 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi - we've booked with Flybe from Cardiff to Geneva n March and once flights were booked I rang the call centre to book our snowboards on the flight. There I was told that snowboards only go on a standby basis.
Just wondering if anyone has had they snowboards refused travel on the way out of the uk with Flybe?? If so we may bite the bullet and book with Easyjet.
Thanks for your help
Rob
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Cheers Dav. Yeah ironically enough they seem to have dropped the length restrictions. Difficult to find people who have had their boards declined carriage due to a full plane so wondering if it is just a policy which their telephone operators mention or whether it is put into practice at the airport
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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from their website
"..Exceptional baggage items
E.g. sporting goods, bicycles, surf boards*. Charges are per item per sector. These items are carried on a SPACE available basis..."
Get there Early......!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Flybe operate many smaller aircraft, think I have read something similar previously, they just can't guarantee there being space available. It's a chance you take, it seems.
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| jocrad wrote: |
| Flybe operate many smaller aircraft, think I have read something similar previously, they just can't guarantee there being space available. It's a chance you take, it seems. |
If booking on a Flybe flight via, say the Inghams website, they make it quite clear that if you don't see a ski carriage option on the flight it won't be possible,I don't know what you see if you booked direct. Flybe are using Embraers and I think sometimes Dash 8s on Ski routes. There just isn't the baggage space on these aircraft and you're unlikely to be able to take ski gear. I don't even look at Inghams any more.
Mind you even though Jet2 offer ski carriage on their Edinburgh Chambery flights (B737) the chances of ski gear coming is pretty low, its why I've swapped to Easyjet to GVA.
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We've just swapped from FlyBE Brum to Chambery to Jet2 Leeds to Chambery - the FlyBE flights were fairly cheap, so we decided to bite the bullet and cancel, thinking we'd get about half our money back in taxes and charges, which are of course refundable if you cancel.
Only those nice folks at FlyBE charge a £25 per person, per flight "admin fee" meaning that instead of getting £240 back we get £40. I know it's (somewhere) in the t&cs but the banks aren't allowed to get away with charging fees completely out of proportion to the work involved, so it baffles me why airlines are.
Anyway - back on track - andyrew, when you say Jet2 are bad at getting ski gear on their Chambery flight, any idea why? They fly 737s, same as EJ, don't they? Slightly worried now as I've booked my skis on our flight - do you have any comeback if they don't arrive?
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Flybe mostly use Embraer planes for flights into cmf I think.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The smaller plane was one of the reasons we changed ansta1, as well as inconvenient times and a 150 mile drive each way - but the plane size is more to do with my wife's dislike of flying - must say the idea of my skis not turning up hadn't occurred to me. If they accept them at check in and then don't bring them, do they still have to get them to you as soon as possible? Jet2 only have one flight a week to CMF - would they have to send them on another carrier or via GVA or something?
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FlyMAYbe you mean.
I commuted Manchester-Aberdeen for a year, that route is run BMI and Flybe. I did everything I could to avoid Flybe because not only do they have a draconian luggage allowance (one piece of carryon, no exceptions, compared to BMI with 2 carryon and one hold as standard), they were delayed far more often. They royally screwed me before an important meeting by not giving us any information on a cancelled flight. It was cancelled due to weather - BMI passengers were getting regular updates on their flight, food tokens etc., then help booking alternatives. Did we hear anything from Flybe? Did we f*ck. I only knew the flight was cancelled when it got past 10pm (you can't land in Aberdeen after 11pm due to noise restrictions), but they didn't tell us till half 11 then tried to refuse to help people find hotels/alternatives (on the basis that weather isn't their problem). Was OK for me because I just went home and contacted the agent to get re-booked but there were people flying up from all over who were basically stranded. Useless.
They fly Embraers and Dash-8's as mentioned above. Nothing wrong with either per se, the turboprop Dash-8's add a bit of time to the journey compared to the Embraer jets but it's not a big deal.
Whether this has any relevance to ski routes or not I don't know, but I fancied a rant 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I used to fly them form Manchester-Southampton bobmcstuff, and myself and my colleagues had exactly the same name for them!!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Flybe use poo-poo small aircraft. The only flight I've taken where my board didn't arrive was a flybe flight. VERY annoying. I was cross that the TO sold a ski carriage slot with no intention of it being honored on the flight and no warning about the 'standby' situation.
Some skis did come on the flight, so I suggest you get there seriously super early and be the first in the check in line.
