I have completed five separate return trips with 'Hapag-Lloyd Express' (HLX) over the last 18 months, as both a business and leisure traveller, and I have to say that my opinions of the airline continue to gain some altitude! All of my journeys have been from Manchester, including the early-evening ... Read review
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Advantages: VERY cheap, comfortable, great service, expanding route. Disadvantages: Check-in and boarding can be less than fun.
I have completed five separate return trips with 'Hapag-Lloyd Express' (HLX) over the last 18 months, as both a business and leisure traveller, and I have to say that my opinions of the airline continue to gain some altitude! All of my journeys have been from Manchester, including the early-evening route to Cologne and three to Stuttgart, which depart at a similar time. There are in fact three flights with the airline that leave Manchester's terminal ... ...route to Hannover, the company's headquarters.
HLX took to the skies in 2002 and is slowly beginning to expand its network around Europe, including flights to the Med with the airlines bigger sisters, 'ThomsonFly' (formerly Britannia Airlines) and the German equivalent 'HapagFly'. This summer HLX have been flying 18 aircraft to 36 destinations, and here is my first tip for fellow Brits...if you have the time, check the price of flights ... more
I have completed five separate return trips with 'Hapag-Lloyd Express' (HLX) over the last 18 months, as both a business and leisure traveller, and I have to say that my opinions of the airline continue to gain some altitude! All of my journeys have been from Manchester, including the early-evening route to Cologne and three to Stuttgart, which depart at a similar time. There are in fact three flights with the airline that leave Manchester's terminal 2 within five minutes of each other, including HLX's third route to Hannover, the company's headquarters.
HLX took to the skies in 2002 and is slowly beginning to expand its network around Europe, including flights to the Med with the airlines bigger sisters, 'ThomsonFly' (formerly Britannia Airlines) and the German equivalent 'HapagFly'. This summer HLX have been flying 18 aircraft to 36 destinations, and here is my first tip for fellow Brits...if you have the time, check the price of flights to Germany with the airline early, or during 'HLX Happy-Hour' (6pm Tuesdays) to pick up real bargains, and then book connections further a field from Germany onwards, as the prices of seats really can be considerably lower on some routes from mainland Europe.
One of the great things about HLX, in my view, is that it is part of the 'TUI AG' group, which in the UK owns brands such as 'Thomson', 'TV Travel Shop', and '1-2-Fly', companies that are well-established, experienced and presumably share resources/infrastructure. This, and the modern fleet of 'Boeing' and 'Fokker' aircraft that HLX utilise, are perhaps behind the punctuality of the airline and my positive experiences.
I have arrived in Germany ahead of time with HLX on three occasions, and have never encountered any delays as of yet. The check-in, boarding and cabin crew are always polite and helpful, and unlike other budget airlines, the aircraft itself is always in a more-than-comfortable condition, with leather seats, route (speed and altitude) on drop-down LCD TV's, free newspapers/magazine, and a mint during landing! The captain always seems to welcome you once at 30,000ft, which I feel is important, and the on-board prices really aren't that bad for a budget carrier, for example you have a choice of baguette, alcoholic/soft drink and chocolate bar/cake for 6 EUROs (£4), which is the most costly thing on the menu.
It is at this point that you may be thinking; well what are his other tips? Well, HLX from Manchester at least, seems to have cornered a lot of regular fliers and this can make check-in on this side of the pond a bit of a scrum. Be early if you want to get the seat of your choice, as like other "budgets", HLX does tend to split the boarding procedure at the gate into three (e.g. boarding passes 1-50 first). I always get to check-in 3 hours beforehand, though I realise some may find this ridiculous! Similarly, get to your gate and wait nearest the door as there will almost certainly be a further rugby tackle required to get onto the air bridge. The airline is fantastic, it is the fellow travellers that can often make the start of the journey less than pleasant...throw stones at them!
Advantages: Very Economical, No Fancy Bits, Value for Money Disadvantages: Limited Destinations, Only Available from Manchester
Having been a frequent business traveller to Germany, I have done many trips with a number of airlines.
My work regularly took me to the city of Cologne (Koln) in Germany, from which I normally had to fly from Manchester to Frankfurt and then connect to Cologne. Typical prices via other airlines normally ran to about £350 to £500 per trip depending how short notice it was when the flight was booked.
Purely by chance and out of desperation the normal ... ...no other mainstream airlines were available. Resigning myself to the fact that I may have to miss an important meeting, a little searching on the internet quickly came back with a result for Hapag-Lloyd Express.
Hapag-Lloyd Express (HLX) is part of the European Holiday firm TUI and operates from Cologne around limited routes in Europe. The price for a return flight was a ridiculously cheap price of £26.00 return and even better the timing of the ...
mart-wood 16.09.2004 (17.09.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hapag Lloyd
Advantages: Excellent low cost airline flying from many destinations to Germany Disadvantages: Not enough routes between the UK and Germany
...that have never heard of Hapag Lloyd Express (HLX) before, they are a German low cost airline of the same mould as airlines such as Easyjet and Jet2 based in the UK. They are a subsidiary of Hapag Lloyd who are a member of the TUI group that also operates flights through Thomsonfly, Corsair and Jetairfly. HLX operate throughout Europe from their main hubs in Germany and operate flights to the UK via Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham.
They currently ... ...x Fokker 100's, with the average age of the fleet being just over 10yrs. This is only marginally older than the average age of the fleet of an airline such as BA and is indeed younger than the average of Lufthansa.
Booking
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Booking with HLX couldn't be easier as, although there is a German call centre, almost all flights are booked through their website www.hlx.com. When arriving at the site you ...
StereoMike1983 27.04.2006 (18.07.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Hapag Lloyd
Advantages: Excellent Value for Money. Good Service. In-flight route map. Flight information screens. Disadvantages: A shame they don't fly to more destinations from Manchester
Hapag Lloyd express (HLX) are a German budget airline division of the holiday company, Hapag Lloyd (owned by TUI).
It appears that the main base of HLX is Cologne / Bonn airport as the majority of destinations that HLX fly to fly from there.
On Monday the 14th of June 2004, I flew HLX from Manchester to Cologne / Bonn Airport for an afternoon in thsi splendid German city.
I booked online well in advance on the 19th of May and got a special one-way ... ...don't charge a credit card processing fee like some other airlines do!
The way to get the cheap air fares with HLX online booking is when you find a flight you would like to book with a Special One Way price, don't hesitate in booking as if I had have waited one more day to book, I would have paid double the price and a few more days later saw my flight escalate to £41.99p!
My flight was flight HLX3527 scheduled to depart at 11:05 and arrive Cologne ...
simon1287 16.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Hapag Lloyd
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