Flights to Rome for €9,99 with Blu-express

I keep seeing this add for Munich-Rome for 9.99 on the advert screens in the UBahn stations. But I cant remember which airline it was. Think it had blue in the title - anyone else see this and can tell me the airline name??
thanks

Probably Condor?

blu-express

No, wasnt condor - had the name blue in it, that I know for sure. It was on the TV large monitor screens in the UBahn - is the only place I have seen the advert.

Brokem - Thanks - that is it.

So, has anyone flown with Blu-express?

Blue-Express is the service.. Blue Panorama Airlines Is the actual operator.

There are based out of Rome Fiumicino, and fly to Nice,Bari,Lyon,Milan,Munich & Vienna. Just like Sleazyjet,
they are a hub/spoke (Point2Point) network. So if you want to go from Munich to Nice you will have a
stopover in Rome, and you have to buy your tickets as MUC-ROM,ROM-NCE Then NCE-ROM, ROM-MUC as
they don't do full journey tickets.

Looking at their website for prices, shows NO AVAILABLE 9.99 Eur Offers. I searched all the way out to november. The cheapest price
they offer is 19.99 Eur. (2 Months Out). If you looking to fly this month or next, you price is going to be between 29.99-59.99 Eur
(No 9.99 Eur From/to Munich, Rome)

Be Warned
--------------------
It looks like a marketing gimick to get you into the Travel agency or to the Web site, where you will not find
the 9.99 tix, but might still buy the more $$ ones.

Were the 19.99 Euro tickets for return?

The 9.99 offer will be one way (there will be small print somewhere)

And óf course it is a marketing ploy and of course you will not find the really cheap deals. These ads say the prices START at 9.99 each way but does not say that ALL tickets are that price.

They can offer one ticket per flight for that price and they have fulfilled their obligations. You then see tickets for 10, 20, 30 Euros more expensive and still think it is a good deal.

is it not illegal to advertise prices that don't exist?

edit: ah, that makes sense, Crawlie.

No, €19.99 is the cheapest one-way ticket available on the site. It's just like all of the other cheap airlines. You choose each route and pay a price per route.

They adverstise prices from 9.99 and they have two 0.01 cent flights this month on the 18th and 19th. Deceptive but legal.

@Crawlie
No, One way..

@OG
Yes, it is.. But if they release say 100 9,99 Eur tix a month then it's not false advertising is it..

A quick flight search for the following trip shows as follows:

MUC-ROM
Leave: 17 March
Return: 21 March

MUC-ROM - 49.99 Eur
ROM-MUC - 49.99 Eur
Tax - 64.36 Eur
----------------------------
Total 164.34 Eur

The Cheapest flights are in May (19.99 Eur) Each way, but Sat.,Sun., and Wednesdays are Blackout days
for MUC-ROM, ROM-MUC Flights..

I think I'd rather pay 99 Eur Roundtrip with Luffy in there new Eurocity Tarrif...

not true - you can fly from Rome to Milan in April for 9.99
maybe some other dates/destinations, this was the only one I checked

edit.

anyway, why the big crusade against the company because most of the 9.99 flights out of munich seem to be no longer available?

which means that we have to pay the unbelievably rip-off price of 19.99 to fly from Munich to Rome...

what a bunch of scoundrels they are

@Topsy

19.99 Eur is only avail. when you book far out in May...
Else it's 29.99-59.99 depending on dates.. Look at the Website and
do your own searchs.

It's not that were cheap, but it looks like false advertising...

And the above comment about no 9.99 Eur flights is from/to Munich and Rome
Please read my posts before commenting

Indeed. It is not as though this is the first company to try such a thing. Easyjet have been doing it for years and it is perfectly legitimate.

They can have one ticket per year that has the cheapest price and they are still fulfilling obligations

EDIT: @Darkknight - IT IS NOT! The ticket prices are FROM 9.99. That means, if you have 1 (ONE) ticket that is priced at 9.99 then that is fine. False advertising would be if NO (ZERO) tickets were available to ANYBODY IN THE WORLD for that price. Just because you cannot find one does not mean that somebody else has not.

