Booking Rods on Flybe.com flight's Rip-off

[Big Bones jones the fish]

I was very disappointed this morning when I tried to book a rod pod for carrying fishing rods onto a flybe flight to Jersey. They quoted me £15 per rod per flight which I questioned. I tried to explain that it was one item packed 8"x8" square by 6'long. They said they would open it and check the numbers of rods and charge me the total of £75 each way for my rods. I have visited Jersey at least 10 times in the last 6 years, fishing with Tony Heart on Anna II Charter boat but have never had this sort of attitude to sports equipment. This will have a big negative impact on future bookings. When you consider my party of eight anglers are putting the best part of £5000 into the local economy it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I would accept £50 return for a rod pod but not £150. Just thought I would bring it to your attention as they are trying to get all sorts of tourists to jersey. :uhuh: :g: :schmoll: :uhuh:

[Chippy]

I had a similar situation a few years ago with Flybe and now refuse to fly with them.

I was off to Egypt for a week's underwater photography trip. I didn't mind coming up with the dosh for the excess baggage, but on the jersey to Gatwick flight they point blank refused to even allow me the extra 5kg "sports equipment" allowance that I was receiving on the Gatwick to Sharm leg of the trip. The maddening thing was the flight to gatwick was half empty.

I ended up shelling out £150 excess baggage for the 30 minute Jersey to Gatwick flight alone, but the airline on the 5 hour gatwick to sharm flight charged me sweet F.A., on both the flight there and the return!!

[jambojersey]

There must be someone who will listen to this serious complaint about flybe, unless they are all playing Croquet with the asst/prime minister John Prescott, lets hope some one can read your complaint and get some action to resolve the situation before it goes any further seriously damaging the Islands outlook in general.

[Grant]

Never fly with Flybe if I can help it- BA is often as cheap, and generally less hassle.

[sandstormgirl]

Blimy o riley thats bad,
It would be worth your while to send the rod via royal mail or courier if you have an adress at the other end that could hold it for you. and it would work out way cheeper.

[caster]

Blimy o riley thats bad,
It would be worth your while to send the rod via royal mail or courier if you have an adress at the other end that could hold it for you. and it would work out way cheeper.

Now that is a sensible idea, if it is six foot then it falls within the size limits imposed by royal mail which is two metres, or 39 inches, the reason why local post offices refuse items this long is because the small vans that collect from sub post offices aren 't big enough so take it to a general P O in town, i reckon about £12 ish to jersey plus insurance. I had a six foot tube posted to me with one rod in for £3-80, royal mail inland

[sandstormgirl]

here is the link to the royal mail website postal calculator........

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder;jsessionid=FXXA020ZPRGMQFB2IGGEOSQ;jse ssionid=FXXA020ZPRGMQFB2IGGEOSQ?catId=23500532&reset=true&gear=pricingcalc

[FishingGuernsey]

Extract copied direct from FlyBe's website on the FAQ about "Can I take my fishing tackle?"


Flybe. accept the carriage of fishing equipment on a stand-by basis. Carriage will only take place if there is sufficient space available in the hold of the operating aircraft.

Restrictions apply as follows:

One tackle box / haversack / anglers basket.
One fishing rod bagged or boxed.

All tackle boxes and rod bags will be carried in the hold of the aircraft and under no circumstance may live maggots or any other form of live bait be accepted.

A charge of £15.00 is also levied for each rod carried for each sector.

Please contact the Flybe. Customer Call Centre with your known booking reference.

Please note: We shall have no liability whatsoever for damage to articles not permitted to be contained in checked Baggage, including fragile or perishable items, items having a special value, such as money, jewellery, precious metals, computers, personal electronic devices, negotiable papers, securities, or other valuables, business documents, passports and other identification documents, or samples. Please see the full Terms and Conditions as listed at www.flybe.com

It is in the passenger’s own interests to ensure that they have adequate travel insurance or insurance which specifically covers the item(s) that are carried onboard or within the aircraft hold(s).


not good, might drop them an email as the £15 per rod is stupid, rods can be packed to be no bigger in a nice tube. No other airline is like this...

