Travel costs to France

[Harry Stottle]

Leeds now bringing to everyone's attention that to go to Perpignan on Friday will cost them circa £100,000, so they want to fill up the empty plane seats with fans at £800 each to reduce their costs, seems a bit steep to me charging loyal fans so much for what would be empty seats anyway, yes make something back but not extortionately so.

Leeds Rhinos Commercial Director Rob Oates said, 

“The chartered flight, and associated costs, mean the whole trip is going to cost us around £100,000, the vast majority of which we have to meet as a club. We have a limited number of seats available on the plane to travel with the team, which will include transfers in France and tickets but inevitably it is expensive at £800 per person. This will limit our losses on the trip but that is the reality of the situation

[Eddie]

£800, is it a gold plated private jet? 

[daz39]

But you get to watch Myler doing handstands and Newman diving through someones legs at 30,000 feet!

[gingerjon]

Cue a stream of posts about how it can't really cost that much.

[Damien]

Remember when some posters mocked Toulouse when they said they would be out of pocket £500,000 in travel costs for a full season? I expect the same level of derision towards leeds if they are saying it will cost them £100,000 for 1 game.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Damien

[Eddie]

2 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Cue a stream of posts about how it can't really cost that much.

Tbf it probably doesn’t. During the pandemic when Catalans were chattering their own flight at their own expense so they could fulfill their fixtures in England they said it was €50k a time. 

[Jughead]

Leeds to Girona - £162 Saturday to Sunday. 

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Tbf it probably doesn’t. During the pandemic when Catalans were chattering their own flight at their own expense so they could fulfill their fixtures in England they said it was €50k a time. 

Booked well in advance and in bulk, presumably?

When fuel was significantly cheaper?

[StandOffHalf]

Are autographs and selfies part of this exclusive fan experience?

Looks like a bit of a rip-off, doesn't it?

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Booked well in advance and in bulk, presumably?

When fuel was significantly cheaper?

Possibly, but possibly not? Regardless paying more than double seems like a lot. 

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

Possibly, but possibly not? Regardless paying more than double seems like a lot. 

Happily, it is possible to check.

https://www.privatefly.com/private-jet-charter/estimate-prices.html?flightSearch=JOQdpF5Kl1U=

Chartered flight for 30 people travelling from Leeds to Perpignan flying out Friday and returning Saturday (and only including flight, nothing else) starts at €77,000 - not sure if that includes tax.

So, a bit under £100,000 but not hard to see it getting close to that.

[Gordon Street]

13 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:

Are autographs and selfies part of this exclusive fan experience?

Looks like a bit of a rip-off, doesn't it?

I doubt it. There's no future in robbing your fans, and anyway that's soccer and rugby union's job. 

[Eddie]

15 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Happily, it is possible to check.

https://www.privatefly.com/private-jet-charter/estimate-prices.html?flightSearch=JOQdpF5Kl1U=

Chartered flight for 30 people travelling from Leeds to Perpignan flying out Friday and returning Saturday (and only including flight, nothing else) starts at €77,000 - not sure if that includes tax.

So, a bit under £100,000 but not hard to see it getting close to that.

Fair enough, but they don’t have to charter a flight. As Oliver pointed out above there are return flights to Girona from Leeds for less than two hundred quid. 

[M j M]

31 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Leeds to Girona - £162 Saturday to Sunday. 

That's good when the game is on Friday. 

[yipyee]

22 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Happily, it is possible to check.

https://www.privatefly.com/private-jet-charter/estimate-prices.html?flightSearch=JOQdpF5Kl1U=

Chartered flight for 30 people travelling from Leeds to Perpignan flying out Friday and returning Saturday (and only including flight, nothing else) starts at €77,000 - not sure if that includes tax.

So, a bit under £100,000 but not hard to see it getting close to that.