It is called marketing. It is the company trying to attract custom and, therefore, offer you reasons to not only buy tickets, but to visit their website and possibly take up some of the other offers they, and their partners in other businesses (car rental and the like) have.

nope - there are still 6 dates available in March when you can fly from Munich to Rome for 19.99

anyway, I can't be arsed to argue with you, quite honestly - I can't see why you're getting yourself in a lather about it.

seems like a pretty good deal to me, bearing in mind that it'll cost you at the very least double that fare with every other flight company (e.g. a return fare with Lufthansa starting on 27th March is €137)

UK TV had an "expose" on Ryanair last night. Not that shocking really. They got a couple of girls to become stewardesses with hidden cameras etc.

Obviously showed security lapses, pissed off overworked staff, and everyone touted the company message that if you have paid bugger all for the tickets you should expect bugger all service etc.

But no indication that they were flying without gas in the tank or anything really daft.

Nothing we didn't know frankly.

I think it is a two-tier market these days, and if you fly the bucket-shop airways you know what you are gonna get generally.

Funny thing is I never even bother to look at Easyjet flights from Munich - they were ALWAYS more expensive than BA and Lufthansam, with weird flight times etc - so I don't even look anymore.

Spoke to a mate who is coming over to ski and mentioned Stansted to Salzburg via Ryanair and he just said instantly "no way dude, I'll come to Munich". Oh - he is in the air cargo business :-)

And there you have it. The marketing principle has worked. Amazing huh?

Now, if you want me to tell you the hell that the creatives and production team went through because Marketing insisted on changing the whole concept right at the last minute before leaving the new ideas on their desks for 2 years and then demanding produciton in 2 minutes cos they cannot miss the launch date, then I will not.

Bear in mind that these prices *exclude* taxes.

Can't get their website to work anyway. I tried selecting a date and pressing 'next', but it tells me to enter valid departure time. Can't see any time option on there to select from.

yeah but you can't always get that tarif either. try flying over a weekend and it is impossible. you have to fly saturday come back tuesday to get 99€ flights on lufty. They are not any different in that aspect to anyone else.

if its due to cost fair enough but if it is like many people who scoff at budget airline then go boil yer heid as yer talking bollocks.
Topsy has it bang on.
9.99 or 19.99 or 59.99 if it is a lower price and in a safe plane then it dont matter who you are flying with. Even if these low cost companies only have 1 or 10 cheap tickets per flight - WHO REALLY CARES? it is still cheaper than many other companies who charge more.

or all you snobs out there that will only fly BA or Lufthansa - GET A BLEEDY LIFE - those companies where, and still are, over-charging for years screwing over not just the poor man who couldnt afford a plane ticket but business travellers and their companies; not to mention the "middle class" workers who dream of really rich status but just glide along in their bubble of mild superiority over their poorer cousins frittering money away on useless shite to pad out their usually isolationist lives. "yah yah i only flying BA as i would never use a budget airline and save a coupla hundred euro as i might have to sit in a plane that doesnt look so pretty and mingle with urchins. " i mean what the f***!! this is a multinational company that doesnt give a rats arse who you are as long as they can take you for as many pennies as they can and if you are dumb enough to accept their high charging from yesteryear and still stay with them out of some pompous lunacy or even "loyalty" to a "real" airline then more fool you.

if its cheap , safe, relatively comfy and they dont lose my luggage too often then thats the ticket i will buy!!

Ps - BA has lost my luggage more than any other airline i have flown with - funnily enough.

So an undercove camera showed disgruntled workers...seems like every company would be able to be "exposed". I fcking hate these programs. They will go to a hundred jewelers to find one who is corrupt and focus on this person and condeming the whole profession. But then again jewelers are like used car salesmen, don't ever trust them.

You must never have flown Air France via Paris. Out of seven flights only once did my luggage travel with me.

By the time you consider taxes and charges, even a headline rate of €19,99 each way quickly becomes €100 return. For example, flying to London from Munich is usually cheaper on Lufthansa than EasyJet.

Other advantages of the traditional airlines over budget airlines include more flight times to choose from, more centrally-located airports, and a better chance of getting to your destination in the event of cancelled flights (e.g. due to weather conditions) as they have more planes available.

