Low-Fare Carriers

[sjr]

Using the knowledge we have as spotters who do we think provides the best low-fare service that money can buy. I personally have flown with three airlines and of those three two were satisfactory and the other faired slightly better

Easyjet was my prefered airline that i have flown with although the service wasn't bad on Helios on either flight. I got my meals at about the right time. The only thing i didn't like was the lack of leg room and there 733. The 738 was great though and made up for this.
Jet 2.com also had poor leg room and i was unable to get decent food on the morning flight which would have been good for a day return trip to Amsterdam spotting on the terrace. Other than this there were no problems

So now that i have mentioned my experiences who do you think is the best low fare airline for the money you pay and alternately who is the worst. On a personal note if you haven't flown with them you can't really comment ;D ;D ;D

[captainbill]

I think you know my thoughts SJR on Low Cost or Budget type carriers. I have flown with a number and would rate Easyjet and FlyBE as the two best with Ryanair way down at the bottom somewhere.

If we class Aer Lingus . com as a budget airline then they also need to be at the top and so do BMI even using their "baby fares" it is a good service so the point I am making is this: How do we define a budget carrier. I can on occassions get a lower fare from GLA to LHR with BA or BMI than I can with Ryanair from PIK to STN because of the add ons charged by Ryanair such as on line check in charge and charges made to put a case into the hold. This would also apply to FlyBE and others who seem to offer a low fare but when all additional charges are added on they then become expensive.

The 737-800 of Ryan are modern airliners but all this black and yellow plastic inside makes you want to puke. On most flights the cabin crew can hardly speak English and if you fly from one of their major hubs such as DUB or STN it is utter garbage as you are shifted from gate to gate for your flight and again English seems to be a second or third way of speak.

Bigg Bong would pessengers traveling to Glesgoo Pristweek go now to gate noombir foertin for boording through gate noombir tweelv

What is that all about ?

The budget carriers are popular with the masses and good on them but if like me you have been brought up in an age when flying was an experience to savour, enjoy and remember I am afraid to say that most flights I have had with Ryanair in particular I just wish to forget.

Ryanair and it's Chief Executive seem to thrive of fighting with it's passengers and all in authority but what the heck they continue to grow and are the most profitable airline in Europe. Not bad for a low cost budget carrier.

[sjr]

I have seen some bad things about Ryanair and when they land at Manchester they don't even decellerate properly before leaving the runway which throws the passengers around. I saw one of their 732's once practically using one gear as it came round the corner so fast. All that to save time. I personally don't think i will ever fly with them

[admin]

Well I was thinking about them as a future carrer option, but by the sounds of it not a good choice! Do you know any other carriers that offer £70,000 a year for first officers? NAd £100,000 for Captains?

I have flown on two low-cost airlines, Jet2.com and easyJet. Jet2 has an ageing fleet, but their service isnt bad* and they are quite cheap, and they fly from my local airport.
easyJet, on a school trip to Berlin, weren't too bad, however I have only flew on one of their aircraft. The flight to Schoenefeld had to be flown by a Titan 733 (who I have to say were very good, Captain gave us a briefing about the airline as most of us had never heard of them, and the seats were very comfy!) because the easyJet aircraft went tech (I dont know which aircraft it was, I wanted to try one of their A319's and never got the chance). The return journey to Liverpool was flown by an easyJet 737, legroom was adequate, however we were in the seats just in front of the emergency exit, which cant be tilted back, so I had to sit upright all the way back, not comfy at all. Service wasnt too bad.

*Last year, flying from Palma airport back to Leeds, we were on holiday when the terrorist situation happened, and we checked Jet2's website to see the regulations and we understood that we weren't allowed to take much in our hand baggage, so we chucked the majority of usual hand baggage stuff in the main cases, making them a bit heavier. As we got to check-in, we were told each bag was about a maximum of (i think) 5kg overweight, and that we would have to take some stuff out or pay extra. We tried to explain to the guy behind the counter about the terrorism situation, but he couldnt speak English and didnt have a clue, so we were told to go to the Jet2 customer desk. We did so, and the woman there hardly knew English either, telling us we would have to go to the ground services desk. Here, Servisair told us we had what I think was a £60+ overweight baggage charge. We tried once again to explain our situtation, that most of our stuff was only in there because of te terrorism thing and that our hand baggage was considerably light. She wasnt bothered, and so we paid the fee and went to the flight, deciding to mail Jet2 when we got home. We did so, and Jet2 replied a few weeks later saying nothing they could do. We replied back basically saying we found that unnacceptable, and they agian replaied saying 'bugger off' basically.
We found this poor, and, although we have booked with them again as there are no other airlines locally that fly to Palma, it did make our judgement of the airline fall. We had even reccomended 10 friends to fly with them before all this, which they had, and which we put in the letter, but they werent bothered. Hopefully everything will go smoothly this time.

[planeshots]

I have never flown on a low fare airline but my opiniouns would be thet i think Flybe are the best, i have saw there cabins, but i don't no what there services are like.

[sjr]

Well that really isn't good enough. I wasn't satisfied with the service they provided either. I mean the only food that Jet 2.com could offer me on a morning flight was a kit kat chunky. I wanted a sandwich that way i wouldn't have to go for food before spotting at Amsterdam. In my opinion they are starting to sound like Ryanair. I suppose in these circumstances they couldn't have planned for but they should have at least given you the baggage space because you are allowed a hand luggage allowance and if you don't take it you should be able to have more checked luggage. This in my opinion was a way to capitalise on a bad situation and make money. I mean i would have thought that a full fare airline would have given you the benefit of the doubt so why no the low fare carriers

[admin]

That is almost exaclty what we put in the letter. And we have had a couple of sandwiches off them, but they were lunchtime flights, and nothing to boast about.

[sjr]

So for the United Kingdom so far Easyjet is leagues in front of Ryanair and Jet 2.com. Sad as it is it is true. Shame because i don't see at my local airport

On the other hand we have not heard anything said about
Bmi Baby
Flyglobespan
Monarch Airlines
or TUI Fly (Thompson)

[admin]

Friend of mine flew to Tenerife with Flyglobespan, apparently they were a bit better than Jet2 as the aircraft were newer or something, but the service and prices weren't as good.... thats word of mouth not my opinion!

[admin]

Hang on, arent Jet2 / Flyglobespan in some sort of partnership? I mean the liveries on the engine and tail fin are very similar, they use a lot of the same aircraft, and I saw a pic on airliners.net the other day that had a plane taking off, and the airline it was flying for apparently was 'Flyglobespan/Jet2.com'.... anyone know?

[sjr]

they have leased aircraft to and from one another but i don't think they are in any sort of partnership