[FishingGuernsey]

Response to my email to Aurigny, our other main CI airline:


Aurigny's standard baggage allowance is calculated by weight - each
passenger is entitled to 20kgs hold baggage and 8kgs cabin baggage, free of
charge.
Excess baggage will be accepted if space permits, charged at £1 per kilo.
If any items are seriously overweight (ie a full set of golf clubs)
passengers on our inter-island routes, operated by Trislander aircraft, may
wish to consider delivering these to the departure airport on the day before
travel, for collection on arrival at their destination.
Passengers travelling with odd-shaped items (such as fishing rod cases) on
our UK flights will be requested to check these through the 'out-of-guage'
baggage facility (Directions will be given). These items will be included
in normal baggage allowance.

Bit better but need to find out more about this out-of-guage thing.

Andy

[Guern211]

'out-of-guage' as I understand it just the oversized baggage check in. Items that won't go through the normal conveyor belt system due to size gets checked in seperately and probably get manually taken to the plane. Same things happen for push chairs etc for no additional charges (normally).

[sallysludgebucket]

Wonder if they carge per golf club, can you imagine leaving out the putter and the driver due to the cost of frieght ! LMAO

Well done for bringing it to the communitys attention, seems far better to post em really don't it ! Funny thing is, your rods stand a chance of going in the same hold !

[Big Bones jones the fish]

Well, I have travelled a bit in my time and with my rods.
I have only had problems when travelling back from JERSEY!
They let you take your gear out but when you return they try to make all sorts of claims on the baggage.
The last time I had a blazing set to with the check staff then the supervisor. I told them they could check how many items I brought out to Jersey and they would see that I was not taking any excess back. I took out what I was bringing back. They said after a 20 min standoff that it would go on hold. I told them that if I didnt see the gear being loaded I would do everything within the law to stop/delay the flight. I explained that I could not come back the next day if the gear got shipped the next day as I lived 120 miles from the airport. I also had a cover note for £700 for the rod pod & rods. In the end the gear went on and the flight was half empty.
Another time out of cardiff, the welsh shooting team loaded 30+ items onto a flight infront of us. When we came to checkin even though our hold bags were way under the allowance they wanted to try and charge us for the 2 rod pods between 8 of us. same again I had a brief discussion with them after which they put them on!
Contacted the skipper in Jersey he's not very happy. Will try to get intouch with Jersey tourism.

[captin]

i hear there planes have out side toilets lol

[Big Bones jones the fish]

I once felt like I used one after a bit of turb!

[caster]

I once felt like I used one after a bit of turb!


Phaaaaarphttp://www.fishing4u.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/icon_mad.gif (javascript:emoticon(':x'))

Lol

[Grant]

The local paper, the Jersey Evening Post, is doing an interview with the MD of Flybe, and have asked for questions/ complaints from readers.

It is part of a section called 'Fairplay', and tries to help consumers, quite successfully usually.

Attached is a link to their contact page- maybe the affected person could carefully word their grievance and get it in the local paper? May change things faster than any other means.

http://www.thisisjersey.com/news/

Cheers

G

[Ajohn]

Hi
This worries me a little. I and my family will be taking a holiday in Jersey in October.
I was planning on buying a rod flight case. I'm not sure of the name of the company we will be flying with yet. All I know is that they fly to various channel island destinations from all mayor uk airports. Is this the same lot as are being discussed?

Prices are interesting. Discounted ferry plus car worked out at more or less then same as air flights for 3. Big plus - get there in an hour and no driving all for the cost of car hire when we get there. BEA were cheaper but the flight times were totally unsuitable and couldn't fly from B'ham.

Hope you have dryish octobers there. Plus fish of course?

John

[Guern211]

I'm not sure which airlines fly into Jersey at the moment and from where but Airlines that certainly do are:

Flybe.com
Aurigny.co.uk
and you've already looked at the boat option
Condorferries.co.uk

An option for cheaper boat tickets is to call ABC Travel Experience who are agents in Guernsey on 01481 715887. They can normally get you cheaper tickets but not if there is a special offer on.

