You can now fly the Qatar Airways Qsuite in business class from Manchester Airport

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• TripRep says:

  15 Jan15 January 09:37

  If BoJo was really canny he’d just cut APD to/from the remote regions that are heavily dependent on FlyBE connectivity.

  So FlyBE benefits but other carriers don’t.

  eg LHR-ABZ/EDI doesn’t need a APD cut as BA operates on that route.

  • Muzer says:

    15 Jan15 January 09:55

    This sounds sensible to me. I mean one of the benefits of APD is that it at least in part covers the environmental impact of air travel. If Flybe can’t afford to pay for flights on “profitable” routes then they frankly don’t deserve to be in business. I shall be writing to my MP about this one (not that she’s likely to listen).

    • Stu_N says:

      15 Jan15 January 10:21

      Exempt Devon, Cornwall and NI then cut duty for other domestic flights that don’t start and end in London.

      That would do the job wouldn’t it?

    • TripRep says:

      15 Jan15 January 10:58

      It’s good PR for BoJos much famed one nation outlook.

      It also should stop Willie whining as BA are not directly competing with FlyBE on these vital routes for marginalised communities.

      It’s a compromise that XR & co won’t like, but the general tax payer will stomach.

  • John says:

    15 Jan15 January 10:19

    I believe that would constitute state aid so they have to do something more complicated.

  • marcw says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:00

    The problem is they aren’t that remote: land transportation is crap. That’s why the region connectivity is relies on land transportations. Except for NI and other small islands, they need good air links… but I believe there’s no APD so… essentially FlyBe business model doesn’t work.

  • the_real_a says:

    15 Jan15 January 16:22

    And also a cut to places that currently DONT have a connection to London. From HUY i would need to change in AMS to get to LHR which is ridiculous.

• MattB says:

  15 Jan15 January 09:46

  I had about £50 worth that went to payable last week but then reversed to pending or approved a day later before I could pay out. The stuff that went back to pending I wasn’t expecting to get as I had returned the items etc or it was from hotel bookings I hadn’t actually stayed at yet. Looks like they had a system issue which made a load of transactions incorrectly marked as payable. I still have >£150 at payable I was going to wait for next 25% bonus but might just cash in now.

• James says:

  15 Jan15 January 10:29

  Hi All

  OT – How does AMEX platinum travel insurance work? Do I need to manually enroll?

  I have a trip to the US but booked with BAPP card, would this be an issue?

  TIA

  • Charlieface says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:01

    No it’s automatic.
    Some coverage requires payment with ANY Amex, most coverage you can pay with any card. SO you’re OK. But check the documentation yourself

• sayling says:

  15 Jan15 January 10:39

  I don’t understand how cutting APD is supposed to help – if the amount charged is the same, regardless of the airline flying the route, it doesn’t affect competitiveness. Plus the amount collected goes straight to the government anyway, so is effectively excluded from the P&L, isn’t it?

  • Charlieface says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:01

    Helps them compete with train, which for domestic is their main competitor.

  • Andy says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:04

    I’m far from an expert, but is the competition aspect here not between various airlines, but the choice between flying and taking the train, or just driving yourself to the destination?

    • Cormac says:

      15 Jan15 January 15:23

      Virgin Connect said they would look into dropping routes that can be achieved by rail or road in a competitive amount of time. If it can be done in under 5 hours, and the flight isn’t profitable, then it shouldn’t operate. Interregional flight connectivity in England doesn’t need to be as high unless you’re going to Cornwall; Newquay to the north England is understandable, Exeter to Manchester less so and it’s the ticket price that probably deters potential users.

  • Genghis says:

    15 Jan15 January 17:33

    Won’t impact P&L. APD is paid after the flight is taken. As such, accounting is Dr cash, Cr APD payable acct (balance sheet) when customer pays and this gets reversed out once paid to HMRC. However, not paying HMRC helps with cash flow. Most business fail not due to lack of profitability but lack of cash.

