After a 10+ hour drive and then a connecting flight, I will not drive myself home as feel I would be too tired.

We really need more choice of holidays with direct flights from the North.

Regards

Looking through all these complaints I can sympathise with anyone with long journeys to make to get to the airport. I myself live in Jersey and dare not risk leaving here on the same day as the holiday starts in case the airport is closed for some reason usually FOG of all things. However, most of the complainees do not seem to have considered train travel. East Coast Trains very often have great deals on and if you have a railcard you get one third off as well. For instance, I recently went from Gatwick to Edinburgh for £36.00 each way and that was FIRST CLASS. However, you can only book these fares on the East Coast website, and you may need to book quite early. Also, usually, single fares are quite often a lot cheaper than buying a return ticket.

Happy travelling

Peter

As one of the 'complainees' that you refer to I was just making the point that the lack of choices for airports does deter new people to Just You.

I have now gotten used to having to travel to Southern airports more often than not because it no longer deters me. The other choice is not to go at all.

East Coast Trains are a good way for those living up North (including Scotland) to get to London airports. Sadly, as I live in a village in Staffordshire any train or even National Express are no easier. So now I drive to the airports, stay overnight & leave my car there. It is something I have had to learn to live with.

Also, now that Just You are dispensing with coach tours and local pick-ups this will mean even less choice for new people to Just You. They will have the option of air or rail. There is no easy answer.

Best wishes,

Lesley :angel:

I realise that it must be difficult for people in our position who are nowhere near a departure airport. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be an easy solution, apart from booking your own flights to your destination and then finding your own way to your hotel. As you correctly said in a previous post, it then becomes Just Me and not Just You.

If only all the travellers used the community maybe one or two could get together and then hopefully arrange to travel to the airport and share the cost.

Enjoy Route 66 and have a great time.

Best wishes

Peter

Gillian

Hi All

Looking through all these complaints I can sympathise with anyone with long journeys to make to get to the airport. I myself live in Jersey and dare not risk leaving here on the same day as the holiday starts in case the airport is closed for some reason usually FOG of all things. However, most of the complainees do not seem to have considered train travel. East Coast Trains very often have great deals on and if you have a railcard you get one third off as well. For instance, I recently went from Gatwick to Edinburgh for £36.00 each way and that was FIRST CLASS. However, you can only book these fares on the East Coast website, and you may need to book quite early. Also, usually, single fares are quite often a lot cheaper than buying a return ticket.

Happy travelling

Peter

Meant to say thank you again Peter for telling me about the East Coast link. I NEARLY did book it but even going through all the websites it turned out more expensive for me than using National Express.

Hear hear to all these comments. I try to look at the extra travel and overnight stays as part of my holiday but through gritted teeth. I flew to Madeira from Leeds Bradford last year. Half an hour from home and 2 and half hours flying time. It makes such a difference.

I will not do any holiday that departs from Gatwick now because you have to be prepared to spend a day(and sometimes night) getting there from the north of England. I am flying from Liverpool to Sorrento this year which involves a train from Leeds and an overnight stay. (The flight is an early morning one) but it takes just over an hour to get there so should be more relaxing. Fingers crossed!

I totally agree with all the posts on this subject. 30 years ago one would have expected to go from the south of England to most destinations, but there are now so many regional airports offering a huge selection of destinations from the North, it should not be a problem for any holiday company to offer more choice. Unfortunately, people north of Watford are still made to feel less important in so many ways.

I booked my holiday to Barcelona last November so I could fly from my local airport as Easyjet offer 5 flights a week from here, the flight being only 2 1/2 hours each way. I booked my holiday and was advised there were seats available for me to fly from Newcastle to Barcelona - no problem, though the flight times weren't yet available. Once I'd put the phone down I decided to look on Easyjet's site to see if they had any flight times, only to discover they didn't seem to have any flight at all on the day I was meant to be travelling. I thought Just You must know what they're doing so I'll just leave it - only to get a call in January saying that Easyjet had decided not to do the flight on that day anymore (even though they weren't in the first place!) and I had to fly via Heathrow. I wasn't overly happy about this but agreed to do it as it didn't involve any overnight stays in hotels, and added expense for me. As a result I spent two days getting to and from Newcastle to Barcelona via Heathrow.

