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'Mick wrote:

'Angie wrote:
Firstly let me say I sympathise with people in other parts of the country that are not offered regional flights close to them. However, Manchester is a large airport with flights to many of the destination airports of the Just You holidays. I would much rather go on an economy airline than have to get a train to Euston, then a tube to Victoria, then catch the Gatwick Express, then have to stay in a hotel overnight and do all the above in reverse on my return. It takes much of the pleasure out of the holiday for me and I have decided not to do it anymore if I find that I could have arrived at the same airport from Manchester had I been offered it. My first holiday this year will NOT be with Just You for that reason.
Angie,
I often go on the train (arrive in Kings x) and wonder if you realise that you can get a direct train from St Pancras to Gatwick (carries on to Brighton i believe). A short walk along Euston road (10 mins) may be easier than the hassle of the tube to Victoria and Gatwick express.
The trains run approx every 30 minutes and do stop a few times but usually plenty of seats available (takes 50 mins).
Mick

Hi Mick, Thanks for the info re St Pancras. I will look into that if I decide to go from Gatwick in the future. My point was that IF I could have got a flight from Manchester and it wasn't offered to me I would not go to the trouble of shlepping down to Gatwick. UNLESS I was desperate to take a particular holiday!! The trouble is that there are so many tempting ones aren't there?

Angie

There are a few holidays that I want to go on but they fly out of Gatwick. I don't fancy driving there and back or getting the train or coach so I'm restricted to Manchester flights or Heathrow.

I feel the pinch in my pocket every time I fly from Edinburgh to London and have to stay one or two nights because of flight times. Last year I could have gone on another holiday with the money I spent doing just that. There are holidays I am not doing because of the extra cost [mainly 6 day ones]. Yes,it would be great if there was a main holiday flying from Scotland. However it is my choice to travel with JY. I appreciate the holidays the team put together and realise the difficulty of trying to get everyone to arrive at a destination about the same time. There are always those who moan if we have to wait for another flight or two from regional airports so I suppose JY can't win. I am lucky enough to have made friends on JY holidays who live fairly near Gatwick and we usually try to meet up when I am staying over. That has now become part of my holiday experience.

All in all, I am just happy to have found JY as I am a wimp at travelling on my own and I have had great holidays.

Rae

'Angie wrote:
Firstly let me say I sympathise with people in other parts of the country that are not offered regional flights close to them. However, Manchester is a large airport with flights to many of the destination airports of the Just You holidays. I would much rather go on an economy airline than have to get a train to Euston, then a tube to Victoria, then catch the Gatwick Express, then have to stay in a hotel overnight and do all the above in reverse on my return. It takes much of the pleasure out of the holiday for me and I have decided not to do it anymore if I find that I could have arrived at the same airport from Manchester had I been offered it. My first holiday this year will NOT be with Just You for that reason.

Angie,

I often go on the train (arrive in Kings x) and wonder if you realise that you can get a direct train from St Pancras to Gatwick (carries on to Brighton i believe). A short walk along Euston road (10 mins) may be easier than the hassle of the tube to Victoria and Gatwick express.

The trains run approx every 30 minutes and do stop a few times but usually plenty of seats available (takes 50 mins).

Mick

Don't think this is about Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow or any airport in particular.

Its more to do with if flights are available why not use them from whichever airport it can be done. This did happen on many European hols with very little surcharge when i first travelled ith JY. Remember doing Andalucia and then Mallorca and on those holidays there was people travelling from Manchester, East Midlands, Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham & Stanstead on top of the Gatwick group.

Testing my memory the maximum surcharge was £29 some were free, believe the flights were usually with Easy Jet & Monarch not an issue to me on a short haul holiday.

I do agree SKW makes a good point and flights can only be considered if their times match up or its a very short transfer to the hotel.

To be honest living over in North Yorkshire non of the airports are easy for me, sure of those mentioned Manchester is best but not that much easier than getting to London.

Now if all the holidays i fancy can go from Doncaster next year I'll be delighted, lol.

Mick

It is not easy to please everyone and most of us have to put up with some sort of inconvenience to go on the holiday of our choice. At the end of the day, it is up to an individual as to whether or not they decide to holiday with Just You. Sometimes those of us who are not in the travel industry, are not aware of all the behind the scene problems - there may be many flights flying out from local airports, but a travel company has to make many decisions and carry out negotiations before using a particular Airline and Airport! Gatwick or Luton are ideal for me, but I will fly from any other airports if need be.

Jaya

Firstly let me say I sympathise with people in other parts of the country that are not offered regional flights close to them. However, Manchester is a large airport with flights to many of the destination airports of the Just You holidays. I would much rather go on an economy airline than have to get a train to Euston, then a tube to Victoria, then catch the Gatwick Express, then have to stay in a hotel overnight and do all the above in reverse on my return. It takes much of the pleasure out of the holiday for me and I have decided not to do it anymore if I find that I could have arrived at the same airport from Manchester had I been offered it. My first holiday this year will NOT be with Just You for that reason.

Hi I agree with Mike and Lesley's comments; every year there are some posts giving out about the lack of Manchester flights - there are many, many people who travel from much further afield to go on JY holidays - and do so willingly. I travel from Ireland and as some other commentators have mentioned there are many who travel from Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, continental Europe and even further away. I've met a lady who travels from the Caribbean and a man who lives in Thailand - and they travel to the UK to go on JY holidays. You don't realise how lucky you are!!!

I hope this post is received with a dollop of festive cheer,

Best wishes,

Bob

There is more to consider than just a different location offering a flight. One of the deciding factors has to be flight times. A recent thread highlighted that to go to Split, Croatia involved those flying from Manchester having to wait 10 hours before the main party arrived when travelling from London. Visa versa, how long do you let a majority of a party wait to pick up a few travelling from non-London airports? It may be that for city or sun breaks, travellers could get themselves to hotels if close by, but for the longer, long haul tours this is rarely possible.

Sandy

Hi Lesley07,

Living in Birmingham, I too have to smile when I see pleas for more holiday departures from Manchester.

In the April 2015 brochure covering 2015/2016, Manchester departures exceeded those from Birmingham by almost 70%, and let's not forget the convenience of connecting flights from Manchester to Heathrow! (OK, I realise that that adds to the holiday cost).

In Birmingham, not only do we get few departures but we have no connecting flights to Heathrow or Gatwick either, which means travelling down by coach and/or staying in a hotel the night before departure. I do realise that the connecting flight problem is not JY's fault as airlines don't run them, but even when there are Birmingham flights to destinations that JY operate, this option is sometimes ignored.

For example, Icelandair introduced direct flights from Birmingham to Reykjavik earlier this year but it's not offered by JY - even for 2016 departures as far as I'm aware. Similarly, for the Australia trip, Emirates fly to Dubai twice a day from Birmingham, where you can connect onwards (as JY do from Heathrow) to Perth, but it's not an option. I could make a similar case for some of JY's Italian destinations that fly in to Naples, but once again flights direct from Birmingham are not offered.

So please people in Manchester, be thankful for the many local departures that you DO get, because here in the second city we are largely ignored comparatively speaking.

Cheers

Mike

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