The new trips are nice, but all (with one exception I think), mention the mobility issue.  I.E walking on rough ground, steps with no handrails.  Although I am pleased that JY is FINALLY bringing this into focus, and I hope that potential bookers take note, it seriously limits where I can go.  I accept the fact that JY has to cater for a large range of people, and that the Active holidays are popular, however, some gentler Escape holidays would be nice.  I will use the Corfu Beach Escape as an example.  I had hoped to do it in 2017.  Now it is gone! 

My main issue though is that there no longer seems to be any departures from East Midlands.  I am glad that I used the opportunity to go to Dubrovnik from East Midlands this year!  Again I accept that JY have to cater for the largest group of travellers, and accept that the majority want to go from Gatwick, but even using the train, which bumps the price up considerably, it means at least 2 changes for me, and one overnight stay in a hotel at least. 

Apologies for moaning, and I know from past experience that there will be a lot of people that disagree with me, but I wanted to get my point across.

I do hope it isn't the end - I love having you as a Just You traveller and sharing your thoughts with us.

We have spoken to a colleague about the Corfu holiday - we are still hoping to run this in 2017 - we are just making a couple of tweaks to it. Keep an eye on the website as if it is ready before the December/January brochure, it will appear online first!

In terms of the regional flights, we weren't able to include all regional flights in the price guide. I have spoken to our aviation team who have advised that we are still offering flights from East Midlands (and any others). Where these are available on your desired tour, they will be listed on the website. Alternatively, if you call to book, one of our holiday advisors will be able to let you know if there is a regional departure available.

Your comments have been passed onto the wider JY team to be considered for the next brochure.

Kindest regards,

Julia

Hi Bosuncat,

I do hope it isn't the end - I love having you as a Just You traveller and sharing your thoughts with us.

We have spoken to a colleague about the Corfu holiday - we are still hoping to run this in 2017 - we are just making a couple of tweaks to it. Keep an eye on the website as if it is ready before the December/January brochure, it will appear online first!

In terms of the regional flights, we weren't able to include all regional flights in the price guide. I have spoken to our aviation team who have advised that we are still offering flights from East Midlands (and any others). Where these are available on your desired tour, they will be listed on the website. Alternatively, if you call to book, one of our holiday advisors will be able to let you know if there is a regional departure available.

Your comments have been passed onto the wider JY team to be considered for the next brochure.

Kindest regards,

Julia

Thanks Julia.  Since I originally posted this last week  I have found a few more East Midlands departures,  but unfortunately there is nothing that interests me as I am not that bothered about Spain.  Elisa informed me in another post that the Corfu Beach Escape was available already but gauging from your reply it is not.  I shall continue to keep my eye out for it. 

I totally agree with you, especially after paying nearly £300 extra to get home last night from Heathrow, it's totally sickened me to be honest. I know a few of us on the Croatia holiday were complaining about the flights from Heathrow. I think JY only cater for people in London and never mind anyone else - it's such a shame. Then the prices are getting even more expensive. I was looking at trying to get to Madeira next year, but it's going to add another £300-400 to the cost by the time I've paid for connecting flights to Heathrow, 2 overnight hotel stays, and transfers between airports, not to mention food/hopper bus, etc. It annoys me even more when there are direct flights from Newcastle, and many other airports, but JY insist on Gatwick!

Regards

Caroline

And yes.  Anything from Gatwick is totally out for me, and that is a definite.

I have only used Stansted once, the last time I went to Cilento Coast.  Unfortunately, the very early flight, something like 6.30am, meant that I had to stay overnight.  Unfortunately National Express buses from Nottingham to Stansted are not as frequent as they are to Heathrow or Gatwick. 

I always have to factor in an overnight hotel, as it is too risky to chance early morning travel coming down on the M1 on National Express.  The only time I have not had to do this is when I have flown from Birmingham or East Midlands.

Regards. Katy

I hesitate to comment on this issue (and please don't all shout at me!!) - as many of you know I live in Ireland so have to get connecting flights to either Heathrow or Gatwick and often have to stay overnight, so to a certain extent I sympathise with you all and it does take me longer to arrive at my holiday destination and get home again than almost anyone else!  However in all honesty, do you think that JY are deliberately not offering regional departures on many of their tours?  They obviously want to fill all spaces available and for all their tours to run to maximum capacity where possible, so offering regional flights would definitely help this.  So (and perhaps I'm wrong here) I presume that JY offer regional flights wherever feasible.  They are obviously dependent on when the flights operate and they would have to arrive/depart within a couple of hours of the London flights, otherwise it would be too disruptive to the tour itinerary.  So I imagine their options for offering regional departures are pretty limited.

