HIKE IN PRICES BY LD LINES

[nino]

Has anybody  not noticed this sudden fares  increase by LD ?

Where are the crossings for foot passengers @  less then £ 10 ? Not there anymore.

Irrespective of the length of stay the price I  obtain from their website for a foot passenger is £ 34.00 return. In February!

So this is the the company that was listening to our needs, willing  and promising to give property owners fair prices and so on ? Yeah , well .

Nor are the Newhaven/Dieppe/LeHavre  prices all that much cheaper.  We are inthe hand s of another pirate of the sea here! They have built a customer base, introduced a few esthetic improvements and hiked the prices to expand  and subisde a business that  we will soon find might very well make us regret P&O.

But why so much silence  on this issue here ????

 

Danglar

 

  

[Will]

Possibly because some of us have known that, just as with Ryanair, you can get cheap seats but a lot of the time, particularly when everybody wants to travel, you have to pay considerably more.

Also the Newhaven services are not starting until May, and I think we are mostly reserving judgement. When the Portsmouth-Le Havre service began under LD, fares were only slightly less than the competition, in many cases actually more. The argument was that P&O lost money on that route, and LD did not intend to make the same mistakes. Gradually, cheaper fares came in, and there was a perception that a £50 return with car was the norm, whereas in reality £80-£120 was more likely. Transmanche lost a lot of money too, and I am sure if LD sees its fortunes turning round on that route as it did to Portsmouth (I have seen figures that say it is getting two thirds of P&O's income from one third of the sailings) then the same might happen.

I use Brittany Ferries as a foot passenger pretty often, and it is a fact that LD cannot match the £25-£27 I pay Portsmouth-Caen, particularly as extra distance and road tolls are involved. I will be watching the car fares though, particularly Le Havre-Newhaven, as this is 'doable' without cabins, which are the other big disadvantage to LD's services.

[Will]

And another thing (or two)

Why is it that LD will not, apparently, take foot passengers on the Newhaven - Le Havre service? With railway stations near to both ports I would have thought it would be an ideal option.

And why are fares on the Newhaven- Le Havre route showing as almost double the equivalent crossings to/from Portsmouth? I think Danglar is right (apart from the fact that I managed to get some £30 foot passenger return fare quotes), and more attention needs to be paid by the company to its customers. Previously it was a model for other French companies in listening to its clients, and acting accordingly, but now seems to have slipped back into the normal Gallic complacency.

[Gastines]

Perhaps the site admin could contact B.F. and point out what a good idea it would be to offer members a discount? Even the home owners discount seems to vary. What a lot of us seem to need is that cheap 24hr return that they only offer from UK. I have mentioned before that I did contact B.F's customer relations dept with the idea. The reply was that when it was offered,it was abused by passengers not returning!! As they point out that your credit card will be debited for the full fare if you don't return,I couldn't see their loss? I did ask when this fare was in operation as I was unaware of it in 18years of frequent travelling? Still waiting for a reply after about 2 years. I don't think the fares are that expensive at the moment but resent the fact that every school holiday they double,or more, the cost.!They must know that for us older residents the trips for grandchildren are a must have expenditure at holiday times.

Regards 5mins St.Malo.