Bad seat comfort, some ancient aircraft, fraudulent practices
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
Author's Note: This opinion was originally written in February 2001 to complain about poor customer service and fraudulent practice at JEA, and to question some of the views aired at Ciao about this airline in other ops. I have updated this op on June 11, 2001 to follow up on recent product changes at Jersey European / British European Airways, and to review how Ciao have reacted on my criticism of JEA's misrepresentation on Ciao's Airline League Table.
ORIGINAL OPINION dd. 23.02.2001 ______________________________________________________
In pursuit of consumer protection, I have to put a few things straight about Jersey European Airways, or British European, as they call themselves now. I was surprised to see JEA ranking second on Ciao's airline league table and was hoping to find some enlightenment in the corresponding opinions, since my own experiences with this airline would never have justified such a high ranking. I was disappointed to find that out of seven opinions posted about Jersey European, only two are built on more or less solid experience, i.e. more than just one flight. The other five all reflect a singular impression of one journey, written by authors who obviously don't fly very often. Now, if I was to write an opinion about every airline that I have flown just once, you would have to read another fifty airline opinions by me, and Ciao would be filled up with lots of waste.
This in mind, here it comes, my very own review of Jersey European Airways. My experience is backed by eight flights between Belfast, Birmingham and Exeter - which is still not much, but more than what is currently represented in Ciao opinions on JEA, and enough to have discovered some patterns in the dealings of Jersey European. I was very hesitant to write this review, because my experience with them dates back more than four years - many things may have changed since then. So the least thing I could do was to research their actual website (www.british-european.com) as well as some up-to-date airline industry publications. I did so and found some of my old criticism reaffirmed. I will still give them the benefit of the doubt (and one star more than they deserve), and kindly ask you to update me about possible changes in service and product quality. My sole intention is to contribute to consumer protection, because the opinions on JEA posted so far are indeed very misleading. So here we go.
Objective Criteria
The backbone of the JEA fleet is made up of British Aerospace BAe 146 planes, which are on average twelve years old. I have flown this aircraft and its successor (AVRO Regional Jet) on around ten airlines, and Jersey European is the only carrier which operates it in a 3-3 configuration, i.e. three seats on every side. This increases payload to 100 passengers on a BAe 146-200, against the airline standard of 80 to 85. As I was to experience myself, seating onboard JEA's 146s is extremely narrow and uncomfortable - in fact below charter standards-, these planes simply aren't built for so many passengers. Seating used to be just as bad in Business Class, and mostly still is, but apparently they have now fitted special business seats on selected aircraft and on five routes only.
On the Belfast-Exeter Route (which has been cancelled meanwhile), I've had to fly on Shorts 360 "aircraft". Now, I am 29 years old and I hate to fly on planes which were produced before my date of birth. JEA still uses the ancient Shorts, and they provide the worst possible experience in the skies, worse than the Yaks, Antonovs and Tupolevs I have flown on ex-Soviet airlines (I've learned praying there). Without a pressurised cabin and air conditioning, us passengers had to dress like Eskimos to survive a flight in mid November. And at only 180 knots speed, you may as well travel by horse.
Jersey European finally seem to have realised the age of their fleet (was about time) and have at least replaced the over 30 years old Fokkers 27 by Dash 8 Turboprops and Canadair Regional Jets.
Another big problem onboard JEA is food. There is none. To economy passengers, Jersey European is basically a no-frills airline. My last domestic flight with British Airways dates back a few years, but I remember being served sandwiches there. In JEA's Business Class you do get a meal, one of the kind which wouldn't pass as an economy meal anywhere else, of course all wrapped in plastic.
As for Business lounges, there aren't any, except at Jersey, Guernsey, Belfast and Gatwick (i.e. at only four out of 24 airports served).
You may think now "Well, at least they are cheap". That's only half the truth. JEA's business fares are the same as BA's, but even for that, you often have to board a one-class economy flight (with no food). Other airlines operating one-class flights have opted for offering business class service there. And although Jersey European boasts itself for cheap economy fares, these have disappeared in some mystic way once you proceed to booking. But here we already come to the second part of my review.
