low fair airlines - have your say

[Guest]

Ahoy me hearties - I'm writing a feature on flying out to the Med to enjoy your boat in sunnier climes where the mooring fees are in some cases cheaper than the UK. Flights are cheap and services are regular and go to Med boating hotspots like Palma, Malaga and Nice. To add spice to the piece, does anyone have any low fare airline horror stories? Or grace-saving tales where service and timing was spot on? Anyone who has been watching the fly-on-the-wall programme on how Easyjet's customer service deal with complaints will appreciate cheap does not always mean cheerful.
Are there any first hand accounts, good or bad, out there?
Prizes... er, your name in MBY if you want it.. and a bottle of Rum for Tale of the Feature
stirls

 

[stewart]

Fly Easyjet Luton-Palma pretty much every other weekend and virtually never had a serious delay. Luton airport is great, modern and no long walk to the planes (and it takes me 15 mins to get there!). Planes are all pretty new and everything runs fine. Much better than the couple of times I've flown with Go which seems far worse, tatty dirty planes and much bigger queues at check in. (I don't work for Easyjet by the way!)

Never really saw the point of boating in the UK when it's only 4 1/2 hours door to door to Mallorca when it can take nearly that to get to Poole from Hertfordshire on a Friday night!

 

[tcm]

I've been on the cheapy flights and it was quite late setting off. AND it was late getting there too. Also, there were loads of cheapy people, and none of them getting sloshed on free champagne. It was awful. Do I win the rum??

 

[DavidJ]

BA flight to Nice (admittedly on airmiles otherwise it would be £'s x lots)
Great crew, really chatty holiday mood people. On time, ok leg room, food ok.
highly recommended.....what has happened to BA ...a turnaround??
David
ps Taxi fare a bit steep to La Napoule at 65 Euros though

 

[Guest]

thanks to tcm, David and stewart.
The consensus seems so far to be cheapies ain't too bad. No free champers, but I guess you save that for the boat if there's cause for celebration (...a weekend off the Solent!). What has happened to BA? Perhaps this week's profits revelation will work in the boater's favour, as BA will hopefully maintain its high standards but drop its prices.

I suppose one solution in high season for the MBY Chat Club who keep their boats in same area (Palma?) is to charter a private plane Friday-Monday and split the cost. tcm?
Keep them coming pls.

 

[Guest]

thanks to tcm, David and stewart.
The consensus seems so far to be cheapies ain't too bad. No free champers, but I guess you save that for the boat if there's cause for celebration (...a weekend off the Solent!). What has happened to BA? Perhaps this week's profits revelation will work in the boater's favour, as BA will hopefully maintain its high standards but drop its prices.

I suppose one solution in high season for the MBY Chat Club who keep their boats in same area (Palma?) is to charter a private plane Friday-Monday and split the cost. tcm?
Keep them coming pls.

 

[david_e]

Been using Ryanair quite a bit on biz lately and found them extremely cheap, well organised, on time and full, says it all really. Went to Jersey at the w/e with BMI, on return they had cancelled our seats for no reason at all. Managed to get on OK in the end 'cause the engineer went in the jump seat, but was a bit scary for a while 'cause the kids were back with my folks and wearing them a bit thin! I don't think that BMI can cope with the extra traffic brought by all the bods like us using them 'cause of Sainsbugs rewards etc.

 

[athew]

Here's how Ryanair make their money – Second time to Biarritz our return to UK was hampered by very heavy, very slow traffic on the autoroute a few miles from the airport. Called the airport to find that our plane was late anyway. Traffic REALLY bad and we arrived 4 mins after checkin deadline. (No aircraft for another half hour and folks are still making their way to departure area). Our seats were still there, no standby available, plenty room on the aircraft but we were disallowed checkin – even although carrying only handluggage. Cost £90 for a new ticket for next day . . . not so cheap and certainly not a cheerful Madame on the desk. I know for a fact in similar circumstances BA would not have blinked at a situation like this . . .

