ms@houti.UUCP (M.STUDD) (08/26/83)
Since the subject of flights to England has been mentioned, I was wondering if anyone had flown Peoples' Express to Gatwick form Newark - how was the flight, any delays or great inconveniences? Also, since Peoples only leases one 747 what happens when it breaks down or needs servicing - it's not as if they can put on another plane, and you can't fly the next day because that flight is probably already booked! As far as booking is concerned how far ahead are they booked up and until when are they booked ? Admittedley I could get answers to some of these questions from Peoples themselves, but I'm really more interested in any first hand experiences. While I'm on the subject, does anyone know how much extra Sir Freddie charges to travel First Class ? I'm sure some of the above information is of general interest so perhaps replies should be posted to the net. All information will be greatly appreciated. Martin Studd houti!ms /* not for much longer I fear ! */ hou5c!mcs /* not for much longer i hope ! */
bdot@hogpd.UUCP (J.BARRETT) (08/29/83)
The last news I heard from my travel agent was that People's was booked through
next March and all charters were booked for two years! That was about a month
ago, it is probably worse now.
John Barrett
AT&T-IS
Lincroft,NJabeles@mhuxi.UUCP (08/29/83)
about the people's express question, I can contribute some information: I recently made a trip to europe and considered minimizing cost by using people's. in 1978 I had flown back and forth using laker for <250 US$ and had been satisfied. as you may know, people's uses reservations unlike laker did (to my knowledge laker never did). the reservations are taken something like two months ahead of time. for the london route they have been hard to get. if you know when they become available, it is easier to get them. that is, if you know which day of the week they become available, two months ahead of time. cancellations of reservations do cause additional reservations to become available. check with a travel agent if possible because they may have an 'in' such as simultaneously can- celling one reservation and then making another while the spot is available; this assumes that someone is cancelling. oh yes, the obvious reason the reservations fill up so quickly is that there is no financial obligation to fly just because you have made a reservation--quite the opposite from charters. addiional info: there exists another way to get on people's and that is without a reservation, i.e., standby. if you call them on the phone and ask what the probability is of getting on standby they may tell you it is very unlikely. this is what i was told during the week of july 4 this summer. on july 11 i actually stopped in at the north terminal at newark airport (with which I'm familiar) at about 7:30 am. this was a monday (note that people's doesn't fly every weekday). let me describe for the reader what I found there: I have reason to believe it is quite typical. there were 7 people waiting near the people's counter to fly standby to london. there were no (zero) employees of people's anywhere. you have to realize that they don't maintain the usual ground staff--that's to save you money. i spoke with other airport (security) employees informally who told me that at about 10:30 am the standby's are told by people's whether to expect to get a seat that evening on the flight (it leaves between 7 and 8 pm). I was told that ALMOST ALL STANDBYS ARE SUCCESSFUL IN GETTING ON A PEOPLE'S FLIGHT TO LONDON. I was told I wouldn't have any trouble. addendum: you can probably fly this way to london. I wasn't going to london so it would have been less convenient to make a switch there. further rumors have it that not a single flight has left newark to gatwick without any empty seats (not to say that they aren't virtually full). I would not rely on flying standby after august 1 until october 1 from europe to the us because of the danger of being stranded especially in the event of strike in one of the european countries of the air traffic controllers (any of you remember 1978?) if I wanted to be sure of returning by a certain date. however, it could be a good bet. note that there are other standby deals in competition from the regular airlines (british air, etc.) which are considerably more costly than people's. people's keeps costs down in ways which make sense and the regular airlines are locked into expensive apparatus and procedures which prevents them from competing with people's. examples: (1) people's doesn't I believe fly to/from airports which require them to pay directly for the use of the airport terminal (2) people's uses braniff planes which were rendered available by the closing down of braniff last year (3) they charge for food (4) they have virtually no ground staff to assist their clientele. p.s.: I flew full fare coach to Rome the next day, rather than risk the inconveniences and make the additional connections. --Joe Abeles
dembry@hplabs.UUCP (Paul E. Dembry) (08/31/83)
#R:houti:-41300:hplabs:12200004:000:126 hplabs!dembry Aug 30 16:18:00 1983 For some strange reason, I think you will have a long wait for Sir Freddie Laker - He went out of business over one year ago!
johnl@ima.UUCP (08/31/83)
#R:houti:-41300:ima:35400001:000:348 ima!johnl Aug 30 19:11:00 1983 I hear that although People Express is booked solid until March, they've been deliberately underbooking because it's a new service and they want to take it easy for a while. So if you just show up in Newark, they can probably take you. This doesn't help much if your plans aren't flexible, but for $149, what do you want? John Levine, ima!johnl