Spend the night in an Etihad A320 – in Tenby

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• Mouse says:

  14 Nov14 November 04:26

  How does an airline that has most of its assets sitting idle for 5 days out of 7 make any money?

  • Dan Carey says:

    14 Nov14 November 04:43

    Who said they are idle for 5 days?

    • Mouse says:

      14 Nov14 November 05:20

      My assumption is that people typically go on holiday from Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday. Maybe not completely idle during the week, but much less utilised that at the weekend.

      • Dev says:

        14 Nov14 November 05:31

        You do realise that jet2 do operate multiple destinations on different days to utilise the planes rather than sitting on the ground. How do you think they can cover 17 routes with about 2/3 planes.

        • Mouse says:

          14 Nov14 November 06:24

          If you look at their schedule from Luton, it is not evenly spread over the week. More flights on weekends, very few on Tuesday & Thursday in particular.

      • Lumma says:

        14 Nov14 November 05:31

        It doesn’t make a difference, annual leave wise, what day you start a 7 day holiday.

        • pauldb says:

          14 Nov14 November 06:19

          I think you should draw yourself a diagram.

        • Dan Carey says:

          14 Nov14 November 06:20

          If your holiday stars on a Wednesday who cares. Most of the bookings come through tour operators. They can also move aircraft between bases.

        • Mouse says:

          14 Nov14 November 06:27

          Some tourist hotels in the kind of places they fly to insist on bookings starting and ending on a Saturday. Also, if you have an office job, if you take your holiday Saturday to Saturday you need 5 days off work and get a day at the end to get ready for going back. Wednesday to Wednesday is 6 days off and straight back in – I know which I prefer!

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          14 Nov14 November 07:16

          Mouse – if a package holiday company is going to bring a hotel thousands of room nights in sales you work with what the airline wants not some self imposed rigid “we only work on Saturday – Saturday stays” rule.

        • CJD says:

          14 Nov14 November 07:53

          If I go Saturday to Saturday (let’s say for arguments sake I go this Saturday the 16th) I only need the week beginning the 18th as annual leave.

          If I’d gone yesterday I’d need 3 days from this week and 3 days from next week, so using 1 more day across 2 weeks which is messier.

          Going Saturday to Saturday also gets you 9 days off work, midweek only gets you 7.

      • BlairWaldorfSalad says:

        14 Nov14 November 06:22

        All bets are off re when people take holidays, especially with remote working. My holidays are often taken on the way back from overseas conferences; either straight there or a quick turnaround at home to swap luggage.

      • TimM says:

        14 Nov14 November 06:29

        Mouse, that is very naive and old-fashioned!

        These days people go on holiday any day to any day, choosing their duration a la carte.

        There are far fewer people working Monday-Friday than a couple of decades ago so, for the majority, there is no advantage of travelling at the weekend. Even for those with Mon-Fri jobs, the advantage is marginal.

        The leisure market is 24-7 all year round.

        • Mouse says:

          14 Nov14 November 07:24

          @TimM I think this is a very HFP-centric perspective on the world. Saturday to Saturday holidays are still very much a thing for many people.

        • Trickster says:

          14 Nov14 November 07:49

          Having booked many a Jet2 holidays package I can say that it is no longer just Saturday to Saturday (although I suspect that is the most popular still). You can pick any duration, and any pairing of flights on routes that offer more than one flight a day. We’ve made good use of this taking a morning flight out and evening flight back.

          As the article suggests I can’t fault Jet2.

        • MrHandBaggageOnly says:

          14 Nov14 November 11:21

          Agreed. We actively seek out mid-week departures. Firstly it is usually cheaper and for us paying less wins over saving a day of annual leave (this year we left on a Wednesday £625 pp, if we’d gone the following Saturday it was £1000 pp) and secondly we actually like the two short working weeks – work Monday/Tuesday, go away and then work Thursday/Friday. Two two-day weeks work for us and, bizarrely, many colleagues find it less stressful to know you’ll be back ‘next week’, even if that is on a Thursday, rather than thinking you’re away for a whole Mon-Fri week. (Makes no sense, but that’s my experience.)

      • Andy says:

        14 Nov14 November 07:02

        What a strange thing to assume.

      • mkcol says:

        15 Nov15 November 19:51

        @Mouse Your base assumption is wrong.

  • Andy says:

    14 Nov14 November 06:18

    Don’t know if they still fly them but some of the Jet2 planes can be converted between passenger and cargo e.g. https://www.airliners.net/photo/Flyglobespan-Jet2/Boeing-737-330-QC/1041047

    There’s was a video on YouTube showing the process but can’t find it ATM

    • Andy says:

      14 Nov14 November 07:04

      I believe they have stopped doing this, and the fleet now operates passenger services at night – you never used to get really horrible flight times with LS, but you sometimes do now.