    • Doug M says:

      15 Jan15 January 20:32

      Wouldn’t a lack of cash be a lack of profitability to generate the cash? Unless of course directors are extracting too much of the cash, which makes the deferred tax ‘bailout’ even more palatable.
      I get new businesses can struggle initially, but Flybe are established and consequentially are victims of their own business model. If a mature company lacks cash surely they’ve just been spending more than their income, hence unprofitable?

      • Shoestring says:

        15 Jan15 January 20:43

        as I mentioned elsewhere on thread, Flybe got hit hard by the credit card cos, who are hanging on to more of Flybe’s cash from advance sales than they used to

        no idea how much is involved – Flybe’s annual revenue 2018 was £752.8m – so it is not fanciful to see the credit card cos hanging onto an extra £50m of Flybe’s cash

  • John says:

    15 Jan15 January 18:25

    They can raise the fare element by the amount of the APD thus keeping more money while passengers pay the same, or the total cost to passengers becomes cheaper which entices demand.

• BJ says:

  15 Jan15 January 10:55

  OT @Rob: Any idea if we are getting news on Virgin AF/KLM today?

  • Rhys says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:06

    Your guess is as good as ours! I expect we’ll get a press release of some sort at least…

    • BJ says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:09

      Thanks, I guess we’ll have to be patient a bit longer 🙂 Looking for an alternative to JAL for FB miles but I don’t hold out much hope that Virgin will bd it.

  • Rob says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:06

    I was with the head of Flying Club on Monday and even he didn’t know …

    • BJ says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:11

      Odd!

    • TripRep says:

      15 Jan15 January 15:02

      That doesn’t surprise me.

      I had another tiresome experience with FC this morning, misinformed yet again. Tired to charge me 2x change fees for booking the rtn legs onto an existing outbound, despite being promised 2 weeks ago it wouldn’t be charged.

      Eventually, patience, politeness and perseverance paid off.

• andy says:

  15 Jan15 January 11:25

  OT – Question about Curve charges on NSANDI transactions. I know it’s going to be 1.5% on HMRC payments after the 24th January (so paid my tax bill already).They said that would be a trial before introducing the charge on payments to NSANDI etc. So…I’m assuming that means that on the 28th January I’m still ok to use my curve card to put a bit of my monthly salary into premium bonds without being hit by a charge?
  If so, any word how long the “trial” will be before they charge for NSANDI

  • jc says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:36

    There’s no official date. The trial period could be now til 24th for all we know.

    Just make sure you have a bank debit card loaded in to your Curve app, and then go wild: if you do get hit with the 1.5% you can “Go back in time” and switch the payment to the debit card. They’ve confirmed that this will revert the 1.5% fee.

    • memesweeper says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:57

      Go back in time is limited to transactions under £1,000 IIRC, so start small!

      • jc says:

        15 Jan15 January 14:43

        Not if you get charged the 1.5%, it isn’t. In that case they will still honour a GBIT – just have to request by email within 14 days. This is all explained in their FAQ.

    • John says:

      15 Jan15 January 18:26

      Did they not say they would inform us before adding any more merchants besides HMRC

• Chalieface says:

  15 Jan15 January 11:59

  Re FlyBE:
  https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-measures-on-regional-connectivity

  Nothing like a government “review”. Sir Humphrey, here we come.

• Istvan says:

  15 Jan15 January 12:32

  Partly Qatar Airways, but OT:
  Just want to be 100% before forking out: Does Qatar and/or Qantas have a full refund cancelation policy within 24 hours of booking for non-refundable tickets, similar to BAs?

  • EvilDoctorK says:

    15 Jan15 January 13:24

    I don’t think so, but you can do a 72 hour ‘hold’ on an itinerary for a fairly nominal fee ( not refundable against the price I don’t think , but it’s not much – $ 15 maybe … comes up at the final stage of the booking process as an alternative to Paying with credit card there and then )

  • Leigh says:

    15 Jan15 January 19:13

    Qantas only provides the 24h cancellation if booked in the US, but not here

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