It's a pity that airports such as Manchester and Birmingham don't run flights to the London airports (as I understand it) but I would have thought getting a coach to either Heathrow or Gatwick was not a huge ordeal?  It took me 17 hours to get from the hotel in Helsinki at the end of the Baltic tour to my home in Ireland.  Yes it's a pain but something I'm happy to endure in order to do the holidays I want!  It took me 36 hours travelling to get home after my Vietnam and Cambodia tour!!

All the best,

Bob

I did say at the time though, that after it took me 13 hours to get home Croatia, the last time I used Gatwick, that I would not use the airport again, and I mean it.

I DO feel, that for the short European hops that having to go down to Gatwick is a major pain.

Incidentally, part of my original post on here mentioned the mobility issue.  Thankfully, I guess most of you are fairly mobile, which is great.  Is there any thoughts out there on JY actually being able to offer, or indicate where the holidays ARE suitable for less mobile people?  For instance I went to Costa de la Luz a few years ago.  I would have thought that was an entirely suitable holiday for the less mobile, but again it is now indicated that it may not be.

Looking briefly at the new brochure (that arrived this morning), it is looking highly unlikely that I will be doing a JY holiday next year. 

The new trips are nice, but all (with one exception I think), mention the mobility issue.  I.E walking on rough ground, steps with no handrails.  Although I am pleased that JY is FINALLY bringing this into focus, and I hope that potential bookers take note, it seriously limits where I can go.  I accept the fact that JY has to cater for a large range of people, and that the Active holidays are popular, however, some gentler Escape holidays would be nice.  I will use the Corfu Beach Escape as an example.  I had hoped to do it in 2017.  Now it is gone! 

My main issue though is that there no longer seems to be any departures from East Midlands.  I am glad that I used the opportunity to go to Dubrovnik from East Midlands this year!  Again I accept that JY have to cater for the largest group of travellers, and accept that the majority want to go from Gatwick, but even using the train, which bumps the price up considerably, it means at least 2 changes for me, and one overnight stay in a hotel at least. 

Apologies for moaning, and I know from past experience that there will be a lot of people that disagree with me, but I wanted to get my point across.

Yes, I too would like some gentler Escape holidays,but the Escape holidays are few & far between.

Although I appreciate many people want regional flights, Gatwick is on my doorstep so I rule out anything that does not go from there.

 I'm wanting to book for next year but can't see anything that fits the bill so far.

You are right that Birmingham has no connecting flights to either Heathrow or Gatwick. This is why I will not consider holidays flying out of Gatwick, because it adds another 40 miles (mostly around the M25) to what is already a 110 mile journey to Heathrow for me, living just a few miles north of Birmingham. However, daily connecting flights are available from Manchester to Heathrow and I think to Gatwick as well.

As for your assumption that JY would offer regional flights if they were available, please allow me to add the following information, relevant to my own local airport:

Icelandair have been offering direct flights from Birmingham to Reykjavik twice a week since April 2015, a service that increased to four times a week in February this year. Have JY offered this regional flight option for their Iceland holiday, or indeed for their Alaska tour which now flies with Icelandair via Reykjavik? NO!

Similarly, Emirates have been operating direct flights out of Birmingham to Dubai twice daily since 2000, a service that increased to three times a day (and upgraded to use the new A380 airbus) earlier this year. Do JY offer this service for their Dubai city break, or indeed for their Australia tour which operates from LHR to Dubai and onward to Perth? NO! In fact, if you read the flight information for JY's Dubai city break it states the following; 'You may choose to fly from Birmingham etc on SELECTED DATES!' Which is utter nonsense.

So, do JY offer regional flights wherever possible? NO they do not. At best, it seems that they regard Birmingham as little more than a provincial airport, and I can see no evidence whatsoever of their flight team making any effort to keep abreast of the opportunities presented by newly opened (or indeed long-standing in the case of BHX to Dubai) regional flight routes.

While I truly admire your tenacity in continually making a very long journey from Ireland before you even start your holiday, TRUST ME, it's absolutely infuriating when you know that a flight exists from your local airport but JY insist on herding everyone together at Heathrow or Gatwick instead.

See you (at Heathrow) in February.

All the best

Mike

This thread seems to have started after the recent brochures, please let me start by saying that the New tours and Best of brochures are not our complete collection and therefore not all regional flights are included. If you find a tour you like the look of, I'd recommend that you visit the website where all of our current regional flight options are listed under the departures tab of the tour.