  • Bernard says:

    14 Nov14 November 09:00

    Mouse. You’d do well to check some facts before making these type of false assertions. Both on how jet2 operate and profit. A search online would see that the city reckons they’ll make 750 million profits for this summer.

    • Mouse says:

      14 Nov14 November 10:00

      That’s the great thing about the internet @Bernard, someone is always available to offer a swift correction!

  • SamG says:

    14 Nov14 November 09:02

    They purposefully have an older fleet with lower fixed cost so they are not under so much pressure to fly them during off peak periods. This is slowly changing as the 757s etc leave the fleet and A321s join but some of their 737-800s are amongst the oldest flying

    In winter they also do a fair amount of charter flying e.g. Gatwick flying for P&O and Lapland etc and they have been expanding their winter programme e.g Morocco

    • SamG says:

      14 Nov14 November 09:05

      P.S. Sat to Sat holiday very much still a thing- my dad flew on a Tuesday for the first time this year and he’s in his 60s! You see that Jet2 reserve many prime weekend flights for it’s package customers

  • Richie says:

    14 Nov14 November 11:31

    @Mouse some clues to Jet2’s proposed LTN operations are being discussed over on pprune.org

• Amy C says:

  14 Nov14 November 04:47

  Does this mean Luton Airport will get even more crowded? Hard to imagine.

  • Lumma says:

    14 Nov14 November 05:23

    I find Luton is fine as long as you’re happy to sit somewhere that costs money. The bars and restaurants are usually quiet. The waiting pen below the Aspire lounge is where it’s overcrowded.

• Matarredonda says:

  14 Nov14 November 05:58

  Some people do make dumb commen0ts.

  • Ken says:

    14 Nov14 November 08:29

    It did make me think about what they did with schedules 50 years ago when package holidays really were weekend to weekend, and there wasn’t really an option to move aircraft to random city break destinations.
    And what did they do in the winter ? – was vastly less skiing then, and although the ‘winter Sun’ market had probably started, there wasn’t the vast cashed up pensioner market that there is now.

    • Rhys says:

      14 Nov14 November 08:55

      Flights were more expensive because the industry was less efficient.

      • ken says:

        14 Nov14 November 09:19

        But package holidays (on an inflation basis) weren’t more expensive.

        £50 – £140 in 1972 but that would be 2 weeks half or full board to Majorca

        $2.50 to the pound probably helped, and I imagine Spain very cheap then.

      • HampshireHog says:

        14 Nov14 November 10:15

        I think you’ll find that Jet2 are among the most expensive loco flights you can find. We used to use them a fair bit years ago but since they switched their focus to bucket and spade package holidays their flight only prices are always much higher than the competition.
        On the odd occasion I’ve seen a reasonably priced flight the prospect of sharing public transport with once a year holidaying families and the annoying music have made me see sense.

        • Rob says:

          14 Nov14 November 11:01

          They are expensive on purpose. Most seats are sold to people who book a Jet2 Holiday which delivers them a fat commission on the hotel element. Remember that they don’t own any hotels and the margin on these is pure profit from zero capital investment.

          If you buy a seat on its own, that’s one person less they can’t sell a package to. It’s probably the only airline where the number of seats for sale goes UP nearer departure, because seats they realise won’t be packaged get released for flight-only.

          However, the reason we flew them to Croatia is that they were literally half the price of BA, even after paying for a night at the Hampton Stansted.

        • ken says:

          14 Nov14 November 11:59

          They include a 10kg bag which may cost £30 each way on Easyjet & Ryanair.

• TimM says:

  14 Nov14 November 06:18

  I have plenty of bad things to say about Jet2 – they have taken on the mantle of my least favourite airline after Thomas Cook went bust.

  First are their awful pre-recorded announcements all through the flight in a vaguely Northern English accent, probably fake – I can tell the difference between Sheffield, Huddersfield and Leeds accents and it is none of them. You are treated to “Buckle up”, “Grub”, and other overly-informal fake Northernness.

  Second the seats are around 2cm deep, absolutely rigid and unbearable on a 2hr+ flight.

  All their extras are astronomically-priced whether luggage, seats, drinks or food.

  I hate Jet2!

  I would pay 50% more to fly easyJet and that is saying something.

  • CamFlyer says:

    14 Nov14 November 07:23

    Interesting perspective. I have recently flown all of Ryanair, EasyJet and Jet2 for family holidays, in ascending order of preference. For me, the key differences for Jet2 are inclusive hand luggage, and helpful and friendly staff even at outstations (eg, calling Stansted airport authorities when the oversized baggage check had a 50 person queue, when other airlines just shrugged, or expediting us to the front of queue with a smile when we arrived just as check in was closing returning from holiday). The onboard atmosphere is also friendly, and their pre-order meals are better than the meal I was served in BA WT+ last week. EasyJet is fine; Ryanair is fine, but I always feel like the ground staff are trying to catch me out to charge more (eg, declining to accept my wife’s printed boarding pass that had been accepted at check in, or sternly warning us that a passport would likely be too close to expiry for our NEXT visit to the EU).

