flybe excess charges

A snowHead

Just a warning to anyone travelling through Southampton. They've just managed to charge just about everyone for something. For us it was skis, despite showing them our invoice. For a colleague it was for boot bags that don't marry up to of pair a skis.

A snowHead

If a boot bag does not marry up to a set of skis then they will charge you as sporting equipment deemed normal hold baggage.

"All other sporting equipment is considered to be normal hold luggage and is therefore carried as part of your hold luggage allowance".

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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sugarmoma666[/b], yes we had. I found the invoice from Esprit which showed 2 charges for ski carriage. But in brackets it said " (one pair of skis only)". I'd checked this with esprit and they and told me it meant one pair of skis per bag. The cashier told me that meant one pair of skis there and one pair back and charged me for the other pair of skis there and back. I argued for nearly an hour but it became clear I was paying for the skis come what may. I grew up in Africa and it struck me that this was similar to the "fees" you pay in many places there: Basically someone in a position of power makes it clear that to get what you want you need to pay a facilitation fee. In other words it didn't really matter whether I'd paid or not already.

@glasgowcyclops, this was a flight chartered by Esprit. As far as I understood it my contract was with Esprit. Would that still apply?

I never had to pay extra for boots when I only had boots. Also, we were told that boots had to go in hand luggage and that we were only allowed a single piece of hand luggage so we'd have to check one of our pieces of hand luggage and that would cost £30. They also told us we were over our weight allowance. I asked for it to be reweighted and it seems they had counted our boots as normal allowance. So in the muddle I put the extra pair of boots in a bag and they forgot about those charges.

I get that they were probably acting lawfully but it feels like really bad customer service. In addition, the flight was 30 minutes delayed and there were at least 4 empty seats (in the 7 or 8 rows I could see).

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@sugarmoma666, yes we made a decision to put it aside until.after the holiday. The rep wants me to email her then I'll complain when I get back.

But I don't think it was a mistake. There was a queue of people waiting to pay the cashier. And they tried boots and excess baggage before settling on the ski carriage. They were generating revenue.

And, yes, I've taken this flight or the Chambray flight for the last 5 years. One of the joys was the laid back atmosphere at check in and security.

But here we are in the snow surrounded by hundreds of wonderful Esprit seasonaires . . . and wine

After all it is free

what you mean is, they are applying the policies that they publish and because you people don't like them it must be wrong?!!

@zikomo, not quite. I paid for ski carriage and I had an invoice to prove it. Perhaps I didn't make that bit clear. And Esprit hadn't really made a big thing of it being a Flybe flight or that they had a ton of things hidden away in the small print or that they were going to treat us differently this year than the last 5 years. And the plane wasn't very full so there wasn't a security or safety issue. And it's a service is industry so service should trump all.

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Not sure I understood then! You seem to say that you had paid for one pair of skis, which flybe allowed you, but are annoyed because you had to pay for another pair of skis. Or do I have it wrong?!! Seems to me you had two pairs of skis and it was clear in the booking that you had only paid carriage for one.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Oh...and I also grew up in Africa, not sure I appreciate at all the insinuation you make.

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@zikomo, @henzerani paid the invoice for one pair of skis... TWICE! So that should allow him to take TWO pairs of skis. @henzerani, I reckon they've been a bit lax on enforcing requirements at Southampton, someone has given them a talking to about it, a bit of misunderstanding and over-enthusiasm and it's gone too far the other way.

I don't quite understand the boot thing but airlines do seem to like putting in obscure rules about the way you pack things that can lead to you getting caught out.

@zikomo, it what @Gämsbock, said. I didn't mean to insinuate. Just felt you were telling me to suck it up and didn't agree with you.
I'm guessing Malawi, Zim or Zambia by your user name? It means Thanks in Chichewa.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

So, an update on this and a request for some help. Flybe have accepted that this charge was made in error and have agreed to refund it together with £50 goodwill. However, they have done so as a credit note for use on a flight. I have pointed out that I book my holidays and therefore my flights through a TO and they don't accept a Flybe credit note. They replied that this is the only way they can make a refund. Now, I guess it's up to them whether they want my goodwill or not, but does anyone know the legality of refunding money taken in error as a credit note?

A snowHead

@henzerani, As the error was theirs, you should certainly be refunded by the same method that you paid.

Obviously that doesn't apply to the 'goodwill' which I should imagine will disappear when you force them to repay real money...

A snowHead

@red 27, Flybe did refund the charge but apparently the only method they have of saying that they are sorry for messing up is to have you spend more money with them and then give you a bit of a discount. And for you to have done that and got back within 12 months of the incident. Or, offer you something you can't use and then smile smugly.

