ISLE OF MAN
Join Date: Jan 2008
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I can't see Eastern going anywhere soon, RL shrewd business man and they're doing rather well i hear.
Flybe are having a go at SouthWest too, so not many independant airlines left if they manage to push them out.
You never know, when or if BE get the share they want you'll be paying a £1 for a crap.
Flybe are having a go at SouthWest too, so not many independant airlines left if they manage to push them out.
You never know, when or if BE get the share they want you'll be paying a £1 for a crap.
Join Date: Sep 2007
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In January, Eastern's load factors on IOM-BHX and IOM-NCL were around 27% and 25%. That's about 8 pax on each flight. Now they may be 'doing rather well' elsewhere, but these look like death throes numbers to me.
Anyway, for my sins, I am flying with them later this month - my employers choice rather than having an overnight stay. Even so, I'm not sure how many people will continue to want to pay upto £350 to go to BHX and back................ and I notice that on my booking confirmation they are promoting themselves as a 'No refunds airline' - in fact even if you've paid £200+ for a ticket, you can't make any changes at all. I can't see Manx business people putting up with that for too long, in the current climate.
Personally, I'd rather take our chances with a fourth Q400 at Ronaldsway, sensible and realistic fares and my FlyBe points..............give it another 12 months.
Anyway, for my sins, I am flying with them later this month - my employers choice rather than having an overnight stay. Even so, I'm not sure how many people will continue to want to pay upto £350 to go to BHX and back................ and I notice that on my booking confirmation they are promoting themselves as a 'No refunds airline' - in fact even if you've paid £200+ for a ticket, you can't make any changes at all. I can't see Manx business people putting up with that for too long, in the current climate.
Personally, I'd rather take our chances with a fourth Q400 at Ronaldsway, sensible and realistic fares and my FlyBe points..............give it another 12 months.
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Flybe points, where do you come from pal. There's no free flight at the end of those 16 points.
Eastern dont cost 340 per sector, 130 all in I could get for compared to BE's 240 without bags. Do your homework pal. Another thing, at least you get there on time.
Eastern dont cost 340 per sector, 130 all in I could get for compared to BE's 240 without bags. Do your homework pal. Another thing, at least you get there on time.
Join Date: Dec 2008
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J41cac think that is a slightly biased view!! Any chance you work for Eastern?
I think you'll find that when you get the required points you get a flight with a free "fare" course flybe are not going to pay your taxes for you! I hear that the rewards for all is proving very popular with the passengers.
Secondly I don't think you can compare prices on one flight you need to compare how long the flights have been on sale etc flight times Eastern may well be cheaper on the particular flight you look at but the depature times could be cra*! I think you should be doing your homework as you say!! Get all the facts in your possesion before making throw away comments! Again whats the point in making little snipes like least you'll get there on time.....from this i guess you have all the figures on a particular route on time reports for say the last year??
Not to mention the fact the q400 is a much better envoironment to fly on! I know id pay to fly in comfort.
Anyway rant over.....please back your comments up with facts! not bitter opinions!
I think you'll find that when you get the required points you get a flight with a free "fare" course flybe are not going to pay your taxes for you! I hear that the rewards for all is proving very popular with the passengers.
Secondly I don't think you can compare prices on one flight you need to compare how long the flights have been on sale etc flight times Eastern may well be cheaper on the particular flight you look at but the depature times could be cra*! I think you should be doing your homework as you say!! Get all the facts in your possesion before making throw away comments! Again whats the point in making little snipes like least you'll get there on time.....from this i guess you have all the figures on a particular route on time reports for say the last year??
Not to mention the fact the q400 is a much better envoironment to fly on! I know id pay to fly in comfort.
Anyway rant over.....please back your comments up with facts! not bitter opinions!
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Firstly, a little context here .........I make around 70-80 sectors to/from IOM each year, both business and leisure, and last year did so to/from 10 different UK airports, so I do know a little about the market, the operators and the fare structures and opportunities.
Let's deal with your points one at a time.......
I'm a sufficiently frequent flyer on FlyBe routes to have been able to use my points 4 or 5 times. No one who has read the T&C's expects a free flight - it is effectively a discount scheme - the residual charges and taxes are generally around £60 on a return. I understand that, and so do most of the numerous people I know who've also used it. It has enabled me to save between £250 and £300 across those flights, so I'm pretty satisfied. I'd guess there are hundreds of people in IOM collecting these points.
It's very difficult to compare fares absolutely - but I've done enough 'homework' to know that FlyBe's lead in fare to BHX is £59 return and is widely available, (I've got six seats booked at this rate for various dates in April and May) whilst I can't find any Eastern returns for under £150, although I accept your figure of £130 may be out there somewhere.
On the day I'm travelling with Eastern, fully flexible is £350 return with Eastern and £301 with FlyBe, which includes bags, food etc on both. However, FlyBe's schedule is poor - I'm sure they know that - but their fare is fully changeable and refundable. Eastern no longer refund ANY fares at all - that's a good way to encourage customer loyalty.
You chose to ignore my comments on Eastern's pathetic load factors, which are a matter of fact, and look unsustainable. At the end of the day, their's is a different business model to FlyBe, but these numbers and the underlying trend strongly suggest that Eastern's model is failing, as far as IOM is concerned.
