Using Leeds Bradford Airport Questions & Reviews

[michael]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

ok, to complete my previous post, the price some 25 years ago return LBA LHR was £130. Therefore I think £71 one way is not bad at all in comparison!

 

[whoshotjimmi]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

whoshotjimmi
How do you get a first class rail ticket LHR - Leeds for £26? (71-45)

It is a shame that I feel it is necessary to respond to condescending nonsense like this. But, here goes....

The advance standard single fare from London to Leeds on the service I would want is approx. £20. The first class advance fare is approx. £35. This is between £36 and £51 cheaper than the flight. Roughly £45. In my experience of First Class on the train, it is worth the extra spend, providing the price is right compared to the standard fare. I apologise if I misled you in my last post by using a rough average rather than an actual figure. Hopefully this has cleared it up for you somewhat. I think you will be quite surprised to find out for just how little one can travel first class.

Additionally, you seem to think that the cheapest price flight from Heathrow to LBA is equivalent to a first class ticket between Kings Cross and Leeds. Granted, I may not have travelled with BA before. However, I did travel LBA - LHR numerous times with British Midland (Michael - 20 or so years ago I flew a DC9 - perhaps 'twas this, not the F100?). I remember the service level well. If the service one receives these days on BA is comparable to that one received with BD then, I can say with some confidence, it is not equivalent to what one receives in first class on the train.

With regards to the BD price of £130 return, I always believed that the price was too high but the low cost carriers were not really there to compare with. I do, however, remember flying to LHR on 27th December for less than £20 - a very empty 737-500. I got the coach back to Leeds for £12.

I apologise to all those who like to keep their threads pure and on topic. To drag it back somewhat, I am not here to argue about the price - some people think it is high, some people do not. That is life and I shall leave it at that. What I am here to argue is that delays and cancellations are detrimental to a route and, particularly in the case of Thomson, to the airport as well. I would like to support BA on the route, in the same way that I want to support Jet2 as our "own" airline. I just want to know that my money is invested in the right place. As do the majority of passengers. There are many different options these days and, as a result, performance matters - this incudes the airport itself.

 

[ridgeback]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

* deleted because I can't be bothered *

Good luck and I hope you enjoy yr ride to PRG and back and yr train ride home.

 

[a300boy]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

I would agree with you on all your points whoshotjimmie and have used Ryanair myself with no problems. My point was exactly what you said we have all got used to cheap fares and the supermarket type high volume pricing they provide. BA are counting on the internal supply to there international network as you well know and any point to point traffic is additional. 2 x £71 one way fares would appeal to me for a London break.

 

[ridgeback]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

Finally some (accurate) perspective. Thank you ls16.

Can you do some analysis on pricing next please.

 

[Seasider]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

whoshotjimmi
How do you get a first class rail ticket LHR - Leeds for £26? (71-45)

It is a shame that I feel it is necessary to respond to condescending nonsense like this. But, here goes....

I do not know why you thought I was being "condescending", I didn't think it would be possible to get such a fare.

 

[ls27]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

How about £13 single each way by booking in advance Leeds to Kings Cross. I did it last month and went to Heathrow for £5.50

 

[whoshotjimmi]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

Hi Seasider,

At the time, I found the post condescending due to the fact that you pointed out 26 was the result of 71-45. However, I mistook the context of the post amid the response to my opinion on cost which, I think, is valid and which only portrayed a small part of the overall point I was trying to make regarding performance. As such, I would like to offer my sincere apologies for my response.

whoshotjimmi

 

[Seasider]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

Apology accepted.

 

[User0001]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

Finally some (accurate) perspective. Thank you ls16.

Can you do some analysis on pricing next please.

In my mind they are two different products. An interlining ticket booked with BA to travel LBA-LHR-XXX offers all sorts of guarantees in respect of the airline's obligation to get you and your bags to the final destination.

Price wise, booking the entire journey with BA as a single booking should mean the 'add-on' price for the LBA connection is considerably cheaper than booking the LBA leg as a separate booking. For a LBA-LHR-JFK booking we were looking at (24th Sep) for example, the fare of £256 compares to the LHR-JFK fare of £242; i.e the cost of the add-on is just £16.

An advanced, highly restricted rail fare to/from Kings Cross is a different product all together. It's 3 times longer in terms of travel time and the responsibility is all yours if you miss the connection.

The challenge with flying LBA-LHR or vice versa is the scheduling and the potential for long-connections / waits so it can introduce a lot of 'dead time' into the connection. Personally I think I'd rather hang around in T5 than battle across London with my luggage, but each to their own

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Re: Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

Have to say we flew B A from LBA to Geneva via Heathrow and it was cheaper then flying from a local airport on a low cost airline. Have to say did book in the BA January sale and allowed a large gap as arriving at T1, in the end had a delightful 3 hours in T5. Certainly more relaxed knowing B A would sort out any flight issues and I could leave from my local airport and get rid of the cases. Was a bit worried about B A cancelling the shuttle part of the journey before leaving, but in the end no issues.