I just flew Air Berlin to and from Rome for 55 euro return. That was with tax and listed price of 5 euro. So I don't think the airport tax will be that high.

well, it does matter when one airline flies to an airport well connected to the city and the other flies to a potatoe field 100km away from your actual destination and you then have to spend hours and a small fortune to actually get there. Once you add in transfer costs these cheap-o "airlines" are often not cheap at all.

To be fair, this airlines flies to Fiumicino, which apparantly is the main airport in Rome.

Edit: worked out how to use their website. For a €39,98 flight (2x19.99), the taxes and charges come to €64,36. That's a lot. Total price: €104,34. That's hardly cheap. Even if you picked up those headline 9,99 fares, the total cost would still be over €84.

The reason the taxes are so high is due to an explained "surcharge" of €30. *This* is dishonest.

It is all about landing fees. The smaller airports charge very very little with regards to landing fees as they are trying to encourage business. Stansted has low fees and it is doing extremely well out if the bucket tour packages.

Easyjet had special deals with a lot of the airports and has had a couple of arguments when the airport owners have tried to increase the charges. Luton Airport tried and failed miserably. The low cost airlines are in a very strong position as they pretty much control the destiny of these "less popular" airports. They can make or break them at the drop of a hat

yeah this we know but the point is not that lufthansa is sometimes cheaper than easyjet - it is whether it is wrong to have tickets for 9.99 - SHOCK HORROR, HOLD THE FRONT PAGE, MUCH CHEAPNESS TSK TSK I mean is it really offensive to have some cheap flights - we are all adults, we know how companies market products! ALL companies do this. This you know too. Why get on their back about it?
If lufthansa is cheaper then fly with them if its easyjet then fly with them. you weigh up your thoughts and then choose what is best for you but these fools who will only fly with BA Lufthansa regardless of cost due to a sense of status are, in my opinion, somewhat misguided.

@STB

I Ran into this prob. on there website also..

When you select a day, a little time window pops-up. You must select the time for it to mark the time/date of
Departure. Then goto the return date and do the same. When you have done this for
both leave/return days THEN click NEXT at the bottom of the screen.

For some of us SleazyJet is cheap and easy.
If you are going to Essex or East London, SleazyJet is your best option. For me, Heathrow is a potato field 100km away from my actual destination.
I've flown them since the start and have found them to be consistently cheaper for my flight dates and I've never had a cheaper flight from LH or BA to London. No lost luggage either (unlike BA).

Hey Scots Geeza - dont get on your high horse. Like I said it works out cheaper usually to fly via BA or Lufty on the London run, especially if you live in South or West London and need to factor in the cost of going to and from Stansted.

However, I am well aware that the pressure on BA and Lufthansa to lower prices has only come from Easyjet and Ryanair forcing them to act.

So I for one am delighted they exist, and offer a no-frills service etc - just they never work out as actually worth using for me (or any friends or relatives that visit here).

Plus I know my sister and a mate that have have had cancelled flights out of Salzburg (it does get foggy) and you really are on your own! Have to get your own overnight accommodation, taxis etc etc.

I had an aborted takeoff at Munich with BA in 2003 - put as all up with dinner overnight at the airport hotel. It does make a difference. Kinda like paying for insurance if you like.

I did actually check the fare for the weekend of my birthday (9th April, kids - and yes, I accept gifts ).
I got the €104 fare for these guys, compared with €210 for Lufthansa (both fares including taxes).

Stansted is also more convenient if you are heading up to the grim north.
I've never had any problems with them, I'm more than happy with the service.

I have no problem with budget airlines having headline prices. But what this company is doing is dishonest - see my earlier post.

@Topsy...

If you can vary your leaving/return days by 1-2 days then you can get the 99 Eur RT Deal...
You gotta be flexable with your dates to get the best deals..

Nobody said you had to leave/depart exactly on your BD.. Go Early and have BD Dinner in some famous part of town..

