Globespan

Has anyone used Globespan since than did away with ecomony and now only sell Premium economy! Is there any difference?

There is a lot about FGS on this site and plenty in the news on the interweb. I would take a long hard look if i were you before deciding who you travel with.

Well I looked at a site before booking my last flights to Orlando and they were slating globespan for all sorts of reasons. I decided not to listen and I booked.

We are just home and all I can say is, I will be booking next years flights this week and it will be with Globespan. Flights were on time and everything ran smoothly. Some will say I was lucky, well I suppose the other 300+ passengers were lucky too.

We did have one gripe on our return flight, quite a few seats had no working headphone socket so we had no radio or inflight movie sound.

We had a 30min delay leaving Sanford but made the time up and landed at Belfast then Glasgow, on time. Food was acceptable and crew were courtious.

You will always hear of the horrer stories and things that have gone wrong but rarely hear about the many flights that run to schedule.

I watched the same flight online for 2 weeks before I left for Orlando, and there was never more that an hours delay. So I'm saying both my flights were fine and I have no hesitation in booking again with Globespan (before the end of the week).

Globspan have had some hiddious problems not the least of which were the problems that they have had with CAA. Lost their ETOPs approval and have been through the courts and found quilty of endangering passenger safety by by flying an unsafe aircraft (won't go into the details). They are still waiting to hear what the fine is going to be as far as i am aware.
Having said that they have a new management team and things i gather are very much on the up. As somebeody in the industry i would not have put my family on one thier A/C a year ago as they were considered by many in the industry to be erm, how do i put this? Operating with significantly reduced safety margins, yes that will do.
The communities feelings have been bourn out by the loss of ETOPS (now regained) and the quilty verdict. There were many other issues that were not directly related to safety and were more of an operational nature but when you start stacking problems up you end up with the swiss cheese effect (called the "reason model" - google it, its quite interesting).
However as i have said they are working hard to get where they should be and this is an operation that is very much heading in the right direction. A lot of people depend upon FGS for work and thanks to a new experienced and more importantly responsible management team FGS have lifted them selfs from the mire. I think that this is generally accepted through out the industry.
The bad reports that you have seen may well have related more to the bad old days than to the "under new management" FGS.
I can get hold of the delays / arrivals reports for FGS if you are interested.
Glad your trip went well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Cheese_model

Good site describing the reason model.

Do Globespan have seat back tvs in premium economy?

No Globespan , dont have seat back tv,s the tv,s are overhead . We used Globespan this year and came back last Wednesday . Our whole family agreed that the flights were great, especialy the return flight it went so fast it felt like it only lasted 3 hours. I think this was due to the fact they put on 3 films back to back so for those who stayed awake it made the time very short, and we left on time on both flights.
The food was no worse than any we have had before and all soft drinks were free incl wine with meal.
The planes are a bit older than some [ ours was an ex icelandair ] but it was clean,the only downside is they no longer provide blankets or pillows in premium economy [ but you can buy them for 3.00 ] and you can keep them for next time.
We have been travelling to Florida twice a year for 15 years , and would have no hesitaion flying with them again if the fligths are reasonably priced .If they get too expensive we might go to Manchester

We flew with Globespan in July. No problems apart from some of the headset sockets in the seats did not work. This might be a big problem for some with kids but I could live with it. Food was ok, there are always plenty of snacks to buy anyway:D Already booked for July 2009 so here's hoping they are not another airline ready to fold. Used credit card anyway so we are covered should the worst happen...got to cover yourself for all eventualities[laugh]