I know lots of the comments above suggest I'm a bit naïve, but I did really expect better. I work, among other things, in customer service and there is a body of research that suggests that offering customers unuseable goodwill tends to be counter productive. It may make the manager feel very clever but it adds insult to injury.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@henzerani, Having flown with flybe many times, (we used to have no choice, it was them or swim) if it all works then all is great, but if anything goes wrong their customer service tends to be very hit and miss.

lots of examples: one in particular when they overbooked the plane, and bumped us off. Under eu regs supposed to pay compensation with various time limits, they did this to 25 people, we were the first bumped, I watched the manager hide the leaflets explaining customer rights and explain to all the bumped people they had to rebook for a later fight and they could not claim anything other than a meal voucher!

and beware of them reweighing / sizing cabin bags after you have purchased your duty free etc just before you get on the plane. The bag sizer at our airport was a smaller at the departure gate!! and they charged you to put it in the hold.

just an idea but..........

If you can't get anything other than a credit note, see if you get them to allow you to spend it on their shopping website, just google flybe shopping

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@Zorrac, never saw your post. I feel very rude. Thanks for the idea. I told them where to put their credit note but I've just emailed to ask for it. Apart from anything else it's fun getting them to do more, even if they don't let me have anything on their site. My aim is to cost them more than it was worth.

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@Zorrac, if the departure gate bag sizer is smaller than the official figures and they are using it to gain money then it's fraud plain and simple, it's the sort of thing trading standards love because its easy to prove

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I flew fybe a few weeks ago in one of the turbo props. The lady sat next to me had a huge carry on bag that had no chance of going in the overhead locker, but she assurred me that it met the published carry on bag sizes of flybe (easyjet tip - always take the biggest bag you can, that way you will not be asked to put it where your feet are meant to go). The hostest just took it off her and put it onto an empty seat. The aircraft have different locker sizes but flybe seam to only publish one size on their website. If the plane hadn't been only half full this may have caused a problem.

As to boots; do pepole not just put them in the checked luggage with everything else?

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@johnE, I think it's what suits the airline. I'd never had any trouble with Flybe. I was always really laid back but that time they had a cashier on one position and almost everyone who checked in at the same time as us got referred to her. So it wasn't about rules or exceptions, it was about cash. My brother had gone through the week before and when they charged him he refused to pay and told them he didn't really want to fly and so he'd just go back to the office and tell the legal boss they were charging extra so he couldn't go. Funnily enough they let him off.

And on the boots issue, I've owned boots for years and always checked them in with the hand luggage. I never had to pay. I hadn't really connected the skis and the boots, but apparently it is an airline rule.

After all it is free

I realised that FlyMAYBe were becoming serious about excess charges when they put a credit card machine in the automated check in at Southampton Airport.

I imagine you can only get one ski boot in the carry on luggage and the other in the hold bag. I put both boots in the hold bag. I roll my ski jacket/ski pants/fleece around my skis to support them and add the avalanche shovel for good measure - rolls up quite trim. Only have Ipad and book in my back pack. Taking skis actually reduces the stress of flying with bags. Only use my boot bag to store skis in the loft because if I took them it would be two carry ons wouldn't it!

FlyMayBe are a pain. Going to Belfast next week and they have changed the return flight to a late evening one so had to alter work schedule and car hire. Last time I went skiing with them they changed the departure airport in France which required lots of bussing and waiting around!!

Now waiting for FlyMayBe to come out with their Winter schedule as have provisionally booked a ClubMed trip (their Inghmams/Espirit charters are out only). Apparently in the next couple of weeks.

@hawkesbaynz, yes, that was the bit that I found surprising. They had a cashier - someone who was employed to take up one of the check in desks solely for the purpose of charging people on a charter flight, who had already booked and paid for their flights.

As someone else pointed out: if you choose to put more than one pair of skis in your ski bag that's up to you but it's not insured. Your skis are, as part of the carriage , and your hold and hand luggage are.

I understand that boots are covered with ski carriage and can go in a separate bag, otherwise they are hand luggage. If you put them in the hold luggage they have to be in declared piece of luggage.

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Just an update: after ages of being ignored when I tried to claim my credit note, Flybe came back to me with a £200 credit note! There's a different name on the email on it so perhaps someone new read it at understood my point of view, or maybe they are no longer struggling financially or they just cocked up, but I'm off to Jersey! Sadly, I've already booked for skiing so they lost out there.

Help!!

flybe excess charges

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