anyone flown long haul with thomas cook?

bagand96 · 5 February 2011 at 1:47PM

What steph said above is correct. They have different aircraft, some of which have a nice 33" seat pitch with seat-back TVs, but some only have 29", with only TVs in the aisles.

With regards to other comments, food, delays etc its par for the course and can happen with any airline. Its just a mode of transport to the destination, and thats what matters!

We flew manchester to orlando with Thomas cook last year.

I can remember a lot of bad points- the usual with charters
rubbish food
some of the seat back TVs not working
My headphone port on the way back didnt work
Lack of water throughout the flight
extortionate snack prices

I agree with this all the way - I've flown to Florida and Majorca with them and frankly it will be worth paying more to fly a real airline in the future.

Apart from lack of water and snack prices..... those issues are identical to problems I had with British Airways last summer. Their customer sevice attitude was couldn't give a sh*t too!

bagand96 · 5 February 2011 at 1:55PM

joop123, you need to look at the "Important Information" link on the Thomas Cook website to see if anything is mentioned about flights. This link can be found on the quote page, underneath the Total Holiday Price. A lot of the Florida holidays have the following in that information:

Essential Information
outbound standard cabin

Essential Information
inbound standard cabin.please note this flight only has 29" seat pitch

If your holiday has that information then you know you will be on the tighter configured aircraft, without seat back TVs. Meals will be included and will be as good or bad as any aircraft food. Water will be free, other drinks and snacks will have to be paid for at standard airline rates. The deal breaker here though is the aircraft configuration and I guess its personal preference on whether the cost savings with Thomas Cook are worth that or not.

DavidHayton · 5 February 2011 at 5:19PM

JoseChungsDoomsday wrote: »

I agree with this all the way - I've flown to Florida and Majorca with them and frankly it will be worth paying more to fly a real airline in the future.

I suppose that it comes down to how much you are going to save and how much you can put up with. I know that I will put up with quite a bit if I am going to save £1500 on transatlantic airline tickets for a family of five. As long as I have my book and my children have their DS thingies, we can cope without the seat back TVs. I can even survive without free alcohol - just. The two issues that I would consider carefully are seat pitch (I can cope with 29" - and I'm 183 cm tall - but others find this excruciating) and punctuality.

David

jeanniebeanie_2 · 6 February 2011 at 11:23AM

I have posted before that I am not keen on TC. BUT i have booked another Florida flight with them. We have paid £500 each in total for premium upgraded flights (April, one of their last flights with this option).

By the time we factored in the pre-bookable seats, free meals and extra luggage allowance it was only £30 each more than standard. As to quality of upgraded flight..... not done it before, but TC, THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!!!!

ENILORAC · 6 February 2011 at 1:17PM

I flew from Glasgow to Sanford, Orlando with TC in 2009. The flight was perfectly fine, comfortable & on-time. Have flown to America with Continental, Aer Lingus & United before & they were really no different, except in terms of service from staff, which was disappointing from TC.

We didnt pay extra for inflight meals, instead we made a big packed lunch & bought juice from Boots before we boarded the flight.

We also purchased the extra 5kg baggage as you are only allowed 20kg iirc.

We actually booked a fly-drive package through Direct Holidays, which worked out cheaper than booking through TC. We didnt pick the car up at the airport & used a different car hire company as it worked out cheaper than buying TC car insurance.

Caroline :j

joop123 · 6 February 2011 at 8:10PM

ENILORAC wrote: »

I flew from Glasgow to Sanford, Orlando with TC in 2009. The flight was perfectly fine, comfortable & on-time. Have flown to America with Continental, Aer Lingus & United before & they were really no different, except in terms of service from staff, which was disappointing from TC.

We didnt pay extra for inflight meals, instead we made a big packed lunch & bought juice from Boots before we boarded the flight.

We also purchased the extra 5kg baggage as you are only allowed 20kg iirc.

We actually booked a fly-drive package through Direct Holidays, which worked out cheaper than booking through TC. We didnt pick the car up at the airport & used a different car hire company as it worked out cheaper than buying TC car insurance.

Caroline :j

thank you so much....i have discovered direct hols thanks to you! Just trying to decided which villa to stay in now. Can you tellme how to add the extra baggage? I can only see the 20kg,

many thanks

ENILORAC · 6 February 2011 at 9:26PM

Aw, you're welcome

I think when you put your details in, there is an option to add extra luggage. At the time it cost an extra £35 for 5kgs, we choose this as we were planning on doing lots of shopping.

joop123 · 6 February 2011 at 9:30PM

me too!

think i have just got to get on with it and book...just trying to decided which vill/area to stay in now!

thank you again

ENILORAC · 6 February 2011 at 9:37PM

Meant to add, you can get 2% cashback through QUIDCO!!

joop123 · 6 February 2011 at 9:42PM

thanks thats even better!

anyone flown long haul with thomas cook?

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