You pays yer money . . . . .

A

keep smiling . . .

 

[david_e]

Re: cancelled flights

bit unfortunate this, if you ever have to cancel a flight or whatever, don't forget to get all the extra charges and fees back.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

BA = Bloody Awful

Wrong. I use BA regularly. I was recently refused check in at Venice airport 30mins before scheduled departure time despite the fact that the incoming plane had not yet arrived. After making a big fuss, I was told that the reason was that catering was 2 meals short. After promising not to eat a meal on the plane, I was allowed on. Oh yes, that was with a £600 club class ticket(now £700).
Or how about the time my BA plane landed at Stuttgart instead of Frankfurt because they didnt have enough fuel to stack at Frankfurt. Lucky me, I thought, as my eventual destination was nearer Stuttgart than Frankfurt, I'll get off here but, oh no, you cant do that sir, we're only here to refuel and, in any case, weve not made any arrangements for passengers to get off here. So, back to Frankfurt then
Or the time the BA check in desks (Venice again) didnt open until 45 mins before take off and closed 20mins later with half the plane not checked in. A near riot, that one
I could write a book
I've also used the cheapie airlines and really there's no fundamental difference between any of them and BA. OK, you dont get a meal and you have to adopt the foetal position if you're my size and the cabin crew has an average age of 12 but the planes dont seem to be older than BA's, in fact probably newer.

 

[jfm]

I use BA a lot, low-fare firms quite a bit, and other carriers occasionally.

I use the low fare airlines mostly not becos of the low fare (which is often non-existent, unless you are very off peak) but becos they happen to go there. Eg if you want Pisa for a day, you need Ryanair and Stansted. If you live in northern home counties say, Easyjet is often better becos Luton. etc

I find the easyjet people generally helpful. I missed a flight a few months ago, and they just got me on the later one, no charge, all unofficial, but they can just fix things on the ground. They treat you much better if you're nice to them obviously, cos they seem to get lots of miserable gits complaining about lack of frills in the service, whic is how it's meant to be DOH. The ezj planes are always new, Ryanair less so.

BA can treat you badly, but depends. Cabin crew very inconsistently positioned along the nice-versus-dragon spectrum. Your chances of being bumped around are much less if gold card holder, but if lower grade card or no card they seem to treat you less well. One of the membership benefits is you can pitch up at a shed of an airport like the caribbean ones, in sweltering heat, holding cheapie holiday tickets, with screaming kids in tow, and walk right past the queue and check in at first class with free drinks etc, and in those cases BA is great. Their long haul club is also superb, except rows E&F because that basically invloves sharing a double bed with someone. Fine if wife, not so fine if bloke in suit.

But the big point in choosing a carrier is "do they go between the 2 cities I want", and then "do the times suit", cos if you choose on any other basis, you add at least 1 hour to the trip, which is too much if you are trying to do a weekend trip

 

[kghowe]

Will,
We've only just started using 'cheap air' but so far the experience has been great, no problems. We flew to Nice last week booked a car and back again in 24hrs. All through the comfort of my laptop and when we turned up with our email in hand the Easyjet personnel just smiled and ashured us through to departures.

As far as flight bookings go I'd say look carefully at times and days you want to fly. Bank holiday ain't going to be cheap. Sometimes you can get flights ultra cheap one way and get caught on the return, move your date on 24hrs and it could save you a £100!

Treat it like a bus journey, take your own on board refreshment, and you'll do just fine. Don't forget its cheap cause its no frills, so don't expect any!

Beats BA, AA, SAS for time keeping and destinations out of the norm.
Regards
Kevin

 

[EME]

The opportunity to have my say ..oh yes please. I suppose I have to start with that terrible 'article' written in this month's MBY on 'low-cost' airlines. How much did it cost Stellios to get that written? It was very shallow, I'd have written an (unbiased) piece for free with real tips. Having spent 20 years in the Commercial side of aviation and now working for Opodo I would have been only too willing to try and help people like myself who travel to the Med regularly.
Understandably, for many of us , knowing how to minimise the cost of travel to the Med around different criteria is VERY important. There are a number of critical factors involved in deciding with whom , from where . Sorry guys the article was just a poor space filler and just not up to your normal standards.

