Are low-cost airlines value for money?

May 18 2009 By Anuji Varma

“I told them I had spoken to someone at Flybe who knew of my plans for the outgoing flight,” Heath explained. “But my incoming flight was cancelled too. I was not told by the representative that this would happen.

“I was really shocked when I was told I would have to pay out again for a seat on a flight that I had already paid for.”

Flybe’s policy means that an inbound flight is automatically cancelled if the outgoing flight is not taken. But Heath believes this should not be the case.

“This policy is wrong and unfair on passengers. How can they take away something that you have paid for? You have to book the outgoing and incoming flights separately but at the same time. So if you don’t show up for one, the other is cancelled because they are linked despite being booked separately.”

Despite the soaring problems Heath has faced using Flybe, he said he would still fly with the company because he has no other choice. “I have to use them because of convenience. I have tried other airlines and in fact I found them even worse. One in particular has a policy to charge you £20 if you forget to print off your boarding card at home. Some people don’t even have computers, let alone printers. It’s completely unfair. The customer service with this airline was also absymal.”

A Flybe spokeswoman said: “As clearly stated in our terms and conditions and on our website, passengers who do not show for their outward flight, without first notifying and confirming with our Customer Call Centre that the return flight will be used, will automatically have any return flight cancelled. This ruling is not unique to Flybe and is applied by most other regional airlines.

“These details are clearly available within our terms and conditions.

“The return journey sector was automatically cancelled by the system. Therefore, upon check-in for Mr Hunter’s return flight, staff had no option other that to make a rebooking in order for Mr Hunter to travel. As a gesture of goodwill, a re-booking has been made for Mr Hunter to travel between Hamburg and Birmingham at no additional cost. In view of this Flybe would be unable to consider reimbursement for the new ticket.”