New British Airways route to Mykonos launched with decent Avios availability

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• Sam G says:

  24 Feb24 February 06:26

  Hi Rob, the Mykonos flight is actually London City-Mykonos-London Stansted on a Saturday and London Stansted-Mykonos-London City on a Sunday

  So you’ll have to mismatch London airports or holiday durations – the very civilized time means public transport will be possible to either airport at least!

  There are also various other partial cancellations at off peak times reported on Flyertalk, the Cityflyer operation seems much more simple and less crew intensive this year

  • John says:

    24 Feb24 February 07:08

    How is it mismatching, you can do STN-JMK-STN out Sunday back Saturday (which gives you a whole day to pack and unpack if you work M-F!)

    An LCY flight also operates every weekday…

    • Sam G says:

      24 Feb24 February 09:01

      I mean mismatching in the sense of not possible to do a standard 7- day duration from one airport. Obviously workable either using LCY or LHR in combo or doing a 6 or 13 night duration

• BJ says:

  24 Feb24 February 07:16

  Rob, it seems like your belief that Virgin would not use Flybe to feed longhaul from LHR was wrong unless they are happy just to benefit from the popularity of flights into LHR. Another possibility is that with Edinburgh being the most visited place in UK after London they see it the other way round with Virgin and Delta flight into London feeding Flybe into Edinburgh.. All a bit odd given they terminated their own Little Red service using aircraft’s at least twice the size. From BMI days I seem to recall there were changes at LHR which rendered the use of small aircraft like ERJ unattractive. Has something changed, there now seems to be an increasing number of small aircraft using LHR? If FlyBMI could not make their routes work then what makes Loganair think it can make them work?

  • Tom says:

    24 Feb24 February 08:02

    Hi BJ,
    Loganair will take over just six former Flybmi routes. What makes you think that those routes specifically were unviable?

    • BJ says:

      24 Feb24 February 08:59

      I was thinking more generally, based on Rob’s rough estimate of average loads in a previous article. But, sure, Loganair or anybody else picking up the pieces will certainly only pick those they think are viable..

  • Chris L says:

    24 Feb24 February 09:43

    I think I read somewhere that turboprops have lower handling fees at LHR hence why Flybe use the Dash 8s.

    • Bagoly says:

      24 Feb24 February 10:22

      Could this be because they leave less wake so facilitate closer packing of takeoffs?

      • Rob says:

        24 Feb24 February 10:23

        They are smaller planes though, so logically smaller fees because I think the landing fee is fixed.

      • Matthew says:

        24 Feb24 February 14:07

        Because they are slow compared to a jet on take off they normally require and extra minute before launching the next departure. So actually they cost ATC time. They are also the same wake category as a B737 or A320 for example.

    • TripRep says:

      24 Feb24 February 10:55

      Those Dash-8 Q400’s have a tiny amount of overhead luggage space, a bag that fits in a BA A319 will struggle to cram into a FlyBE plane. The dragons at the gate can be overly ruthless with enforcement on bag size.

      I can’t see many US Delta pax enjoying the experience, particularly when FlyBE charges £50 for the privilege of collecting hand luggage from the back of the aircraft after landing.

      Virgin should flog them and lease a decent aircraft for the ABZ/EDI- LHR routes, otherwise it could seriously damage the brand.

      • Froggee says:

        24 Feb24 February 12:46

        Yes it’s pretty un-passenger-friendly. I won’t fly them if connecting from EDI as can’t take a reasonable carry-on and chance of checked bag going AWOL is a little bit too high for my liking, And it has happened to me with FlyBE albeit connecting at Manchester and it was a real pain.

  • Rob says:

    24 Feb24 February 10:14

    It is more to do with Virgin having spare Heathrow slots I think.

    Little Red proved that people didn’t really want to do T2 to T3 connections. That said, obviously any additional revenue from a handful of connections is better than nothing.

    • Alan says:

      24 Feb24 February 12:20

      Although the dedicated transfer setup worked well from what I remember reading, T3 to T2 where security was required was a bit more of a pain but I can’t imagine that was the main issue overall given BA have exactly the same issue for T3 departures connecting to domestic T5 services…

  • Alan says:

    24 Feb24 February 12:15

    Really hoping they become available for redemption via VS Flying Club, would love to have this through-booking option on VS from EDI again!

• Allan says:

  24 Feb24 February 07:59

  I’ve had a Nice to Stanstead flight cancelled as a result of this. Had a connection booked on easyJet to Glasgow 1 hour later.
  A reroute to LCY is no good for making that connection and the only option is BA from Heathrow to GLA at £150pp
  BA saying it’s not their problem.
  Any advice on how best to resolve and what BAs duty is?

  • Tariq says:

    24 Feb24 February 08:16

    Depends when you’re due to fly, but I guess put you on an earlier flight out of NCE so that you can make the connection?

  • Andrew says:

    24 Feb24 February 08:26

    The only hope you have is to complain to BA AFTER you have flown and they will probably give you a few thousand Avios. Maybe see if you can get a LCY-GLA on Avios and spend them in advance.

    • Allan says:

      24 Feb24 February 09:31

      Sadly LCY-GLA doesn’t exist on a saturday

  • Catalan says:

    24 Feb24 February 09:37

    A one hour connection to a flight with a different carrier was cutting it fine to begin with!
    Could you not ask BA to re-route you NCE-LHR-GLA, pay the additional cost and then get a refund from easyJet?
    Their only obligation is to get you from Nice to London at a similar time on the same day.