I would like to stress that the team are always looking for regional departures to tie in with the main tours departing from London. We have, in the past, even changed a London departure date to allow for more regional departures to join the tour. That said, we have found that even when regional flights are available, many travellers still choose to fly from London.

Mike, you mentioned a couple of holidays in particular, so I spoke to our aviation team who addressed your comments in relation to these:

Iceland, there are several departures a week from Birmingham International, however at the moment none of these tie in with the main London departure, we have been advised that there may be up to 5 departures a week in the future and the team are keeping a close eye on this.

Dubai - there are flights available from Birmingham on this tour, these are purchased on an ad-hoc basic rather than on a group allocation. We say that they are available on "selected dates" simply because they are subject to availability and if they sell out on a particular date, it means we are no longer able to offer it, whereas we would still be able to offer flights from London.

For Australia - I have been advised that we only offer regional departures (at the moment) where the carrier is Qantas, this is due to the internal flights that are made through the holiday also being with Qantas and we are therefore able to pass on a lower packaged price to our travellers. A change in the international carrier, would have an impact on the overall cost of the holiday which would in turn be passed on to our travellers.

I promise, the team will keep on looking for regional opportunities that are available and all comments that have been posted on this (and other threads) are being reviewed.

Kindest regards,

Julia

Julia - my query is that in this thread and others you have said that the brochures are not the full selection available as regards regional flights so what is the purpose of the regional flights supplement that arrived with it?

Regards

Hi Bosuncat

I agree with you regarding your comments about mobility warnings in the new brochure. I am fortunate enough to not have serious mobility issues but having had a hip replacement in recent weeks I was looking forward to finding an Escape type holiday next Spring where I can just a relax. Probably I'll be fine by then anyway but just trying to be sensible for once!  However, I too am very disappointed because a quick count revealed that approx 20 of the 27 holidays in the new brochure gave a mobility warning. This really does seem a bit over the top to me and I can't help but think that JY are simply covering themselves in case of a 'complainer'.  

Surely everyone knows that whatever place you visit there is almost certainly going to be some uneven/rough  ground somewhere or steps with no handrails etc. These conditions exist here in the UK too.  

It would have a much more significant impact if JY only advised where the problem was more extreme e.g. Antartica, climbing in mountainous areas or places where altitude sickness could occur.  Even then I imagine potential travellers would have had the sense to check those things out for themselves well in advance.

The current 'namby pamby' notes at the foot of many holiday descriptions are almost an insult to our intelligence. They may only result in either putting people off completely or, as is more likely, them being totally ignored whether warranted or not.

Regards

Sue

Have just returned from a very enjoyable Travelsphere holiday to Sicily. This is however likely to be my last European holiday from Gatwick. The long time spent travelling from and to Scotland,the additional expense of connecting flights and a few hours in a hotel for what is essentially a six day holiday is not worth it. This was also my first experience of flying with easyJet and I will not be repeating the experience.

Agree that incentives would make holidays more attractive to those of us who live north of the border!!

Lesley

If you take a look at the individual tour pages, you'll notice that there is only a from price, by putting many of the prices in a separate guide, it allowed the team a bit more time to renegotiate as many of our costs as possible following the currency fluctuations.

We have included in the price guide as many products as we can, however there are only so many pages we can include and as such we were not able to pack everything in.

We are already talking about the December brochure and making sure that everything is as clear as possible for those wanting to travel from a regional airport.

Kindest regards,

Julia

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Hi Bosuncat

I agree with you regarding your comments about mobility warnings in the new brochure. I am fortunate enough to not have serious mobility issues but having had a hip replacement in recent weeks I was looking forward to finding an Escape type holiday next Spring where I can just a relax. Probably I'll be fine by then anyway but just trying to be sensible for once!  However, I too am very disappointed because a quick count revealed that approx 20 of the 27 holidays in the new brochure gave a mobility warning. This really does seem a bit over the top to me and I can't help but think that JY are simply covering themselves in case of a 'complainer'.  

Surely everyone knows that whatever place you visit there is almost certainly going to be some uneven/rough  ground somewhere or steps with no handrails etc. These conditions exist here in the UK too.  

It would have a much more significant impact if JY only advised where the problem was more extreme e.g. Antartica, climbing in mountainous areas or places where altitude sickness could occur.  Even then I imagine potential travellers would have had the sense to check those things out for themselves well in advance.

The current 'namby pamby' notes at the foot of many holiday descriptions are almost an insult to our intelligence. They may only result in either putting people off completely or, as is more likely, them being totally ignored whether warranted or not.

Regards

Sue

I agree totally Sue.