Birmingham: Upcoming Flights & Passenger Travel Plans

[Brum X]

I flew out of BHX numerous times this year, only using Monarch as they are my favourite. After working a season at the airport, I had an amazing experience which was thoroughly enjoyable, I was in my element completely. Each time I had express lane through security, which I would recommend, especially during the peak times of the day, (0400-0600)-(1200-1700). Now that I've left the airport, I do miss it, but now for the next chapter for me, 35000ft :good:

Are you going to be Cabin Crew or flying a plane ????


How exciting :good:

 

[nancledre]

Decided to give the Bruges Christmas market a go this year, as a result of VLM introducung the Antwerp service. Flew out on Monday, accompanied by the wife, 9 other passengers and a crew of 3. Arrived 20 minutes early and transferred to Berchem by bus for €3 each then by train to Brugge which as a senior cost me the princely sum of €6 each. A taxi to the chosen hotel which was Martins Brugge. Spent 4 nights there before making the return trip on Friday. Because we needed to leave Brugge on the 0826 we had to pay full fare, which was approx €15. This time we had 7 passengers to share the aircraft with. Antwerp airport is something different - I remember Elmdon in the days of BEA Dakotas and it was akin to that. VLM had two flights while we were there, the other to Southampton and had both flights been full there would not have been enough seats in the departure lounge. There was a drinks machine (was this the duty free?) and one toilet each for men and women. Flight back was uneventful although mostly in cloud. Arriving at Birmingham the carousel area was devoid of passengers although I did subscrribe to the data being collected by the ONS. Overall the week was enjoyable, but the Christmas market was not a patch on a wander along New Street, the stalls were the sort to be found in Bilston market with one or two selling Christmas items. However if you have never been to Bruges it is well worth a visit at any time.
Next time it is Sri Lanka with Emirates, bet there will be more than a 20% load.

Alf

 

[jfy1999]

Thanks a lot for the report although it's really disappointing that loads seem to be so poor, I hope it's not like that all the time. 🤔

 

[nwoody2001]

I suspect these routes will also have load loads, but its more a case of high yields which support the route...

 

[richard winterbourn]

My last two visits abroad were tailored to my own needs. In mid-November I took the early afternoon AF flight to Paris and then, again with AF, the overnight flight down to Rio. Arriving early morning at Carlos Jobim International Airport i took the local airport bus (13 Real) down to the city's other main airport Santos Dumont for the next stage, a mid-morning flight woith GOL, firstly to Sao Paulo (Guarulhos) where i changed planes and then the final leg from Sao Paulo to Goiania where i arrived early evening. I was visiting friends and also preparing editorial for an article, and returned two weeks later.
Latterly i took the late afternoon RYR flight from MAN to Bergamo in Italy where i had dinner in my favourite restaurant before catching the train to Milan Malpensa, arriving at about midnight. At 7am I was booked in for the morning Air Panorama flight to Holguin in eastern Cuba. This flight was via Havana where there was a mandatory two-hour stop to change both flight and cabin crew. Arriving in Holguin at 5pm i had a three hour journey by car to Guantanamo where i was meeting friends and again writing an article.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Got a mini break in Dublin booked for early next year, Ryanair outbound and Aer Lingus inbound. Never used EI so looking forward to it.

I'm also looking at a short break to Spain later in the year. Vueling have some decent fares to Alicante but I fancy giving Norwegian a try, so Barcelona is the favourite at the moment (out of interest Monarch are coming up quite a bit cheaper than Norwegian).

 

[Ray Finkle]

Change of plans yet again and we've finally booked flights to Malaga, flying with Norwegian.

I'm very much looking forward to trying them out :good:

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Booked the flights to Malaga for late August today 😀

Three flights per day with Monarch gives us a better chance to avoid the rush hour.

This time, we have the whole mob coming out whilst we are there. Watch out Nerja!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

We very nearly booked to go to Nerja, it looks really nice. We're heading further down the coast in the other direction though.

Incidentally I booked our flights and hotel both through the Norwegian Holidays website. The hotel was the same price as I'd found elsewhere and the flights include pre booked seats and baggage. It just made things much easier :smile:

 

[Jon Dempsey]

We like it Ray. It has avoided most of the excesses of the tourist trade and we've made a lot of friends amongst the bar / restaurant owners so it's like a second home.

Where are you heading to?

 

[Ray Finkle]

We like it Ray. It has avoided most of the excesses of the tourist trade and we've made a lot of friends amongst the bar / restaurant owners so it's like a second home.

Where are you heading to?

Sorry mate I've only just seen this, I wasn't ignoring you.

We're going to Benalmadena. It wasn't my choice, I'd have preferred somewhere a little less 'touristy' and Nerja looked perfect to me. Mrs Finkle, however, has never been to mainland Spain and fancied somewhere more mainstream, shall we say. I'm sure she'll be pleasantly surprised 😀

We're not going until October so hopefully it'll be a little quieter than in the peak summer months.

