Flying for the first time with Jet2 from Stansted Airport

Back in December I started to plan our holiday to Playa Montroig Camping Resort with Eurocamp and I was really grateful there is no set arrival day so I could seek out the best price for our flights. As we needed to travel during May half term I knew there wasn't going to be any bargains but I hoped to secure something at least half reasonable in price.

At first I checked flights from Gatwick and Heathrow as these airports are closest to us and ones we've flown from before but the dates, times and prices were not ideal. I then remembered that fellow blogger Vicki from Honest Mum is working as an ambassador for Jet2 and I decided to check them out.

Who are Jet2 - Should we fly with them?

Being a Southern girl they weren't an airline I’d heard of before but when I started investigating them I found out they are the UK’s fourth largest scheduled airline. But more importantly that they were named the ‘Best Airline – UK’ and the ‘Best Low-Cost Airline – Europe’ at the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards and they are also the only UK airline to have ‘Which? Recommended Provider’ status. It was all pretty impressive but the clincher for me was that they were starting to fly from Stansted in May and that's only a couple of hours drive from us.

Almost straight away I found an ideal flight time from Stansted to Reus with a 8.45am departure and a 2.15pm arrival back in the UK. To be able to secure a good price I booked for the Monday of half-term and resigned myself to the fact I'd need to ask for a day off school for each of the kids. There were flights on the Friday and Sunday too but these were around £600 more for the five of us and thus a day off it would need to be.

Great Personal Service at the Mercure, London Kensington

Last weekend to celebrate Mothers Day, my lovely Mum and I headed up to London for 24 hours together, just us, no kids and no real agenda. We've done it before and had an amazing time and we vowed this year that it will become an annual thing.

24 hours (or 27 to be precise) doesn't sound much but it is amazing what you can fit in. I met Mum at Waterloo and we headed straight over to Leicester Square to the official half-price theatre ticket booth to see if we could bag some good ticket for an evening performance. After success booking for Beautiful. the Carole King musical we enjoyed a toastie and coffee together watching the world go by in this busy part of London.

The rest of our Saturday was filled with checking into our hotel and having a relax there, some serious shopping on Kensington High Street, a fabulous dinner at Prezzo over on New Oxford Street and of course seeing the amazing West-end production of Beautiful. It really is an amazing show and both Mum and I highly recommend it.

Sunday was a much more chilled day where we got up late, enjoyed a full English breakfast at the hotel and then had a walk around Kensington with a little shopping and of course coffee before I dropped Mum back at Waterloo and headed back to my family.

Mercure, London Kensington
But enough about our time together this post is actually about our stay at the small and intimate Mercure Hotel in Kensington. This 82 bedroom hotel is situated on the Cromwell Road and that makes it super easy to access. It you are travelling by tube it is between Gloucester Road and Earls Court and then around a 7 minute walk from either but because you are in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea it is a really pleasant stroll as the buildings and area are so beautiful.

Reasons to be Cheerful: Our Angel in Yellow

Last week we went away for a few days to Kent. We really needed this break as a family, time to be away from hubby's work and just forget the crap of everyday life (it's been a hard month).

The weather was miserable with an overcast sky, high winds and scattered rain but we weren't going to let that deter us. After an amazing day at Dover Castle enjoying a truly brilliant English Heritage site we were heading back to our Premier Inn to get changed and go for pizza when clunk the car made an odd noise at a busy roundabout and that was it, we weren't going anywhere!

Luckily for us we have cover with Club Toyota and one call to them set in motion our rescue from start to finish. First off an angel in yellow arrived, our AA man Wayne was the ultimate in efficiency and friendliness. Within moments he diagnosed our car with a broken drive shaft and set about getting it towed to the nearest Halfords who would be able to fix it for us.

Dear So and So - Great Customer Sevice

Happy Customer Sign from Shutterstock

Dear British Rail,

I think you often get a bad press. People moaning about delays, cancelled trains, leaves on the track and I know that sometimes they are right but I've been super impressed with you just recently.

