Blue Islands

My Blue Islands Southampton to Guernsey flight was cancelled due to fog last Sunday which was bad weather luck. I emailed Blue Island that evening to cancel my Monday return flight and to ask for a refund. I also tried phoning but gave up after 20 minutes in the queue. Today is Wednesday and I am in Guernsey Airport. They have not yet replied to my email. When I go to their website they state that I am unable to 'manage my booking' for that cancelled flight, and there is no refund option on the page. I have tried phoning Blue Island again today several times, and after a 10 minute wait I left my phone number for a call back. None so far. It makes no difference which dialling menu option I choose, I get the same braying idiot recorded message telling me I'm in a queue. Actually I think the recorded message would be more truthful if it told me that there's no one there to answer my call. Now, I would have thought I could find a Blue Islands employee at Guernsey airport but there isn't one. Their customer service desk is manned by Aurigny who are able only to give me the same phone number and email address for Blue Islands. There is a courtesy phone, but this only reaches the same braying idiot. My experience has many of the characteristics of finding a company in grave and terminal distress.

Blue Islands provide Ryanair quality for British Airways prices. They didn't load our checked bag onto the plane because they'd sold too many seats. Absolutely no information until we arrived in Jersey to our surprise. Very poor service getting our bags back - if we did not chase, we would not have heard anything. I would never voluntarily fly with them again.

A truly horrible experience. I was visiting from Australia in August 2015 and spent one night on Guernsey visiting an old friend. My outward journey had been with Flybe and was pleasant and uneventful; sadly, my return journey was with Blue Islands. Both flights had been booked online through Opodo on 20 April 2015 - 4 months before the trip. On the afternoon of my departure, my friend took me to the airport in plenty of time for my 16.15 flight back to Southampton. I checked in and was given my Boarding Pass. A little later than scheduled, we were called to board our flight and all left the Departure Lounge. We stood for half an hour with no information about why we weren't boarding the plane. Eventually somebody came and told us that "the technical fault is much worse than we thought". As this was the first we had heard about a technical fault, we were somewhat surprised. Another 40 minutes later, three of the passengers were called to the desk, myself being one of them. We were informed that the plane couldn’t fly, that the replacement plane was smaller and therefore three of us were being thrown off the flight with no promise of when we would be put on another flight. We all had boarding passes in our hands. I asked how they had chosen which passengers to evict and was told that we had been the last three to check in. I asked whether we had all checked in within the required time period and the staff confirmed that yes, we had indeed checked in within that time. When I asked to speak to a Duty Manager I was told that all Blue Islands staff in Guernsey had been made redundant and so there was no staff member available to speak to. I finally boarded a flight at 9.15 that night, got back to Southampton at 10. The person who had been going to meet me at 5.00 could not come at that time so I then paid 30 pounds for a taxi to Portsmouth as it was late and I was a 60 year old woman alone and did not want to start looking for trains. And in the 5 hours than I spent hanging around after my scheduled departure, they did not supply me with so much as a bottle of water. That night I had been going to have dinner with my niece who was leaving the UK early the next morning. Obviously I didn’t see her. I hadn’t seen her for two years and have no idea when I next will. Avoid at all costs.

SI257 2 June 2015. Dreadful. Now that they have a near monopoly on the Southampton - Guernsey route they are putting fares higher and higher and cancelling where pax levels are low. The mid afternoon flight from Southampton to Guernsey seems to suffer a high degree of last minute "operational reason" problems. Today told cancelled due to fog. Rubbish. Guernsey has poor weather but above legal limits for flying. I phoned customer services who were not bothered and said the aircraft were running late and hence combined the flights. Funny how a company takes advantage as soon as they have a controlling market share!

The flight to Jersey was on time and the flight crew were lovely (went out on the 8.30am flight). It was a unique experience to be on a 19 seater plane and to be able to watch the crew in the cockpit (my 2 rating is for the flight crew). The plane was noisy and a bit dated but we could put up with it for the 40 mins flight. On arrival we were met by a Blue islands representative who told us they couldn't put 7 lots of luggage onto the plane as the plane would have been overloaded! We were given assurances that our luggage would be with us on the next flight. It got to 7.30 pm and our luggage still hadn't arrived and after many many unhelpful phone calls to Blue islands we were told the luggage was with a courier but they couldn't get hold of him and had no idea where he was. The luggage eventually arrived at 7.50pm. We were some of the lucky ones as others had to wait until the next day. Luggage being left behind seems to be a regular occurrence.

Have just flown Blue Islands from Southampton to Guernsey and return on an ATR 72 the flight was find slight delay leaving Southampton but no worries there at Guernsey the is a lounge dedicated to all Blue Islands passengers with free drinks and snacks which is a nice touch. I enjoyed the flight and the experience with them.

Jersey to Southampton was OK but the return non trip five days later was a nightmare. Arrived at airport to find flight cancelled having received no prior warning. Spent an hour waiting to be transferred to Fly BE' s flight on the following morning. No Blue Islands representative at Southampton airport to advise what the problem was but heard from several people that this happens quite often with their Jetstream aircraft. Will never fly Blue Islands again.

Blue Islands flights from Cambridge to St Helier Jersey. These flights operate on Saturdays only during the summer months and are so convenient for East Anglian holiday makers. The flight of 50 minutes was comfortable and efficient in the ATR 42. The ease of travel made us feel we had slipped back 3 decades to a time when air travel was much more pleasurable. On board there were complimentary non alcoholic drinks. There was a modest and welcoming lounge with complimentary drinks and biscuits on our departure from Jersey airport.

Guernsey to Paris return via Jersey last weekend. Outbound flights and connections went well with great cabin service including champagne lager tea coffee and good quality rolls and snacks. Return flight was disappointing. An elderly aircraft really showing its age. In fact the seats in the row in front of us were a completely different style to the rest! The air conditioning didn't work which was unfortunate on such a hot day particularly as we had to sit in the plane on the tarmac at Paris for around 25 mins. Some of the no-smoking signs didn't illuminate - not a problem but reinforced the impression of a rather shabby plane. Very cheerful cabin crew. Arrived in Jersey for our connecting flight to Guernsey only to be told it had been cancelled - it was a bank holiday Monday and apparently they never operate that flight on bank holidays and we should never have been able to book it through their website! So what should have been a one hour connection at Jersey turned into 2.5 hours. Again not a huge problem but for an airline that pitches itself as something above the norm it was a bit disappointing. Fares were good value and flight times to and from Paris were convenient (aside from the delay on the return).

BRS-JER-BRS. On time out and a delay of 45 minutes on the way back due to bad weather earlier in the day making the in-bound aircraft late. We were kept informed of progress with the delayed flight. Lounge at Jersey is a welcome change with free soft drinks coffee/tea and biscuits. The service on-board was good too. This was efficient and professional.