Having flown with Excel Airways a few years ago (before they where rebranded XL) I was very apprehensive about this flight. As my previous experience was of an awful flight on a very old and tatty 767. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the aircraft to be boarding a brand new 737-900 aircraft.

The flight managed to leave dead on time (which was surprising after all the chaos and awful experience trying to check in, but that was more down to Heraklion Airport and their staff, either way we made it through in time)

The cabin crew were very friendly, helpful, and the pilot and head cabin member were quite quirky and funny with their updates over the tannoy as well.

The in-flight entertainment was very good as well on fold down TV's. Which is also something I'm not used to as lately I've mainly flown with Ryanair and Easyjet, which have no entertainment. It consisted of Kung fu Panda and a few sitcoms as well.

We arrived in Manchester dead on time and it was possibly the smoothest landing I've ever experienced. The only bad thing I have to say about the flight is about the legroom which was awful, even for a short person like me. I found it impossible to get comfy for the night flight.

Overall however, a very good flight and I wouldn't hesitate to fly with them again.