Air Discount Scheme: Flybe rip-off (and BA money saving workaround)!

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The Scottish Government's Air Discount Scheme (ADS) aims to tackle the problem of high air fares for the remotest communities in the Highlands and Islands by providing a discount of 40% on the core air fare on eligible routes.

The scheme is intended to fulfill the Scottish Government's commitment to deliver lower air fares for residents of Scotland's most peripheral communities travelling to and from Scotland's key population centers and/or between airports within the peripheral areas.

However...

Since Flybe took over from British Airways as the main operator in the Highlands and Islands, people have noticed that ADS-discounted fares have rocketed.

BUT

I've found a way around the Flybe rip-off. Instead of booking via flybe.com, qualifying ADS users should use the ba.com service! I've just saved myself £106.16 by doing so.

Result!

arealhighlander

Many thanks Cove,

I'll pass this on to my brothers in Stornoway

nesssie1702

Can you explain how using BA.com works for ADS card carriers?

Albert2

nesssie1702 wrote: »

Can you explain how using BA.com works for ADS card carriers?

I'd be interested to know this also (relatives in Shetland).

Cheers

davidinstirling

Hello
Tried your suggestion but could get nowhere on the ba.com service. Got in using my ADS card and pin No but it wouldn't give me any flights.
Anything you can think I have done wrong?
Was trying to book flight from Edinburgh to Stornoway on Monday 28th July.
Thanks in anticipation of your reply.
DC

srajenkinson

Hello All

The relevant direct links for now are:

For BA:

For Flybe:

[Sorry - you'll not see the direct web links I originally included as this forum won't let me include them - I'll remember not to bother next time!]

However, you should note that the BA site will only give you prices if you have an onward flight with BA, eg to London or outside the UK. It will not give you prices for single sector flights, eg Edinburgh to Orkney etc.

So if you are flying to/from London it is correct that going with BA (as compared to onward Flybe flights) is almost always cheaper (be it flying with the ADS discount or not), plus you don't have to pay extra for a bag in the hold, and the allowance is 23kg instead of 20kg.

Please also note that the ADS scheme is for residents of these areas only, so would not apply to, eg someone living in Stirling travelling to see relatives in Shetland.

Hope this helps

Steve

srajenkinson

[By way of an update and a chance for people to make thier views known to their MSP, if you so wish...]

Transport Minister Keith Brown’s recent announcement that public funds should not subsidise the travel costs of people living in the most remote parts of Scotland when travelling on business, is as inconsistent as it is shocking for rural enterprises in the Northern and Western Isles, Caithness and Sutherland.Vibrant rural economies are vital if our most remote communities are to survive, and the additional travel costs incurred by businesses in these areas are a fact of life, be they the long distances involved, the highest cost of fuel in the UK and the need to travel by sea and air.

And so for the Minister to announce that from 2011, without any consultation, the Air Discount Scheme subsidy will not now apply to residents when travelling on business, is a betrayal of any sensitivity or understanding of the needs of our most remote communities.

Moreover, if the Minister is true to his principles, we will next see higher fares for business travellers on the heavily state-subsidised CalMac and NorthLink ferries, and train services to Wick and the Kyle of Lochalsh.

This seems all the more discriminatory when Central Belt business travellers do not, and will not, have to pay more to use their extensively subsidised bus and rail services, even given the Minister’s planned £500M contribution to Edinburgh’s much delayed and over-budget tram system.

For the Minister to say the Government should not in principle subsidise travel costs for enterprises in, eg, Stornoway, Kirkwall, Lerwick or Thurso whilst still doing so - to a much higher degree - for business travellers living in Edinburgh or Glasgow, at first seemed like an administrative mistake.

But from his unambiguous Parliamentary response to a question from Liam McArthur MSP on 23 December 2010, he is deadly serious.

Readers who share my concerns would do well to contact their MSPs without delay.

Steve

wishuponastar

Hi all,

I am now living in Lewis and working there until December this year. I applied for ADS membership but was told that even though im resident it would have to be longer than 4 months i.e no end date....and change my electoral card to Lewis.

Is this correct?

Technically Isle of Lewis is my main residence until December and i couldn't see anywhere on the website that states it cannot be for a minimum term.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

srajenkinson

Hi there

It sounds more like Lewis is a temporary residence for you because of work, rather than you are making your home there as a permanent resident. So it sounds like they are interpreting the scheme fairly from what you've said.

It certainly doesn't sound within the spirit of what was intended for a scheme that aims to level the playing field a bit on travel costs for islanders, who pay more to get to services that are more readily accessible in places where wages are generally higher too.

Do you still have another home where your "stuff" is kept; is that where your bank accounts, car registration documents are registered to? Are you changing doctor and registering in Lewis? If you have children or a partner, are they coming too and registering for schools and healthcare? Are your earnings from this work going back into the Lewis community, or are they being spent elsewhere?

In any case, if it's for work you'll be able to put the costs against tax? If employed, is your employer not absorbing the costs? More of an issue if you are self employed though.

Plus you should be aware that from this year the SNP Government chose to exclude business travel from the scheme, so just on that score you would sound not to qualify.

However, Lewis goes have great value ferry fares through the Road Equivalent Tarriff pilot scheme where, inconsistently, the Scottish Government does not differentiate between social and business use for the cheaper fares, that apply to residents and visitors alike.

Hope that helps - good to ask the question, though as you'll maybe have gathered, you may not get a lot of sympathy from 365 day a year residents paying some of the highest costs for fuel in the UK.

Cheers

Steve