First Choice -refuelling question

[Hilary]

Our flights next month are with First Choice. We're trying them for the first time as they were a good price and from Bristol, which is much better for us than Gatwick.

The outbound leg is showing a refuelling stop (not a pick-up) in Manchester for just a few flights in Feb and March, ours included. Has anyone ever done this, and does anyone know why some flights would do this but not all of them?

We know it will add a bit on to our journey time, but we've decided it still seems worthwhile to us to cut out the need for overnight hotels, etc., but I'm slightly wary!

 

[Claire L]

Hmm very good question, where did you find this information as the FC schedule just shows it as a 9hr 30min flight.

Claire

 

[Claire L]

The only thing I can think of is for certain flights they are using a larger aircraft that needs more fuel and/or runway space, therefore by going to Manchester it can take on enough fuel for the flight and have a longer runway to allow for take off with the extra weight on board.

Claire

 

[Steve and Sarah]

Hi

Don't want to worry you but it is very lekely to be Manchester New Hampshire rather than in the UK. You must double check this. We had a terrible experience with First choice in September which sounds just like what they are doing to you. In short they swapped our aircraft for a 757 (Like you would go to Greece on) which needed refueling in Bangor Maine (Not an awful long way from New Hampshire). I really hope I am wrong and this is not your situation and I obviosuly don't want to worry you unnecessarlly but feel obliged to let you know.

The toilets blocked after 4 hours as they are not deigned to do that length of journey to the US (Also exemplified by the fact it cannot gget there on one tank of fuel). The plane didn't have all of the 'luxuries' (Back seat TV,s, leg room etc) that First Choice shouted about. There was no premium econonmy (Whatever First choice call theirs) and the people who had paid extra for that prevelidge were sat next to us (The got a £10 drinks voucher as compensation - big deal).

For this reason we would NEVER travel with First Choice again as they basically told us tough when we wrote to them to complain. The return flight was also delayed for 6 hours without even an apology. Nver again....

 

[Hilary]

Hmm very good question, where did you find this information as the FC schedule just shows it as a 9hr 30min flight.

Claire

We didn't find out until the last page of the online booking process (just before hitting the final 'book' button!) and it was in pretty small print! We'd already decided to book the flights by then, and a moment of hesitation before booking anyway.

Yesterday we had a letter from First Choice giving slightly amended flight times, so I tried going through a dummy booking for our dates again to see if the refuelling stop still applied, and it was still mentioned - I think the applicable dates were something like 02/02/07 - 18/03/07 outbound only.

The bigger plane suggestion would make sense, but I wonder why they don't use the bigger planes on that route all the time, and which other routes might they fly them if they're not going to Orlando?

 

[Hilary]

Hi

Don't want to worry you but it is very lekely to be Manchester New Hampshire rather than in the UK. You must double check this. We had a terrible experience with First choice in September which sounds just like what they are doing to you. In short they swapped our aircraft for a 757 (Like you would go to Greece on) which needed refueling in Bangor Maine (Not an awful long way from New Hampshire). I really hope I am wrong and this is not your situation and I obviosuly don't want to worry you unnecessarlly but feel obliged to let you know.

The toilets blocked after 4 hours as they are not deigned to do that length of journey to the US (Also exemplified by the fact it cannot gget there on one tank of fuel). The plane didn't have all of the 'luxuries' (Back seat TV,s, leg room etc) that First Choice shouted about. There was no premium econonmy (Whatever First choice call theirs) and the people who had paid extra for that prevelidge were sat next to us (The got a £10 drinks voucher as compensation - big deal).

For this reason we would NEVER travel with First Choice again as they basically told us tough when we wrote to them to complain. The return flight was also delayed for 6 hours without even an apology. Nver again....

Thanks for the heads up! I hadn't considered where 'Manchester' might be!

They are selling Premium Economy for this flight (but we haven't booked it) so I'm hopeful that it isn't an aircraft they already know won't have it - maybe that's being too optimistic though.

Which UK airport did you fly from?

 

[Steve and Sarah]

[QUOTE
The bigger plane suggestion would make sense, but I wonder why they don't use the bigger planes on that route all the time, and which other routes might they fly them if they're not going to Orlando? [/QUOTE]


Don't meaa to sounds snotty or clever - But if that was the case how the heck woud the plane take off from Bristol in the First Place...?

 

[karengr]

We are also booked on a flight with FC from Bristol and we have been told it will be in july also.
our friends went on the 4 feb from brs (the First flight out) and they did indeed stop at Manchester uk. This is because of the runway at bristol is not long enough to take off from bristol with a full tank of fuel so therefore has to take on more fuel at Manchester.
our friends said they were there about an hour. The only down side was that the inflight entertainment couldnt start untill they left Manchester.

I dont mind this at all as it was indeed a great deal cheaper than from Gatwick and as we only live 20mins from airport havent got that dreadful trying to stay awake drive on the way back.

