What a cracking letter that was sent recently to Flybe. Just imagine how much more irate/stronger it would be if this guy had flown with Ryanair!
Flybe Customer Relations
The New Walker Hangar
Exeter International Airport
EX5 2HL
United KingdomTo Whom It May Concern:
(I would normally write Dear Sirs, but you don’t deserve it)I write to express my extreme dismay at the level of service (or lack thereof) which you provide to your customers. I can honestly say that I have become so angry and frustrated with your prices, your dishonesty, your ridiculous policies and the attitude of your staff that even as a last resort I will now refuse to travel with you and I frequently tell all my friends, family and colleagues to do the same.
When you offer a “free flight” as a reward for having a Flybe credit card, why do the baggage charges suddenly become £13 (each way!) when they are normally £7.99? So the fare of the flight is “free” but among your many hidden charges you recoup £26 of that money by increasing the fees on baggage. You probably call this clever business, but I’m no genius and you didn’t fool me, so it’s not clever at all, it’s deceiving.
Why do you charge £8 to book with a credit card? Especially when it’s a Flybe card!?! No company charges this much when using a credit card online, in fact most companies don’t charge at all, so this is clearly another aspect of the booking process where you steal from your customers. After all, if (in the midst of a recession) people could afford to put your over-priced flights on a debit or cash card, then they wouldn’t be using a credit card, right? So why not make things even more difficult for them, yes that kind of behaviour just has Flybe written all over it.
Why do you charge £60 to change the name on a ticket? Seriously this so-called “administration fee” is an absolute disgrace. It is a simple task which takes about a minute to complete over the phone, and you charge £60 for it. Sixty pounds. Some people don’t earn that in a whole day. Are your staff so uniquely intelligent and highly trained that a minute of their time is worth this much?! You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves.
I could continue all day with reasons to loathe your company but frankly I have wasted enough of my time on you already. I hope this letter makes it all the way to your boardroom, and if it does, then especially for you self-important suits who are far too busy to hear the whole letter, then here is a fitting summary for you:
If the earth was about to explode and the only way to escape the blast was to climb aboard a Flybe space shuttle (assuming of course it wasn’t delayed or cancelled) then I would rather say goodbye cruel world, because although I may lack the mental capacity of your £60-a-minute telephone staff, if you think I’m paying £26 baggage, £45 taxes, £8 for using my Flybe credit card and over £1 for a tiny can of orange juice on board a flight which is supposed to be “free” then you can f**k right off.
8 responses so far ↓
1 firefly2000uk // Apr 18, 2009 at 14:40
That Letter is AWESOME!!
2 Ollie Nurse // Apr 20, 2009 at 10:49
Yeah, that letter is superb!!
3 Graham // Oct 15, 2009 at 9:55
Well said! I have just written to their customer service department to object to paying for:-a seat,hand luggage,credit card surcharge and of all things a booking fee! A headline price of about £55 each way from Leeds Bradford to Southampton turns into a total of almost £250 by the time all of the above and the usual airport taxes etc are added in!
They are an airline industry rip off!
4 Maria // Jan 15, 2010 at 18:36
I am writing to complain about a credit card booking fee of £18 — £9 PER PERSON, even though both seats were made in the one booking and there was, therefore, only one credit card transaction which would cost FlyBe around £3.50. This is outrageous. If they do not refund (which I suspect they will not) I will be escalating this to the FSA for investigation. I know they are already looking at this sort of thing. As many of us as possible need to complain, first to the airline and get their final written response, then raise a complaint with the FSA.
5 Dave Allen // Jun 16, 2010 at 22:18
I could not agree more with these comments. I took out a few years ago the Flybe MasterCard Rewards for all card to get “free flights”. I now have 40 reward points and today 16.06.2010 tried to book a flight to Jersey in the Channel Isles to Amsterdam. Firstly, their website would not let me book direct — despite the fact its 16 points for the national flight and 24 for the European sector. So I had to opt for booking first from Jersey to Southampton and then from Southampton to Amsterdam. This meant that I had to pay twice their £10 luggage charge on top of all the taxes etc.