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If Flybe is the most convenient option route and timings wise but flaky on equipment carriage why don't you send your equipment separately as cargo? Remove the stress from your travel day. There are now specialist agents set up to make this easy to do. Picks up bag (or whatever) a couple of days prior to your trip and delivers it to your hotel. Collects on your departure day and is delivered to your home a few days later. Often cheaper than the airline charge in any case, I understand the luggage travels overland. One such outfit is http://www.luggagemule.co.uk/
I don't work for them, neither am I on commission but I am mates with the guys who set it up. But irrespective of my connections I do think it is a great alternative for a lot of people who have this kind of luggage dilemma!
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You know it makes sense.
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Flying Flybe on Sat from Edinburgh to Verona (booked through Crystal) and already paid ski carriage so won't be happy if they don't take them.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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frogslegs, £80 to take my skis and boots with luggagemule - £50 with Jet2.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Had the infamous "STANDBY" label attached to my boardbag on the way back from Chambery last weekend. Fortuantely all arrived ok back in Gatwick, but it's worth noting that the wording in their sporting equipment policy means that they'll only cover the skis/snowboard in an equipment bag, not other kit like boots, helmets, clothing etc if it's delayed.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Good tip, thanks Richard_Sideways, think I'll pop my boots in my hold bag rather than my ski bag. had a very nervous wait at Geneva a couple of weeks ago as my mates' board bags came out about 20 minutes before my ski bag with boots and stuff in it!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Just called Crystal; they said as we'd pre booked and it is skis, not boards, we will get them on; mmm I will believe it when I see them arrive at the other end! Was told worse case scenario they will arrive after us and if that happens they will give us some rental skis. Was advised against using the double sportube and going for single bags to make sure they are taken!
The person on the phone said it is only snowboards that can't be booked and automatically go on the "standby" pile. That's a bit unfair for those with boards as didn't say anything about it when booking
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Quote: |
Anyway - back on track - andyrew, when you say Jet2 are bad at getting ski gear on their Chambery flight, any idea why? They fly 737s, same as EJ, don't they? Slightly worried now as I've booked my skis on our flight - do you have any comeback if they don't arrive?
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You might be OK going from Leeds, it was the Edinburgh flight we had problems with. Mostly it was the return into Edinburgh but on 1 occasion I was the only person out of about 40 that got their skis at Chambery. I'm not sure if anyone got any compensation for delayed outbound.
Coming back, 2 times out of 3 on return to Edinburgh there have been none, zilch, nada skis on the flight. Talking to someone at the airport they (off the record) said this was normal for Jet2. The skis generally turn up on the wednesday by road from Manchester with tags showing they did GVA to MAN.
One flight back was a corker, we took off from Chambery only to land at Bournemouth and spend an hour and a half refuelling, on arrival at EDI the excuse for no skis was it was because of the weight of the fuel and baggage on T/O from Chambery - errr, you didn't have much baggage, and not a lot of fuel....... I had a moan about it all at the time: http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2268307&highlight=
After this we said stuff it, we'll fly EZY to GVA and drive the bit further, now we've sussed the routes in and out of the French side of the airport its a doddle.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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MCL,
Get to check in as early as possible.
We flew flybe (albeit that the flight was chartered by Inghams) at Christmas and when I checked in our pre-booked skis they wrote the names down on a sheet of paper and said "you've just made it", presumably meaning we'd just made it onto the boarding list rather than the standby list.
Lo and behold, we sat on the transfer bus at Salzburg for an hour while reps tried to find someone else's skis that hadn't actually been on the flight.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Tiger2, Yes we'll be getting there early so fingers crossed. Not that I should have to be hoping that pre booked luggage will go on a flight! 
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This thread has me really worried. I am booked on a Flybe chartered flight with Esprit this Sunday from Birmingham. Pre-booked my ski carriage last April. If my skis are not on that plane I will be seriously annoyed.
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FastCarver74,
I will be there Saturday morning, but I am going with Nielsons, so expect my pre-booked skis to be on the flight......
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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FastCarver74, yes me too- wish I hadn't opened thread! I guess all we can do is get to our respective airports as early as possible and hope for the best. It could be worse......we could be boarders! 
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So, if you have paid to have your skis transported, is there still a chance that they won't be transported?
If this is the case, do you get a refund on the carriage that didn't happen?
I'm already regretting having booked my skis on a Flybe flight to Geneva, but I had never considered that my booking didn't guarantee carriage. Taking my skis seems to be a very stupid idea. I wonder if I can cancel my booking, get my money back and hire some skis instead......
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
So, if you have paid to have your skis transported, is there still a chance that they won't be transported?
If this is the case, do you get a refund on the carriage that didn't happen?
