A good tip for airport transfer. We always stay in various hotels on the Levante side. We use Shuttle Direct but on landing at Alicante airport we tell the reception desk to inform driver to drop us at the first hotel or taxi rank on that side. They are always happy to oblige. Last time we were staying at the Benikaktus and driver dropped us at taxi rank near to Dove Park. This must have saved us about an hour on a big crowded bus. It was well worth the 7 or 8 euros. Ther is nothing worse that keep passing your hotel on the 1 way grid system to be dropped of ages later.

Does anyone happen to know whether David (formerly of prestige) is still in business? I contacted them using the online form about booking a transfer for next week but haven't heard anything back. Have tried again today but am just wondering whether I should book someone else?

http://www.costablancaprivatetransfers.com/

Yes he is still very much in business.Using him myself in a couple of weeks.He even picked up a certain Derren Litten just last night lol.

scottishnellie wrote:

Does anyone happen to know whether David (formerly of prestige) is still in business? I contacted them using the online form about booking a transfer for next week but haven't heard anything back. Have tried again today but am just wondering whether I should book someone else?

http://www.costablancaprivatetransfers.com/

You could try ringing him.....00 34 652 794 348 although it is unusual not to get a reply. HTH.

Thanks all. He's replied now to the second message but is unfortunately fully booked so I'll need to book someone else.

Ryanair halves Alicante services over airbridge dispute

Ryanair has cuts its Alicante services by 50% for next year blaming the airport for forcing it to use ‘unnecessary' airbridges.

The airline, which claims the airbridges cost it 2million euros a year in fees, has appealed to the Spanish Commercial courts over the charges which is due to be heard in early February.

Ryanair refutes claims from the airport that the airbridges are a safety issue and that Ryanair's cutbacks were already planned.

It added that if the compulsory airbridge use is withdrawn or if they win the appeal, the Alicante flights, traffic and job cuts will be reversed for summer 2012.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said: " AENA Alicante are now proving that inefficient airbridges and higher fees will result in the airport suffering route, traffic and job cuts.

"We call again on AENA to reverse this abusive decision to force Ryanair and other airlines to use and pay for unnecessary airbridges at Alicante."

Ryanair had already cut its winter 2011/12 services at Alicante by 50%.

With permission from Travelmole

Hi there
We are considering going to Benidorm in May, taking our daughter for her first holiday abroad (she will be 18 months). However, it is only Ryanair that flies to Alicante from our closest airport. Last time we flew with Ryanair from Alicante I remember thinking that their Priority Boarding system didn't seem to work, as we were among the last on the plane and many people seemed to be complaining that they had paid extra to board first but hadn't been able to.
Can anyone shed any light on the Ryanair Priority Boarding system from Alicante (ie, does it actually work?)
We really don't want to get involved in a seat scrum.
Also, if anyone has any hints or tips for travelling with a little one, they would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

i always thought people with babys got Priority Boarding anyway.did you make yourself known to staff you had a baby.i would try going to another airport if you can.and fly with another carrier.

I posted this in answer to your query elsewhere on this forum:

I have used Ryanair priority boarding many times at ALC and it works well. You simply join the shorter queue at the gate marked PRIORITY Q. You are then boarded first. If boarding is by bus then there is a separate area on the bus for priority boarders and the bus doors to this area are opened first when you reach the aircraft. Depending on how many priority boarders there are it can sometime be a smaller scrum to get to the aircraft doors first! I usually board at the rear and take a seat over the wing.

Priority boarders go before those with children.

Thanks for that AHV, really put my mind at rest.
Last time we flew from Alicante we flew with Ryanair but didn't have Priority Boarding. However, when we were on the bus to the plane, there was a rather irate little man with a few others creating holy hell and shouting his head off about how he must get off the bus before us as he had Priority Boarding. When the bus stopped, there was a huge scrum to get off, with elbows flying everywhere. I had just found out I was pregnant, so as you can imagine that was quite scary.
Hence the need for reassurance that the system actually does work!!!
All booked now, can't wait!

Anyone know how much it is for a taxi from Alicante airport to Benidorm?

Not having much response to my query re. car hire and am reading lots of really bad reviews about car hire firms!!!

A taxi one way could be around €65-€75, but if you have a look through earlier posts you will find details of other options, such as shared or private transfers.

David

You can pre-book with Radio Taxis Elche here: http://www.alicanteairporttransfer.net

A quick search showed that Alicante airport to the Poniente beach is €59,85 after online discount.

Ooooo, I'm loving this.
Not for the loss of flights, but because someone is prepared to stand up against Dick Turpin.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_34175.shtml

Sanji x

With the country on its knees and rampant unemployment the judicial system is to be applauded as it hammers another nail in the economic coffin. Utter madness.

AHV wrote:

With the country on its knees and rampant unemployment the judicial system is to be applauded as it hammers another nail in the economic coffin. Utter madness.

Ryanair is not there to contradict the rules of the country they fly in and out of. Why should Ryanair be able to dictate the rules to suit them?
Are you saying safety rules should be disregarded for the sake of the economy and keeping O'Leary happy?
If Ryanair don't want to use the air bridges, AENA have offered to bus the pax to the terminal and O'Leary said that was a ‘stupid' idea"¦.What's stupid about not having pax walking across a busy airfield when there are now air bridges?

