GB Airways taken over by Easyjet

bagand96

Update to this, easyjet have today put on sale many of the GB Airways routes they plan to operate themselves...

From 1 January 2008 cheap flights are on sale to the following new destinations from London Gatwick and Manchester:

New routes from London Gatwick:

Fly to:
Ajaccio (Corsica)
Bastia (Corsica)
Biarritz
Crete (Heraklion)
Corfu
Cyprus (Paphos)
Dalaman
Gibraltar
Gran Canaria (Las Palmas)
Hurghada
Lanzarote (Arrecife)
Madeira (Funchal)
Malta
Montpellier
Mykonos
Nantes
Rhodes
Sharm El Sheikh
Tenerife (South)
Thessaloniki

New routes from our NEW departure airport Manchester

Fly to:
Crete (Heraklion)
Cyprus (Paphos)
Malta
Tenerife (South)

There are a couple missing, Gatwick to Agadir, Corfu, Fez, Tunis and Marrakech do not appear.

Also Ibiza, Malaga, Mahon etc are not mentioned, I guess that is because this announcement is of NEW routes, and easyJet already operate to those destinations.

J_B

bagand96 wrote: »

Update to this, easyjet have today put on sale many of the GB Airways routes they plan to operate themselves....

Hmm .... but unfortunately the website doesn't work properly to book these flights!

:-(

rainee

i've just checked my flights booked with gb on the easyjet web site and are £200 more! I wonder if its to make you feel like you have a bargain to allow for the loss of all our extras!!!
charter flights look better than them on our route
Any ideas on when we might get our confirmation from easyjet???

richardw

They are saying that the deal is likely to go through by the end of January, so until then your booking is still with GB Airways/BA.

JoolsB

OK I'm probably missing something really obvious here, but our BA flights this summer are to Faro. I have just looked on the BA site to see if there is any updated info as to the Easyjet switch, and there is an announcement that BA are no longer selling flights to certain destinations for summer 2008 due to the expected completion of the Easyjet 'takeover' (although Faro isn't included in this list). There is also an announcement of new BA flights for the summer. I therefore looked and I can still book a BA flight to Faro for the dates that we want to travel? The times aren't quite as convenient, but total cost is only about £50 than what we originally paid. Travelling with 2 children, I really want the option of the on-line check in and would do anything to avoid the easyjest bundle of boarding the plane.

So does this mean that BA will still be flying some flights to Faro? Or are they just still letting people book without mentioning that they will be switched to Easyjet? Anyone have any ideas?

Actually having just re-read the BA website it seems they have introduced new flights on our route. Does anyone know if I can get a refund from our old flights now, or do we have to wait for the deal to be finalised? Thanks

bagand96

As you correctly said, BA have stopped selling the GB Airways flights completely. They have however decided that they will fly certain routes themsevles with their own aircraft etc.. Faro is one of those.

I think your booking will still transfer to easyjet. Legally your booking is with GB Airways who are being sold to easyjet, and with that sale goes your booking. As easyjet are continuing the Faro route your booking will transfer as well.

As you said you are entitled to a refund, but as we all know there isn't any set date for that. It may be worth a call to BA and have a chat with them, you never know they MAY transfer your booking to their flight, or MAY refund you now if you explain you want to book with them. I doubt they will, but you never know, for the sake of a phone call it might be worth it.

JoolsB

Thanks for the advice. I've just phoned BA and as nice as the lady was and empathised with the situation I am in, there is apparently nothing they can do until they have heard that the deal is 100% going ahead. She said that they expected to hear once they returned in the New Year, but as of yet they still have no idea when it is going to be finalised.

I have e-mailed a complaint to their customer relations but I'm not holding my breath for a reply that tells me anything different. Trouble is I cant even book the new BA flights just in case the Easyjet deal does fall through, because then we'll be left with 2 lots of flights! And in the meantime, the cost of the new BA flights will just keep on rising.......

magyar

We have an interesting one. We have flights to Paphos (booked after the deal went through, although no indication that BA wouldn't be operating the route) out on 26 March and returning on 4 April. This means we fly out with BA/GB and back with Easyjet.

So does anyone know if
- we'll be able to get a refund on both legs if that's what we decide to do?
- we're booked with an infant (who will be 5mo when we travel). Does anyone know if there's any material difference between GB's policy of travel and Easyjet's in this regard? I don't want to find we can get out there but not back?
- we will be entitled to a simple refund of the Infant seat (which BA/GB charge for, but Easyjet don't? (Admittedly it's only £15 each way so I won't lose sleep)
- is there a 'window' for getting the refund, or will there be a cut-off date? It would be useful to be able to monitor Easyjet's prices and see if a cheaper flight comes along, and snap it up if it does.

I'll be calling BA/Easyjet about these, but thought I'd post in case anyone knows the answers.

richardw

magyar wrote: »

booked after the deal went through

It hasn't gone through yet and isn't legally easyJet's.

magyar

richardw wrote: »

It hasn't gone through yet and isn't legally easyJet's.

Technically correct, of course - although they had 'done the deal', which is what I meant.