I wanted to say thank you for sharing all of your thoughts regarding flights from non-London airports. Hopefully I can explain a little why we do not have a large selection of regional options on each tour and I also would like to get your thoughts on some of the things that we can do to help.

When we saw the thread a couple of weeks back we sat down with our Aviation team and set about going through all of our best selling tours in the hope that we could easily add in some extra regional options for you. However, it was not quite as straightforward as we had hoped.

Although airports such as Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol do offer a great number of destinations, actually marrying those up with our tours is a much harder task. Days of operation, flight timings and having different start and end airports are all major factors. Some regional carriers, like Ryanair, will not even permit us to use their flights at all unfortunately.

We are also committed to delivering you the best possible Just You experience and so we are very mindful of having just a couple of people going from a regional airport where there is no Tour Manager and they do not get to meet with the group until they are in resort. We know from the feedback that we have received that many guests would much rather all be together. Although I am sure there are some seasoned travellers who would not see this as an issue. Would you still be inclined to book if you knew that the Tour Manager would not be travelling with you?

In terms of Long Haul holidays, there are sometimes flights from regional airports, especially Manchester, but very rarely will they be direct and so there may be long connection times and there is also the experience of having to change planes in a strange country when there is no Tour Manager around to assist - again, we want to make sure that our guests are getting the best possible Just You experience.

We do listen to your feedback though and we want to try and give you the holidays that you want. One of the ideas that we came up with was offering dedicated departures from a certain alternative airport, such as Manchester, on a set date or dates each year for tours with the appropriate routes available. Obviously this would mean that there would be less choice of dates but you would all still be travelling as one group with a Tour Manager. Would that be the sort of thing that would be better for us to look into for you?

Another question we would be very interested to know your thoughts on - where no direct regional flights are available, would you rather change planes in London or abroad?

We would love to hear from you so that we can offer the holidays that you want!

Thanks a lot

Will

Last year I went on my first Just You holiday to Cilento Coast. I remember being very suprised when I booked to find out that I had to travel to Gatwick for my flight to Naples as I know for a fact that some regional airports offer flights to Naples even EMA! As the original flight time was fairly early morning I booked into a b and b near Gatwick, only to find when I got my final documentation that the fight time had gone back by about 4 hours! I couldn't cancel my b and b so ended up spending close to £100 in hotel and travel costs. The only alternative airport on that holiday was Stanstead, which takes me just as long to get to as Gatwick.

This year on the Croatia trip, a similar story, early morning flight (for which thank goodness the times didnt change). So again over £100 spent on hotel and travel. Plus. Why Zagreb, and not Pula which is only just over a hour transfer time? Again a lack of access to carriers?

I do a lot of independent travelling, including flying to Detroit every year, so wouldn't have a problem with not having a Tour Manager on the flight. Indeed for Zagreb (as we had a local rep) we didn't have one on the flight with us. There was an excellent rep at Gatwick instead. I do understand though why a lot of people like to have a Tour Manager with them during the flight.

I think the idea of having an alternative airport (such as Manchester) is a reasonable idea. It probably wouldn't help me a lot as because of work issues I can only fly at certain times of the year, but it is an alternative for us Northerners.

I shall be interested to read what other people have to say.

I think that this is a very good reply and I hope that the people who have this problem can gain information from this posting that they might not of thought of, as in the why these things are like they are. I hope that they post there reply's to you so that you might be able to take this forward in some way, to make things easier, and less expense for them.

Good Luck

Cindy

many thanks for your helpful and thoughtful reply. My situation is different, as I live in Co. Wexford in the south-east of Ireland. Currently JY will not book connecting flights for me from Dublin, so I have to fly from Belfast and meet up with the tour party in London. I am fortunate that at present I have friends who live in Belfast and so I can top and tail my holiday by staying with them, but it would obviously be much more convenient if JY could book flights for me from Dublin, which would save me having to take two extra days off work as well as two long journeys to and from Belfast. I know I could book the flights from Dublin to London myself, but the danger here is that if there are any delays or change in flight times, my connecting flights would be useless and I would have to cover the cost of getting new flights myself, whereas if JY book the flights, I am covered by you. It also follows that I wish to meet up with the main tour party in London (Heathrow/Gatwick) rather than elsewhere as it would make my travel plans more complex still. I hope you can follow all this!