I'm now looking at booking a holiday for November and wanted to go to Costa de la Luz but I'd have to go via Gatwick with a 7 1/2 hour delay on the way out, then I noticed Treasures of Andalucia flying on Thursday 8th November with Easyjet - but when I check on Easyjet's site, there's no flight available for this day either! So does this mean if I'd booked this holiday I'd be getting another phone call from Just You about 2 months before departure, advising me Easyjet have cancelled the flight so I'm now flying via Timbuktu (Heathrow/Gatwick) to get there instead when there's no flight in the first place! I'm just wondering how common this problem is? Not that I'm being cynical at all. I'd just advise anyone to double check they can definately get the flights advertised, BEFORE they book their holiday.

Regards, Pat

I am also in agreement with lovely lesley and the others, regarding lack of flights from local airports. I am booked on the Parks & Canyons, and have had to spend an additional £300 on transport, hotel the night before and the night of return, as I shall be too tired to drive back after the long haul. I love JustYou holidays, but this is a major problem, and I have informed Just You on a previous occasion about this. I must admit that I have used another Compay for another holiday in July, as they have a more local direct flight.

Sheila x[

quote='LovelyLesley1' pid='172352' dateline='1334334689']

Hi,

I have to admit the lack of flights from the Midlands has been a problem for me too. Birmingham and East Midlands are within easy distance from where I live but we have so few direct flights from these and no connecting flights at all.

I went to Peru last month and the flight was from Birmingham via Amsterdam which was so much easier and I have flown to Moscow via Frankfurt with Just You a couple of years ago.

When I questioned the lack of flights from Birmingham, for my Route 66 trip in September, I was told it was possible to make my own flight arrangements to get there - but as I pointed out, that would mean it was Just Me and not Just You.

It was also explained to me that regional flights would make the holiday more expensive but having to travel to one of the London airports, then overnight stays (and parking) this works out about the same. If I am going long-haul I may stay at the hotel the night before the flight and the night the flight returns so I do not have to drive back to the Midlands when I am tired.

One of the reasons I have travelled with Just You is that they do all the planning for me - I just have to turn up and enjoy myself - but it does seem to be getting more difficult with the lack of flights from local airports so I realise we are all having the same problems.

Best wishes,

Lesley :angel:

I agree with all the comments. Just You only offer 4 or 5 holidays direct from Newcastle. There are many holidays i would like to do, but the nearesr airport is Manchester and due to the flight times they normally involve an overnight stay or going via Gatwick or Heathrow as I have to do for the holiday I have booked.

It would be good if Just You tried to offer more flight times from other airports, I have seen tours with other companies where you can fly direct, but similar holidays with Just You to the same locations/airport don't offer regional flights direct.

Jenny

I am reasonably fit, but found that travelling down from Nottingham into London and then on to Gatwick on National Express the day before, overnight at Gatwick and then the early morning flight to Zagreb and then the 3 hour transfer to the resort very tiring.

It was even worse coming back. We left the resort at 7.30am for the transfer to Zagreb, getting in Gatwick at 2pm, then I had to wait over 2 hours for my coach, and the same return journey. I finally got home about 11pm.

I like Just You, but the extra cost of travel and hotels on top of the holiday just because I don't live in the London area is not always justifiable. I could understand, and accept it if I was doing a long haul flight, but not for a flight of just over 2 hours.

I live in Newcastle so I always have the same problem, and though I don't mind flying from other airports when a direct route isn't available, I'm not happy when there is a direct route but no flights are available on the day I'm travelling.

I booked my holiday to Barcelona last November so I could fly from my local airport as Easyjet offer 5 flights a week from here, the flight being only 2 1/2 hours each way. I booked my holiday and was advised there were seats available for me to fly from Newcastle to Barcelona - no problem, though the flight times weren't yet available. Once I'd put the phone down I decided to look on Easyjet's site to see if they had any flight times, only to discover they didn't seem to have any flight at all on the day I was meant to be travelling. I thought Just You must know what they're doing so I'll just leave it - only to get a call in January saying that Easyjet had decided not to do the flight on that day anymore (even though they weren't in the first place!) and I had to fly via Heathrow. I wasn't overly happy about this but agreed to do it as it didn't involve any overnight stays in hotels, and added expense for me. As a result I spent two days getting to and from Newcastle to Barcelona via Heathrow.

