When my wife's stepdad announced he was getting married again we were both pleased and concerned at the same time. It was not his choice of partner that worried us, more how we were to cover the largish distance between Southampton and Lanark in Scotland for the big day. As Mrs Cad would be 27 weeks pregnant on the date of the wedding and she was having trouble sitting for long periods we had to think through our options carefully. The land route was cold shouldered immediately as was the Lyingair route from Bournemouth to Prestwick.
So I was given the task of finding an airline that would get us the right side of Hadrian's wall for the following criteria. Not too expensive, an aisle seat for Mrs Cad and airports as close to our start and finish points as possible. After scrubbing out Lyingair and my favourite airline BA as unreliable or too expensive we ended up with Flybe.
Booking was completed by me online and was relatively straight forward. It was really a matter of selecting the start point of Southampton and our chosen destination of Edinburgh. Then I selected a Friday afternoon flight after 6pm and paid for the seats. The only additional things I had to pay for which were not part of the basic flight price
were two cases of hold baggage and two allocated seats for both directions. For this privilege we paid an extra £2.50 per bag, per flight and £7.50 per seat, per flight. As you can see this added £40 to the price of our flight and brought it up to the final total of £253.92, which at the time we considered to be a fair deal.
The check in at Southampton was quick and efficient and we handed our baggage over and moved through security. Our wait for the flight was extended by a small delay of about half an hour, but soon all worries were washed away as we headed north. This was not our first time with Flybe having flowing to Paris a few years ago. Things had not changed in that they were basic, but nice and the flight attendants were good and friendly. The seats were comfortable and I had taken the time to see that there was more legroom than their cheaper Irish rivals which suited Mrs Cad just fine. With everything going swimmingly I was able to relax and go over the history of the company.
Flybe was formed in 1979 as Jersey European and operated flights to the channel island. The business was gradually built up through the 80's and 90's with changes of logos and new aircraft being added to the growing fleet. In 2000 the name was changed to British European and later in 2002 was re-branded as Flybe. Since 2002 the company has been building on the success of the low-cost airline boom and has flights to more than 9 countries with operations at 45 airports and around 140 routes. With this long and continuous service in mind the touchdown at Edinburgh in poor, wet conditions was smooth and gentle. Soon we were off the flight, into the terminal and on our way to Lanark.
Our return flight from Edinburgh was not so easy, but not all the problems could be laid at the door of Flybe. It was a Sunday afternoon, the check-in area was rammed and someone made a right balls up when booking in the passengers on our flight. When we left the desk we realised that the tickets for the seats we were given were not the ones we paid for and neither were an aisle seat. Not wanting to make a fuss we retired to the help desks away from the mayhem and tried to find out what had gone wrong. We were politely informed that the wrong seating plan had been put on the computer and if we went to the gate and presented our paperwork it would get sort there. We left happily and went through security.
Unfortunately our dallying at the help desk and a toilet break for Mrs Cad meant that when we hit security it was even more chaotic than the check in area. After both myself and Mrs Cad were searched we arrived at the gate at the tail end of the boarding process. Here we discovered that the seating allocations had be scraped and it was now a free for all. We explained two or three times our situation, but as the flight leaving time was fast approaching we were ushered on board. We tried to ask lots of people if they would give up and aisle seat for Mrs Cad, starting at the front on our original seats and moving back.
It is with great sadness that it wasn't until row 22 that someone was willing to give up their seat. By now one of the attendants was getting slightly fraught and snapped at us. 'Oh, just sit down will you' she said trying to push Mrs Cad into a middle seat in row 20 just as the aisle seat in row 22 was moving back to a middle seat in row 24. I wasn't too put out, but Mrs Cad was definitely not her calm self and disliked people touching her at that stage of her pregnancy. Once we were pushed into our seats, the flight didn't move for a bit and I overheard some mutterings for the attendants at the back about missing a slot due to slow passengers. It wasn't really our fault as the security was slow, but I could feel my ire building up. Eventually we headed skywards, but there was a distinct atmosphere from the flight attendant staff as they missed us on one of the drinks rounds. Fortunately the flight was quick and we were back at Southampton before Mrs Cad and I lost our tempers at the off-hand treatment we were getting from one or two flight attendants.
Back home I was naturally in a mood to start complaining. First off I wanted my money back for the two seats we paid for and never got. Secondly I wanted some sort of apology from the airline for pushing around a pregnant woman. I won't go into the whole details of how I complained, but I will mention the responses we had. Responses = 0.
Yes, that's right none. After about four months of trying we have received no communications from this company which leaves me a little miffed that I'm obviously nothing more than a dog egg on their shoe. I cannot really recommend any airline that doesn't respond to customers complaints nor one that promises to return phone calls and doesn't. As with all airlines at the moment on paper they offer a good cheap flight to your required destination. The only downside to all low-cost airlines is their customer service is lacking. So it is a shame that some flight attendants and check in clerks seem to know this as their treatment of passengers is pretty poor. We will probably never use this airline again and the worst part of all after this experience is this flight will be our last for sometime. It looks like the Cad's will be going to Blackpool or Bogner Regis for a holiday this year as flights anywhere are off the menu.
(c)2007 Cad
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
A really well written and balanced account, not the rant we usually get where people are unhappy with something
LittleHB 31.01.2007 10:30
That's awful, I can't believe you havent' had a response! I've booked to fly to Dublin from Southampton in March, hopefully I will have a better experience!
silverstreak 23.01.2007 08:22
Being cheap shouldn't mean they have to be nasty with it.
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Advantages: new, comfortable aircraft, monopoliees at important hubs, good online check-in facility Disadvantages: Very expensive, aggresive and arrogant towards competition, cold
krshls 28.07.2009 ·
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Review of Flybe.com
Advantages: Actually fly at sensible times from regional airports, loads of legroom Disadvantages: The use of small planes mean you feel every bump and twist; much of FlyBE's fleet are turbo-props
sue.51 08.09.2002 (29.11.2003)
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Jan 20th, 2007
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