The total charge for my “free” flight was £148.58. After overcoming that shock I decided to go ahead with the booking. I then found they charge £10 to use their own credit card (£20 extra for the 2 sectors) so opted to use to my bank direct debit card. Yet they wanted to charge me £8 (£16 for both sectors) to use that. Why, when the money goes direct from my account to theirs? The only free payment method they offer is Visa electron which I don’t have.
So, my “free” flights were now costing me £168.58. I then checked with British Airways and their fare quote (no air miles involved-just a straight quote) was around £150. So I am now going with good olé B.A. where you get a free snack and glass and wine on board, both sectors, friendly staff and a clean aircraft.
Jack Walker, ironically also a Jersey resident, bought Flybe some years ago (because Flybe staff were once so rude to him he purchased the airline so he could sack them) must be turning in his grave! I am afraid Jack that your successors have turned your airline into Easy jet or Ryan air in disguise.
My flybe spend&fly card is now going in the bin and I will look for a card that offers genuine deals. Flybe? Fly maybe — when you get your act together
6 Steve Jones // Nov 3, 2010 at 20:03
Nothing has changed…
Dear Flybe,
I have been using your service for a number of years to fly to and from Belfast City airport. Admittedly this is simply because there is no real competition. I live near Gatwick, and my mother’s house (it is normally her we go to visit) is near Belfast City, so its quite convenient.
I used to find the costs in using Flybe reasonable. However, of late, the additional charges you are starting to apply to customers are frankly a disgrace. Whatsmore, the thinly disguised excuses for ripping off your clientele are a joke.
Your statement on charges other than flights booked by the elusive Visa Electron card is as follows: “To defray the substantial administration and financial services costs we incur when processing credit and debit cards a handling fee applies to each passenger per one way flight”.
What I would like to know is why Flybe is subject to such financial horrors when I can’t think of another business that suffers to this extent. Even the smallest boutique website swallows the credit and debit card fees from user transactions. Flybe is hardly a cottage industry!
I am able to buy a pint of milk in Sainbury’s for 53p using a debit card with no further charges, yet you deem it appropriate to charge me £18.00 for a return flight to Belfast for myself and my daughter.
I know from my work that debit card transactions attract a flat fee of a matter of pence when using an online payment gateway, and can’t for a second imagine how you end up with a fee of £18.00.
I am more convinced than ever that the silly “free flight” terminology needs to be rethought, as it is clear you are using these fees (and the mysterious “charges” that sit alongside the nominal fares for flights) as the basis for your profits.
My fare was actually £0.00 but the total paid was in fact £161.92 — your inflated charges for flying out of Gatwick (why are they so much more than Easyjet?) plus the new sneaky additions to bag costs and the aformentioned outrageous card fees make for a pretty miserable transaction.
So what will we do? Fly Easyjet! And thus it will be from now on unless I can get an Electron card. I’ve had enough of paying through the nose for Flybe.
No need for a reply — I’m pretty sure I would get a stock answer that doesn’t explain anything and simply tries further to justify these exorbitant costs to the consumer. I will not be using your service to fly to Belfast at Christmas, as we are a family of four and I’m simply not going to pay £36 in card fees. Would you?
Yours, Steve Jones
7 Chris // Nov 6, 2010 at 15:00
Well put, Steve. These credit card fees sound indefensible. Wonder if anyone from Flybe would care to comment?
8 Graham Warner // May 11, 2011 at 11:33
So I am not alone ine being most bemused by Flybe’s rip-off tactics!
Just flew from Manchester to Hannover and back last weekend. The Flight cost the following;-
Flight/charges/taxes £103
Booking Fee £9
Cost of choosing seats £12 (more on this later)
Somehow the total cost (for two) was £273.98!
So not even their own figures add up!
A 18.5cl miniature bottle of wine — £3.90 — would you pay that in a pub?
As for the Choosing seats fiasco .…..
£6 per person per flight — not made aware of this when we booked. If you got on a long haul train journey and the ticket collector charged you an extra £24 as you choose a seat you would tell them where to stick it wouldn’t you?
And wait for this … both flights were only 2/3 full so we could have sat anywhere and the flight is only 90 minutes long!
What exactly do Flybe do to justify this £6 fee?
I am making the booking, it is in my time and no one but a piece of website software is involved on their side!
TOTAL RIP OFF!
We will never fly with Flybe again and I strongly advise anyone else not to bother!
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