Best wishes,

Bob

Thanks for your post, I (and I'm sure many others on this site) really appreciate the fact Just You are looking at this issue, and we're all working together to try and resolve things where possible.

I can't believe Ryanair won't allow Just You to book their flights! It's not as if we're a group of rowdy youngsters on an 18-30s holiday! I think we can all do without their services if that's their attitude.

I realise it must be very difficult for Just You to get all the flights, hotels, tour reps, etc, etc, matched up so everything runs smoothly for us as we don't see the 'behind the scenes' part of it, we just turn up and enjoy ourselves. The only thing I would be happy about is if the departure airports were accurate in the brochure - i.e. when I booked Barcelona last November I was advised I could fly from Newcastle, as stated in the brochure, even though the Easy Jet site stated there was no flight on that day - surely if I could find that out then Just You should be privvy to it too. I don't mind flying from Heathrow or anywhere else, as long as I know what my added expenses may be from the outset - for example, if I think I'll need to stay in a hotel before/after my holiday.

I would be willing to travel via Manchester as this is usually my second choice if I can't fly from Newcastle, so I think it would be a good idea if Just You offered dates from London and Manchester but then, you may miss out on meeting more people that way. I'm used to travelling now so I don't mind not having a tour rep there, but I can imagine it may be very daunting for a first time traveller, unless we arrange to meet up before departure. I know some older travellers don't use this site, but I don't mind meeting someone at the airport and making sure they get on the right flight if they're on the same holiday as me and they've never travelled on their own before.

I don't mind changing airports in London or abroad as I think most airports are much the same anyway, but again, that may be more daunting for less experienced travellers.

I think this may take some sorting out - good luck!

Caroline

Hi everyone,

I wanted to say thank you for sharing all of your thoughts regarding flights from non-London airports. Hopefully I can explain a little why we do not have a large selection of regional options on each tour and I also would like to get your thoughts on some of the things that we can do to help.

When we saw the thread a couple of weeks back we sat down with our Aviation team and set about going through all of our best selling tours in the hope that we could easily add in some extra regional options for you. However, it was not quite as straightforward as we had hoped.

Although airports such as Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol do offer a great number of destinations, actually marrying those up with our tours is a much harder task. Days of operation, flight timings and having different start and end airports are all major factors. Some regional carriers, like Ryanair, will not even permit us to use their flights at all unfortunately.

We are also committed to delivering you the best possible Just You experience and so we are very mindful of having just a couple of people going from a regional airport where there is no Tour Manager and they do not get to meet with the group until they are in resort. We know from the feedback that we have received that many guests would much rather all be together. Although I am sure there are some seasoned travellers who would not see this as an issue. Would you still be inclined to book if you knew that the Tour Manager would not be travelling with you?

In terms of Long Haul holidays, there are sometimes flights from regional airports, especially Manchester, but very rarely will they be direct and so there may be long connection times and there is also the experience of having to change planes in a strange country when there is no Tour Manager around to assist - again, we want to make sure that our guests are getting the best possible Just You experience.

We do listen to your feedback though and we want to try and give you the holidays that you want. One of the ideas that we came up with was offering dedicated departures from a certain alternative airport, such as Manchester, on a set date or dates each year for tours with the appropriate routes available. Obviously this would mean that there would be less choice of dates but you would all still be travelling as one group with a Tour Manager. Would that be the sort of thing that would be better for us to look into for you?

Another question we would be very interested to know your thoughts on - where no direct regional flights are available, would you rather change planes in London or abroad?

We would love to hear from you so that we can offer the holidays that you want!

Thanks a lot

Will

Hi Will,

Thankyou for your reply to all our "moans". I've been on 8 JY holidays,

- all except one of the long haul have been from Heathrow and only one from my local airport - Manchester. That was to the Parks and Canyons in Sept 2010. There were ab out 16 of us - we all met in the lounge and by the time we boarded the plane we were all friends! We all helped eachother on the changeover at Newark and didn't mind not meeting the tour rep till we arrived in Phoenix.

When changing flights at Heathrow however, I have usually been on my own frantically looking for another JY luggage label and not really knowing where to go. So I personally would rather change flights abroad. (You also get the chance to stretch your legs).

