Funjet is not so fun

[Sandra E.]

I'm sorry about all the flights changes, you will have a wonderful wedding. Sorry they are putting you through all of this.

[Denise40]

Thanks everyone for the warm thoughts and pick me ups. I am trying to be positive. I will have a drink though!! LOL

[sitter]

We are going to Cancun for our son's wedding & I looked up our flights on AA & found they changed our flights also....Funjet didn't even know about it yet!!

I had to call the travel agent & tell her about the change.

I called AA directly & changed to a different flight that would get us into Cancun at 2:30pm instead of 7pm!!

It really sucks when they change our flights on us & use up a WHOLE day traveling for a 4hr. flight!!

 

My ~dumb~ question is how come a 2 stop connection is cheaper than direct flight!!

[addisonreed1113]

I'm so sorry to hear that but also so glad I read this! We have funjet for our wedding in a month and I just checked and our flight was changed to leaving 2 hrs earlier...no biggie to get there earlier but there's so much going on I'm glad I read this and double checked! We may have gone to the airport and our plane would've been gone!!!! I hope they don't change ours too radically again. Does this happen often? Growing up we always chartered from Dallas to Mexico and never had a problem. I hate airlines!!!!

[Scott C]

Funjet ends up at the mercy of the contractors they use for airlines. the biggest issue recently has been several of those contractors have ceased operations all together. Talk about stinking for everyone. We try to book on commercial carriers as much as possible. Most of the times it costs us a little more but we like that they are more likely to be in biz when we are ready to fly.

[Tracy]

same thing happened to us, when we were there a few weeks ago. flight was supposed to leave at 5:30pm to come home (great we would have almost the whole day), then they changed it to leave at noon (bad...now we have NO day), then we got to the airport, and Aero Mexico had NO record of our flight at all (even though 180 people going to San Antonio were standing in line to check-in). It took Fun Jet about 4 hours to figure out how to get us a plane, and we ended up leaving at 4pm (mighty close to our original departure time). My TA called and said she had a credit voucher for us for our inconvenicne, so i'll have to stop and pick those up and see what they offered us for the trouble.

 

On the "up" side - alcoholic drinks are FREE on Aero Mexico and they serve you lunch and you can bring 2 bags -

[Denise40]

Tracy,

 

I didn't know they had free alcoholic drinks on AeroMexico. I wish I would have known that, but I guess at 10am, a drink wouldn't sound to good. LOL We also got vouchers, $100/pp and they can't be combined. Each individual can only use theirs. There were 6 of us. It would have been nice if they just gave them to us, since we paid for the 6 flights.

[stkitts2010]

Oh, Ryan International Airlines! They often cancel flights because:

 

1. They have an extremely small fleet consisting of 4 Boeing 757-200s, 1 MD-88, 1 Boeing 727-200, and 3 Boeing 737s. Their primary cash cow is the US goverment: military charter flights to be exact. So, if there is a contract out there for a military charter flight and they are awarded the flight, they will cancel their scheduled tour operations with FunJet, Apple Vacations, TNT Vacations, Crystal Travel and/or GVW Vacations.

 

2. Out of their nine passenger aircraft fleet, one is leased to a Bolivian airline; AeroSur (Bienvenidos al sitio de AeroSur - Bolivia). They operate flights from Miami to Bolivia, Bolivia to Brazil, Brazil to Bolivia and Bolivia to Miami. I think they recently added flights to/from Washington D.C. thru Miami to Bolivia. When the AeroSur plane is not in operation it is used for military charters, Sports Ad-Hocs, and/or vacation tour operations. Additionally, two other Boeing-757 that they own, are leased to Ghana's national airline; Ghana International Airlines. They fly those aircrafts from Accra, Ghanna to London, England and back three days a week. These planes too, are used as needed when not in operation by Ghana International Airlines. Their planes are in the air with limited down time!!! Scary, huh? None of their planes are new or where new to them at any point. They were acquired from North American Airlines, Spirit Airlines or leased; once those airlines felt the need to remove them from their fleet as a result of "excessive mileage".

Essentially, that limited aircrafts that are "free" fly around the world whether doing military charters, Sports Ad-Hocs, and/or vacation charters.

 

 

During the winter months their fleet "increases" as they lease aircrafts from Spain, Ireland and England from airlines that do not operate during certain aircraft during the winter months. This is done to insure that their contracts with tour operators are on schedule, not cancelled, during the busy vacation season.

 

 

The aircrafts flown out of DFW, Boeing 737's, are also leased year round. This is the only location that is open year round as well. Weirdly enough, Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders fly Ryan International; through FunJet; yearly for their photo shoot in Cabo.

 

Ryan also flies out of Atlantic City, Boston (seasonally), Chicago, Rockford, IL, St. Louis, somewhere in WI, and Milwaukee.

 

So as a result, FunJet isn't quite so fun for customers most times! Yet FunJet extends their contract year after year...