Some of you will know from my ranting in the “Buyer Beware” category that I had a bad experience with First Choice before even setting foot in the airport. Despite a major argument and complaint resulting in transfers back to our original flights (in a manner that suggested we should be grateful), for me, at least, the damage had been done.

WHO ARE GB AIRWAYS?
Starting life in the 1930’s as a privately owned firm, Gibraltar Airways, British European Airways (now BA) took a 49% stake in the company in the 1940s and relinquished it in 1995 when GB Airways became a BA franchise operator.

Once you have selected your preferred dates of travel, you will then be shown the available flights, times and appropriate prices for each date. Be aware that the price that you have been shown will be the lowest for that day, and you may discover there are several flights on any one day ranging in price substantially. For our outbound trip to Lanzarote, there were two choices, one for £65, the other £436 and only two hours apart.

Once you have chosen your flights you will be directed to a window showing your travel itinerary and total price. You will also, if available, be offered the chance to upgrade to club class, either or both ways, for a sizeable charge of course.

Despite not having a BA Credit card, I did not encounter any credit card booking charges.

On arrival at Gatwick North some 5 hours later, we deposited our bags in the fast drop channel, and then we were free to enjoy the many shops, bars and restaurants (although no business area or wireless internet access) of the North Terminal.

RETURN JOURNEY
Flying back from Arrecife, we didn’t have the luxury of being able to check in on-line, however, unlike many scheduled airlines on short haul flights, the desks were open 3 hours ahead of departure. Check in was pleasant and painless, and there was none of the 200 odd passengers chuntering off the bus and pushing for queue space, although we were travelling at a relatively quiet time returning, had we have been in between Christmas and new year the story may have been different.

THE FLIGHT
Ciao did me proud with a couple of ops on GB Airways before I booked, so we had an idea what to expect. The plane, an Airbus 321 was clearly new, and the seats, while appearing to be leather, were more likely to be hard wearing PVC and blue in colour. The seats were comfortable even for my ample frame, (far better than EasyJet) and leg-room was obviously excellent, although if you aren’t lucky enough to get extra leg-room seats, leg pitch is 31” for Economy (proudly known as World Traveller) and 34” for Club class. As with most planes the seats recline, and also have a movable headrest which kept my 6’ 2” other half happy; one of his biggest complaints usually on planes is that he is too tall for the seat.

The meal on the outbound journey was Lamb Moussaka and mash potato, with bread roll, spring water, cheese and crackers, profiteroles and chocolate sauce. Despite initial impressions and the fact that I rarely, if ever, eat lamb, it was very tasty.

I must confess I wasn’t expecting entertainment on the flight. However, Club Class get a whole range of Sky Digital Channels, where as us “el cheapo World Travellers” got a trial film, namely, “The Sharks Tale” on both journeys. GB Airways, in common with Thomson flights (formerly Britannia), Thomson Fly and JMC charge £3 for headsets, something that, for a scheduled airline, did surprise me. That said, the headphones are of good quality and work perfectly well with our laptops and MP3 players, so shouldn’t go to waste.

TIMEKEEPING
Quite often when I am in airports with BA flights, I hear of them being delayed and this made me a little nervous. We didn’t encounter any problems on our departure from Gatwick, and the thanks to a strong tail wind, we completed the journey in 3 hours 14 minutes, yet still didn’t seem to get us out of the airport any quicker.

The head wind however made the flight around 4 hours coming back. That said, as we were driving back from Gatwick on what was anticipated to be one of the busiest travel days of the year, this did not worry us too much, as it gave time for the M25 rush hour to clear. The traffic however was extremely busy, suggesting that many more people are taking advantage of travelling at night, and possibly to beat the predicted snow, it’s a pity the motorway service stations didn’t recognise this and keep their outlets open a little longer.

SUMMARY
For £173 each, free drinks and food and swift check in I would definitely give GB Airways 5 stars; unfortunately for them, the fact that one of my suitcases could have been stolen through early arrival, or literally ended up on the other side of the world, plus their no change policy on tickets loses them one star, if BA handlers can’t get it right, it doesn’t bode well for other airlines and those on connecting flights.

The fact that they are now travelling to destinations previously under the monopoly of the Charter airlines, makes them less hassle, more comfortable and comparable on price, providing buyers are prepared to be just a little flexible on their travel dates and times.