Easyjet: check-in only on-line

From 30/04/2013 Easyjet has implemented the only on-line check-in for all its flights. That means airport desks are only for baggabe drop.

Check-in can be done from 30 days to 2 hours in advance.

How do low cost save?

A great explanation of how low cost airlines manage to keep their low costs. Apart from the well know using smaller airports and the seat pitch lenght, the number of employees makes the difference.

But I have to disagree with the fact that regular airlines have to pay comissions to travel agencies. That is not a reality anymore as most of them do not give us any comission at all. So do not ask me what they do with the money they used to pay us years ago.

Volotea's destinations

The first low cost in Tanzania

Be aware of this new African low cost, from the founder of EasyJet, pretends to expand through the continenat and even fly trasatlantic.

Fastjet for the moment only flies from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to two destinations: Kilimanjaro y Mwanza. We can see the Kilimanjaro route being a big success among adventure lovers.

Will Fastjet allow us to travel in Africa as much as EasyJet allow us in Europe?

Alert: new low cost in London!

Well, not new, but what it is new is that they will have a hub in London! More flights to choose from yay! 

Norwegian, the second largest airline in Scandinavia, will have a hub in London Gatwick from April 2013.

Watch out, Easyjet, here they come! (And they offer free wi-fi on board).

What's going on Wizz Air?

I was quite shocked when I read that Wizz Air is charging now for the hand luggage. The price is 10€ and people started complaining.

Looking into it, it is not as bad as it looks. Their aim is to reduce the number of items of hand luggage in each flights. It turns out to be the same as Ryanair, you can carry hand luggage, but not huge items.

If you are carrying a small piece like a big handbag or a rucksack, you can do so for free. If you are planing to travel with one of the hand luggage trolleys, you will have to pay for it. How many times have you tried to place your items in the cabin struggling because someone has taking two or three pieces of hand luggage with them?

Skyways files for bankruptcy

The Swedish's airline Skyways has filed for bankruptcy. According to the official statement, the closure of Cimber Sterling has affected them obliging them to stop operations.

Skyways Express AB with its daughter company City Airline AB have today been forced to stop all payments.
As a consequence all flights have also been cancelled with immediate effect. Both companies will apply for Bankruptcy in the morning.
Therefore there will be no use for passengers to go to the Airport.
The owners of the company have decided not to fund the company any longer and therefore the Board of Directors was forced to decide to stop all payments and to stop all flights.
“It feels very sad for the Company and for our passengers that will be immediately affected. It is also very sad for the personnel also at risk to lose their jobs. We have come far in turning the company around to turn the company around but after the Bankruptcy of Cimber it became almost impossible to continue” says Mikael Wångdahl CEO for Skyways and City Airline.
Contact information will be updated soon. 

It's not looking good for the low cost carriers and the passengers that fly with them!

Ryanair's website is down

Ryanair's website is under maintenance this weekend. That means customers won't be able to check-in on-line for several hours. 

So now you know... just wait ;)

Ryanair customers should be aware that the carrier’s website will be down for “upgrade maintenance” this weekend.

It will not be possible to check-in online between 1600 on Friday May 18 and 1200 on Sunday May 20, and bookings and flight changes will not be allowed for 48 hours between 2200 on Friday and 2200 on Sunday.

As Ryanair charges customers who fail to check in and arrive at the airport with their boarding passes, passengers should ensure they visit the website before Friday afternoon to print out any necessary documents.

A statement on the carrier’s website said:

“Ryanair wishes to apologise to all passengers who may be affected by our website closure which is unavoidable in order to upgrade the www.ryanair.com website."

BMI Baby on ground

Another low cost stopping its operations. In this case is BMI Baby. After being bought from Lufthansa by IAG, owner of British Airways, will stop operating from September. Some of its flights will stop from June leaving around 500 people unemployed.

More information on their website. This is good news for BA that will hold the monopoly :( 

Vueling doing a lip dub

Vueling is one of my favourite airlines. Even though they lost my luggage for one week and they belong now to Iberia. They take me every time I need to fly from Heathrow to Coruña. More expensive each time, by the way.

But I liked their natural spontaneity in this lip dub:

Vueling from Santiago to Zurich and Paris

Vueling will start to fly from Santiago de Compostela to Zurich and Paris from Christmas. This is good news for all the Galician people spreaded around the World. But it´s also great news for people wanting to know a bit more about or beautiful county. Not to mention all the Galicians that will go on visits there!

