In my opinion Newquay airport is a vital part of Cornwall's future plans for growth and development. I use Flybe to travel up to London and love the feeling of flying out and back into my home county.
Unfortunately while trying to book a return flight to Edinburgh, today, I was again confronted with one of the many archaic transport obstructions that Cornwall's tourists and residents regularly face.
The purpose of the flight was pleasure. I'm a big surfer and always wanted to surf in the Scottish outback. A few days before booking the flight I called Flybe to check on the reason they didn't have surf boards included in their online booking system. I was told all I needed to do was book the flight online and then call back and book in a surfboard.
Fair enough I thought.
Today was booking day. I went to Flybe's online system, filled in all of my details and was about to confirm when I thought, "let's just double check the surfboard reservation policy".
I called Flybe and after nearly 10 minutes on hold was connected to a rep.
When I asked if I could book in my surf board I was told I couldn't. Apparently far from allowing customers to book in surfboards (& long boarders beware there is also a length limit!) I was told I could only turn up on the day of the flight with the boards and Flybe would include them, at a charge, IF there was room on the plane. If there wasn't room they would put the board on the next flight.
When I pointed out that this was not what I had originally been told, not to mention that the next flight would be TWO days latter I was met with a stone wall.
Forgetting for a moment my personal frustration at this insane policy just consider what that means for Cornwall. One of our greatest commercial resources is our stunning beaches and often excellent surf. The surf industry and tourism are vital providers of jobs and income, how is it possible then that Flybe don't transport sports equipment in a modern and customer focused way?
I plan to write to Flybe to ask why and get them to help us solve this problem
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