    • Sam G says:

      24 Feb24 February 10:20

      Agreed – you’d almost certainly have missed this as you would have needed to clear immigration and security at Stansted which is no quick process on a summer Saturday!

      Have you checked Avios seats LHR-GLA – can sometimes offer up some options ? Though you are still risking a self-connect option. Otherwise I would take the BA refund and swap the Easyjet to Nice-Edinburgh

      • Allan says:

        24 Feb24 February 10:33

        Might have actually been 1.5 hour connection IIRC. NCE-EDI is good suggestion. Thanks.

• Yuff says:

  24 Feb24 February 08:04

  Can we expect to be able to use virgin miles on Flybe flights anytime soon?

  • Graeme says:

    24 Feb24 February 11:24

    This for me along with a Virgin equivalent of the RFS and free domestic connections for international redemption flights (like BA) will decide if I use Virgin coming from ABZ via LHR or MAN.

• chris1922 says:

  24 Feb24 February 08:17

  “Remember that you can still earn Avios on Flybe flights which are flown before 30th April”. I’m semi-regular on GLA-BHX and back, and have a few flights in the diary. BUT, my Avios account has been closed, where will any Avios I earn end up ? Or will I simply not earn then now ? I know it’s not much, but I use FlyBe more than BA (currently), so any earning opportunity is welcome.

  • Peter K says:

    24 Feb24 February 08:27

    Open an aer lingus/veuling account which can then be used on the avios.com website.

• Sapiens says:

  24 Feb24 February 08:36

  Apologies as no Bits:
  Girlfriend and I will be off to Oman for a week next month. Only booked Kempinski in Muscat so far. Any recommendations? (ex. Hilton Salaha).

  • Pf says:

    24 Feb24 February 09:55

    Anantara in Jabal Akhdar mountains is very nice. Alila also good nearby if you get a better deal. Need a four by four to drive up there, but you should be able to find a reasonable 4*4 rental from Muscat (cheaper than the hotel’s pick up charge). Note it will be a lot cooler in the Mountains than Muscat… Shanrgi La Al Husn near muscat also good, with nice beaches and free afternoon tea and free mini bar refills a nice touch (only at Al Husn, not the two sister, cheaper, Shamgri La next to it)

  • Jake Mcloughlin says:

    24 Feb24 February 10:04

    The shangri la (30 mins from muscat) is a great beach resort. Worth a few days to put your feet up or do some water sports.

    In terms of activities the grand mosque is stunning (particularly on the inside) and not as busy as the one in Abu Dhabi. The opera house and old souqes are worth a visit.

    We also hired a car and went to niswa fort.

    It was too hot when we went but the wadis (rivers) and outdoor actives are also supposed to be good. The hotel will be able to organise

  • Sapiens says:

    24 Feb24 February 11:21

    Pf & Jake thank you both. Noted on the Al Husn resort and I’m very excited to see the Al Niswa fort (gf less so) !

    • Clive says:

      24 Feb24 February 11:58

      I would suggest a day trip to Wadi Shab. You can also visit one of the sink holes on the way back to Muscat.

• Kev says:

  24 Feb24 February 09:12

  Disappointed about the cancellation of LCY-ORY flight – having taken it Mon-Thurs for the past 6 months it has always been full!

  • Nick says:

    24 Feb24 February 09:47

    ‘Fullness’ of flight does not equal money made… I and many others have been shouting about that here for years. The dimmest person in the world could fill any flight ten times over if allowed free rein to set fares… If the asset can be used more productively elsewhere then it absolutely should be.

    I have flown LCY-ORY, and did so because fares were fairly low (relative to other routes). This I think is more of a giveaway as to why it’s being canned.

    I doubt the €60 credits for the terminal cafe (in lieu of lounge) helped either.

  • Bob says:

    24 Feb24 February 11:09

    It could be that the first flight on monday and the last flight on thursday was full.
    Used in this case like you Kev, for passengers spending a week in Paris.

    But some flight reports have shown not great loads during other time of the day and week.

    And it was like this also with Cityjet/ AIr France (only AF coded or in codeshare later when Af sold Cityjet).

    I was surprised BA decided to try the route after Cityjet withdrawn it.
    But orly is a slot constrained airport like LHR.
    This is due to political reasons, otherwise ORY could do as many flights as LHR.
    So I guess BA was maybe also playing some slot sitting exercise at ORY.
    Either because BA want to do something else for LEVEL or needs maybe now to return some slots who were maybe attributed to air berlin.

    I remember taking this flight with Cityjet 20 years ago in the middle of the day.
    It was a very good one because of a load of 50% at that time already.

• MM says:

  24 Feb24 February 10:48

  OT. What travel insurance can peoole here recommend – not on basis of price, but cover and positive claims experience? Including cover for flights not starting in the UK and full medical without preapproval for emergencies? No preexisting conditions.

  • Rob says:

    24 Feb24 February 11:39

    MoneySavingExpert has done work on this – Liverpool Victoria at around £200 was (may still be) Best Buy.

    • TM says:

      24 Feb24 February 17:00

      At that price, you may as well get an Amex Platinum. I have only heard of positive experiences, but interested in others’ opinions…

      • Genghis says:

        24 Feb24 February 18:08

        Amex Plat excludes pre-existing medical conditions per their own definition.

  • Bonglim says:

    24 Feb24 February 20:43

    If you can meet the criteria than the HSBC premier insurance was good for us.
    We had a moderate pre-existing medical condition and it was covered without any extra premium.

    Oh, and it’s free.

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