 Poster: A snowHead
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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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I did look at the bristol offering. Not even competive compared to eayjet, however they do fly different days for example to salzburg. EsyJ saturday jet2 sunday.
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Just did a trial run (BHX/TRN) 8th Jan 2 weeks.
£65.70 out
£50.40 return
22Kg baggage £29 1 way
22Kg sports £30 1 way
Comparison. BA similar times LHR/TUR. economy plus, (includes 23kg baggage) £59 out £55 return.
Overall £54 cheaper on BA (with only 1x baggage).
You pays your money, you takes your choice.....
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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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Q1 - what percentage of people flying to Salzburg are travelling for winter sports, and how many are staying for a week?
A1 - probably at least 80%, and probably all of them unless the carrier has daily or multiple weekday flights
Q2 - where are these people staying, and on what basis?
A2 - hotels, pensions, apartments - almost all of which operate Saturday-Saturday either formally or by default due to how their bookings align
Jet2 - OK, let's fly only on Sundays then 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Their Birmingham - Venice flight is Thursday or a Sunday (but not in December/January) !!??
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I've never found Jet2 to be competitive on price with EasyJet or Ryanair.
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@ousekjarr, It may be that a lot of those seats are paid for by a British Tour Op who run Sunday to Sunday (but I have not checked the brochures, just going on what happens in France). Indeed the flight may already be breaking even before the remainder of the seats are sold.
As I said on another jet2 thread, they run a good business, even if the court of snowheads think they can run it better! 
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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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I did a comparison between BA, EasyJet and Jet 2 for an Innsbruck trip (with luggage and skis) for January 2022.
Best price: BA, EJet a little way behind, Jet 2 far more expensive.
As for flying to Chambery - never again!
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| ousekjarr wrote: |
Q1 - what percentage of people flying to Salzburg are travelling for winter sports, and how many are staying for a week?
A1 - probably at least 80%, and probably all of them unless the carrier has daily or multiple weekday flights
Q2 - where are these people staying, and on what basis?
A2 - hotels, pensions, apartments - almost all of which operate Saturday-Saturday either formally or by default due to how their bookings align
Jet2 - OK, let's fly only on Sundays then |
Lots of places operate Sun-Sun
BRS to INNS is fri & sun + there used to be a wednesday flight.
It can be nice having near empty slopes when most people are on changeover day.
At the end of the day, an airport only have a limited number of slots.
Grenoble also offers sunday flights from BRS
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Personally I think the low-frequency routes (whether it's LCY-CMF or BHX-TRN) are high risk in the current environment.
Airline schedules have been subject to massive change over the past year, and booking what seems like a cheap flight on a minor airline between minor airports runs the risk that the flight is cancelled at a few weeks notice, and you can't find any equivalent without paying a last-minute price. Even pre-COVID, flight re-timings were rife, and could cause you to lose a day or 2 of skiing or endure a night in an airport hotel.
All the airline has to do is refund you what you paid - that's not much help if you paid £50 6 months ago, booked time off work, and now the flights are £500, from a different airport.
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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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| LOTA wrote: |
I did a comparison between BA, EasyJet and Jet 2 for an Innsbruck trip (with luggage and skis) for January 2022.
Best price: BA, EJet a little way behind, Jet 2 far more expensive.
As for flying to Chambery - never again! |
I have also been looking at flights for our Jan trip to the 3V. Whilst I didn't check Chambery as I seem to hear more horror stories about the place rather than reasons to fly there, I did find the same results as you. For flights into Lyon, Grenoble (also urgh) and Geneva BA was by far the best price. This was for 23kg of checked luggage, with a small bag that can fit under the seat in front and a normal carry on bag to go in the overhead.
EasyJet have changed their carry on rules, meaning if you want a normal sized carry on, you have to also pay for "speedy boarding, sit up front etc" easily adding on £20 per flight. We normally always take our boots in carry on, which don't fit under the seat in front.
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@ousekjarr, Further to my last I've just looked at jet2 flights to Salzburg from LVA, MAN, BRS and STN, the majority appear to be on Saturdays. A few flights are Sundays around Xmas and NY, presumably to cope with the wonky transfer days around the holiday period.
