Boat flight to Palma / Nice

[Guest]

Dear All,

You were all so helpful in my earlier post that i thought i would ask your advice on this one as im in the charter airline business.

Depart LUTON @ 15:00 Friday afternoon Arrive Nice / Palma 18:00

Depart Palma / Nice @ 18:30 Sunday Evening Arrive Luton 19:30

Every weekend from May - September

I need an idea of interested numbers, and any comments you may have, regarding demand etc.

This flight would be dedicated to boat owners as a private flight and in order to book a seat you would have to have join the club (£25) it would not be possible to pop down to "Thomas Cook" and book seats for this flight.

Depending on demand, return ticket price should be in the region of £150 - 250
the more people that sign up, the cheaper it gets.

Interested to hear what you have to say, for's and against, departure / destination airfields etc?

Thanks

Nick

 

[hlb]

Well not much good to me. Mines in Plymouth. If you can divert cos of fog. And reduce cost to about 25 quid return. I'm with you. But

Have you sent off Your Stamped. SAE and cheque. Yet.

Haydn

 

[alpha]

As I'm in the 'flying aeroplanes for easyJet' business, and we fly Luton and Gatwick to Nice about twelve times a day (aside from serving Nice from Liverpool, Amsterdam, and Geneva), and to Palma six times a day or so (from memory), and and if you book in advance it's no-where near £150, might I respectfully suggest that a visit to www.easyJet.com might be a good idea?

Sorry, got the feeling I may have wet someone's bonfire.

 

[stewart]

I do Luton - Palma every second weekend through the summer, nearly always with Easyjet. I guess on average I pay around £150. Are you thinking big charter airline or something closer to private jet?

Could be interested....

 

[Guest]

Having done the trip a few times last summer, i just thought that if a dedicated aircraft with 50 odd seats was available it would be a bit less stressful than Easyjet.

Dont get me wrong easyjet and the likes are great, but not if you try and book a couple of days before departure, it is normally very expensive and the bun fight to get on board is not really my cup of tea, but hey it was only a thought.

Cheers

 

[DavidJ]

Now if it were Birmingham - Nice then yes yes yes
David

 

[ChrisW]

Why not target Yachtcaptains and crew in Club de Mar / Puerto Portals / RCN in Palma and the same in Nice. They forever have to fly between marinas and UK I myself can think of several skippers who would be interested.

 

[DavidJ]

Alpha
Didn't realise that easyjet did Luton-Nice (much better for me in Brum) -thanks.
Looked up the price for when I'm going out in a couple of weeks and it's £20.40 outbound £25.90 rerturn plus a few taxes.
looks good to me
David

 

[tcm]

Re: not so!!!

gatwick to nice on saturday 1st june and return the following week sunday cost £1455 for three adults plus one child when booked in feb. It is indeed nowhere near 150 quid...it's more. Check your own site, and ignore the bollox about £9 to Nice. It's widely felt that there are only a few such tickets, probably midweek in november ....

 

[tcm]

Biggin-cannes

a great idea. BUT needs to be organised ages in advance, and may go from the wrong airport at the wrong time for thos e with kids at skool for example. Agreed short-notice stuff quite expensive.

 

[alpha]

Re: not so!!!

tcm, I didn't claim we were always cheap, or always cheapest. Demand always drives our fares. Nonetheless, I hope you have a great flight, that we're on time, and that we serve you well. That's what we strive to do - honestly.

I can't, personally, see any success in a specifically chartered aircraft for boat users. Yes, it's a lovely idea, but not one that could 'take off' IMHO.

 

[tcm]

flame grilled kebab

"serving" liverpool and "striving" to do this or that? And what was that flying six times to palma "from memory"? It's all rather sickeingly grovelly grovelly isn't it?

How about :

"It's a fair cop tcm! It's Easyjet policy to advertise an incredibly low fare which applies only to one or two seats per flight, then we whack up the cost of the other seats. We mugged you and thousand others in just the same way!! Actually, we're hardly any cheaper than anyone else, but we hire dirt cheap idiot staff, we're based at horrible cheapy Luton and there's no free anything so we make a few quid. The best thing about easyjet is that it makes arriving anywhere at all seem so much nicer ...than the plane. And I'm afraid to admit that Easyrentacar is even worse and uses the old "damage to car" ruse to whistle up another 100 quid per customer. "

see? Betcha won't be giving us all that company blarney again now will you eh?