Being Flexable is the key to cheap fares
(Well That and and some searching)

[attachment=19317:attachment]

no it doesnt!! some flights go to further out airports but many go to the main ones. Easyjet - gatwick and heathrow ring a bell? it is all about choice - the traditional airlines had a monopoly and as like any good multinational company they abused their power to the benefit of them and their shareholders, screw anyone else. then ryanair and the like started up so now the poorer people of the world get to travel too - why is this such a bad thing? every time you slag off these companies for low deals and using different less connected airports you have to remember that the have allowed a whole generation to get to go abroad either for the first time or more often.
With each flight you check the price for the flight and any connections and time duration if its good you buy it. If you prefered being ripped off by BA et al then fine but was the world really a fairer place. Atleast now people have choice - yoou middle class capatilists cant complain about that atleast surely?

@DK - well, that would be cool if I could change the dates of my birthday, but they are kind of set in stone

All I can find for the weekend of March 10-12 is a flight on Alitalia for 184 €. Seems pretty expensive, but I'm willing to fork over another 100 € instead of taking a train ride for 10 hrs each way.

Have checked all the cheap places.. anyone have any tricks?

I personally think it is dishonest if you market a product as costing €9.99 when in fact there is only a handful of flights at that price PLUS you need to add the taxes, PLUS the return flight is deliberately MORE expensive.

Just because other companies do it, does not make it right. It is a pain in the arse trying to decipher all the dodgy offers from the straight ones in the is world.

Personally I prefer to stick my fingers up at Ryanair and Easyjet due to their "dodgy" marketing practises. If they clean up their act then maybe I will look again.

Actually it really pisses me off when I think about it. My wife spotted a poster for cheap flights to Barcelona the other day and I just said "Ignore it, it will be a dodgy ripofff when you try to book". Now I don't know that for a fact but they have forced me to by cynical and ignore their offers. Its just spam now.

Have you tried www.opodo.com (or .de as you prefer)?

yeah.. it's not working today. Now the rate plus Vermittlungsentgelt: 204 € for one weekend? Puh.

i will get on my high horse as i posted my opinion on your posts and other peoples which i thought were wrong. this post you wrote, except the point about me, i agree with.


i doubt it is dishonest and if it is then inform the authorities, i am sure a dedicated TTer will provide you with the link. what i dont like and it seems this company does too,is , have an exceptionally high rate for processing the ticket - like Lufthansa or KLM.

It seems that a portion of the surcharge is explained here.

* For purchases made through the CallCenter or ticket counters, a supplement of 8 euro (VAT excluded) per person and per flight will be charged.

A supplement of € 5,21 for administrative cost per flight will be added to these airport taxes, depending on the airport of departure.

Scotts Geeza:


It is all this lefty political shite I can live without in the context of this thread.

Dishonest? How? Have they put anything in their ads that can be proven to be lies? No. You will see SMALL PRINT (sorry, this is large so you can see it) that will state something along the lines of "one way, excluding all taxes and airport fees". Nothing misleading there and has been done for many many years.

ALL airlines publish cheap flights without the taxes etc. BA does it, Lufthansa does. They all do it. Why? So they can blame those nasty companies who insist on charging extortionate rates, thus ruining any attempts they make to give us cheap travel. It is called BUSINESS

In the end it really doesn't matter who you fly with, where you fly from or how you get to your destination. It's your money..
Spend it anyway you want. Even if that means paying big $$$ then so be it...

ok i wasnt gonna post anymore but this had me laughing so much i cant help it.
i agree with your first point but people have chosen a cold uncaring business world where business screws the people (even their own shareholders usually) so what can you do? vote labour? vote democrat? who knows!?

you think its only ryanair and easyjet that have these practises? absolute tosh!! im sure you're intelligent so actually think about what you wrote I am sure you will correct it as you are just making a fool of yourself. atleast ryanair have made many public statements and the ceo has given countless interviews where he confirms there are only upto 20 free or lowest tier pricing on each flight(unless the market the entire flight as cheapest prcies in a specific offer) . He also believe it is not dishonest advertising as he says most customers are repeat flyers and know how the advertise their flight prices. and the taxes and processing fees are low. so why is it dodgy and dishonest compared to the offers from the previous monopoly saints of BA and lufthansa?