Regards,

Pat

Hi everyone,

I wanted to say thank you for sharing all of your thoughts regarding flights from non-London airports. Hopefully I can explain a little why we do not have a large selection of regional options on each tour and I also would like to get your thoughts on some of the things that we can do to help.

When we saw the thread a couple of weeks back we sat down with our Aviation team and set about going through all of our best selling tours in the hope that we could easily add in some extra regional options for you. However, it was not quite as straightforward as we had hoped.

Although airports such as Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol do offer a great number of destinations, actually marrying those up with our tours is a much harder task. Days of operation, flight timings and having different start and end airports are all major factors. Some regional carriers, like Ryanair, will not even permit us to use their flights at all unfortunately.

We are also committed to delivering you the best possible Just You experience and so we are very mindful of having just a couple of people going from a regional airport where there is no Tour Manager and they do not get to meet with the group until they are in resort. We know from the feedback that we have received that many guests would much rather all be together. Although I am sure there are some seasoned travellers who would not see this as an issue. Would you still be inclined to book if you knew that the Tour Manager would not be travelling with you?

In terms of Long Haul holidays, there are sometimes flights from regional airports, especially Manchester, but very rarely will they be direct and so there may be long connection times and there is also the experience of having to change planes in a strange country when there is no Tour Manager around to assist - again, we want to make sure that our guests are getting the best possible Just You experience.

We do listen to your feedback though and we want to try and give you the holidays that you want. One of the ideas that we came up with was offering dedicated departures from a certain alternative airport, such as Manchester, on a set date or dates each year for tours with the appropriate routes available. Obviously this would mean that there would be less choice of dates but you would all still be travelling as one group with a Tour Manager. Would that be the sort of thing that would be better for us to look into for you?

Another question we would be very interested to know your thoughts on - where no direct regional flights are available, would you rather change planes in London or abroad?

We would love to hear from you so that we can offer the holidays that you want!

Thanks a lot

Will

Thank you for the explanation of the reason for so few regional flights on JY holidays. I must admit although I had a wonderful holiday three years ago flying from Manchester to Faro, since then the holidays that appealed to me have all been from Heathrow or Gatwick and some of the return flights were late in the evening so it would have meant a hotel stay before flying back to Manchester so that put me off. This year I am going from Liverpool to Naples which is fine for me. I certainly don't expect a Tour Manager to be around there wasnt one when I went last time with JY, I did bump into a lady who was going on the same holiday at the airport though and that was reassuring as it was my first holiday alone! This time I don't mind if it is just me as I am no longer worried about travelling alone!

With regard to your question about changing flights at a British airport or a foreign one, I would definitely if I had to change, prefer a British one. I am not unhappy that you are not using Ryanair by the way, they hardly have the best reputation in the world do they!

Thank you for taking the trouble to explain the problem with regional airport departures, but may I say why can't some holidays leave from the larger regional airports in the country and people who live in the south have to travel to them, it always seems to be people in the north of the country who have to be inconvenienced!!

Regards

Jean

Having dedicated dates for tours from northern airports is a good idea, even though the selection of dates would be small i think these would be a huge hit with the travellers outside of london and would give new travellers the chance to fly locally without the added pressure of having to fly alone for their first ever singles holiday, I think this option is a step in the right direction and would be worth looking into.

It just shows you how many replies you have had to the flight situation something needs to be changed I only pick holidays from Manchester which does narrow my choice. On all the Just You holidays I have been on there has never been a rep on the plane which is fine for me they have always been at the landing airport. I would love to go to Israel but could not face travelling from London maybe Manchester could be looked into?

Kind regards

Di

Hi Will. Thanks for replying on this. First of all may I say how shocked I am that some carriers such as RyanAir won't permit JustYou on their flights. More than shocked. Disgusted! It certainly must limit the amount of carriers you can use if that is the case.

Last year I went on my first Just You holiday to Cilento Coast. I remember being very suprised when I booked to find out that I had to travel to Gatwick for my flight to Naples as I know for a fact that some regional airports offer flights to Naples even EMA! As the original flight time was fairly early morning I booked into a b and b near Gatwick, only to find when I got my final documentation that the fight time had gone back by about 4 hours! I couldn't cancel my b and b so ended up spending close to £100 in hotel and travel costs. The only alternative airport on that holiday was Stanstead, which takes me just as long to get to as Gatwick.

