The chance of a flight alteration depends a lot on the time of year and also the day of the week, plus how well their main customer Balkan Holidays they have done in selling packages.

In short somewhat unpredictable.

So, you'd save up to 50 quid - do you feel lucky?

Peter

Hi apollonia1799,

Suggest that you browse this two-page thread - as Peter says, it's a bit of a lottery with the Balkan Holidays Air flights again this year'

Baldur

dont fly with balkan, we had to divert from manchester to newcastle unpon tyne and then on to varna in2006, i would never fly with them, the stewedesses are so miserable looking and pilots who break speed limits on the ground before taxing down hte run way.

Balkan Holidays Air try to please too many people and fail. They also have a limited grasp of PR.

Their aim is to fly from as many UK airports as possible for our convenience. They have memories of the halcyon days in the middle 1990s when every flight was full to capacity, but today tourist numbers from the UK are going down and have been year on year for quite a while. Hence the amalgamated flights which mean extra hours on the aircraft and often travelling by bus from Burgas to Varna and vice versa. If they started off with a more realistic flight program there would be fewer disappointments.

the stewedesses are so miserable looking

We have been travelling with Balkan or their predecessors since 1989, and have never met a miserable member of aircrew yet. How they keep their cool with some of the clients they have to put up with beats me.

and pilots who break speed limits on the ground before taxing down hte run way.

How could one possibly know a pilot was breaking what speed limit on the ground? Bulgarian (and Russian) pilots are amongst the best in the world and are air force trained.

Peter

I just found this out to my expense lol
We are flying on 4th June from Humberside to borgas and it a late flight and we got to stop at east midlands on the way
not looking forward to it as i really suffer with my ears on flights and hate!!! take off and landings.

Me not a happy bunny lol

danlaurs, your eta is timed at 0340 on the 5th. Tonyt

yes it is 3.40

Hope flight ok, not good in the air lol even though hubby says my head in the clouds most of the time lol

I decided against Balkan & have paid £248.00 Manchester/ Bourgas with Monarch on June 2nd.It's a good time leaving Man. at 8.15 . And no stop offs' at East midands. !! Expensive compared to last year, but that's life .

pleased to say our flight with Balkan not been changed, flying out from Humberside 15th June at 19-50 return flight 17-20 on 29th,

We stopped using Balkan about 4years ago. We got so fed up with these 'double touch' flights. Going 20th June from Manchester with Thomas Cook...paid £220 each. (return for 3weeks)

yep we're not happy bunnys either we too fly out from humberside on the 18th june after being assured there would no stops we then recieved a letter from balkan stating we have to go via east midlands, here comes the strange part my husbands friend has just booked to fly on the exact same flight ( same flight time, same flight number ) as us but has been told he's going direct ????? when he asked the travel agent she said she knew nothing about going via east midlands lol

my husbands friend has just booked to fly on the exact same flight ( same flight time, same flight number ) as us but has been told he's going direct ?????

Burgas Airport is showing its arrival as -19/06 03:40 Humberside via East Midlands (derby) BGH5590.

Possibly slightly better than some of the June/July Humberside flights, which are via Belfast, but if you'r stuck on the tarmac it doesn't really matter where you are.

Baldur

Hi, new member here and just wondering if there is ANYTHING good which can be said about Balkan Holidays?

I've booked my first trip to Bulgaria for 20th July with this company. Never heard of them before but brochure was good and the SC apartments we booked (Sunny Beauty in Sunny Beach) look ideal and were cheap. I was looking forward to this trip immensely as I've heard nothing but good about Bulgaria, but not so much since I came across this thread.

I dont really care about diverted flights, the brochure carries a disclaimer that this might happen. The BH Cardiff-Burgas flights are at decent times (at the mo!) and its close to home. I'm just worried that there isnt one good thing that can be said about this company, its pilots, its staff, its accomodation, anything! Doesn't it have anything positive to reassure a seriously worried traveller?

Hi Kardiff Kid,

Welcome to the site!

I've flown twice (1 x package to Varna, 1 x flight only to Varna) from Cardiff & once (package to Burgas) from Bristol with Balkan Holidays Air in the past. The only real negatives which I found were that both return flights from Varna to Cardiff were via Belfast, adding an hour plus to the return flight time.

The flights themselves were fine, accommodation was OK, reps (on the couple of occasions when I used them) were excellent.

As accommodation is no longer required, I have only used scheduled flights from Gatwick to Varna for the past few years.

Baldur

Hi Kardiff kid. I've been with Balkan holidays the last three years and had no problems with them at all. This was the first time I have when my flight from Gatwick was diverted via glasgow of all places and I didn't fancy spending 6 hours on the plane so I cancelled. Apart from that, the areoplanes have been fine, the pilots fine, the staff fine and the accomodation fine and I think they offer execellent value for money. Hope that puts your mind at rest to some extent

Thanks whistler-alison, that is some comfort. Like I said, having flights via another airport isnt a problem for me. I understand the economics are a factor and Balkan are only trying to reach as many people as possible. In any case, mulitple take offs and landings will make the trip more interesting as flying is pretty boring once you're up there. I've just been concerned with what I've heard about antiquated planes (though apparently the Tupolovs have been replaced with Airbus's recently), 'kamikaze' pilots and altered times and accomodation. It's reassuring to know that Balkan can be okay and that the travel industry awards they've won in the past have some justification.

Cheers

well, I have been on some of the Tupolovs which Balkan have chartered from Hemus Air and I think they look really retro groovy even if their livery and upholstery have been a bit faded (I had no worries about the plane itself) and I think I might have made a comment earlier in this thread about a seemingly mad pilot (he was probably flying quite normally for what he needed to do - who am I to judge how to land a plane?), but they weren't really problems for me. More part of the rich tapestry of going on holiday. And if you enjoy the take off and landing to make it more interesting, just think how much more you will get out of a mad pilot and a plane that looks like it has just come off of Thunderbirds

I would still recommend Balkan but with a caveat about the flight diversions but as this really isn't a problem for you, I can't see why you wouldn't have a great holiday.

my flight was also changed leaving 22nd june from glasgow to varna now going glasgow to leeds then onto borguis it is so inconvenient, the flight times also changed.

Well I think we have been lucky flying to Varna 6th June Balkan air and it apeares to be a direct flight from Manchester.