Oh my views on 'Low Cost'...

Not necessarily cheaper .....unless you book before I have sorted my diary out and you manage to get their 'headline' fares
Efficient till they 'lose' the daily operation . When that happens the knock-on effects in my experience are disastrous
I hate Luton airport

Why? I'm not writing cheques ?

 

[Jeremy_W]

You've only mentioned three destinations - what about the sites not served by the obvious carriers? What about joining a vessel in one port, travelling to another country and wanting a cheap one-way flight-only inward bound to the UK? It's easy if you know how. Happy researching!

 

[jfm]

Re: low fair airlines/ Will St\'ling moonlights

I'm beginning to see that the cheap airlines will never please everyone. Unlike Learner, I think Luton Airport is great - you park your car right by the building, quick walk through to the gate. No 3/4 mile walks like LHR/LGW. Generally, smaller the better where airports are concerned.

Anyway Will, I see you've been moonlighting, I just read a home cinema article you wrote in a home furnishing mag! Or are you a house furnishing journalist moonlighting on a boat mag?

 

[JohnR]

Re: low fair airlines/ Will St\'ling moonlights

Luton is an hour from home via the M25, LGW is 40 mins cross country, hence I prefer LGW. Flew in there yesterday on a BA Charter Avro 100, only 7 of us on the flight, I bought bucket shop tickets 2 days before for 70Euros each. 6 weeks ago I flew Luton/Gib. on a scheduled cheapie for about £140 for two tickets which compared with a BA flight 15 minutes later from Gatwick for which they wanted over £1000. For a £900 saving I am quite happy to slum it in Luton.

 

[Guest]

You pays your money and you take your chances.
A few years ago I used easyjet all the time to go back and forth to Nice, whilst we were based at La Napoule and it was great then. At £39.50 each way it was fantastic value, flying in a brand new US$50 million dollar plus, airplane for two hours, and then in a taxi for a similar amount of Euro's to the Marina!.
Problem is now everyone else is switched on to it, the fares are sky high, despite what the low cost adverts try to tell you , with naff all, third reich, third world customer service, with expensive drinks and snacks that you can buy cheaper in Harrods, get the picture?
The television doesn't lie, the service stinks and so do the customers nowadays. LbowsRus at the boarding gate, with all the usual IMAVIP's pulling the same old stunts in an attempt to get a better seat first, no thanks!
I recently checked out the last minute cost to Athens from LUTON (last minute being 2 weeks ahead!) £239 per person each way!!.At that rate it will be cheaper soon to keep the boat in Los Angeles, with free meals and drinks thrown in on the flight too.
No shipmates, check you destinations and marina's carefully, choose somewhere that is relatively accessible on charter flights throughout the summer months, and you can go reasonably cheaply, with a naff meal included in the price, thrown in too.
You pays your money and you takes...................

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by peterS on 30/07/2002 03:43 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[ccscott49]

Just go on the internet and see the quotes from easyjet and go to Palma from Stanstead, some are frightening, some are cheap, no rhyme or reason to it, I will use them when I can get the cheap price, I can put up with a cattle truck and the cattle for two hours, if it costs 40 squids to Palma.

 

[tcm]

Re: Europa - better by far!

Will's nice article missed out Europa airlines who are spanish. 80 quid for adults to spain one-way, 65 quid for kids, includes actual real food, and the drinks are cheap. Also they wear proper clothes not rubbish orange t-shirts. And, the last 2 rows are smoking, and unoccpied so i had a rather fab flight with massive space dead cheap.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Europa - better by far!

Where do they fly from in UK and to in spain, please?