This year on the Croatia trip, a similar story, early morning flight (for which thank goodness the times didnt change). So again over £100 spent on hotel and travel. Plus. Why Zagreb, and not Pula which is only just over a hour transfer time? Again a lack of access to carriers?

I do a lot of independent travelling, including flying to Detroit every year, so wouldn't have a problem with not having a Tour Manager on the flight. Indeed for Zagreb (as we had a local rep) we didn't have one on the flight with us. There was an excellent rep at Gatwick instead. I do understand though why a lot of people like to have a Tour Manager with them during the flight.

I think the idea of having an alternative airport (such as Manchester) is a reasonable idea. It probably wouldn't help me a lot as because of work issues I can only fly at certain times of the year, but it is an alternative for us Northerners.

I shall be interested to read what other people have to say.

Hi Bodensbabe,

Thanks for your reply. With regards to the Naples holiday I suspect it is an issue of days of operation for the lack of flights from East Midlands to Naples. I have had a quick check and it looks like the only direct flights run twice a week, so I am guessing that they didn't match up with the tour.

I've spoken to my colleague who looks after our Croatia tours and for 2012 there were no scheduled direct flights into Pula and so we use Zagreb as the best available option.

Thanks ever so much for taking the time to pass your feedback on, it's so useful to us here at Just You.

Thanks

Will

Hi Will,

many thanks for your helpful and thoughtful reply. My situation is different, as I live in Co. Wexford in the south-east of Ireland. Currently JY will not book connecting flights for me from Dublin, so I have to fly from Belfast and meet up with the tour party in London. I am fortunate that at present I have friends who live in Belfast and so I can top and tail my holiday by staying with them, but it would obviously be much more convenient if JY could book flights for me from Dublin, which would save me having to take two extra days off work as well as two long journeys to and from Belfast. I know I could book the flights from Dublin to London myself, but the danger here is that if there are any delays or change in flight times, my connecting flights would be useless and I would have to cover the cost of getting new flights myself, whereas if JY book the flights, I am covered by you. It also follows that I wish to meet up with the main tour party in London (Heathrow/Gatwick) rather than elsewhere as it would make my travel plans more complex still. I hope you can follow all this!

Best wishes,

Bob

Hi there Bob,

Really appreciate your reply. I have been speaking with our Aviation team about your particular issue. Because we are a UK tour operator we are only permitted to sell packages that originate in the UK (i.e. Great Britain & Northern Island). Therefore we cannot book a connecting flight for your from Dublin because that would mean we would be selling a holiday that originates in Ireland. Of course, it is no issue to book a flight for you from Belfast because it is in the UK. I'm sure it is a little frustrating for you but I hope you understand that we are bound by various regulatory bodies.

I hope that helps a little bit? If you need me to look any further into this for you I am more than happy to.

Many thanks

Will

Like lots of others I get fed with of the inconvenience and cost of the extra travel to flights from Heathrow or even worse Gatwick. I am in the West Country and my nearest airport which is Bristol is quite limited in its destinations. However, I am looking at a holiday which does fly from there and six other airports. The transfer time to Hotel is 2 hours. How does that work? Do we all wait to meet at the arrival airport? For me that would be at least 5 hours as my flight would be early morning. Or would all flights be met and transfered individually? I think trying to co-ordinate flights could be a problem and therefor add cost. I have a feeling there is not an easy answer for my area but something may work for the bigger airports like Manchester.

Hi Sue!

Can I just check which holiday you are referring to and I will look into your query straight away.

Thanks for your feedback regarding a Manchester departure as well

Hi Will,

Thanks for your post, I (and I'm sure many others on this site) really appreciate the fact Just You are looking at this issue, and we're all working together to try and resolve things where possible.

I can't believe Ryanair won't allow Just You to book their flights! It's not as if we're a group of rowdy youngsters on an 18-30s holiday! I think we can all do without their services if that's their attitude.

