I had a funeral to attend back home in the UK and as it was the peak season prices for flights were very high. I thought I was lucky that LEVEL had introduced flights from London Gatwick to Vienna, as the prices were very good. What I discovered is that flying with an airline that was literally thrown together in weeks has its disadvantages.

I got to LGW yesterday quite early for VK4053 which was scheduled to depart at 18:20, leaving me plenty of time to catch a bus from VIE to home in Bratislava. Unfortunately, things started going pear shaped from that point on. The departure board initially showed an hour's delay, that slipped to 2 hours which was more of a problem. I went down to the agents' desk and asked if they'd be providing some vouchers or refreshments and I was told that they don't issue vouchers at Gatwick for anything less than 3 hours. I don't know if the agent thought I was stupid, but when I told him that the airline has a duty of care after a 2 hour delay, he just repeated that they can't issue vouchers. With that I went off to buy something to eat and drink as I was hungry. It wasn't until I'd left the counter at Pret a Manger that I realised that they hadn't given me a receipt, drat!

The delay crept to 3 hours at which point I returned to the agents' desk to ask what was the cause of delay, only to find that the agent had completely disappeared. Another member of staff said that she didn't know where he was or when someone would turn up. There was a line of people waiting for information and one of them was on the phone trying to get someone from the airline to say if they would refund any food purchases. Apparently they wouldn't give an answer.

We had conflicting information about the delay, with late aircraft arrival to VIE, then bad weather in the Vienna area delaying the departure to LGW for our flight being given as reasons. Boarding eventually started 3 hours late and then we had to sit on the aircraft for another 45 minutes before they could depart for some reason which I didn't catch. They did during this time serve a glass of 'complimentary' water to everyone, but when I said to the crew member serving me that the airline should be providing some food (by this time it was nearly a 4 hour delay), he just looked at me with a cheesed off look and sarcastically said that they would be starting off with water now. Needless to say, the 'buy on board' service commenced later, as usual.

We arrived at VIE at 1 am only to be dumped at a remote stand. With minutes to go before the last bus to Bratislava for 5 and a half hours I had absolutely no chance of making it through passport control in time, so spent the night at the airport. Deep joy, thanks LEVEL for the 'new airline for a new generation' experience.

I will be firing off a complaint about the fact that they are flouting EU regulations for delays but I don't expect to have much luck. I will definitely avoid this airline like the plague in future.