Contact Jet2

Sometimes is really difficult finding the airline´s contact information when you need it, so here you are the Jet2 one. Please mind this information was taken today from their website:

Customer Services

Our Call Centres can be contacted as follows:

Please note our Customer Service agents do not have real time flight delay or cancellation information. Please contact an agent from Jet2.com's appointed handling company at the airport concerned who are our representatives during delays and cancellation. The latest information can be found on www.Jet2.com/info

All of our call centres are English speaking with the exception of the Czech Republic.

Dialling from	Telephone No.	Opening hours	Call Charges*
UK  Bookings or amendments to existing bookings	0871 226 1 737	Monday to Friday, 08:00 until 21:00# (GMT) Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays, 09:00 until 17:00 (GMT)	10p per min
UK  All other enquiries	0906 302 0660		50p per min
Spain	902 881 269	As per UK opening hours	6.7 Euro cents per minute plus a connection charge of 8.3 Euro cents
France	0821 230 203	As per UK opening hours	12 Euro cents per minute plus a connection charge of 11.2 Euro cents
Italy	199 404 023	As per UK opening hours	26.80 Euro cents per minute plus a connection charge of 12.40 Euro cents
Germany	01803 511 111	As per UK opening hours	9 Euro cents per minute
All other countries	0044 203 031 8103	Monday to Friday, 08:00 until 21:00 (GMT) Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays, 09:00 until 17:00 (GMT)	Standard rates

*Telephone Call Charges

All charges are inclusive of VAT. Calls from mobile phones and some networks may cost more, please check with your network or telecom provider.

If you would like to contact us to share your travel experiences, or discuss any aspect of our service, please write to us at the address below. To aid us with your enquiry please include the following information at the top of your letter.

• Your unique 6 letter booking reference (e.g. ABCXYZ). We regret we will not be able to reply if you do not quote your booking reference.
• A subject heading for your particular issue
• Lead passenger name
• Departure date (dd/mm/yy)
• Leaving from | Flying to

Please note that all post flight communication must be in writing in English and all replies will be in English.

Customer Care Team
PO Box 314
Leeds
LS19 9DY
England

We aim to respond to you within 21 working days.

Ryanair extends reserved seating to all routes

Following what promised some time ago, Ryanair is extending the reserved seating option in all their routes. There will not many airlines now not asking us to pay for the seats when booking our flight. Specially the low cost carries, if I am not wrong, only Easyjet is not charging for it, but they are planning to do it.

News on Business Traveller:

Budget carrier Ryanair will allow customers on all routes to purchase reserved seating from January 10 following a successful six-month trial (see online news November 7). The pre-booking service will be charged at €10 each way and will include priority boarding.

The optional service will allow passengers to secure favourable seats in the front two rows for a swift exit, or over the wings in rows 16 and 17, which offer extra legroom (to see a seat plan click here).  

This move comes as an allocated seating policy is proving increasingly popular with low cost carriers looking to boost ancillary revenues. Easyjet recently launched an allocated seating trial (see online news November 15), and Bmibaby launched a FlyPlus fare which includes seat assignment (see online news September 7).

For more information visit ryanair.com.

Bad news for all of us, paying already the fuel surcharges and all the fare increases, apart from the services on board!

Mango is not a fruit... or a clothing shop

Mango is also a South African low cost operating 6 routes across the country with 5 aircrafts. There is no reason not to trust it as it belongs to South African Airways, the government´s airline.

Mango-plane

But they are not the only low cost in the country as also have wider choices with Kulula and 1Time.

Low cost are a great option in this country were distances are so huge.

Mango destinations

Two things to consider:
- pets are accepted on board following some guidelines.
- they do not allow unacompanied minors.

Website

What happens if I do not take my outbound Easyjet flight?

Nothing, you can still use the inbound as they work on a one way fare basis. 

Please remember that 99% of the airlines cancel your inbound if you have no-showed for the outbound.


For further information, please contact Easyjet.

Dear Berlusconi... yours truly, Ryanair

Once again, Ryanair has used present news to make a campaign. This time with Silvio Berlusconi:

Dear Silvio, another reason to escape with Ryanair.

Insert 1£ into slot