To ask if you've heard of Fly4? (flight change)

We are flying from Birmingham to Dalaman in May

We have received the same email. I’m a tad put out as we’ve paid for extra leg room seats, I’m hoping to be refunded. We had the same thing happen 2 years ago but only got notified 24 hrs before the flight. It was a Spanish airline and no TUI crew. Huge plane and good service. It always makes me anxious not knowing anything about the airline. We always book with TUI as normally they are decent.

Where is everyone flying from?

Just had our flight to Costa del Sol in July changed from Tui to FLY4 , I understand that the cabin crew will still be Tui staff but the cockpit captains will be Fly4 and the exterior of the aircraft will be Fly4 not Tui.
My concern is that these aircraft do not have extra space or extra leg room seats.
On Tui bookings for July to Costa del Sol there is not an option to upgrade.
Our original confirmation still shows our upgraded seats.
Does anyone have any further information please?

Nope I don't work in the travel industry.

Tui are leasing planes from leasing companies because so many people are booking their holidays with Tui, so they need more seats than they have on their liveried aircraft. That doesn't sound like a firm that's going to go bust

And whichever airline a passenger books with, they may find themselves flying on a different company's plane. Even BA does this.

you have to work for TUI or worse fly4. I say goodbye to the group if they don't understand me, it's unacceptable for me to buy a fake perfume while paying for the original

Cheated 🤣🤣🤣 I don't think tui will be going bust because of this either 🤦‍♀️

There is only one stupid person on this thread and its not @notimagain . You have given no legitimate reason for objecting to a very minor change other than bleating "Wah. Not fair. I don't book low cost. Yadda yadda" @notimagain has given you an excellent informed response and you have just been bloody rude.

Oh and you don't speak on behalf of your friends. I am sure most people would not be bothered by the livery, seat colour and who the captains are, who incidentally will have completed rigorous training in the same manner as more fancy carriers

I feel cheated and I am filing a complaint, they are obliged to give me what I paid for, TUI will not survive this year

I've had the same email, except our flight is now going to be with Smartlynx. Never heard of them.

You’ve has a few explanations as to why TUI might be doing this but sounds like you’re not convinced..

Pretty much the whole industry has problems with handling capacity this summer and the aircraft manufacturers are struggling to deliver.

As a result regardless of which airline you choose to move your custom to there’s a finite chance you’ll still end up be encountering an ACMI operated flight….

https://simpleflying.com/how-will-acmi-trends-shape-the-leasing-sector-in-2024/

@sandrapinchedmysandwich

So it looks like the pilot and first officer will be Fly4 plus the plane but everything else is Tui

Change “the pilot” to “captain” (‘cos they are both pilots up front) and yes, that’s pretty much it.

There seems to be a promise of the TUI product in the cabin so this is not in any way, shape or form equivalent to TUI farming the whole operation out to some mythical 30% cheaper LoCo.

Tui seem to do this a lot, some of the airlines are fine, others not so good, agree with you not really what you want to happen when you think you've booked with a specific airline!

For me this is unacceptable, I would buy the same thing for 30% cheaper and fly with low-cost airlines, TUI must have problems doing something like this, I and my friends will definitely not be TUI customers again

So it looks like the pilot and first officer will be Fly4 plus the plane but everything else is Tui

I understand, you bought it, you knew what you were flying, I bought TUI airlines

Maybe I don't understand something, here's the content of the email

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?
When you arrive at the airport, please head to the TUI check-in/bag drop area. Your flight will be operated by FLY4 Airlines flight crew, and our on-board café service will be delivered by our TUI cabin crew, ensuring the same high service standards as a TUI Airways flight.

Exactly. The hotel, reps, transfers, overall responsibility, everything is still all Tui. The livery and seat colour is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Tui often use Easyjet planes and once my flight was Freebird despite everything else being Tui. It didn't matter a jot.

But it is a TUI flight. The email says crew will be TUI. It's just that the physical plane isn't owned by TUI and instead of having TUI written own the side it will have Fly 4 (or quite possibly not have anything)

I see the problem, I repeat, I bought airlines at TUI, if I didn't care about it, I would buy the same thing for about 30% cheaper

Agreed…the suggested change is to an operator that has been mentioned is EU regulated and had very close links to TUI…it’s not as if the replacement operator is based half way across the globe, somewhere lightly regulated and with a very old fleet.

The use of ACMI operators is on the up at the moment so there’s going to be a bit of this going on this summer.

Lots of reasons..airlines still coping with recovering from their Covid cuts plus a spike in demand, then we have Boeing with their well known problems and on top of that also both Airbus and Boeing have supply chain problems (including supply of engines).

As long as the change is above board and is to an operator working to an equivalent standard to the original airline I don’t see the problem.

Tui explain about their partner airlines here.

https://www.tui.co.uk/flight/airline-partners

It happens with flights alone as well as holidays. A lot of airlines use "code sharing" where you buy a British Airways ticket but actually fly on an American Airlines plane, say.

Then there's leasing - Simon Calder explains the types like this
"What exactly is ‘wet leasing’, ‘damp leasing’ and ‘dry leasing’?

When an airline rents the plane, the pilots and the cabin crew to cover one or more of its flights.

“Damp leasing” means you hire the plane and the pilots, and supply your own cabin crew.

With a “dry lease” you charter only the plane, and supply your own pilots and cabin crew."

Edit: splung

Ridiculous over reaction. Lots of airlines do this and I have seen this particular email stating your baggage allowance etc will be exactly the same