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You know it makes sense.
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Chambery rightly gets some stick, but the problem is largely self inflicted in my view.
What happens is the tour operators schedule flights from all over - Bristol, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Manchester, LBA etc to all arrive at the same time +/- 30 minutes. It's not unusual to see 8-10 TUI liveried jets on the tarmac there at the same time. If each jet carries 180 passengers, you've then got 1800 people all trying to clear immigration and get their luggage off the 2 carouselles, all within an hour. The flights then divvy up their PAX between 40 odd busses all heading to different resorts. Return to the UK is similar, 40 odd busses all disgorging their passengers into a departure hall with what 10 check-in desks? Is it any wonder it's a bun-fight.
Years ago I flew a Snowjet scheduled flight (operated by Titan Airways) out of Stansted to Chambery. It arrived late in the day on the Saturday before New Year. Similarly the return flight a week later departed around 7pm. This was the only flight arriving & departing at that time, and the experience was much, much better. No scrum for baggage reclaim, no thousands of PAX in the terminal looking for reps, and straight forward check-in for the return flight.
So, if EJ, FR or Jet2 operate a scheduled service into CMF, and it's timed to arrive/depart well away from the busy charter timeslots I can see it working, and I'd consider using it. If they're gonna time it to land in the middle of the Saturday morning scrum, then I'd give it a miss.
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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'm intrigued by Jet2 going to Chambery. Several years ago they had a bad weekend there - an elderly 757 diverted to Lyon, then tried for Chambery when the weather improved but went to Geneva where it night-stopped. As a result of that expensive experience they said that they would not have a Chambery programme for the following winter. I wonder if Chambery will still be Category C or will it be better (is that B?) next winter.
I always drove to and fro rather than flew so cannot comment on the passenger experience, but at a Tour Op "level" I always found them helpful, friendly and willing to listen/discuss.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Weather is also a big problem for Chambery. Last year my flight was diverted to Lyon due to the early morning fog lingering in the valley and over the lake.
Many years ago I had vowed never to go there again - but my flight to Geneva (with TUI) was cancelled and the Chambery one substituted - a week after I had made the final payment !!!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I had my only experience of an aborted landing, on a Jet 2 flight, into Chambery. We went around again, and landed on the second attempt, but it wasn’t a good experience. I wouldn’t choose to fly there, regardless of the relatively shorter transfers into resorts at that end of the Alps, given that propensity for difficult conditions but also the real lack of facilities and infrastructure when the weather causes delay issues.
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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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Flybe used to do a Wednesday flight to Chambery but I never used it. As I see it the problem with Chambery airport is that there are no connections to the town so you either have to hire a car or get a taxi to the station.Though it takes a bit longer the best way to get to Chambery is to fly to Geneva then get the train to Chambery. @Fridge03, I suspect that once you have travelled to London to get a BA flight it is probably no longer the cheepest option.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We will never fly through Chambery again. Last time a few years ago we were booked on a Saturday morning flight, due back home in Edinburgh about noon. We finally arrived home at 1am on the Monday morning having been bussed to Grenoble on the Sunday evening.
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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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| Montana wrote: |
| I had my only experience of an aborted landing, on a Jet 2 flight, into Chambery. We went around again, and landed on the second attempt, but it wasn’t a good experience. I wouldn’t choose to fly there, regardless of the relatively shorter transfers into resorts at that end of the Alps, given that propensity for difficult conditions but also the real lack of facilities and infrastructure when the weather causes delay issues. |
+1
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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It would appear (usual caveats apply  ) that the move back to Chambery reflects a Tour Ops desire to fly there, hope they are paying enough to cover the costs of the one or two seasonal hiatus
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With "pure" charter flying, diversion costs for weather are recharged to the charterer. Whether it's charter, part-charter or scheduled air the dreaded EU261 comes into play for many delays of 3 hours or more and I suspect that these payments do not get recharged to the charterer. I'm sure that Jet2 have done their arithmetic carefully!
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FAQ
have been lobbying for winter flights over the past few weeks.... 
