And the new Flybe brand will be ….

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• Guy G says:

  15 Oct15 October 16:48

  Sorry for the OT.

  I’m going to book at WTP flight from NYC > LON and from the availability I have two options:

  1) 747-400
  2) 777-200

  I’ve done a bit of research it and have a broad idea. The 747-400 is older, more padded, extended foot rest. Think they have broadly similar cabin sizes albeit in different parts of the plane

  Does anyone have any experience (or strong opinion) on the the two? Happy to accept any recommendations!

  Thanks

  Guy

  • Ben says:

    15 Oct15 October 19:59

    On the 747, you could in theory be stuck with a plane with poor IFE and a seat from 20 years ago if you are unfortunate enough to get on one of the unrefurbished Mid-J planes…

    Don’t quote me on this, but I think the 777’s on the NYC route have more uptodate cabins.

    • Stu N says:

      15 Oct15 October 21:27

      For 747, if PE is rows 33+ it’s definitely a refurbished super-Hi J one. If PE is 11+ it’s a mid-J of which about half have new IFE. You’re unlikely to get an unrefurbished 747 on London – New York as they have the same crappy IFE in all cabins and BA won’t want F and CW passengers to have the old kit on that route.

      I’d lean towards a 747 – if only because they aren’t going to be around much longer – but if timing of 747 option is poor it’s not enough of a difference to swing it for me.

  • Simon says:

    16 Oct16 October 06:44

    I believe 777 has lower carbon emissions per seat, if that weighs on your mind.

• Brett says:

  15 Oct15 October 21:13

  Shame they have ditched DSA, as flybe it was a profitable hub for them

  • Rob says:

    15 Oct15 October 22:01

    Full does not equal profitable. This point was made clearly today.

• Graeme says:

  15 Oct15 October 21:27

  Their Aberdeen to Heathrow route will be binned ASAP in favour of another route from Heathrow. When does the 3 year period end, must be soon?

• stevenhp1987 says:

  15 Oct15 October 22:14

  I wonder what this means for Southampton airport. They are the major airline here and the ability to “connect” is limited to Manchester.

  The current connection availability with Virgin in Manchester is poor with the current slots.

  If you include partners then Paris (AF) and Amsterdam (KLM). Are we going to see them focusing on providing passengers for partners too? If so, will they be available on one ticket in FC miles?

  Hopefully flights available via FC miles soon. Got a stash that need using!

  • Andrew says:

    15 Oct15 October 23:32

    Don’t Flybe fly to Edinburgh?

    Should be opportunity to connect with Delta to Newark and Boston.

  • Mikeact says:

    16 Oct16 October 08:31

    +1

• memesweeper says:

  15 Oct15 October 22:43

  I think the first Virgin Connect name prediction on the HfP sites pages was in the comments section by someone called memesweeper. Perhaps you should reward that prescient individual with a guaranteed and free ticket to the Xmas party 🙂

  • Rob says:

    16 Oct16 October 09:12

    Sure that can be arranged!

    • memesweeper says:

      16 Oct16 October 19:12

      Many thanks! 🙂 I’ve managed to nab a ticket in the draw three times on the bounce and don’t fancy chancing my luck again!

• Sam Mcfadden says:

  15 Oct15 October 22:45

  Could stop ripping flyers off by charging people for hand luggage without informing them that the bag size has changed , disgraceful!

  • Philip says:

    16 Oct16 October 07:17

    Agreed. I got stung for £35 at Belfast City on the exact same flight I had taken a fortnight earlier.

    TBF, during on-line check-in there was a notice to check the size of one’s carry-on luggage. But there was NO warning to advise that the acceptable dimensions had changed! Shoddy behaviour, which has meant that FlyMayBe are off my Christmas card list.

    What was most insulting though was the woman at the boarding gate, who could not contain her glee when she discovered that my bag was out of gauge.

    She excused it on the basis that FlyMayBe was cracking down, but I couldn’t help thinking that she – and other gate stuff – must be being incentivised to do so.

    How much of the £35 they got would be interesting to find out. On my flight to LCY there were 10+ bags which were subject to the levy. At even £5 per bag, that’s a tidy £50+ going to the gate staff. Multiply that by the nearly 40 flights per day from BHD and that’s a lot of incentivisation. Ditto other airports.

    One thing is for sure, when a company resorts to such underhand means to obtain its income, it is seriously on the slide. Passengers will either adapt to the new rules or travel with another carrier entirely. FlyMayBe probably got a short term boost from this sneaky scam, but will have lost in the long term.

    • planeconcorde says:

      16 Oct16 October 08:00

      In the last ten days I have flown FlyBe three times. On each occasion the day before travel I was sent an email explaining the cabin baggage rules and the options available to travel with larger baggage. They are certainly making sure those passengers where they have an email address are being informed in advance of reaching the airport.

      • Rob says:

        16 Oct16 October 09:07

        Fee has been cut from £50 to £35 for gate checked oversize bags.

    • Zoe says:

      16 Oct16 October 08:11

      What really takes the biscuit is when you complain their go to cut and paste answer is that ‘customer feedback’ had driven the change. They declined to answer how many customers had requested these draconian charges. They declined to provide the question used on any passenger survey. We took the wheels off our (several mm oversized) cases for our return where of course they were not even checked. At Southampton you were getting checked before security and sent to the extra ‘customer service’ desk for the pleasure of paying for the bags to go in the hold. As soon as hell freezes over l’ll be recommending them.

      • Andrew says:

        16 Oct16 October 11:57

        ‘customer feedback’

        People were always whining that they couldn’t fit their bags in the bins on the Q400s, or that the bins were full before they had boarded, so I have no doubt there was “feedback”.

• Spaghetti Town says:

  16 Oct16 October 03:35

  Hear me out…So the flights flybe currently fly into Heathrow, don’t the slots actually belong to BA but can be made available to any airline wanting to using them for UK Domestic flights?

  Then after a certain number of years of flying those flights, the airline can take ownership of the slots?

  • Rob says:

    16 Oct16 October 09:11

    Correct. 3 years. But they remain restricted for European flights.

• Alex Sm says:

  16 Oct16 October 06:46

  I hope they will allow to claim retrospectively for post-Avios flights over the spring and summer! The only fair way

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