  • Ken says:

    14 Nov14 November 07:59

    I love the idea that they go to the trouble of finding someone to do “fake Northern accents”.

    Perhaps people are just using their ‘phone voice’.

    Or perhaps they love upsetting budding Henry Higgins’s

  • JR says:

    14 Nov14 November 09:29

    Well TimM, I live in a town,11 miles from Leeds and our local accent is totally different to the Leeds accent.
    There are more than three towns/cities in Yorkshire too you know 🙂
    The Yorkshireman you hear on Jet2 is a genuine one. You might find him annoying, that’s fair enough but he’s real.

    Personally I’m a big fan of Jet2

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    14 Nov14 November 15:07

    I’m struggling with the logic of objecting to the extras prices yet saying you’ll pay 50% more to avoid these prices… 🤣

• Can says:

  14 Nov14 November 06:41

  “Unique USP” caught my eye — unique unique selling point?

  • Andy says:

    14 Nov14 November 07:06

    Better this than, as many people do, saying something is fairly or very unique. The abuse of unique as a binary status is a pet hate!

• DL says:

  14 Nov14 November 07:25

  I personally love Jet2. Their customer service is excellent, especially their call centre. I made a mistake on a booking and got through immediately – they sorted it with no issues. The website is well designed and works well (unlike BA) and cabin crew super friendly. I’m a bit of a snob and usually avoid package holidays and LCC’s, but I’m always happy to fly Jet2. About a year ago, my son and I were the only passenger on one of their flights! Was a very special experience (obviously not good for them though!)

  • ChrisD says:

    14 Nov14 November 08:14

    Only passenger you say? Ah, was it a Wednesday flight?

• drdan says:

  14 Nov14 November 08:06

  Remember COVID? Jet2 came out with flying colours WRT refunds.. no vouchers, no messing with ‘fraudulant refunds’ à la BA.

  This won them a huge amount of loyalty.

  • TooPoorToBeHere says:

    14 Nov14 November 08:45

    Yup.

    Had a covid cancellation notification, called Jet2, got straight through to a cheerful person who spoke English as their first language and refunded it immediately without argument.

    Never actually *flown* them since, because they’re always a load more money then U2/FR.

    Their check-in area at MAN is clean, well-organised and bright, and staffed by cheerful people in smart uniforms. They employ their own people – both there and in ground handling – and there is by all accounts a significant difference in motivation, efficiency, and attitude vs the outsourced handlers.

    Something for the spotters, too, as they have some incredibly ancient 757s – currently I think working their last few rotations before going to the bean can factory – and slightly less ancient 737-300s.

    • Rob says:

      14 Nov14 November 08:54

      Last 757 just retired last week.

      • IanT says:

        14 Nov14 November 09:02

        My neighbour is an ex-757 pilot (he currently flies 767/777 for DHL) and the 757 was by far his favourite type to fly, not least because of it’s power to weight ratio.

        It’s a shame they’ve gone.

      • strickers says:

        14 Nov14 November 09:03

        Not quite, last flights are scheduled for early January. There are 3 still in service, AI is off to Malaga in an hour.

  • gavin says:

    14 Nov14 November 09:14

    Agree with the covid thing, the Strapline ‘package holiday’s you can trust’ is a dig at TUI who took almost a year to refund some people and did everything they could not to give cash. Jet2 refunded all within weeks I believe.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    14 Nov14 November 13:35

    +1. Jet2 were the best of the several airlines we dealt with over Covid by a massive margin – and that’s vs several other names trading on “quality” and supposedly premium customer service. I may be a mere squirrel, but like an elephant, I do not forget.

  • Michael says:

    17 Nov17 November 21:16

    We were on a Jet2 package holiday in Lanzarote when the first Spanish lockdown was imposed.

    We were due to return to the U.K. on the Sunday and got the fright of our life when Twitter reported the whole Jet2 fleet being turned around mid-air over northern France on Saturday morning – this was just after FlyBe had gone bust. Turns out all was well and they just didn’t want to bring out more holiday makers who would need to be returned. They ferried out empty on Sunday to take us home. The poor cabin crew had a a four hour empty flight wondering if they would still have jobs!

    The following year we used them flight only as we were able to boo the hotel and flight separately for £400 less. We did get stung by Spain going on the amber list the day before we returned, but Jet2’s prices, flight times and service from BFS are much better than EZY. The only downside is that their two gates are at the very end of the International pier!

• Ian Caswell says:

  14 Nov14 November 08:48

  I love Jet2 for short haul flights. Baggage is always out quickly. The checkin staff have “here to help” badges and they really mean it. I flew to Faro and my golf clubs were 1 kg over the limit (I’d stuffed the kitchen sink in with my clubs) and they didn’t say a word.

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