I'm now looking at booking a holiday for November and wanted to go to Costa de la Luz but I'd have to go via Gatwick with a 7 1/2 hour delay on the way out, then I noticed Treasures of Andalucia flying on Thursday 8th November with Easyjet - but when I check on Easyjet's site, there's no flight available for this day either! So does this mean if I'd booked this holiday I'd be getting another phone call from Just You about 2 months before departure, advising me Easyjet have cancelled the flight so I'm now flying via Timbuktu (Heathrow/Gatwick) to get there instead when there's no flight in the first place! I'm just wondering how common this problem is? Not that I'm being cynical at all. I'd just advise anyone to double check they can definately get the flights advertised, BEFORE they book their holiday.

Hi

I am going on the Barcelona tour in a few weeks from Newcastle. The same thing happened to me where they said a flight was available with EasyJet but now its not and I have to go via Heathrow. There are only 4 or 5 holidays offered direct from Newcastle. I did the Andalucia tour last year and its lovely........hope you manage to get a flight sorted!

Jenny

Thanks for all your messages on this subject. I forwarded your comments to my colleagues and I'm pleased to say that Will, one of our managers here, has looked into the question for you. He has posted a message on the subject on the following link, and he would welcome your feedback on what he has to say.

http://www.justyou.co.uk/forum/thread-47282.html 

Kind regards,

Olly, your editor

I sympathise will your predicaments but consider what I have to do to go on a JY holiday! I live in County Wexford, on the south-east corner of Ireland. JY will not book connecting flights for me from Dublin to Heathrow (or wherever), as Ireland is not in the UK and if I book my own flights, I am not covered if there is any change in the London departure times, delays etc - this happened to me on my first JY hol to Andalucia, when I booked my connecting flights myself from Dublin and the time of the flight out to Malaga was changed, so I had to rebook my outward connecting flight and stay near the airport the night before. On the return journey a lightning national strike in Spain meant that all our flights had to be re-booked, a nightmare for our tour manager and she kindly booked a new flight for me from Heathrow to Dublin (I had orginally booked to fly to Bristol), but at my own cost - so to cut a long story short, by booking my own connecting flights from Dublin this ended up costing me over €300 extra, never again!

Now I get JY to book me connecting flights from Belfast, so if there is any problems regarding delays or cancellations they are obliged to cover the cost of new flights. This now means that I have to take two extra days off work and drive 160 miles to Belfast and stay overnight and do the same on the return journey. This is something I would really prefer not to have to do, but there doesn't seem to be any other way around it. I love travelling with JY and the extra time and expense are worth it for the best holidays I have ever had, I just wish they would book connecting flights from Dublin for me, saving me time, money and exhaustion!

Best wishes,

Bob

I have booked Cilento Coast holiday on 1 July through a travel agent for the first time having previously booked holidays direct with Just You. I booked the holiday on the understanding that I would fly from Newcastle to Gatwick and onwards to Naples on the day of departure and accordingly paid the full amount of the holiday. Just after that, my travel agent were informed that as the transfer time at Gatwick w was too tight I would now have to travel to Gatwick the night before. I asked if I could now cancel the holiday - and was told 'no' - I asked if Just You would pay my overnight hotel - and was told 'no'. Fortunately my travel agent has booked and paid for the hotel which was very generous of them but left Just You in a poor light. I would not have booked the holiday had I known I had to travel the night before (due to domestic situation) and to have these arrangement changed after full payment was inconsiderate. I realise the reason for doing so as no one wants a panic at a strange airport with too short a time to find departure gate etc. Again, more flights from Newcastle please.

Hi,

I fully sympathise with your dilemma over flights, (living up North myself) but when you asked to cancel, you could have transferred you booking to another holiday for an administration fee. I changed from China to Texas (due to flights) at a cost of £30. Just so you'll know for the future.

Regards, Pat