My own experiences
On several occasions, I've wanted to book a cheap economy return fare with Jersey European. They always told me that Economy was booked out, even full-fare economy, so I would have to book Business Class. Once onboard the plane, I saw that the Business Class was packed (by people who had obviously been told the same lie) whilst economy class was half-empty. I do know about the possibility of no-shows, but these can't explain thirty empty seats each on three different flights. JEA obviously wanted to increase its margin by selling more Business tickets. This, in my view, comes close to fraud.
On another occasion I have made a particularly fraudulent experience with Jersey European. I was booked on a Business Class ticket from Birmingham to Belfast on British Airways. Upon arrival at Birmingham Airport I met a friend who was travelling to Belfast for the same conference, but was booked on Jersey European. We decided to fly together and since my ticket was flexible and his was not, I had to change from BA to JEA. I asked at the JEA desk if they still had seats in Business Class and if I could have my ticket endorsed by BA to JEA, and they told me this was possible. So I went all the way back and forth to the BA terminal (quite a walk) and had my ticket endorsed by BA. When returning to the JEA desk, they told me that Business was now booked out and I would have to fly Economy Class (on my Business ticket). Now, years later and with the experience of well over 300 flights, this is still the only airline which ever gave me a downgrade. Actually, I have become quite used to upgrades from other airlines.
What is to be learned from this?
The quality of Jersey European Airlines may actually be very different from what can be seen at Ciao at first sight. Don't trust everything you read here. Ciao obviously has a quality management problem: seven samples are simply not a good enough statistical base for a product to be included in a league table. They must come up with a method weighting the average product rating against the size of the base.
But there's something else to be learned for us users. Let's think twice before writing an opinion. We should only write about products and services that we know very well from substantial experience. I hate to read airline opinions based on the singular experience of just one flight, and no matter how well they are written, I am unlikely to rate them higher than fairly helpful. Take British Airways for example: they operate 2,400 flights everyday, some of which may be delayed or served by unfriendly stewardesses, others may prove to be very enjoyable experiences. So how useful can be an opinion based on just one flight?
Which is why I am not writing about Virgin Express, another airline in Ciao's Top 5. I have had one of my worst flight experiences ever with Virgin Express, but this may just have been that one bad flight on that one bad day.
Jersey European, now British European Airways, seem to have realised the weakness of their Business Class Product and have announced some improvements. Meals are said (by JEA) to be upgraded significantly with fresh salads and international cuisine served on real china. There are now also pre-flight refreshments available to C-Class passengers. As for seating, the middle seat in Business Class is now left free and the space used for a tray. That's an improvement, but the narrow seats and seat pitch still make for the most uncomfortable Business Class in Europe. BEA's website now offers a 3D cabin view which allows everybody to see just how narrow the seating is.
Despite the progress made on fleet renewal, two ancient and dreadful Short 360s are still in the fleet, but only one of them seems to be in service, the other one is on stand-by. More than half of BEA's flights are now jet services, and the new turboprops of the Dash 8-Quiet series are indeed the best for speed and low noise. So it seems that British European are getting their act together on product quality, but that doesn't say much about customer service. And after my experiences described above, I am still not prepared to give them another chance.
Cash-back offer
British European have a unique promotion going until the end of June on their new Belfast to London City Airport route. There is a 100% cash back offer on all flights from Belfast to London on all published fares! The cash back is valid only for flights in the direction Belfast to London, thus passengers with return tickets get 50% back.
BEA promote a range of dumping price specials particularly on domestic routes, competing with those offered by the low cost / no frills carriers. BEA's quality has never been much better than that offered by the outspoken no frills airlines, so the prices make sense. On the other hand, British European operate more and more flights in code-share with Air France, maybe a hint that BEA like to join the SkyTeam Alliance of Air France and Delta Airlines. That's a bit inconsistent in terms of strategy, so the future will show which road BEA will chose – quality or low cost.
Ciao's reaction to the league table issue
Two days after this opinion was posted, Jersey European Airways disappeared from Ciao's Airlines League Table. The league table now includes only those 22 airlines which have had twelve or more ops written on them. This makes sense, although I am still surprised to see low cost airlines such as Buzz and Easyjet ranking higher than such international quality carriers as Qantas and Lufthansa.
Ciao is to be commended on its quick reaction to my criticism of the league tables, but then again, this happened when there were still category managers at Ciao UK. Since their departure, the airline category (like all other categories) has been poorly maintained, and British European Airways are still listed under their old name, almost one year after the name change.
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