Review: TAROM 737-800 Economy Class

I’m live-blogging my SAS EuroBonus SkyTeam Milion Mile challenge this week. Click here for background and route information.

You really should not expect much when flying most European carriers within Europe, but TAROM really left a lot to be desired in economy class and makes me all the more thankful for the amenities we take for granted on US carriers.

TAROM 737-800 Economy Class Review

I flew on a TAROM A318 in business class from London to Bucharest earlier this year and commented that, “Flying on TAROM is like stepping back in time 20 years.” Well, that’s true for business class, it is not true for economy class.

At $125, the ticket was cheap, but still 3x the cost of WizzAir, which operated the same route and almost at the same departure time from the adjacent gate. Even so, I knew what I was getting myself into.

We boarded on time 35 minutes before departure from dreary Terminal 2 of Madrid Airport. I was late to board because I was drinking coffee and orange juice…

TAROM 416
Madrid (MAD) – Bucharest (OTP)
November 2024
Depart: 12:25 PM
Arrive: 05:15 PM
Duration: 3hr, 50min
Distance: 1,532 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 9C (Economy Class)

TAROM operates two versions of the 737-800. One has four rows of “real” business class seats in a 2-2 configuration much like you’d find in North America or Asia, while our particular aircraft was marketed as an economy class only and had 189 seats, all in a 3-3 configuration.

Seat

These seats were leather-covered and slim-line style, with legroom tight (it felt like 30 inches). We ended up with an open middle seat between us, so that made the flight significantly more pleasant.

Interestingly, perhaps to give a bit more legroom, there are no traditional seatback literature pockets at knee-level. Instead, there is an upper literature rack behind the tray table that does not impede your knee room.

The cabin seemed fairly clean, although I noticed some grime around the lights and personal air vents in the overhead passenger service unit.

There were no power outlets of any kind onboard.

IFE + Wi-Fi

Despite “Fly-Fi” stickers on the seatbacks (suggesting some kind of intranet system with movies and TV shows) there was no IFE at all on this jet…no wi-fi either.

Augustine passed the time reading and playing with his LEGOs:

We did enjoy a beautiful sunset coming into Bucharest:

Food + Drink

TAROM offers snacks and drinks for sale onboard, with larger hot meals available for purchase at least 24 hours prior to departure (I outlined that in detail here).

A bottle of water costs about 3.50 USD, which I find so tacky on a full-service carrier…

Sandwiches, sweets and salty snacks, and a variety of soft drinks, alcohol, and powdered coffee make up the onboard menu.

Since we pre-ordered heartier lunches, Augustine had pork:

…and I had chicken:

The main courses were edible but quite unsightly. The beet salad, however, was fresh and delicious:

Lavatories

One lavatory is located in the front of the aircraft and two are in the rear. They are very small and the rear lavatory I used had seen better days. Not only was the floor wet (probably not water…), but the trash can was broken and the toilet flush button was held on with tape.

Service

I’m sorry to say the service was not great onboard. The ladies working the cabin were dressed quite smartly in their TAROM uniforms, but the service provided onboard very much felt like traveling on a ultra-low-cost-carrier.

After the initial drink and snack service, the flight attendants disappeared for the rest of the light.

As I mentioned above, we had ordered our lunches and no one said anything at all about them. When I finally asked a flight attendant while she was selling drinks, she indicated that our meals were loaded but they did not know who they belonged to.

Maybe TAROM is just terribly unorganized, but I’d like to think our meals were listed somewhere in the flight paperwork Then again, I had the same problem on British Airways.

There was a warm hello upon boarding, so it’s not like the cabin crew was hostile–but to disappear for over two hours felt a little bit much.

CONCLUSION

We landed to a cold, foggy, rainy evening in Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport and thankfully pulled up into a gate with a jetbridge.

It wasn’t a bad flight, but it also was not a good one…once again TAROM–like so many European carriers–demonstrates how much better US carriers are on shorter routes with seatback screens, power ports, and Wi-Fi internet.