You have to get to and from the airport both sides

[David Shepherd]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

Leeds now bringing to everyone's attention that to go to Perpignan on Friday will cost them circa £100,000, so they want to fill up the empty plane seats with fans at £800 each to reduce their costs, seems a bit steep to me charging loyal fans so much for what would be empty seats anyway, yes make something back but not extortionately so.

Leeds Rhinos Commercial Director Rob Oates said, 

“The chartered flight, and associated costs, mean the whole trip is going to cost us around £100,000, the vast majority of which we have to meet as a club. We have a limited number of seats available on the plane to travel with the team, which will include transfers in France and tickets but inevitably it is expensive at £800 per person. This will limit our losses on the trip but that is the reality of the situation

Christ knows what they're chartering for the trip. Must be a Saturn V rocket at that price. It can be done for comfortably less than £20,000.

[yipyee]

They could have finished higher in the league and got a home game....

 

[M j M]

Leeds sell the spare seats on the jet every time they go to France and they are usually full. I've got a mate who is on the flight so i'll report back if it's full or not.

£800 may seem a lot but it's cost me around £160 one way including train up from Girona and a bit of Manchester parking (I'm not coming directly back) so with the convenience of going from LBA, hanging out with the players and the gold plated corporate experience you'll get from Leeds it's not a massive sum. 

 

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, M j M said:

That's good when the game is on Friday. 

Have you checked the Friday price? It’s amazing that part time Welsh and Northern Irish football teams fly all over Europe playing European club matches without moaning about the cost, they go to far more inaccessible places too. 

[David Shepherd]

27 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Happily, it is possible to check.

https://www.privatefly.com/private-jet-charter/estimate-prices.html?flightSearch=JOQdpF5Kl1U=

Chartered flight for 30 people travelling from Leeds to Perpignan flying out Friday and returning Saturday (and only including flight, nothing else) starts at €77,000 - not sure if that includes tax.

So, a bit under £100,000 but not hard to see it getting close to that.

Loganair charter their planes for less than £20,000. OK it's a bog standard commercial aircraft, not sure the Rhinos need the luxury of a private jet for a less than 2 hour flight.

[StandOffHalf]

''gold plated corporate experience''

LOL, good one.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, David Shepherd said:

Loganair charter their planes for less than £20,000. OK it's a bog standard commercial aircraft, not sure the Rhinos need the luxury of a private jet for a less than 2 hour flight.

Come back with a quote and then we can compare.

[barnyia]

70000 for Catalan to get a private jet  to go to Wigan plus money lost on already booked flights etc as sky changed the day of the game, looks like Salford had the right idea 

[whatmichaelsays]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

Leeds now bringing to everyone's attention that to go to Perpignan on Friday will cost them circa £100,000, so they want to fill up the empty plane seats with fans at £800 each to reduce their costs, seems a bit steep to me charging loyal fans so much for what would be empty seats anyway, yes make something back but not extortionately so.

Leeds Rhinos Commercial Director Rob Oates said, 

“The chartered flight, and associated costs, mean the whole trip is going to cost us around £100,000, the vast majority of which we have to meet as a club. We have a limited number of seats available on the plane to travel with the team, which will include transfers in France and tickets but inevitably it is expensive at £800 per person. This will limit our losses on the trip but that is the reality of the situation

Leeds have always positioned their France trips at the corporate market. They've long acknowledged that supporters will go the Ryanair route, so have always pitched this as more of a corporate jolly-up than a supporter trip. 

No regular supporter goes on the club plane. 

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Have you checked the Friday price? It’s amazing that part time Welsh and Northern Irish football teams fly all over Europe playing European club matches without moaning about the cost, they go to far more inaccessible places too. 

They go literally once a year. Maybe twice.

And, from experience of having the ear of some good folk at the MIGHTY BLACK AND GREENS, quite often end up out of pocket as a result.

I'm not even sure what Leeds are doing can count as complaining. They're literally just saying what it costs and that, in order to cover some of that, they can accommodate a few fans too.