There's a general strike in Spain tomorrow revolting against the working conditions of the people, because employment agreements which have been in place for years, and which were put into place by people who suffered hardship far greater than this recession and who were not prepared to work for peanuts any longer, and these collective bargaining agreements have been torn into shreds by the changes made in the employment laws by the government and implemented by the employers.
Being a Spaniard and employed by Ryanair on Spanish soil, you lose your right to Social Security payments, Unemployment benefits and Pension rights and every one of those strikers tomorrow do so, knowing full well that they may not have a job on the 30th, because it's now that easy to hire and fire people at the drop of a hat, and with nearly 5 million unemployed, it won't be hard to fill their places by desperate people.

I've never read anywhere where the Spaniards like being blackmailed and seeing their taxes being squandered keeping a foreign company afloat"¦.in fact they detest the fact that the people who are supposed to represent them, they have sold them out to a foreigner.
So, do you think Ryanair gives a fandango about Spain and its people? And more importantly do you think that if we weren't in a global recession that the Spaniards would give a fandango about Ryanair?

Sanji

I'm just saying that sometimes it is important to view things in a wider context. I agree that passengers should not be walking across an airfield however the reality is that passengers have a 50 metre walk in a carefully controlled enviroment not darting across a runway!

AENA actually offered to bus 50% of flights and allow the other 50% to walk. Where was the sense in that offer? If 50% were allowed to walk why not 100%?

The loss of Ryanair flights will have an impact on the economy of the Costa Blanca. Things are hard enough now without the loss of 1.5 million tourists a year.

In business there has to be compomise and flexibility, yet AENA can't see beyond the end of their shiny new terminal.

In business there has to be compomise and flexibility, yet AENA can't see beyond the end of their shiny new terminal

I'm afraid my opinion about Ryanair is that they do not know what the word compromise means.
Ryanair use air-bridges at other airports, so, what's different about Alicante?
Nothing, because they are the same type of bridges and the fact that they use bridges in other airports, this weakens their claim regarding embarking/disembarking times and any costs incurred..
Of course Ryanair entered into a contract with Alicante/AENA 5 years ago where it stated the passengers could walk on and off the plane, but this was 5 years ago and since then a new terminal has been built with modern facilities to make the transit easier and pleasurable for the passengers.
If you'd invested and built a new terminal, you'd want the facilities to be used, especially when you can see that the improvements are beneficial for the passenger's safety and convenience, and when the cost to each passenger is 32 centimos....that's peanuts, even for a low-cost carrier.

O'Leary bleats about this contract being changed, but blatantly and arrogantly ignores a law in Spain which allows passengers to board an aircraft with hand luggage and a bag from the ‘duty-free' shops, but O'Leary doesn't allow it, so, he breaks the rules and says 'no Spanish law is going to tell an Irish company what it can and can't do', and the people employed in the airport shops sell diddle sod all to Ryanair's passengers, unless it's small enough to fit into the smallest hand-luggage dimensions"¦.so, this has a big impact on the commercial sales and O'Leary cares nothing about employment in Spain.
It really is a no brainer asking people if they want to negotiate steps and be bussed or walk straight off the aircraft into the terminal building, except the twerp O'Leary.

There's a big percentage of the passengers who are not controlled and dictated to by the UK government when they can take their holidays, these people are the ones who put bums on seats all year round and some have various ailments such as being frail, unsteady on their feet and bad eye sight, so, IF you were a caring company you'd appreciate that walking on a flat telescopic tunnel is better than negotiating aluminium shiny and sometime slippery steps....and like I've already said, he can't use the air-bridges as an excuse to say he wouldn't meet his turn around schedules, when he has no problem in Malaga.

AENA actually offered to bus 50% of flights and allow the other 50% to walk. Where was the sense in that offer? If 50% were allowed to walk why not 100%?

I've not read where AENA offered to bus 50% of the passengers and I apologise if I'm wrong, but I find it hard to believe if Ryanair were given the ultimatum that they can either park as near to the terminal as possible and use air-bridges, or they park in a more remote spot and the pax will be bussed, that the Spanish would be allowed to let 100's of passengers walk a considered distance on a busy airport"¦.their EU paymasters and airport safety directives wouldn't allow it.
What AENA proposed in the early days of this conflict was allowing pax to continue walking on/off the aircraft determined by the gate, if the gate being used meant they were walking a few yards, and only during the winter quieter schedules. "¦they (AENA) soon retracted that when they realised they were compromising too much.

The loss of Ryanair flights will have an impact on the economy of the Costa Blanca. Things are hard enough now without the loss of 1.5 million tourists a year.

Actually, I don't think it will be as devasting as O'Leary wants to make it appear because Ryanair's loading factors are down, some say that's due to the general public ‘waking up' or the captcha thingy on his website, and airlines such as EasyJet and Jet2 are clamouring to fill the spot, especially when their latest loading figures are better than Robbinair.

Viewing in a wider context or the long-term, there has to come a time when the 'blackmailing' has to stop, other airports in Spain and France have said 'enough is enough' and this issue with air-bridges is really about O'Leary flexing his muscle to see how far he can go with Spanish Authorities who are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Sanji

We will have to differ. My preference is to board an aircraft either from the front or rear as the slow boarding via an airbridge is a joke unless organised by row numbers.

Ryanair are not the only airline that insists on one bag per person. Both Easyjet and Monarch do so as well. I have no experience of other airlines.