We are thinking of a family trip to Scotland this August. Flying from Boston and have found that flyglobespan.com is a much less expensive option (something like $725 instead of $1050 per person). Does anyone have experience flying them? Are they reputable and safe?

All I can say is that link you supplied doesn't work...at least not for me.

Is this some sort of agency? A consolidator?

What is the actual ticketed airline?

Sorry...the planes have "flyglobespan.com" on them so I think that's their name and not meant to be a link. I found them on www.bostontoscotland.com They are advertising on local radio here in Boston.

The airline is fine. We used them to fly to Athens last year. It's a Scottish airline and won airline of the year for Scotland last year. Their website is www.flyglobespan.com You may need to paste this.

Here's the correct website address;

http://www.flyglobespan.com/

They're a popular airline here in Scotland. I haven't flown with them personally but I know several people who have flown with them from Scotland to various European destinations over the past few years without any problems.

I think they started trans-Atlantic flights last year with a service between Glasgow & Sanford Orlando & are now expanding their long-haul destinations.

Jim

Am flying from Liverpool to New York in summer - the flights start up in May this year. Will be saving over £500 ($950 I think) on Manchester but there may be a price war starting. The seating arrangements look minimal 29inch legroom & luggage limit is just 20kg each unless you purchase extra allowance. I resented the £10 per person booking fee - £20 per person if through a travel agent & everything extra comes at a cost. To guarantee sitting together costs as does the headphones for the film & for any food.
Apart from the flight saving I will be saving on taxi fares & being closer to home can leave a bit later for the airport.

Just checked my flight arrangements & my direct non stop flight from New York is now stopping at Knock, Ireland!!!.

They're now not just offering a proper, almost Ryanair-style, low-cost operation to the Eastern US, but also to South Africa and Vancouver.

Indeed, presumably even from Vancouver to South Africa, however awful that sounds with 29" legroom

Is this the first purposely low-spec intercontinental operation - excluding of course people like Alitalia and Olympic (and BA on a bad day) whose awful standards are down to incompetence, not clever marketing?

And how long before they start flying out of Luton?

I live right in the Orlando Sanford flight path and see them leaving every evening. I would love to try flying with them, but every time I have checked they don't seem to be competitive with the majors ( in the off season here). They may well do better in the peak season, but we haven't found the urge to go to Europe in the Summer yet.

Rick

I just looked at the website and I notice they also offer business calss services. however I could not find any information about the cabins, seat pitch, amenities, etc.

Their business class services from JFK are incredibly competitive price-wise.

From what I've read, regular economy is 30" pitch (vs 31"-32" on most carriers); only one free meal even for trans-Atlantic. Other snacks for sale.

Premium economy is same seat, but 34" and advanced seat selection. Free meals. 30kg of luggage allowance vs 20kg.

Rkkwan..where did you read this information?

I am definitely cancelling my globespan booking. The Company knew in January that they were stopping at Knock before they took my booking and the departure times have now also been moved on 3 hours yet it was shown as a direct non stop flight. They have offered to move me to the next day where it is shown as a non stop flight AT PRESENT. There is no guarantee that closer to the date it will not be altered & a stop introduced.
My wife hates flying & will not accept anything but direct flights. The uncertainty over the flight is freaking her out. The alteration to the flight would add an extra £400 for another nights stay plus costs so I have decided to go with another company for the days I have booked accomodation and pay the extra £500 in flight costs that it involves. I will however have the certainty of a non stop flight, meals, inflight entertainment included, comfortable seats, guarantee of us all sitting together and arriving at a reasonable time in New York and I will not be starving when I get off the plane.
Overall I think it will cost about £550 to stick with my original dates and fly with another airline rather than £400 by changing to an extra day & fly on a plane that offers so little.
It also appears that the Boston Glasgow flight will also stop off in Knock. I keyed in GSM201 (the Liverpool flight number) to google & got the pilots blog page on this & other Globespan flights. They are suggesting possible stops at Cork are being considered to fill up the planes on the days it doesn't stop at Knock. There is nothing to stop them adding more stops to the flight either. Would I be too cynical to suggest that the £40 flight tax being charged on international flights is reduced to £20 if the plane is now coming from Knock - a saving to globespan that they don't pass on to their customers.

johngerard--
The earlier redflags you threw up about globespan really concerned me and I would make the same decision you are. There are far too many "ifs" involved with this airline--ones that I'm not willing to consider as I fly with my kids. We just lived through some tough travel on USAirways so don't want to get involved in worse travel with a lesser known company.

Sorry you are out so much money.

Interesting developments. Never flown them. Could be useful in a pinch, although not crazy about the short pitch.

johngerard, not saying that you aren't right for re-thinking your plans. For anyone else reading and considering though - the terms "direct" and "non-stop" are not interchangeable in the airline industry. "Direct" has come to mean that you don't get off the plane (so probably not scheduled as a connecting flight), but that the plane DOES stop somewhere along the way.

They need a new term for this as I learned the hard way some years ago. There's nothing "direct" about going to Atlanta enroute from St. Louis to Washington DC for instance and there wasn't an indicator on that ticket or purchase point at all. So anyway, it's nothing at all unique to flyglobespan.

As Jim says it's a Scottish low cost airline - it grew out of a local agents called Globespan & has been running for about 5 years now I think. They do seem to be adding routes at a great rate so presumably aren't about to go bust.

The one time I've flown with them, I too had problems. It was 3 or 4 years ago and they and they advertised flights to Rome and Venice - separate, non-stop flights, each 2 or 3 times a week. We booked to fly to Rome and back for an 11 day holiday.

Presumably they didn't have enough bookings to run both routws so between our booking & departing they consolidated the 2 flights into one. If we'd been going for a round week or fortnight we would only have had to go the long way round once; however since we were going for 1.5 weeks we had to go via Venice both ways. They also changed the days of operation so we lost a day of our holiday. Then, on the way back, the plane broke down at Venice and we were stuck there for about 4 hours - half of it on a very hot plane, out on the tarmac, with no refreshments. The plane did look a bit old and worn and my reading light didn't work.

So I assume they started off by buying old beaten-up planes from 'proper' airlines; although I'd imagine, given their expansion since, that they have probably acquired some new ones by now.

A friend had the dates of her recent trip to South Africa changed several times.

But I also know lots of people who've flown with them with no problems, so I might consider using them again - at least for a weekend away.

As with any 'low cost' airline, tickets are usually only really cheap if you book the minute they go on sale.

Let me top this thread as I'm reading some more recent information. Like johngerard has warned, this company is a mess. All plane types and routes are in flux. Some routes that were 767 become 757, some 757 become one-stop 737. People who paid for real business class got premium economy and those who paid PE got regular; and so forth...

The information on the website is useless, and they are having problem handling all the calls about compensation.

I'd stay away from them, unless they're the only airline to Europe you can afford.