I know I'm not going to win this debate with you, as you appear to have a fairly entrenched position regarding Eastern, (I'll let others decide who has the balanced and informed perspective here), but bluster all you like - pax are voting with their feet and £'s........the J41's will more than likely be out of IOM in 12 months. Whether that's a good thing or not is debatable, it just looks like an inescapable fact. But with only 3% of pax overall, it's difficult to believe that most pax would even notice, or that their presence or otherwise would influence FlyBe or Manx2's behaviour and pricing to a significant degree.
Oh......and don't call me 'pal' or I, and I'd guess, others around these parts, might just think of you as a condescending tw&t...........
Let's deal with your points one at a time.......
I'm a sufficiently frequent flyer on FlyBe routes to have been able to use my points 4 or 5 times. No one who has read the T&C's expects a free flight - it is effectively a discount scheme - the residual charges and taxes are generally around £60 on a return. I understand that, and so do most of the numerous people I know who've also used it. It has enabled me to save between £250 and £300 across those flights, so I'm pretty satisfied. I'd guess there are hundreds of people in IOM collecting these points.
It's very difficult to compare fares absolutely - but I've done enough 'homework' to know that FlyBe's lead in fare to BHX is £59 return and is widely available, (I've got six seats booked at this rate for various dates in April and May) whilst I can't find any Eastern returns for under £150, although I accept your figure of £130 may be out there somewhere.
On the day I'm travelling with Eastern, fully flexible is £350 return with Eastern and £301 with FlyBe, which includes bags, food etc on both. However, FlyBe's schedule is poor - I'm sure they know that - but their fare is fully changeable and refundable. Eastern no longer refund ANY fares at all - that's a good way to encourage customer loyalty.
You chose to ignore my comments on Eastern's pathetic load factors, which are a matter of fact, and look unsustainable. At the end of the day, their's is a different business model to FlyBe, but these numbers and the underlying trend strongly suggest that Eastern's model is failing, as far as IOM is concerned.
I know I'm not going to win this debate with you, as you appear to have a fairly entrenched position regarding Eastern, (I'll let others decide who has the balanced and informed perspective here), but bluster all you like - pax are voting with their feet and £'s........the J41's will more than likely be out of IOM in 12 months. Whether that's a good thing or not is debatable, it just looks like an inescapable fact. But with only 3% of pax overall, it's difficult to believe that most pax would even notice, or that their presence or otherwise would influence FlyBe or Manx2's behaviour and pricing to a significant degree.
Oh......and don't call me 'pal' or I, and I'd guess, others around these parts, might just think of you as a condescending tw&t...........
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Oh......and don't call me 'pal' or I, and I'd guess, others around these parts, might just think of you as a condescending tw&t...........
Join Date: Nov 2007
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Can't really see the point in petty arguments on this thread... At the end of the day the passenger has every opputunity to shop around. Unfortunately some times pax will not check terms and conditions as Tonyq mentions. Without passing comment on the above the figures do not lie. Across europe many airline are finding that their Premium and Business class products are suffering from a fall in demand. So it is not a suprise if Eastern are suffering a drop in passengers. It's just a reflection of the current climate. LoCo operators are picking up some of the fall out as businesses look to cut expenditure on travel. No this is not having a dig at Eastern or being overly pro-Flybe It's just how I see it. (And yes wait for the almost certain petty reply of Flybe are not low-cost) Change of subject please!
Change of subject please!
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"On the day I'm travelling with Eastern, fully flexible is £350 return with Eastern and £301 with FlyBe, which includes bags, food etc on both. However, FlyBe's schedule is poor - "
What you boys missed out in this debate is punctuality.
Eastern are as close to 100% as you can get. BE use BHX IOM as there junk flight that gets pulled/cancelled/delayed as soon as the aircraft is needed by OPS to fly anywhere else from BHX.
What you boys missed out in this debate is punctuality.
Eastern are as close to 100% as you can get. BE use BHX IOM as there junk flight that gets pulled/cancelled/delayed as soon as the aircraft is needed by OPS to fly anywhere else from BHX.
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Judging by your name I would guess you have some what of a bias opinion when it comes to Eastern punctuality, a bit like me with Flybe.
Flybe do not use BHX as a 'junk service' however if another aircraft has any problems they will look at sourcing the best alternative. This will include looking into a variety of things and it is unfortunate that the BHXIOM service has been affected in the past. Comparing EZE to BE is a difficult one as BE are far far bigger than Eastern and will inevitably suffer from more disruption as their network is so much larger.
That said, whilst I do not hold much of an opinion on EZE, it cannot be ignored that they are very punctual most of the time (not all of the time) and indeed have been acknowledged for this at airports within its network.
Flybe do not use BHX as a 'junk service' however if another aircraft has any problems they will look at sourcing the best alternative. This will include looking into a variety of things and it is unfortunate that the BHXIOM service has been affected in the past. Comparing EZE to BE is a difficult one as BE are far far bigger than Eastern and will inevitably suffer from more disruption as their network is so much larger.
That said, whilst I do not hold much of an opinion on EZE, it cannot be ignored that they are very punctual most of the time (not all of the time) and indeed have been acknowledged for this at airports within its network.
LPL BHD EDI and JER are all sick as parrots. Even LCY with new service was well down more than 20%
Anybody heard the same or know the details
Join Date: Nov 2007
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Eastern it's about the rumours that the IOM government 'purchased' the slots for RE. At a time when the IOM government does well to tell the diffrence between its arse and it's mouth nothing is suprising! The contradiction that is the Island's 'open skies' policy would appear to have been disregarded if the government are in any way funding RE into LCY. The second that route is 12 months old they will lose things like Low rate airport charges and fares will have to go right up! just my prediction though....
just my prediction though....