OK it didn't start so great when one of your operatives sold me the wrong ticket and it all could have ended up quite badly if your ticket inspector on the train hadn't believed me but he was great. He sold me another ticket and explained the situation patiently and he understood that I was going to complain.

So I used your on line complaint form via your web pages and within a few days you had come back to me. No questions asked, you offered an apology and you refunded me for the additional ticket I had to buy. Way to go British Rail, I was super impressed and I want everyone to know how fair you have been.

A very happy customer, Mrs Pannell

Dear So and So - Random Musings June 2015

Dear Readers,

Good morning, I hope you are well and looking forward to a good week ahead. I'm sorry I'm late with this today, I have no excuse, I just totally forgot until I was on my way back from the school run!

Whoops, imperfect Mich!
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Dear Home,

I love you. You make me very happy and I must get out and enjoy your grounds more. Last week as I lay under this tree for 3/4 of an hour and prayed, it was the happiest and most serene I have been in a long time. I need to make more time for being outside and being with God.

Mich x

It's Good To Vent: What Has Become of UK Customer Service??

I have now calmed down! 20 minutes ago I was furious. What is wrong with people who are in customer service positions nowadays? When did it become OK to NOT acknowledge a customers complaints? Why is it that a customer service rep can say 'It is not for me to suggest anything, you have to sort your own business out!'. How dare the crappy insurance guy I spoke to just dismiss everything I said and make out that we are trying to fraud his company!

Do you want to know which company I am pissed with?

Well it is esure, the insurers. We have our home insurance with them and have done for a few years now and we have made a couple of claims: root damage to drains, storm damage to roof and 1 lost diamond earring and they have always been fab. No problem at all, hence we renew with them each time.

Do you remember a few weeks back I said that some idiot has stolen my DH's bike, well we reported it to the police and reported to the insurers and they said we needed to provide the receipt. We could not find it, what a bummer! They asked for photo's of dh on the bike - err yeah right! So we sort of assumed we would not get a pay out. The claims handler said he would call back and advise what the loss adjusters said - he never did!

A couple of weeks later, I called for an update and was told I would have a call back - we never got one! That weekend there was a great deal in Halfords so dh bought himself a new bike - he needs it to get to work after all.

Then I happened to be tidying some things of mine and found the bike receipt, yay! So I called esure again to get a stroppy guy with no idea about customer service and he said we had to fax the receipt. I then called again today to explain that dh had already bought a bike and we had the new receipt etc and could they refund money instead.

I basically got told we had prejudiced the claim, it did not matter if esure never called us back, that was their prerogative (WTF!) and that if our house was ever burgled we would need to provide every receipt for every item before they would pay out. I asked what would happen if the burglar had turned the house upside down and all the receipts were ruined or such and got told it was their right to withhold the money without receipts. Anyone every heard of this before? To me this seems the world has gone crazy! Are there so many people out there now making bogus claims that those of us with good trusty claims histories and years of never claiming have to now be treated as criminals?

I will be writing to esure and making a complaint about the attitude and lack of helpfulness of the guys I encountered. There has obviously never been any training to give them decent customer service skills as neither one of them would say sorry or admit that it was not good enough that promised return calls were not made.

If esure felt they could not pay out on a bike claim as we had no receipt that is one thing and I would respect that is just the way it is but for their staff to not be able to be civil and to explain things properly is not at all acceptable.

I will be investigating other insurers and finding out if this keep every receipt thing is universal. I no longer want to be a customer of esure!

What about you? How are you finding customer service in the UK nowadays? I blogged a couple of weeks ago about how fab the service was at Chessington and recently I have had some fab service in John Lewis but then I also balance that with the promised return call that never came back to me from the local cinema and our dental surgery that now sends out reminders to some people. err how do you chose those people that are lucky enough to get a reminder??? Equality for all please.

Right rant over!

Please someone restore my faith and tell me about some great service you have recently received or rant if you like, as the title says it is good to vent and get it all out your system. Link up if you have a relevant post and want to join me on my quest for great customer service in the UK.

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