Flybe & Air France

Thinking of adding on 3 days in Paris using Icelandair before catching a cruise out of Southampton. We'd take advantage of the free stopover in Iceland enroute to CDG and then fly home from England on Icelandair using an open jaw routing.

Initially was thinking of taking the Eurostar from Gare du Nord to London St. Pancras, taxi to Waterloo Station and then catching a train to Southampton, but...

I found that we could fly from ORY to SOU for a savings in time & money. The pricing/scheduling for Flybe and France is "exactement le meme" comparing the Flybe upgrade fare to the classic Air France fare! What gives?

Booking via Air France seems to be the way to go since AF is part of the Star Alliance & we'd accrue miles on United. Can anyone explain the relationship between Flybe and Air France?

Flybe and Air France are partners, Flybe is a budget airline and has earned the nickname Flymaybe due to the temperamental departure times.

We've used them several times, when we booked a flight from Southampton to Orly we found the flight cheaper on the Air France site than the Flybe site and the plane was an Air France one.

Southampton airport is a small one and less likely to suffer from delays, my wife has been flying to it from Newcastle on Friday afternoons quite regularly and has yet to be delayed. I would certainly advocate a flight there above the train option however as Orly is a much busier airport there is more likelihood of a delay from that end.

The Flybe upgrade fare may be equivalent to the classic Air france fare - I think AF classic includes checked baggage on domestic european flights.
AF is part of Skyteam (Delta) not Star Alliance.

Pompey Family said:

Flybe and Air France are partners, Flybe is a budget airline and has earned the nickname Flymaybe due to the temperamental departure times.

We've used them several times, when we booked a flight from Southampton to Orly we found the flight cheaper on the Air France site than the Flybe site and the plane was an Air France one.

Southampton airport is a small one and less likely to suffer from delays, my wife has been flying to it from Newcastle on Friday afternoons quite regularly and has yet to be delayed. I would certainly advocate a flight there above the train option however as Orly is a much busier airport there is more likelihood of a delay from that end.

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Thanks for the first-hand information! There are 3 flights available ORY-SOU on the date we need, and we'd book the earliest, so hopefully it won't be too delayed. We flew from ORY once before on EasyJet, but it was a crack-of-dawn flight so there weren't any back-ups.

jpl88 said:

The Flybe upgrade fare may be equivalent to the classic Air france fare - I think AF classic includes checked baggage on domestic european flights.
AF is part of Skyteam (Delta) not Star Alliance.

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I realized that yesterday when I returned to the AF site...should've worn my stronger readers to distinguish the logos. AA's One World is always easily recognized!

beejaybeeohio said:

Thanks for the first-hand information! There are 3 flights available ORY-SOU on the date we need, and we'd book the earliest, so hopefully it won't be too delayed. We flew from ORY once before on EasyJet, but it was a crack-of-dawn flight so there weren't any back-ups

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Depending on your time of arrival the taxi from the airport to the docks should take on average 10 minutes. Rush hour can see bottlenecks around the junctions leading to the motorway but these tend to be worse from the direction of the airport in the evening rush hour. All in all though from my countless times of driving into Southampton using that junction in the morning rush hour I've never encountered anything truly bad.

Flying into Southampton to connect to a cruise really is the best option and it should be a seamless, hassle free journey.

Overnighting in Southampton

Pompey Family said:

Depending on your time of arrival the taxi from the airport to the docks should take on average 10 minutes. Rush hour can see bottlenecks around the junctions leading to the motorway but these tend to be worse from the direction of the airport in the evening rush hour. All in all though from my countless times of driving into Southampton using that junction in the morning rush hour I've never encountered anything truly bad.

Flying into Southampton to connect to a cruise really is the best option and it should be a seamless, hassle free journey.

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Hmmm...we have a reservation at the Premier Inn West Quay for the night before our cruise, but your post has me thinking about flying in the day we embark, which is a Saturday. But being the "nervous Nellie" that I am, I think we'll stick with arriving the day before, although we could take an early afternoon flight to give us a few more hours in Paris.

Stopover in Iceland

Coincidentally, I just saw this on facebook. I didn't understand your earlier reference about the stopover in Iceland, but now it's on my bucketlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8pDcvyDP1M#MyStopover

beejaybeeohio said:

Hmmm...we have a reservation at the Premier Inn West Quay for the night before our cruise, but your post has me thinking about flying in the day we embark, which is a Saturday. But being the "nervous Nellie" that I am, I think we'll stick with arriving the day before, although we could take an early afternoon flight to give us a few more hours in Paris.

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There's nothing worse than having to worry about missing a connection so despite the chances of you missing the cruise being incredibly slim I would stick to your plan of arriving the day before if that's your plan. I would agree with an afternoon departure as Paris is infinitely more interesting than Southampton.

And cheap!

klpca said:

Coincidentally, I just saw this on facebook. I didn't understand your earlier reference about the stopover in Iceland, but now it's on my bucketlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8pDcvyDP1M#MyStopover

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The equivalent of Business Class on Icelandair appears to be priced only a couple hundred more than economy seats on US airlines. We don't have a lengthy flight to Iceland from the eastern seaboard, so we could deal with cramped seats, but coming from Cali you definitely would want to consider that option.

Thanks for the link-Kat sure had a lot of adventures in her 48 hour stopover!

beejaybeeohio said:

The equivalent of Business Class on Icelandair appears to be priced only a couple hundred more than economy seats on US airlines. We don't have a lengthy flight to Iceland from the eastern seaboard, so we could deal with cramped seats, but coming from Cali you definitely would want to consider that option.

Thanks for the link-Kat sure had a lot of adventures in her 48 hour stopover!

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Great information! I am definitely going to check that out. Thanks.

Is Air France still on strike and if so, does it look like they will settle soon?

riverdees05 said:

Is Air France still on strike and if so, does it look like they will settle soon?

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Looks like it finally ended.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/28/air-france-strike/16381243/