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FlyGlobespan: Sit Quickly Or You'll Be Looking For A Hotel

July 25, 2007 at 12:42 PM | by | Comments (2)

We love a good deal, and admittedly, have been a bit jealous of our friends in the U.K who've been saving pounds for years by traveling on the budget-carrier Ryanair.

But then we found FlyGlobespan. The cheeky airline offers cheap tickets from this side of the Atlantic to some of Europe's premier destinations.

So just what does $200 bucks get you? When it comes to air travel, usually not much. But at FlyGlobespan, a couple of Benjamins will take you from Boston to Glasgow or New York to Liverpool. You can even get from Calgary to London or from Toronto to Birmingham--Often times with change to spare.

But the international service can be spotty. Depending on where you travel, you'll have to use one of FlyGlobespan's sister sites to book a return ticket home.

One recent traveler found that FlyGlobespan flights can come with other headaches:

Travelled on 18th July from Hamilton, Canada. supposedly direct to Manchester, we went to JFK New York What a nightmare! Had to collect our luggage & recheck it in after going through that passport control, fingerprints & photos - they are not the most welcoming of people, what a fiasco it was to recheck our luggage. We got back on the plane to discover some of us had different seats and to be told sit down quickly or you'll be looking for a hotel for the night

Is saving some dosh worth these antics? You decide.

Related Stories:
· FlyGlobespan coverage [Jaunted]
· FlyGlobespan [Official Site]
· FlyGlobespan Reviews [Airlineequality]

[Photo Credit: North West Air News ]

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FlyGlobespan


Sorry I ever heard of Flyglobespan... missed my vacation, cost me thousands, 7 unplanned days in NYC, no communication from Globespan... refund?  Ha!

Before you give them your credit card, check out Google/Flyglobespan/news


What a bunch of cowboys!

We booked in Feb 07, a direct return flight Glasgow-Hamilton - premium economy as we had used this service before and been impressed. The contrast on this occasion was stunning. Prior to flying we received an updated confirmation stating that depending on weather conditions, it might be necessary to stop in Iceland for fuel. (I suspected that a 737 was being used on the route due to the seating plan and this turned out to be the case.) This was clearly misleading, as when we arrived at the airport, the Keflavik stop was part of the itinerary on the flight information boards. Following some research on my return that even on a good day, this aircraft only has a range of 5,400km and the distance to Hamilton via Keflavik is 5,580. It's so blatant it makes my teeth itch! When we arrived to fly, there was a 1 hour delay showing, which extended to 2.5 hours by the time we took off- the aircraft had come back via Manchester apparently. The ground staff at the airport were surprised at the length of the delay - apparently the standard was 3-4 hours on any given day. The short flight to Keflavik was uneventful - in that the service was slow and choice of drinks very limited. The aircraft was pretty full except for one row on either side at the front which we discovered was to separate economy from the business class - no other delineation was possible on this aircraft. It had no inflight entertainment - we were given little media player things - 1 between 2, which had a limited range of old TV programmes and no recent movies- my daughter watched all of the kids progs in an hour! On the ground in Keflavik, refuelling commenced and then the power went off! The ground power unit had been driven away while attached to the aircraft, bending the hinge on the door, meaning an extremely hot 3 hours on the tarmac in our seats while we were constantly misinformed and given numerous false starts. We were eventually offered some water after 2.5 hours! The flight schedules have clearly not been altered to take account of the stop in Iceland. Despite the 5.5 hour delay, we eventually landed at Hamilton 7 hours 10 minutes behind schedule. No Flyglobespan rep was present that was accessible to us. We had booked a bus transfer to Toronto which dropped off at a central point, but that should have been at about 4pm. When the bus eventually left and made it's seemingly unending way to Toronto, it was 0030 in the morning by the time we were being dropped off. I arranged to do a deal with the driver to drop us at our hotel, but this should have been taken care of by Globespan, not me. I have a 2 year old and a 12 year old daughter and it is totally unacceptable that the delays encountered in this should not have been taken into account by the airline who sold us the bus package also. When we arrived at Hamilton for the return leg of our journey, as we checked in, the flight was showing a 6hr 40 minute delay. We complained to the ground agent, a very helpful and gracious man who had been with Flyglobespan only 2 weeks; he must have wondered why he had bothered. He arranged for ourselves and another family with young children to be taken to the Downtown Hamilton Sheraton to wait and arranged for us to have dinner and transport as well as the use of a room and the other facilities on site during the wait. We returned at 12.30am to find the flight had been further delayed until 3.45 am. It finally took off at 4.35am, 9hrs 5 minutes behind schedule. We arrived back in Glasgow, having been unable to take the direct route home (via Keflavik for fuel again) at 6.15pm, 11hrs 15min late. This airline, and I use the word loosely, are clearly stretched way beyond their meagre means. The aircraft which should be on this route are leased to Air India for the foreseeable future. Staff at Hamilton and the chief steward on our flight agreed that the situation was woeful and that aircraft were being used on a route they were inadequate for - because of this, the delay was being compounded every time a flight took off because the extra time taken to go via Keflavik has not be factored into this flight schedule. The steward also pointed out that the cabin crew could not provide the expected service because the aircraft could not support this, in terms of facility and space. He also commented that the cabin staff were "sick of it" as they bore the brunt of the dissatisfaction from customers. To cap it off, they destroyed one of my bags too!
I will never fly this airline again and I suggest that you do likewise. You have been warned!

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