Holiday Which votes Best UK airline

[euroboy]

Holiday Which? The UK consumer magazine conducted a survey of its members Which is airline would you recommend to a friend? They judged 11 different categories including comfort, cleanliness, and service.
2/3 were leisure travellers. Travel took place from 1999.

Air New Zealand got the most commendations, followed by Singapore and Palmair a tiny Bournemouth based airline.
The Results.....UK airlines
5 divisions 1 top 5 poorest

Division 1 EasyJet

Division 2 Go, Buzz, Virgin Atlantic

Division 3 BA, BM (bmi) Britannia

Division 4 Monarch, Air 2000, Airtours

Division 5 Sabre, JMC

(so now we know what JMC stands for Just More C**P)

[Groovy-Chick]

I find that amazing that the public have voted for easyjet!!!! Comfort wise they have the normal 737`s, cleaniness & service go hand in hand. Their aircraft remain clean because they don`t provide a service!! (sorry, drinks on request!) It just goes to show that all these cheap deals and BOGOF promotions have changed the travelling public`s view on airline travel aswell. Sorry to Easyjet Crew, but you don`t realise how "easy" you`ve got it!! x

[TightSlot]

Pse can u clarify - why the divisions and who established them?
The Palmair selction is a concern given the size of their operation (I'm sure that they are very good). Were the number of commendations scaled pro-rata to fleet size or annual pax volume in order to compare with, say, BA? Or were 10 out of the 12 comments received favourable giving them a high positive ratio? If Palmair expands based on their success (I assume that they are financially sound - you have to make a profit as well as be popular) will they then suffer the same difficulties in motivating staff as some of the larger, mature carriers?
Finally, I find it bizarre (as apparently does Groovy-Chick) that when one of the three mentioned criteria for commendation is service, the awards are allocated to "no-frills" carriers that in essence, don't provide any? This is not to knock EZ, GO & Buzz crews who all work hard in their own way - however this survey strikes me as essentially asking people to vote on the quality and smoothness of a manual gear box in an automatic car. It doesn't tie up. Euroboy, pse clarify?

[euroboy]

Yes I was suprised that EasyJet came first. I agree with the Palmair comment because they are so small, and I believe they have come out with high results in previous Holiday Which? report.

I believe Which? ask their members regarding their travelling experiences during the last year(s).

Which? only gather report info. like this from their members and thing like electrical goods by testing them. I wonder myself how much of a cross section of jo public is in a report. I imagine the average Which member to be middle England, mid income, etc...
Just a quick note I fly with 1 airline which got placed in the 3rd Division.

[rekcarc]

Some of you seem surprised easyJet came first - you should fly with eJ and see for yourselves . eJ may not offer lots of service but a cart service is offered on every flight for pax to purchase drinks and snacks and they can request as much as they like and be served with a smile after the carts have been stowed. eJ operate with minimum crew mainly short sectors and the cabin crew are in the cabin for the majority of the flight serving or just chatting to pax. The service is personal and very good and if you are a pax with easyJet you will never feel a nuisance when asking for another drink or a flight deck visit etc.
eJ may not offer a lot of services but the service they do offer is excellent and they deserve to be top.

[cart tart 1]

i would like to know does anybody know Sabre their crew is a joke!!!

[Psr777]

So Euroboy, JMc stands for.........

An old thread and yours was not in the least entertaining, look at Journeys Made Crapper, Just More Caledonian, Jolly Minty Colours and many more !!!!!!!!

Apparently stands for John Mason Cook, the son of the founder of Thomas Cook. Okay not imaginative but is the forerunner of the new SAS livery and bmi isn't far behind !!!!!!!



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Safe Flying all !!!

[euroboy]

Psr 777 calm...I had the delights for working for Thomas Cook for a few months. I also knew that a few of the Travel Consultants who earn more commission selling JMC holidays, just don`t. I think it was the combining tour ops, 1 was not too good.
Saying that I have flown JMC, from LGW-AGP-LGW and found the flight good, crews happy, but nothing different to any other charter.
Liked the modern tendy uniforms.
I have heard that the crews on the merger was not too friendly and that was from a pax on a flight and a Travel consultant I worked along with.
The Colours side very good I believe, and excellent to work for.
I sent a mate of mine to Goa. The manager (joking said who have you booked him with, I told him to which he answered well you will 1 mate down when he returns)
My mate had a great holiday and recommends the hotel and JMC holidays, although the flight was Monarch.

[This message has been edited by euroboy (edited 12 March 2001).]

[This message has been edited by euroboy (edited 12 March 2001).]