Just paid another chunk off today .
karen

 

[Steve and Sarah]

We flew from Manchester.

With regards to the Premium Economy - I wouldn't put anything past First Choice in my experience. They will probably hide behind the £10 drink voucher and the fact that you will ge the 'service' on the way back.

Their reply to our compaint still makes my blood boil. If they had just written X+?! Off on a pice of paper I would have been on less insulting.

Hope you sort it all out. Either eay the sun will still be shining in Florida when you get there......!

 

[Hilary]

We are also booked on a flight with FC from Bristol and we have been told it will be in july also.
our friends went on the 4 feb from brs (the First flight out) and they did indeed stop at Manchester uk. This is because of the runway at bristol is not long enough to take off from bristol with a full tank of fuel so therefore has to take on more fuel at Manchester.
our friends said they were there about an hour. The only down side was that the inflight entertainment couldnt start untill they left Manchester.

Ah, that makes me feel a whole lot better about it Fingers crossed it will be the same for us next month and for you in July.

I'm prepared to put up with the re-fuelling stop and delayed entertainment for the conenience of Bristol against Gatwick - I'll let you know if I still feel the same when we've experienced it

 

[Hilary]

Either eay the sun will still be shining in Florida when you get there......!

 

[gavvy]

[/QUOTE]
Don't meaa to sounds snotty or clever - But if that was the case how the heck woud the plane take off from Bristol in the First Place...?[/QUOTE]

Bristol has a very short runway, it could be that with full tanks of fuel the plane will not have enough runway to take off, hence taking less fuel and having to stop to re-fuel- it may not mean a change of plane! Like others said best to check!

 

[Nubbedy]

Hi

Don't want to worry you but it is very lekely to be Manchester New Hampshire rather than in the UK. You must double check this. We had a terrible experience with First choice in September which sounds just like what they are doing to you. In short they swapped our aircraft for a 757 (Like you would go to Greece on) which needed refueling in Bangor Maine (Not an awful long way from New Hampshire). I really hope I am wrong and this is not your situation and I obviosuly don't want to worry you unnecessarlly but feel obliged to let you know.

The toilets blocked after 4 hours as they are not deigned to do that length of journey to the US (Also exemplified by the fact it cannot gget there on one tank of fuel). The plane didn't have all of the 'luxuries' (Back seat TV,s, leg room etc) that First Choice shouted about. There was no premium econonmy (Whatever First choice call theirs) and the people who had paid extra for that prevelidge were sat next to us (The got a £10 drinks voucher as compensation - big deal).

For this reason we would NEVER travel with First Choice again as they basically told us tough when we wrote to them to complain. The return flight was also delayed for 6 hours without even an apology. Nver again....

Have to echo this about First Choice. They did exactly the same to us in August, changed our plane to a standard 757 without any warning. It was awful, we had to stop in Bangor, Maine as well, and the only TV was up on the 'ceiling' of the plane, showing one film which poor DS could not even see. We had booked flight only with them, because their new Star Class service sounded good, but I was very disappointed to say the least.

To make it worse, they offered us one drink on the plane as compensation. As I cant drink on a flight I ended up with one of those mini cans of Coke, and my letter of complaint was basically given a 'That's tough' response.

Never again with First Choice for me either.

Sorry, Hilary, I know it's not what your thread was about, but it's made me cross that this seems to happen regularly with First Choice.

Hope your holiday goes well.

Sara.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

the problem is probably Bristol airports runway length.
With a full oad of fuel and pax, the runway is probably not long enough, so they take off with minimum fuel and refuel at Manchester (UK)

 

[poohmadmum]

We've booked with First Choice from Bristol in August because it is much easier for those of us living in the South West than the trek and overnight stay at Gatwick.

When booking I got the travel agent to check the position as the flight time seemed longer than usual. She was told that on the outward flight only we stopped at Manchester (UK) to pick up other guests but that we would not have to get off the plane. Possibly it is to pick up other guests and refuel? I'm hoping everything turns out fine as the new planes sound great and they worked out much cheaper than Virgin.

 

[Cochise]

The 757 is a very cost effective plane if the flight is not full and they can fit the load of passengers on it. But obviously being a smaller plane than the 767 they dont have the fuel capacity to go much further than a few of the east coast USA airports. Continental and a few others are using them for transatlantic routes and have fixed winglets to them which increases their efficiency and gets then further to Chicago etc. I do hope that it is the 767 and the inability to take off from Bristol with a full fuel load rather than a 757 The 757 is a tough plane to go transatlantic on.

 

[Hilary]

Just picked this up from Professional Pilots Rumour Network (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=247522) :

the winter BRS-SFB/POP are tech stopping in MAN for fuel only, however, come summer, the BRS-SFB/POP are now split with MAN and the BRS-VRA is now split with EMA instead of just tech stopping, maybe the 767's are a bit stretched, the BRS-SFB/POP routes are selling well, the VRA not as well but still selling, so who knows?

so I'm hoping it will be the 767.