Thomas Cook - You seat/Your Choice!

Muppet81

Just a word of warning to anyone booking a flight only with flythomascook.com.

I booked flights last night and on the booking was the option to select Your seat/Your choice. As I wanted to book specific seats together I selected this at a charge of £28 for the 2 of us.

I was not given any option to choose seats during the booking process and when I then tried to go on line to Manage My Booking it said that flight refs starting with FTC could not be amended on line and that I would have to ring the airline direct.

I rang Thomas Cook this morning to be told that they are not happy that Flythomascook (an online travel agent) are wording the booking as YourSeat/YourChoice as all this gives you is seats together.

The man I spoke to said that I could reserve specific seats but at a cost of £12 each to them. As the site was down for a couple of days for an upgrade I could not even do that and will have to ring them again in a few days.

I feel this is a real con. I tried to ring Flythomascook to complain but the queing is never ending and I gave up. No doubt their intention? :mad:

If you are booking via this agent please be wary.

Muppet81

Just by way of an update .... Flythomascook.com have now repaid me the £28 which they say was added to my flight order in error.

BusinessStudent

Why on earth would you want to pay £28 to reserve seats :-O ?

What a big waste of money!

stephb34

BusinessStudent wrote: »

Why on earth would you want to pay £28 to reserve seats :-O ?

What a big waste of money!

I wouldnt personally but i can see why some people do, an awful lot of people are scared of flying and wouldnt want to be sat on their own, also theirs nothing worse than being sat next to someone whos fat, smelly wont shut up prattling on at 6am in a morning, and its no good saying get to the airport early because on your return journey most people have the coach transfers and if you end up last in the queue you've had it.

withabix

Muppet81 wrote: »

I rang Thomas Cook this morning to be told that they are not happy that Flythomascook (an online travel agent) are wording the booking as YourSeat/YourChoice as all this gives you is seats together.

I feel this is a real con. I tried to ring Flythomascook to complain but the queing is never ending and I gave up. No doubt their intention? :mad:

If you are booking via this agent please be wary.

Flythomascook.com is part of Thomas Cook, so they are misleading you if they are saying that they are not happy with the behaviour of this 'Agent'.

Personally I would choose another carrier over Thomas Cook. Don't like their flights and charging regime at all. I've always found Thomson flights to be cheaper after adding on all of the extras.

BusinessStudent

stephb34 wrote: »

also theirs nothing worse than being sat next to someone whos fat.

Im sorry but that is just offensive.

Becles

BusinessStudent wrote: »

Why on earth would you want to pay £28 to reserve seats :-O ?

What a big waste of money!

I've been split up twice on return flights due to the transfer coach being late.

The first time I was with my ex, and sitting along on a long haul flight was inconvenient but bearable. It's not the nicest of ways to end a honeymoon when you get split up from your other half. We were lucky as we did get the last two seats in the normal cabin, and the couple behind were forced to sit in smoking. This would have affected my ex as he has terrible asthma, and I wouldn't have enjoyed it either as I don't smoke. That scenario isn't a worry these days though.

The second time I had paid for group seating but we had been missed off the passenger list. We were last to arrive at the airport and got 4 seats scattered all over the cabin. We had young children with us at the time, and I didn't want them sitting on their own for a long haul flight especially when the youngest was at the age when he needed help with opening his food, cutting it up etc. I did complain to the stewardess on board and showed her my invoice with the group seating charge and she managed to shuffle people round so we were seated together.

Even if you don't pay for group seating, even if you get to the airport early, you don't get free choice over all the seats as the group seating seats will have already been allocated. When you're travelling with small children, it's a small price to pay for peace of mind and no worrying on the journey in case you get split up.

Pollycat

BusinessStudent wrote: »

Why on earth would you want to pay £28 to reserve seats :-O ?

What a big waste of money!

As stephb34 has said, some people are nervous flyers,
It's up to each individual to decide whether it's worth paying for this option.
Personally, I never have and never would pay for it - but that's not to say that I think people who DO pay for it are wrong.

stephb34 wrote: »

I wouldnt personally but i can see why some people do, an awful lot of people are scared of flying and wouldnt want to be sat on their own, also theirs nothing worse than being sat next to someone whos fat, smelly wont shut up prattling on at 6am in a morning, and its no good saying get to the airport early because on your return journey most people have the coach transfers and if you end up last in the queue you've had it.

I can't quite see how paying for 'sitting together' or even choosing your own seats (at additional cost) would stop you sitting next to someone like this. How do you know that they haven't paid to 'sit together' and the airline have put them next to you?

One thing to consider when booking seats together is that some airlines class seats across the aisle as 'sitting together'. Same with one seat behind the other.

So, even if you pay for 'sitting together' you may not actually be sat side-by-side.

Also, some airlines are now pre-allocating seats so getting to the airport early to request window seats (or your preference) may not work.
Thomas Cook pre-allocated seats on our recent flight from Stansted to Bodrum.

withabix

BusinessStudent wrote: »

Im sorry but that is just offensive.

There is nothing worse than being forced to sit next to someone who is wider than the distance between the arms on their seat, thereby them taking up some of your space.

Is that better?

stephb34

BusinessStudent wrote: »

Im sorry but that is just offensive.

Im quite sure you knew what i was trying to say of course theres nothing wrong with fat people in general, but it isnt very pleasant when a stranger tries to share your seat as well as sitting on their own.
Sometimes the politically correct brigade go to far how do you know im not fat myself!

Polly i agree with you entirely and thanks to withabix for interpreting my post.

Pollycat

stephb34 wrote: »

Im quite sure you knew what i was trying to say of course theres nothing wrong with fat people in general, but it isnt very pleasant when a stranger tries to share your seat as well as sitting on their own.
Sometimes the politically correct brigade go to far how do you know im not fat myself!

Polly i agree with you entirely and thanks to withabix for interpreting my post.

Stephb34
I too understood exactly what you were trying to say.

On a long-haul flight, we were once sat next to this lady (I was in the window seat, OH in the middle and she had the aisle seat) - and she smelled incredibly bad of very stale body odour.
Not just the 'I've been travelling to the airport and am a 'bit fragrant' sort of smell - this was the 'I've not had a bath for ages and my washing machine's been broken for months - and deodorant? What's that?' sort of stink.
I spent the whole flight (12 hours) spritzing perfume liberally all around us.

I've never sat next to anyone who has had trouble with fitting into an airline seat, but I would imagine that being next to someone who encroaches on your space during a flight wouldn't be a great way to spend a number of hours.

Won't stop prattling?
That's what eyeshades and an ipod are for.

But, to reiterate - paying for 'sitting together' won't solve those particular problems.