertainment. It is better to choose baggage and food when you make the booking as the price is very high if you want to buy it onboard.

Pegasus Check-In Process

The online check-in process is straight forward. Beware you would be bombarded with offers from Pegasus to opt in for baggage, food, in-flight entertainment, and seats. One thing to note, I was offered to pay for in-flight entertainment during check-in, it did not work on my flight, and I am not sure if I would have been offered a refund for it.

To my delight, my check-in process at London Stansted airport took less than 10 minutes. There were plenty of staff in Stansted airport and the entire process was a breeze. This was impressive considering Pegasus is a budget airline. It was the same at Sabiha Gokcen as well. The check-in counters were well staffed along with automated check-in machines.

In-Flight Experience

The flight experience for me is mixed. The staff was friendly. My outbound flight was 100th plane to be delivered to Pegasus (Special Livery). The plane was an Airbus A321 Neo configured to seat 239 in a dense economy class cabin. The seats are in standard 3-3 configuration. The planes were clean and in good condition.

The leg room was average. Some can pay to take two pieces of cabin baggage. As a result, the overhead baggage bins were filled and most had to keep their laptop bags under their leg.

It was an overnight flight, and I was stuck with a middle seat. The seat was firm with no recline meaning I was not able to sleep even for a bit which I really needed. When I reached Istanbul, I really wanted to crash into a bed badly. If you are taking an overnight flight with Pegasus, I would advise that you pay for the window seat meaning that you might be able to get a better sleep compared to being stuck in the middle.

Reliability of Pegasus Airlines

I would rate Pegasus 2/5 for this aspect. Both my flights were delayed by an hour. Keep this in mind when you plan travel out of Stansted.

In short, Other than seat comfort, I was happy with Pegasus Airlines. Would I prefer it again? If I am looking for a cheap trip to Turkey, I might prefer Pegasus, but there are other airlines like Wizz airlines which offer competitive prices. At the end my choice would boil down to the price.