I realise it must be very difficult for Just You to get all the flights, hotels, tour reps, etc, etc, matched up so everything runs smoothly for us as we don't see the 'behind the scenes' part of it, we just turn up and enjoy ourselves. The only thing I would be happy about is if the departure airports were accurate in the brochure - i.e. when I booked Barcelona last November I was advised I could fly from Newcastle, as stated in the brochure, even though the Easy Jet site stated there was no flight on that day - surely if I could find that out then Just You should be privvy to it too. I don't mind flying from Heathrow or anywhere else, as long as I know what my added expenses may be from the outset - for example, if I think I'll need to stay in a hotel before/after my holiday.

I would be willing to travel via Manchester as this is usually my second choice if I can't fly from Newcastle, so I think it would be a good idea if Just You offered dates from London and Manchester but then, you may miss out on meeting more people that way. I'm used to travelling now so I don't mind not having a tour rep there, but I can imagine it may be very daunting for a first time traveller, unless we arrange to meet up before departure. I know some older travellers don't use this site, but I don't mind meeting someone at the airport and making sure they get on the right flight if they're on the same holiday as me and they've never travelled on their own before.

I don't mind changing airports in London or abroad as I think most airports are much the same anyway, but again, that may be more daunting for less experienced travellers.

I think this may take some sorting out - good luck!

Caroline

Hi Caroline,

Thanks for all of your feedback there. Just with regards to your Newcastle to Barcelona flight - I assure you that we would never advertise an airport unless we believed it was an option. Airlines like Easyjet do trend to change their routes a lot - we are in touch with them behind the scenes to make sure we have the most up to date info on what routes they will be operating in each season. I don't know the specific details of this particular route but I would assume that they had intended to offer it and then had a change of plan down the line.

We always try and do what is right by our customers.

Thanks

Will

Hi Will

It just shows you how many replies you have had to the flight situation something needs to be changed I only pick holidays from Manchester which does narrow my choice. On all the Just You holidays I have been on there has never been a rep on the plane which is fine for me they have always been at the landing airport. I would love to go to Israel but could not face travelling from London maybe Manchester could be looked into?

Kind regards

Di

Hello there Di,

I've looked into our Israel tour for you. At the moment the only option from Manchester would be Easyjet, but they only currently fly twice a week and those days don't match up with our groups. I will speak to our Middle East expert to see if there is anything we can do in the future though.

Thanks a lot

Will

I'm afraid this is all new to me and I would find it too daunting to negotiate my way from my home town in West Cumbria to the London airports on my own. It's a big enough challange to go on holiday on my own without the trauma of even getting to the start point! I would certainly welcome closer airports such as Manchester; even with limited dates that would certainly be much more attractive.

Another option for me would be if there were more weekends like the Discovery Weekends where there was the opportunity to 'make friends' and arrange to meet up to travel together prior to meeting the group.

I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Carole 🙂

Hi Will

I'm afraid this is all new to me and I would find it too daunting to negotiate my way from my home town in West Cumbria to the London airports on my own. It's a big enough challange to go on holiday on my own without the trauma of even getting to the start point! I would certainly welcome closer airports such as Manchester; even with limited dates that would certainly be much more attractive.

Another option for me would be if there were more weekends like the Discovery Weekends where there was the opportunity to 'make friends' and arrange to meet up to travel together prior to meeting the group.

I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Carole 🙂

Hi Will,

As regards staying overnight at Heathrow, whatever happened to the 'pre-holiday get-togethers'? Those having to travel to London all stayed in the same hotel with drinks and three course meal - I did it once and I enjoyed that almost as much as the holiday! Then we all got the shuttle bus to the airport together.

In September I'm going to Texas travelling to Heathrow from Manchester. I havn't got the flight times for the M/c flight yet, but as AA and BA are in the same Alliance, please tell me my luggage will be booked straight through! That makes is so much easier!

Regards, Pat

just to say many thanks for your very helpful message, now I understand why JY cannot book flights for me from Dublin. There is no decent singles holiday company in Ireland and, despite some niggles, I have had four truly excellent holidays thanks to JY so I am more than happy to travel to and from Belfast to participate in your excellent and value for money holidays! People living near London don't know how lucky they are!!

Best wishes,

Bob

And the really thing that really gets me annoyed is the very restricted choice of holidays in the school holidays! I no longer look at where the holidays go to but when they are! Very frustrating!!