Well spoted! Well what can I say I ment the 13th of June (silly me). Anyway it still looks OK??

Looks OK from the Varna end (BGH5506?) although the info boards there tend to give less detail than Burgas - just whether a flight is cancelled or not.

Only another week to go and our flight not been changed, , still flying out from Humberside on the 15th to Bougas.

Six weeks to go till my flight and the departure times for my 3rd august return have changed from 7.30to 5.30. This is in the morning mind you so I have to be at the airport at three to get my flight home! No point in even going to bed! I flown lots of times and I've never known flight times to be changed apart from delays let alone altered as much as this company changes them. The Cardiff airport website doesnt even have a departure time for my return flight so the airline and airport are clearly not in regular contact. I just hop going direct to Bourgas makes it easier for me as most redirect problems seem to be related to visiting other areas

Kardiff Kid. Your flight is coming from Belfast to pick you up and on your return you will go to Belfast before Cardiff. Tonyt

Thanks tonyt, thats what I thought would happen. Looks silly to me - passing Cardiff then going back there but what do I know? Its the 5.30 return flight that bothers me. Originally it was 7.30 and that wasnt so bad. No sleep on the last night there, shame I cant claim back half a days cost for the apartment!

Balkan Airlines oh dear oh dear

Never ever ever again!!!

stupid stop offs and no on flight tv kids bored stiff

Meal well if you can call it meal lol sandwich cheese or ham that was going and coming home and was disgusting

Never going with balkan again

The way Balkan are messing with people is now getting beyond a joke.
Looking at prices for next year I can see a lot of people not bothering with Bulgaria which is a shame.. Mind you even Spanish quotes look a joke.

Toonman

Bulgaria prices will go up year by year as they try and get into the EU I'm afraid. As for everywhere else - prices are bound to go up with increased fuel costs, higher costs of living and the credit crunch. Its always the customer who bears much of the brunt of such cost increases

Worst airline we have ever travelled with............late arriving at Gatwick.told this was because of a thunder storm in Bulgaria.........surely they must have known this and could have passed the info to Gatwick instead of some grumpy stewradess telling us when we boarded the plane..........food on flight inedible.......no warning that the lights were going to be dimmed as we arrived at Bourgas airport...never again

The food might not be exactly what you want on Balkan Holidays Airlines (or Balkan Airlines as it once was), but it's not inedible, or at least it hasn't been at any time these past 19 years and 50 - 60 fights, I've lost count. Have had worse on other airlines.

So the flight was delayed due to a thunder storm in Bulgaria, it happens at this time of year (and also because of fog), and I don't recall ever being told before contact with aircrew as to why a flight was delayed. Certainly not at the airport whilst waiting to board, annoying though it can be.

It is a legal requirement that lights are dimmed on take off and landing, all airlines do it and I don't remember ever being warned. By that time you should be sat in your seat belted up, so it isn't a problem.

Flying can be hassle whoever you travel with, but Balkan is no worse than any other and better then some.

Peter

Ref Thunder, two weeks ago at Heathrow, a granddaughters husband was filling up a Plane with fuel, when his tanker was struck by lightning, no personal injuries but it got the electrics of his tanker, plane was delayed 3 hours because they were unable to detach Hose.

My understanding of why the lights are dimmed at take off and landing, Is that should there be an emergency your eyes are adjusted to the light outside, (That is what I have always been told.

I too like Peter have had at least 32 flights with Balkan and have never had to leave or refuse food because is was unedible try British Airways European flights. Tonyt

I'm not usually a complainer but im afraid i agree with the negative reports....

Firstly we were supposed to fly to Varna - 50 mins from our resort but that was changed to Bourga (approx 3 hour MAD minibus ride from resort, son was sick several times).

The flight was fine not delayed or anything but the "meal" was one of the worse ive experienced, needless to say I didnt bother on the way home.

Flight on return : We were picked up at our hotel at 2.30am for another death defying ride to the airport in the dark, and i thought the slides in the waterpark were bad!!

In saying all that, I wouldnt say I wouldnt fly with them again, lets face it, its only a few hours!

oops! Bourgas!

I had my reservations about Balkan having read a number of bad reviews about them but having just got home from two incredible weeks in Sunny Beach i'd say they were decent enough.

Flight times did change and four days before we were due to leave they changed our accomodation as their allocation of previous place had been withdrawn. I'm pragmatic enough to know that these things can happen and whilst they are annoying there isnt much you can do about it. We ended up staying in the Bravo Apartments which were perfectly well sutied for our needs. The one cowboy aspect about Balkan is that if details of your trip do change they tend to wait until the last minute to tell you, leaving you the choice of putting up with it or cancelling.

The flight meal was a bit paltry, A cheese or ham roll and a cup of tea or coffee wasnt exactly the food i'd hoped for but having had some dire airline food this safe option was alright. One thing I would advise against is taking out the option of your party sitting together when booking. Of the five in my party, 3 sat together and the other 2 sat in odd seats in the row in front. It's pointless as you generally get seated together at check-in anyway. Avoid this and the ten quid per person cost.

Once in the resort the reps and staff are friendly and always make the effort to ensure your holiday is smooth and you entertained. Their bases seem to be the Globus Hotel, which they own, and the Fat Cats bar where welsome meeting and events take place. One or both of these places tend to feature in organised activities. Of these activities the pub crawl and Krystals Drag act come highly reccommended. However, be aware that the alcoholic measures they pour in Krsytals are obscene even by European resort standards. Three cocktails in there gave me alcoholic poisioning for four days. Dont drink anything with more than one spirit in as their measures are huge.

That aside, Balkan were okay. The last minute changes were annoying but dont let that or multiple stop flights put you off. They are a business trying to keep within costs and a full plane which stops at two, usually local, airports makes more economic sense that sending several half-empty planes out to Bulgaria. Even if this is irksome, the quality of holiday you are likely to have in Sunny Beach, based solely on my first experience, far outways any of these niggly problems

Hi - glad you had a great time.

Personally I think the sitting together business is a rip off. I have never paid it, have got to the airport in good time and I have never sat apart from my OH except on the way there this year when we were just across the aisle to each other (and if you read the small print for the extra payment you will see that they do consider sitting across the aisle to each other to be sitting together and I have seen people arguing with the cabin crew about this). And lets face it, if you have kids they are not going to have them sit alone. For a three hour odd flight I don't even care if I sit next to my OH. In fact First Choice called me up before departure and asked if I wanted to pay for this extra and I told her I would pay extra NOT to sit next to him

hi baldur can you tell me if balkan have diverted there flights from newcastle 2june 2009 to sunny beach cheers and merry xman and a great new year

Hi mammabear,

There's no indication of diversions on the Balkan website and the Burgas Airport website isn't showing BH Air summer flight details yet, there's plenty of time for changes to schedules to be announced before your flight.

Hope that you had a merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

Baldur

cheers baldur and best wishes for 2009