Flight Review: Air Mauritius Economy Class A330NEO

Introduction

Air Mauritius is the flag carrier airline of Mauritius that services 22 destinations with a fleet of 14 aircraft.  The airline is currently in the process of modernizing their fleet with A330NEOs and A350s, which are great airliners for long haul flights.  While not part of a major airline alliance, Air Mauritius is part of the vanilla alliance.  Fortunately, it is also possible to book mileage awards using Air France miles.

For this flight, I was able to make an award booking using Air France miles, saving me hundreds of dollars.

Booking

Surprisingly, this short 1h, 45m flight from Madagascar to Mauritius was $368 in economy class.  Luckily, Air Mauritius is partners with Air France which enables award redemptions on Air Mauritius using Air France miles.  Even more fortunate for me, American Express was having a 25% transfer bonus to Air France at the time I was looking to book this flight.  So I transferred 11,000 Amex points to Air France and received 13,750 miles. 

Even though taxes and fees were pretty high at $138 dollars for this redemption, I still saved about $230 by only using 11,000 Amex points.  Not a bad deal at all.

Flight

Air Mauritius 289
Antananarivo (TNR) to Mauritius (MRU)
Cabin: Economy Class
Seat:  17A
Aircraft: A330NEO
Flight Time: 1h, 45m

Cabin Atmosphere (5/5)

Economy class was configured in a 2-4-2 configuration with 260 seats.  Overhead bins were spacious with no issues fitting everyone’s carry-on luggage.  Since the aircraft was only a few months old, the interior looked modern and clean.  Furthermore, this aircraft has the advanced LED lighting package installed which helps passengers deal with the effects of jet lag.  While there were no air ventilation nozzles installed, the plane was kept at a comfortable temperature.

Seat (4/5)

Economy Class seats had 18 inches of width and  28 inches of pitch.  The bottom of the seat had a good amount of padding along with a decent amount of recline.

The entertainment system had a crisp LED touch screen with plenty of content.  Also, the entertainment system had several external live camera streams available for viewing with was the first time I’ve seen this in an A330.

Since, this flight was only 1.5 hours, I can’t attest to its comfort on a long 12 hour flight.  However, I would prefer this economy class cabin to most of the transatlantic economy class cabins I have flown.

Food (4/5)

For this short flight, a sandwich, snack, and drink was provided which was is on par for most full service airlines on this kind of flight.

Service (5/5)

Passengers were ticketed and luggage checked-in rather quickly compared to other airlines in the region.  Considering Antananarivo was pretty much the most underdeveloped airport I’ve been to for the amount of traffic it supported, Air Mauritius did a good job boarding passengers with ease.   Cabin staff has quick to serve meals and clean up the plane throughout the flight.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Air Mauritius has recently modernized their long haul fleet with some beautiful A330NEOs and A350s.  While not part of a major alliance, awards can be booked with Air France, which in some scenarios can save a good amount of money.  When piecing together an itinerary, Air Mauritius is certainly a good option due to its competent staff, new planes, and award availability.

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