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We got a refund of the ski carriage back from Ski World, after obviously hassling for it. In resort the ski world rep sorted out some hire for us, but this wasn't any good if all your ski clothes were in your board bag. Luckily I just had my board and boots and helmet in ski bag. Stuff arrived Sunday afternoon so not too dire a wait, just added a layer of hassle and worry onto the holiday as we had no visibility of when the stuff would arrive and had to spend Saturday afternoon sorting hire kit out rather than getting a cheeky half day in.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| andyrew wrote: |
| Quote: |
Anyway - back on track - andyrew, when you say Jet2 are bad at getting ski gear on their Chambery flight, any idea why? They fly 737s, same as EJ, don't they? Slightly worried now as I've booked my skis on our flight - do you have any comeback if they don't arrive?
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One flight back was a corker, we took off from Chambery only to land at Bournemouth and spend an hour and a half refuelling, on arrival at EDI the excuse for no skis was it was because of the weight of the fuel and baggage on T/O from Chambery - errr, you didn't have much baggage, and not a lot of fuel....... I had a moan about it all at the time: http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2268307&highlight=
After this we said stuff it, we'll fly EZY to GVA and drive the bit further, now we've sussed the routes in and out of the French side of the airport its a doddle. |
There are a stack of reasons that this may have occurred. For example; if, due to weather conditions, they had to depart with a tailwind it would seriously reduce the maximum weight of the aircraft and the captain would have to balance passengers, fuel and luggage. Equally, if there was also poor weather forecast for Scotland they would need to have greater contingency fuel. The Dart Group (who own Jet2) are based at Bournemouth so that probably explains why they land there.
I'm flying out to CMF on Sunday with BA (Esprit Charter) so I'm hoping that we will be okay. They use the LCY fleet for these flights (EMB190) so I'm hoping that they have more luggage capacity than the Jet2 737s.
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| andy from embsay wrote: |
Only those nice folks at FlyBE charge a £25 per person, per flight "admin fee" meaning that instead of getting £240 back we get £40. I know it's (somewhere) in the t&cs but the banks aren't allowed to get away with charging fees completely out of proportion to the work involved, so it baffles me why airlines are.
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I used to fly with Flybe fairly regularly until they pulled that trick with me. My son went down with chickenpox 2 days before the whole family were due to fly to Salzburg a few years ago. They've never had a penny out of me since. Ryanair manage to charge less than that FFS.
If you booked with your credit card, phone the credit card provider up and see if you can do a charge back.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Lager wrote: |
| andy from embsay wrote: |
Only those nice folks at FlyBE charge a £25 per person, per flight "admin fee" meaning that instead of getting £240 back we get £40. I know it's (somewhere) in the t&cs but the banks aren't allowed to get away with charging fees completely out of proportion to the work involved, so it baffles me why airlines are.
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If you booked with your credit card, phone the credit card provider up and see if you can do a charge back. |
On what grounds? The charges are in the Flybe T&Cs so there is no ground to dispute. The CC provider may agree to attempt a chargeback but Flybe will be perfectly within their rights to provide a copy of their T&Cs and reject the chargeback.
We may not like a companies T&Cs but when we tick the box agreeing to them then we are bound by them. Unless, of course, they could be argued to be "unfair" under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 in which case you would need to file a small claim and argue your case in court.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I have flown with Flybe more times than I care to remember. When it goes wrong with them, it goes BADLY wrong and I can relate to many of the tales told on here. However, the majority of the time when things are going well they are perfectly fine. The Dash 8 is noisy and cramped but for a 50 minute flight it is fine. Their Embraer 170/190 jet fleet is comfortable and I have no issue with it.
They have also been accommodating for me and my family on a number of occasions e.g. my wife was held up by an accident on the way to Southampton Airport due to an accident. She missed her flight but they moved her and my son to the next flight at no charge. On another occasion my wife and son fell ill with Noravirus and couldn't travel. I called flybe and they moved their flights with no charge.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Gaza wrote: |
| Lager wrote: |
| andy from embsay wrote: |
Only those nice folks at FlyBE charge a £25 per person, per flight "admin fee" meaning that instead of getting £240 back we get £40. I know it's (somewhere) in the t&cs but the banks aren't allowed to get away with charging fees completely out of proportion to the work involved, so it baffles me why airlines are.
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If you booked with your credit card, phone the credit card provider up and see if you can do a charge back. |
On what grounds? The charges are in the Flybe T&Cs so there is no ground to dispute. The CC provider may agree to attempt a chargeback but Flybe will be perfectly within their rights to provide a copy of their T&Cs and reject the chargeback.
