anonimous

Hi

I wanted to book a flight with Coastal Aviation, but since months I am only a single passenger, who is interested.
Coastal Aviation has made me a suggestion that they make an exception, when I will pay for 2 seats and then they can fly me. Should I make the deal?
I'm afraid they can cancel the flight. Have anyone experienced something similar?

chgoeditor

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I am not familiar with Coastal Aviation, but from a quick skim of their website, they're offering scheduled and charter service in East Africa. I'm guessing from your post that they needs to sell a certain number of seats to make the flight financially feasible, and thus far you are the only person who has expressed interest in a specific route/trip.

If you think about it, it's not much different from a tour operator that charges a single supplement if you want to stay in your own hotel room vs sharing with a stranger. The airline has certain operating costs -- the pilot's time, airport fees, etc. -- that remain fixed regardless of whether there's one passenger or a plane full of passengers. And your single airfare might not cover those costs.

Are you concerned they will cancel the flight after you've paid, so you won't get any service at all, or that they'll fly you to your destination, then cancel the return flight? I have no experience with Coastal Aviation, so I can't comment on their reliability, so instead I'd talk to them about what guarantees and protections they'll offer to you in the event a flight is canceled.

floridagal23

We have flown with coastal. We took at least four flights with them last May. They're reliable. My guess is as the poster said above,they need a minimum number of passengers on the route. I seem to remember they had a guarantee on their website (for what it is worth) for getting you to the destination. The language is something like we will make sure each connection is honored.

roadwarriorafrica

Coastal, like most safari airlines have a minimum passenger policy of 2. If you were to pay for 2 pax, and on the date of your flight there is at least one more passenger, would they refund you the fare for the 2nd passenger you paid for?

dwugson

I usually pay for an extra seat to acomodate overweight luggage as I travel with a lot of camera equipment. Even without that I wouldn't hesitate to pay a supplement to get to where I want; if you look at the big picture it's usually ends up a very small part of your total expense. I've had several flights as the only passenger in East Africa and have never had a flight cancelled.