are budget airlines trying to take over europe !!!

RE: are budget airlines trying to take over europe !!!

The service and also the flight ex-MAN are dreadful. I think KLM’s UK operations are run by KLMuk, which used to be Air UK.

About a year ago, I flew Humberside-AMS with KLMuk, on a very comfy F50. Everyone was friendly and helpful. I think it must be a combination of awful aircraft (F100) and a problem with recruiting quality people at MAN.

The problem, like has been said, is with connecting through AMS on long haul flights. I fly to JNB often, because I connect through there to Ndola on either SAA (ERJ-135) or Inter Air (B727-100). I think I’ll go MAN-LHR-JNB next time with BA or even MAN-CDG-JNB with AF, because they are reasonably good in my experience.

RE: are budget airlines trying to take over europe !!!

This is weird I also flew MAN-AMS-JNB with KLM, last December. I would prefer to fly from LPL as its more handy for me and ok I could have done on Easyjet. However like you i flew KLM because they would check me through etc. Got to MAN checked-in waved good buy to the luggage and was present with both boarding cards. Got to the gate ( I was travelling with my partner) we looked at the boarding cards for MAN-JNB and we weren’t even sitting together (I was under the impression my travel company had done this, however !) I asked at the gate, the same girl who had checked me in was there and just said quite un-interested, im sorry there is nothing I can do about it, ask in Amsterdam. i was annoyed at her attitude, but I was even more annoyed that she hadn’t even bothered to mention this to me at check-in. So we were feeling abit down thinking that we wouldn’t be able to speak to one another the whole way to JNB. Got on the F100, yuck !! cramped, lighting dull, food even more yuck. If i was just going to Amsterdam I would always pick Easyjet, the plane is more comfortable and roomy, plus the food (if you want it) is as good as an M & S sandwich you might buy.

As luck would have it, got to the gate at AMS, was dealt with a very helpfull KLM representative, who was under a lot of pressure (this was between xmas & new year). The flight was packed (unlike MAN-AMS) and he worked his magic, we walked onto the 747 and sat in business for our flight to JNB !! So maybe the stroppy cow in MAN did us a favour, who knows, but I agree service can vary on the large national carriers. Generally I think for short hops around Europe the low-cost airlines are fine.

I was not as lucky on the return and flew economy CPT-AMS, but there was a big difference again when I stepped on the F100 at AMS to fly back to MAN as compared to the service on the long-haul.

RE: are budget airlines trying to take over europe !!!

Thanks to Easyjet I am able to travel frecuently to LPL…..So I prefer Budget ones, although I had to get a Sandwitch at the airport.
I announce that in Spain there will be a budget one soon…..GREAT.

RE: are budget airlines trying to take over europe !!!

I flew MAN-JNB with KLM recently, connecting through AMS.

The reason I did it was that the connections were convenient and being a lazy bugger, I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of checking-in again at AMS if I’d used Easy. With KLM I could check right through to JNB.

That’s one of Easy’s failings – they are not an option if you are a transfer pax. Their business is just point-to-point.

But, KLM was very poor going to AMS although it was actually quite good on to JNB. The plane was a Fokker 100, very scruffy inside. I had a small roller case as hand baggage, which they wouldn’t let me check in at MAN. I used it when I flew IOM-LGW about a month ago, so I couldn’t see the drama. They said it was too big and they got stroppy when I had a go at them. When I got through to Departures, it seemed lots of passengers had similar sized roller cases. So I bought a disposable camera and snapped away. A friend is a lawyer and I’m going to take legal advice. I felt discriminated against, just because I don’t suffer fools and I argued with the check in staff.

A lot of big airlines are hit and miss and the service from the budget airlines isn’t so bad by comparison. It’s just their refusal to cater for transfer passengers that usally costs them my cash.