[Anonymous]

[newbieflyer]

Just before I proceed,Thanks in advance for all your replies.

Background to this was I was very intrigued with the beach landing at Barra. so booked a trip for the bank holiday weekend – morning flight on Saturday and return on Monday.

reaching Glasgow airport on Saturday morning, saw the dreaded ‘Cancelled’ sign. my heart almost skipped a beat as I had been planning this for months. nevertheless walked down to the FlyBE counter to be told that we would instead be taken on a coach to Oban (3 hours) and then on a Ferry to Barra (1 hour transit and then a 5 hour ferry), reaching Barra Castle Bay ferry at 20:30. As per original plan we were supposed to land at Barra Beach airport at 10:00 AM, so all in all a delay of around 10.5.

There was an alternate route for us to be put on a flight to benbeculla and then coach to the ferry and then ferry to Barra, which would eventually reach Barra at 17:15 in the evening, still saving us around 3.5 hours from the arranged option. But for the Benbeculla option, FlyBE was clear that they would not take responsibility after dropping us off at Benbeculla it was all down to us from there on.

Wanting to be safe, we chose the FlyBE sponsored option of coach to Oban and then Ferry.

When we reached the Ferry at Oban, we were asked to pay for our ferry tickets and we were advised that we would be reimbursed. Still yet to get any form of acknowledgement or emails about this from FlyBE. I shall be contacting them later today. For the entire day we were given a light refreshments voucher worth £16 for the two of us at Glasgow airport.

This was the onward journey, for the return we were scheduled to be on the 10:25 from Barra to Glasgow. reached the airport at 9:30 am to see the beach landing. was told that the flight would be delayed by am hour.

at 10:45 given the bad news that the flight was again cancelled. this time we were swiftly put onto (14 passengers) the airports fire vans and driven to the nearest ferry, 10 minutes away and were on the 11:05 ferry to South Uist in Benbeculla. there a coach was waiting for us and were driven to Benbeculla airport. reached the airport at 13:15 and we were put on a flight at 13:45 to Glasgow, reaching Glasgow at 14:35. No food vouchers given for the entire journey, except some snacks and drinks on the BEB-GLA flight.

Now my question is – are we entitled for any compensation or refunds (I would be expecting them to reimburse our ferry ticket and the paid seating which I had done while booking the flight) ? or have we been treated fairly? from my point of view, Yes, FlyBE did reach us to the final destination, albeit 11 hours later, for a 1 hour flight. But what are the airlines responsibilities for refreshments during the journey?

* both flights cancelled due to technical fault with the aircraft. onward journey due to leaking fuel pipe. return journey, no reason given.

[Papillion53]

Cue FDoS!!!

[openfly]

Newbieflyer…..that is an odd excuse. They have two two aircraft available for the Barra service. Normally the tickets for the ferry are prepaid by Flybe and it all goes smoothly. I have had several instances of problems on the Barra service due to the weather and beach conditions which have been handled well.

[newbieflyer]

Yup, and I couldn’t do much as they wouldn’t budge. So had to travel over 12 hours in total to reach Barra, from Glasgow.
So not sure what my stance needs be. Do I just take this as an unfortunate two cases and leave it as such (as long as I get my reimbursement for the ferry and prepaid seats) ?

[FormerlyDoS]

What a horrible experience.

This is the governing regulation for cancellations

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:046:0001:0007:en:PDF

[newbieflyer]

Thanks FDos

Skimming through the document, it looks like FlyBE have covered their backs well here. But ill go through the document once again and see if I can do anything about it, Thanks.

[newbieflyer]

Update:
FlyBE have agreed for a full refund of the GLA-BRR-GLA sector, including any costs incurred during the journey – ferry tickets, food on ferry. etc.

All discussions were hassle free, few emails exchanged and no arguments and no problem dealing with the staff. I was in direct contact with one of the Loganair representative and was dealt with extremely professionally and quite satisfied with the outcome.

we were given a choice of a complementary return ticket from gla-brr, to be used within the next 9 months. But chose for a refund, as was not sure if I would be able to make it any time soon.

only flip side was we were not able to land on the beach

Update: my communications were directly with LogaAir rep. Not sure if they are same as FlyBe.

[SimonS1]

I’m surprised FlyBE are still in business.

[ImissConcorde]

SimonS1 – just about in business it would seem.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10053100/Flybe-in-talks-to-sell-Gatwick-take-off-and-landing-slots.html

Share price today is 58.50p down from the flotation price of 295p.

[SimonS1]

I have had numerous comments from colleagues about flights cancelled due to technical issues. Curiously these often occur when loads are light.

Any airline that can cause a 10.5 hour delay on a flight of less than 1 hour does not deserve to be in business, let alone doing it twice in 2 days.

[newbieflyer]

Simon, to be fair, the first sector was a 10.5 hour delay

The return was delayed by 3 hours : orignal flight to take off at 10:25, land at GLA at 11:30
with new re-routing we landed GLA at 14:30.

not sure whats the difference between LoganAir and FlyBe.

My comms with logan air so far have always been good. FlyBe is a different story all together

[edinv54]

‘newbieflyer’ – glad that you have a obtained a satisfactory outcome, however sorry to read that you will not be able to experience the beach landing. – which is now only possible from GLA. The alternate via BEB was withdrawn at the end of March due to Western Isles Island Council cuts.

GLA/BRR is a BE franchise, the flights are actually operated by Loganair, (LC) therefore refunds will no doubt come from LC.

[Author]

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