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It is not on the conditions of carriage. It is not on the ticket changes where you might expect to find it. I agree that you can find it on the website if you look hard enough. But it certainly isn't clear or obvious. It certainly isn't justifiable either.
edit: Not sure what's happened to the hyperlinks. They look OK on the preview. But basically it isn't listed on the conditions of carriage or ticket changes.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 8-02-14 0:39; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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http://www.flybe.com/en/flightInfo/
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Refunds
We do not sell refundable fares. Any tax redemption on unused tickets will incur a £25.00 (EUR34.00, CHF55.00) administration fee per person per sector. |
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Gaza wrote: |
http://www.flybe.com/en/flightInfo/
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Refunds
We do not sell refundable fares. Any tax redemption on unused tickets will incur a £25.00 (EUR34.00, CHF55.00) administration fee per person per sector. |
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That'll be the page that is separate from the General Conditions of Carriage and Ticket Changes page. Curiously enough it doesn't have a link to that page from the Ticket Rules and Conditions section under Plan My Trip.
Why it's almost like they would prefer you to miss it. Frankly I find it hard it to believe that people defend this sort of nonsense.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Don't confuse "defending" with "pointing out." I do think these charges are out of proportion to the costs to process. However, I do think people need to read T&Cs more and not just tick a box.
[RANT ON]There is also a growing default position of "phone your bank/cc company" to dispute charges. Having worked for a major financial services company in exactly this area I was astounded by what people wanted to chargeback. A significant volume of chargeback requests arose from people being charged for something and then claiming they hadn't realised they would be charged, simply because they failed to read T&Cs. In at least 95% of situations if the customer had taken the time to look at what thry were agreeing to they would have avoided being in the position they are. In some situations such as the Amazon Prime free trial, how anyone can legitimately claim they had realised they would be charged at the end of the trial if they didn't cancel is beyond me. The T&Cs are crystal clear and very prominent.[RANT OFF]
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Well you got me worried as i fly with Flybe to Turin in march.
So i called up neilson ski and asked the question.
"as i have paid for ski carriage will my skis DEFINITELY board that flight"?
I was told yes as they only have so many carriage slots to sell otherwise it wouldn't be offered.
If my skis don't fly then i don't fly. I will be claiming the lot back from the TO.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Corduroy wrote: |
If my skis don't fly then i don't fly. I will be claiming the lot back from the TO. |
The problem is you may not know until you get there. They may tell you they are going but when it comes to the final weight and balance calculations they may not load/offload skis. What criteria they will use for deciding whose goes and whose stays is unknown.
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Gaza, i'd not attempt to claim these charges back, as i'm sure they're on the website (somewhere) - however i have spent many hours over the years demonstrating that the fees my employer charges (mortgage lender) accurately reflect the cost of doing the work. Hence the clearly stated £25 charge for missing a mortgage payment is now about a fiver. What confuses me is the way that one industry has to justify its charges and another doesn't.
On reflection I should probably have had a go at selling the flights on - even with the tranfer fee plus fare difference, because we got the flights fairly cheap, we could have got significantly more than a tenner a flight back. Ah well, live and learn...
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| andy from embsay wrote: |
| GazaWhat confuses me is the way that one industry has to justify its charges and another doesn't. |
I could not agree with you more. The financial services industry is being made to pay for previous sins and some of the decisions coming out of FOS and the FCA are difficult to comprehend.
The airline industry has gotten away with using "fuel surcharges" for many years. They never seem to go down and there must be a point in time when it has to become part of the base fare.  Why hasn't action been taken against them?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Flybe Ski policy.
Skis can be carried as exceptional items of baggage which are accepted in addition to your baggage allowance. Please follow the link for further details on the restrictions for skis and the exceptional item charges.
Snowboards are carried on a standby basis only.
Skis may be prebooked within 24 hours of making your flight booking through the Customer Call Centre. There is a limit on the amount of skis that can be carried. This is dependant upon the operating aircraft:
Bombardier Q400: 10 sets of skis (Max length 1.67m / 5.6ft)
Embraer 195: 25 sets of skis (Max length 2.5m / 8.2ft)
In the event that our ski or golf club numbers have already been reached on your flights you may cancel your booking with no penalty within 24 hours of the booking being made.
So the last statement implies that they will know how many set are on the flight within 24rs or departure.
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On a positive note our skis arrived in Verona and back in Edinburgh on Saturday!
We got to the check in about 2 and 1/2 hours before flight to leave Edinburgh. There were 2 desks open and we saw a sheet with 10 spaces and then the notorious standby list- think we were 6 and 7 on the list. So that meant only 20 pairs of skis were guaranteed!
However all skis and boards seemed to come through at the other end.
Was surprised skis made it back to Edinburgh as they didn't twice last year!
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FAQ