October is a fantastic month for fishing as the big bass come in for a big feed (squid works well this time of year) and big bream can be found close to shore. According to a newspaper report recently in the Guernsey Press May and October are statiscally the worst months for fog (you'll have difficulty flying) and I think the boat schedules change to the winter timetable. The overnight boat from Portsmouth travels whatever the weather and I personally prefer this to the fast boat.

Hope the above helps and you have an enjoyable and safe fishing trip.

[Ajohn]

Thanks
I've booked flights to save the drive. It was all arranged through agents. Hope the fog doesn't hang round for days.
Think I'll find out who the flights are with and enquire about rod flight cases.
I have one beach caster that will fit in a suitcase. Shock horror it's a Fladen. It will never be a fantastic casting rod but it is strong. Might also get a fox version to go with it as it should be an entirely different animal. I also have a fox trek carp rod. It's proved to be brilliant for spinning. I bought them for coastal path walks but sounds like they may prove useful for other things.

John

[Grant]

British Airways also fly in, which is one that wasnt on the list. They tend to be more reasonable with these things, and no extra charges for taking baggage.

October is usually pretty good weather wise, but we can get some bad weather around the bigger tides.

[Ajohn]

Noticing the newspaper thing has there been any movement on the rod charges. As expected we will be flying with Flybe. No choice as they are the only people offering suitable flight times and departure points.

John

[Cipredluz]

It is really??

[C-Harley]

Contanplating using Fly-Maybe not a wise move, it seems a great way to encourage more people to the island with costs entailed to bring rods be it all in one case, and is so true to compare with being charged per GOLF club, ludacris. This does seem to be the sort of thing that the Jersey Evening Post 'Fairplay' column should take up, is it progressing does? anyone have an update?

[Cascars]

There are some major differences between airlines re charges for sports equipment and baggage allowances in general, there should be a standard charge.
Last year I went to the Bahamas and was allowed 63 kg of baggage on American Airlines, This year went to St Maarten with Air France and was allowed 20 kg. Every airline I have ever travelled on until this year allowed extra for Dive equipment but Air France wanted £240 each way for a 20kg bag of diving gear (mine and the wifes), we had to get another taxi to heathrow to pick it up and bring it home as I was not going to pay that!
I believe they charge £12 per kilo for any excess baggage.

[Big.D]

'out-of-guage' as I understand it just the oversized baggage check in. Items that won't go through the normal conveyor belt system due to size gets checked in seperately and probably get manually taken to the plane. Same things happen for push chairs etc for no additional charges (normally).


Correct m8, I work for BAA at Edinburgh airport, if you can fly BA I have flown quite a few times with fishing equiptment never had any trouble with charges flying BA.

[martyboy]

Thats ridiculous.

3 of us flew out to norway earlier in the year with 3 rod tubes and at least 20kg of additional weight each and didnt get charged a single penny. Our lot informed us that we were over but didnt do anything, the norwegian check in staff couldnt be more helpful. A great service all round.

The operator was Wideroe.

[lobsterkid]

Thats ridiculous.

3 of us flew out to norway earlier in the year with 3 rod tubes and at least 20kg of additional weight each and didnt get charged a single penny. Our lot informed us that we were over but didnt do anything, the norwegian check in staff couldnt be more helpful. A great service all round.

The operator was Wideroe.

:) :) So i guess you won't be having your honeymoon in jersey then.:) :)

[Ajohn]

We have to go Flybe as they are the only people that offer suitable Saturday flights to Jersey from Birmingham. Wife's a teacher so the hollday times are fixed and if I drive south to an airport I may as well use the ferry. Cost wise there isn't that much difference even including the 1 weeks car hire when we get there.

I would have taken 4 rods which would cost me £120 so I've gone for 2 6 piece beach casters and a 6 piece carp rod and a small telescopic tripod. One of the beach casters by Fladen will double as a float rod. The others are fox rods and as good as anything else I've owned. (All costing a lot more too.) The lot will go in the suitcases as will the other bits I need so if they try to charge me I am likely to get very very loud.
On reflection I've decided it's worth having these rods about in any case and the £120 covers the cost of the beach casters. I was a bit over the top on the carp rod but it really does make an excellent spinning rod. I went for the £150 one reduced to £98 but it really is an excellent rod as is their beach caster.

John