Flybe ... anyone flown with them?

[dontdillydally]

price dup a cheap flight from Birmingham with Flybe...never used them before Im assumign they are a low budget type airline. Only going to France

Anyone flown with thm before?

I've used them a few times. They're ok. Much better than Easyjet or RyanAir. Only had a problem once and even then they were no worse than any other budget airline. Flew with them to France in September - they were fine.

I've also used them a few times.

Agree with BDS - better than Ryanair and EasyJet. They allocate you a seat and allow you a handbag and one piece of hand luggage.

I did have one nightmare though, where they cancelled a flight from Newquay. Getting through to their Customer Services is well near impossible.

used them about 4 times in the uk and fine and they looked after my son nicely when he used them - 15 year old. think they are one of the better budget ones - they were the first to sort out the engines with the volcanic problem. people i know who fly regularly say they would pay more to use them than ryan.

Flybe used be one of the better low-cost airlines who actually cared a little about customer service (indeed, the quality of their service was one of the factors that under-pinned their rise in the first place). However, it appears that they have now resorted to underhand tactics that even Ryanair would struggle to match. A good example of this is their cabin-luggage policy, and the means by which they appear to have deliberately designed this to squeeze money from passengers. Most airlines permit luggage measuring up to 55cm into the cabin (in the UK, the legal maximum is 56cm). As a result, luggage manufacturers such as Samsonite have been making cabin-luggage to dimensions that comply with these stats (with most cases measuring between 52-54cm max). However Flybe have deliberately reduced their allowance to 50cm (and employed 'muggers' at departure gates in many airports to enforce this policy) so that many passengers with 'standard-sized' cabin luggage (that would fit into the cabin-luggage cages of most airlines, including Ryanair) will fail to pass their size test and therefore be forced to pay £30 per item, per leg: that's £60 to take a piece of (under-weight - i.e. less than 10kg) cabin-luggage into the cabin that fits their overhead lockers perfectly well and that would fit into the pre-check-in size-check cages of most other airlines (including Ryanair). Moreover, their staff then try to get you to pay for the £30 return 'excess' charge when they know that if you paid for this online before the return leg it would cost significantly less. A nasty underhand tactic. I wouldn't be at all surprised if - like another budget airline - their staff are financially incentivised to sting unsuspecting customers with 'excess' charges like these. Beware.

Yes we've flown with them, they run from our local airport and are based down here. They have lovely seats and at least you can book seats together when you check in (maybe when you book, i'm not sure.)

I agree the cabin sized luggage is a pain because it is a small size, we ended up checking in a bag once because of this but if you know about it in advance then you just have to get a smaller bag.

Oh, I just noticed this is an old thread...

An old thread, maybe, Bluebump... but a topic that's always 'live'! You're right about their seats - they are nice... but again be aware that if you want to pre-book seats beside one another (ie so that you're guaranteed to be able to sit with family or friends), they charge you £6 per seat!!