[euroboy]

Prs 777 one reason JMC may of not come to high in the Which? report maybe the Customer expectation factor. The ads, brochure show a new different product and with the Travel agent which owns it gives the product a higher expectation element.

Also think for the average Which? consumer.

Whilst at T Cooks most customers book Thomson time and time again and all they want is Thomson, most think that Thomson was part of T Cook.
If you managed to swop the Thomson holiday to a JMC, without fail they would say they missed their Thomsons. It what they are use to.

[marshall.m]

hey cartart 1 man wassuupppp with sbe, theyre doin their best, anyone hear bout a company called JJ starting outa lgw or stn. might give em a shot from wot i hear the ££ good. neway i need a new lifestyle! oh by the way i dont work for sbe. im boeing fd. just to clarify. cyas.oh btw euroboy dats a cool nick. cyaaaaa

[This message has been edited by marshall.m (edited 13 March 2001).]

[This message has been edited by marshall.m (edited 13 March 2001).]

[TightSlot]

Yes, well, thanks marshall for the eloquence - try reducing the dosage when you get back to the planet.
rekcarc - Understand, but the fact remains that there is something fundamentally astray when service criteria win points for "no-frills" - even though, as said before, EZ crew work hard and with good humour. They don't (physically) work as hard when airborne as others, as charter crew on ski sectors, Night Spain and VDA's will tell you (or sched crews on a full shuttle). However, to be fair, EZ will usually fly more sectors on any given day.
By the way, euroboy's posting on this subject in R&N forum has generated a response from somebody who advises that Palmair fleet size is actually NIL - they lease in: Therefore Which customers have just voted in a virtual airline. Get's better dunnit?

[This message has been edited by TightSlot (edited 13 March 2001).]

[stevobeevo]

Just to clarify the Palmair queries from last march. They are owned by BathTravel an independent travel agents along the south coast. For summer 2002 they will be leasing a second B737-200 from European Aviation, also based at Bournemouth. The flight crews are employed by Palmair and are all ex BA etc staff who have retired to the south coast or come 'home.' Its very rare to get a young stewardess on your flight. However they planes never run at less than 90% full and many routes are nearly 100%. Its nice to think that such a small player can survive in the cut throat world of low fares 1p a ticket. Not that its a bad thing.:)

[Peter Skellan]

easyJet, Go and Buzz have better cabin crew than most charter and scheduled short haul airlines in my experience.

a) The low cost CC are not jaded about their career as often its only something they are doing for a few years

b) There are no union issues in these airlines and industrial relations are good.

c) They are on a commission sales basis. This incentivizes them to sell you more goods/offer more services per hour.

d) They have the hassle of dealing with money in multiple currencies with every Pax. They are actively selling everything not merely slinging Choice A or B at the seat tray.

e) Their sandwiches and snacks are actually far nicer than the rubber chicken generally handed out on full service/charters.

f) They do more services per hour and never hide behind a galley curtain because of commission and they have no curtain.

g) Morale in these rapidly expanding profitable companies is generally higher. This is readily visible to the pax.

h) The money I save by being on a Go or Easy or Buzz flight allows me to order 3 coffees, 2 different sandwhiches a G&T and a bottle of champagne on board and still have change for a slap up meal at the best restaurant in the town of destination.

i) They don't insist on staff wearing horribly camp or horribly over dressed over-make-up'd uniform.

j) Very often you see the pilots greeting or saying goodbye to the Pax or helping tidy the cabin or coming back to make their own tea/coffee. Which is nice.

k) They do all this whilst flying more hours and more sectors than other airlines.

PS

[wysiwyg]

It amazes me that no one seems to have noticed that low cost has the same seat pitch as charter and yet EZY still end up top of this list. Also Palmair get a top recommendation despite having gone from the quietest jet (146 when operated by Flightline) to the current noisiest (B732 with EAC).
Perhaps the survey should have looked at all the facts rather than just a handful. In fact seeing that the survey mentions Sabre rather than Excel shows how out of touch it is.

[corsaman]

Wysiwyg - most people will find the legroom on board EZY rather better than most charter aircraft - to put it into perspective, EZY fit 149 into their 737-300's - but have only two toilets and no galley2 at the front, just a bulkhead. At BD, 148 were shoehorned into a 737-300 along with an additional rear toilet and a large fwd galley capable of taking double carts. The galleys are to EZY's spec, and very compact - making for greater pax space.

[wysiwyg]

28 inches is 28 inches no matter how you try to package it.

[mainfrog2]

While we're quoting figures, BA 737-300 LGW based has only 126 seats, thats nearly two rows less.