I'm also looking forwards to trying out Norwegian. After reading the reviews on here I have high hopes :good:

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Busy eating and drinking!! 😆

It's nice around the marina in Benalmadena and at that time of year, the hoards will be long gone.

I have just booked a couple of trips to Nerja May/June and August/September, both with Monarch who are still, surprisingly, cheaper than Ryanair and Norwegian. They are also running three flights a day down to Malaga in August so we manage to avoid the "redeye". (7:00 departure sounds great, but when you have to be at the airport @ 5:00, the only thing you can do when you get to your accomodation, apart from a meal and a drink, is catch up on the sleep).

 

[nwoody2001]

Well as I live in Leeds, I often cant contribute to this thread but I do try my best to use BHX...

So two developments. As an xmas present, me and my sister are sending Mother and Father to see the northern lights in Iceland. appreciating Icelandair are 2x weekly, you notice that flight out Thursday and staying over the weekend, flights are pretty pricey, circa £250 each. However, on skyscanner, looking at the 1st week in march, going Monday - Thursday, I managed to get rtn flights for an impressive £130!!! ok, these aren't as good as the fares I got when I went in 2014 with Flybe which were £80 rtn but for a full service airline, I was impressed!!!

I am also planning to go to Barcelona/Sitges for a long weekend over the second may b/h. I wanted to use Norwegian, but their flights down land in BCN until 11:30pm so id lose an entire day. Also, even using a mix of FR and DY, the cheapest prices coming out of skyscanner was £180rtn. MAN manages £120 rtn on the same dates with FR and LJL manage £100!!! Granted we now have 4 carriers to BCN with increased capacity but lord, prices seem to be doing well!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

We were originally looking at Barcelona and the prices definitely don't seem to have dropped. When I looked Monarch were the cheapest, by quite some distance on websites such as lowcostholidays. The Thursday Norwegian flight time is definitely off putting, the Saturday flight is timed much better but no good for a long weekend.

For the four of us in October Monarch are quoting £1,218 to Malaga for flight only whereas Norwegian are £808.60.

Norwegians Low Fare +, which includes bags and seats, comes in at £992.60 whereas Monarch's Essentials fare is £1,416.40.

Ryanair are somewhere between the two showing £1085.92 basic fare, with pre-booked seats and two bags it comes in at £1266.84.

Those quotes are direct from the airlines websites so may vary elsewhere.

 

[thunderchild]

Dublin flights booked for the Easter bank holiday - a pity that I'll miss the A380 by a few hours!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Dublin flights booked for the Easter bank holiday - a pity that I'll miss the A380 by a few hours!

I'm heading over a couple of days after you :smile:

 

[thunderchild]

I'll try not to drink all the Guinness! ☘☘☘

 

[Brum X]

My flight to Gran Canaria booked with Norweigan Air Shuttle

How im feeling right now :yahoo:

Just to give you all a rundown on my booking. To be honest i was hoping that NAS would come out the cheapest to LPA and they were.

My total booking cost came to £208 GBP including all taxes and charges, a £4.10 credit card fee and i managed to book my favourite seat on an aircraft, right at the back with a window seat, my seat confirmed as 31F both outbound and inbound. :smile:

By comparison Ryanair travelling on the 2nd September, a day after my flight was coming out as £225 plus there credit card fee and Monarch the most expensive coming out at £255.90 when you add on your 1 x piece of checked baggage.

My flight times are good too, as even though i lose half a day when compared to Monarch, i love the fact that my flight back to BHX is a midday, so no hanging around the hotel. I can get up and have my breakfast and come home.

I cant wait to check out this airline and travel on a Boeing 737-800 series. However looking at there facebook page they have got loads of moaning minnies complaing about one thing or another, i suppose this is the same for all airlines.

My flights details as confirmed

D85857 - 01 Sep 2016

17:10 Birmingham
21:30 Gran Canaria

LowFare
Seats reserved

Change flight
Change seats

D85856 - 08 Sep 2016

12:10 Gran Canaria
16:30 Birmingham

LowFare
Seats reserved


😀

 

[Ray Finkle]

Looks as though quite a few of us on here are using Norwegian :smile:

However looking at there facebook page they have got loads of moaning minnies complaing about one thing or another, i suppose this is the same for all airlines.

People usually only resort to commenting on the bad and in fairness Norwegian do have some good comments too. If you want to see real bad comments then check out Vueling's Facebook page, it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence :shok:

 

[jfy1999]

Been speaking to a guy on another forum who is going to fly into BHX from Newquay and wanted to know how long it took to get from the gate to the train. Another poster read the responses from various BHX followers and said he was pleased with what he saw, because he was also planning to fly from NQY to BHX. 🙂