 

[ridgeback]

Using BA to Heathrow

Agreed ls16 and I'm sure jimmi cld have got to LBA much cheaper if the original booking had been made PRG-LHR-LBA but I think he said someone else booked it.

My point was more that £71 is, IMHO, a very reasonable stand alone fare for a flight from London Heathrow to Leeds. Jimmi didn't agree, fair enough (although I still balk at the 'utterly ludicrous' tag!)

It's an interesting debate as everyone has a different idea of what is reasonable but I know that BA's more established shuttle services which regularly run full attract point-to-point fares of £150 or more as, incidentally, do East Coast Trains at short notice in First Class.

This is a lot of money clearly but I think the lower end of BA's fare structure (£57ow LHR/LBA is the cheapest from memory) is very reasonable and my worry is that going on some people's opinions on here the fares need to be £20 to compare with Ryanair and/or East Coast Standard Class cheapest advance ticket. I maintain that if this is the case then BA are wasting their time and people might as well stick with the train.

That disappoints me. BMI were never that cheap and they sold plenty of seats from memory. I'm a Yorkshireman myself and for all we like a deal, everything has a value if that makes sense.

I wld need to be saving a considerable amount of money to consider taking the Piccadilly Line 1 hour and 25 stops to Kings Cross with my cases to take a train North or vv (I hv done this dozens of times) when the alternative is leaving yr bags in the care of BA (no jokes please!) and enjoying the shops and bars in T5. This is a tremendous, award winning airport terminal, not a windy Nissen Hut. 2-3 hrs in there is no great hardship and it can often be less than that anyway.

 

[michael]

Re: Connection Times

Agree with every word Ridgeback, plain common sense.

 

[whoshotjimmi]

Re: Connection Times

Yes, unfortunately I was not in charge of booking the Heathrow - Prague part of it, however, I did check the through price and it was no different. In terms of £57, I feel that is a reasonable price for an advance purchase. Having said that, the £70.80 that the booking cost me is probably worth the convenience of not having to travel into London. Plus, having put my money where my mouth is, I am quite looking forward to being able to use T5 (the Prague flights depart from T3).

 

[cmj]

Re: Connection Times KLM vs BA

For European destinations, KLM often seems to be a bit better connection-time wise. LBA to PRG has a 3h30 and a 4h15 connection (plus two which are over 6 hrs), PRG to LBA are between 3h20 and 4h15. The 'best' BA connections are 4h30 and 5h40.

Personally I don't mind bit of a wait in Schipol (KLM gold card holder). For Prague there is the Jet2 option too.

As to getting the train vs flying to LHR. Personally I try to get "into" the airline system as soon as possible. Given that from then on it's the responsibility of the airline. The longer the journey to the airport the bigger the scope for things to be "my problem". Manchester is okay although a Transpennine Express cancellation can move things to a "pushing it" as the trains are fairly frequent.

 

[imagineif]

Sometimes I look at Airline/Holiday review websites & find some of the comments by passengers laughable and pathetic but looking at the reviews of LBA you have to admit they are overwhelmingly negative, touch upon the same issues and the majority of passengers passing through simply find it an unpleasant experience. Seems the re-work airside area has fallen very short of the mark and mainly due to all the points people have raised on here previously with a massive lack of seats and facilities. :nea:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Airports/Airport_forum/lba.htm

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Unfortunately these sites attract people who want to make negitive points.
Have made two flights recently one leaving at 6.45am and the other at 7am.
As we never use the food and drink outlets we require a seat in the other areas.
On both occasions planes started to load about 5.45am freeing up seats on an on going basis until we loaded about 30 minutes before flight time. each plane loading free up at least 100 seats,
Seating was tight about 5.30am, but in the next hour plenty available, were not flying until 10.45am this week, bet it will be empty by then.
Try getting a seat by the gates in zone B at malaga, that is an issue.
Think some people have an agenda to promote by making negitive points that are not in the remit of the airline and or airports.

 

[stevemej]

LBIA Shambles today

Just came back from Lanzarote today. After landing at 16:50 we waited at the end of the runway 5 minutes as there was a plane on its way in and another on its way out.
After finally taxiing to its parking spot we were kept waiting about 30 minutes on the plane because there were no buses to collect us and return us to the terminal. Then when we finally got in the luggage collection hall all the passengers were waiting at luggage belt number 3 (as per the overhead screens) only for a jet2 person to come in and shout that our luggage was actually on belt 1 and the screen was wrong.
Finally we were queueing to get out of the car park because only 2 out of the 3 exits were working.

About 2 months ago I arrived at the airport about 6am and there was a 5 minute wait to get into the drop-off car park. Once inside the queue into security was snaking down the corridor towards the arrivals hall. Even we were in plenty of time for our scheduled flight the only way to guarantee making the checkin was to get a speed thru ticket (nice little earner for the airport).

I wonder if LBIA is becoming a victim of its own success.

 

[lbia]

Re: LBIA Shambles today

Sounds like Servisair up to their usual levels of excellent service.

 

[a300boy]

Re: LBIA Shambles today

They are about to disappear and become Swissport soon if my information is correct.