 

[tcm]

erm i just reread the pst carefully ( which I hardly ever do!) and you're in the charter airline biz. So...how bout nice trips to med BUT use the not so busy aerodromes eh? Like ooh umm Biggin Hill, v handy off the M25, and even more handy if you erm live near Bromely ahem. And go to Cannes which is cheaper to land at than Nice? And another thing i wonder if praps you might allow for the fact that perhaps some people can't go while kids at school so mebbe take off a bit later? Also, can I have those 4 seats over there every weekend, yes two together and another two together no, not those the other ones behind and any ole cheap champagne will be fine. Ta.

 

[alpha]

Re: flame grilled kebab

tcm,

You're free to do what you want to do with your life, and I'll do what I want to do with mine.

You don't know what you're talking about and I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you. Some of us were having a grown-up discussion about the relative merits of different ways of getting to France and Spain, but obviously it was well above your level.

There's nothing wrong in working hard for something you believe in - and I believe in the very substantial earnings I shall be making out of easyJet, in salary, allowances, and share options, along with the fact that I've got a secure, stable, and interesting job. Maybe you subscribe to the 'must whinge about work' philosophy - if you do, then you're welcome to it.

 

[coliholic]

Or you could do Buzz, Stansted to Toulon, or as they call it St Tropez, dates you mentioned earlier, £200 return each and have Richard pick you up there

 

[tcm]

Re: nearly a good idea

except that toulon is £500 quid away in boat fuel each way.

 

[DavidJ]

budget flights

Alpha
Although tcm's reply was a bit 'direct' he has a point which seems to apply to all budget airlines. Having just paid £200 Brum to Dublin (lad's weekend!) for a Ryanair flight which is advertised as 'from £15' I feel a little deceived since although the statement is true there is an implication of low cost. This type of marketing is very short-termist since it leaves the traveler with a sour taste.
David

 

[tcm]

Well above your level

alpha, I thought that your overt Easyjet advertising a bit stomach churning. I'm not "whingeing about work" but "whingeing about Easyjet". I make the trip praps 8-10 times a year and I'm afraid that easyjet is quite a nasty experience. I've driven cars, been by train, cycled, and flown by shcduled, charter plane, and several times have chartered private jets, which although a lot more expensive, is a million times more pleasant. "Nickster" suggested a group booking, and that too would be more pleasant than Easyjet - but you bounced in with the company line, adverts, and prices that simplyaren't available during the summer. Don't pretend that your comments were a "sensible disuccusion " because they weren't. There is a life outside easyjet. A more attractive option for some than leading/chasing the market downhill towards an ever cheaper service might be to offer an obviously more superior and better service. Only in these days of hopeless trains does it seem "quite good" that 90% of easyjet flights are less than an hour late. I note that London restaurants check each booking these days, an hour or so before, by mobile phone. Wouldn't a realy good service do the same, check everyone by mobile and and call everyone back if the flight was going to be delayed before they struggled to the airport to be delayed 2 hours? Yes, it would. Would I pay extra for that service? Yes, I would. Do I object to being attracted by a cheap fare and then feel "done" when the cheap fare is an illusion. Yes I do.

Discuss!

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: Well above your level

A bit tough on Captain Biggles to blow him out of the sky so comprehensively, tcm. The likes of Easyjet are filling a market niche for peeps wanting lowest common denominator air travel and paying £250 return to Nice is a lot more palatable than the £600 or so that BA would rip you off for Club. OK, so advertising a cheap price which you can only get on a wet Tuesday in November is sharp practice but nobody can seriously expect an airline to sell all their seats for £30 - I mean that doesnt even put fuel in the plane or pay a bloke to check the wings arent falling off or fund alpha's share options. The upshot is that they're selling air travel a whole lot cheaper than the national carrier monopolies used to and thats a good thing
BTW, how long did it take you to cycle to Cannes and did you take in the Tour de France en route?

 

[tcm]

Re: get on your bike

it was 1978, took me just over 3 weeks to monte carlo and back, essentially 11 days each way from Leeds. Everything worked, and nothing went wrong. No engines involved, see.

Forgive the nastiness, alpha. But I felt it was rather overt advertising, and irrelevant, rather like someone planning a trip across to Cherbourg and then a Brittany Ferries pilot bounces in with prices? Whatever.