thomson holidays nasty sales tactics

ThumbRemote

On a 4-hour flight to the Canaries myself and partner were split up - despite having a 10 month old baby with us that we had to seat on our lap. At the airport we were told that seats were all allocated in advance, so there was no way to now put us together.

Because we travelled with a baby we couldn't reserve seats online in advance, even if we'd wanted to - you need to phone up to do it.

As it happens, this worked fairly well for us - one of us got a break while the other held the baby.

Off_PeakReturn

steve290 wrote: »

Thanks, glad some one agrees with me. I just feel that it is another way of getting extra money out of you, which is fine but not after you have paid and also with such a hard sale.

I did have an email back from my complaint acknowledging that some of the information given was incorrect and not presented in the correct way. Didnt sound like they would be doing anything about it. Apparently Thomson allocate any unreserved seats 3 days before the flight and do make every effort to keep bookings together where possible.
As always they will do what they will do and no use getting to bogged down with but I will simply not give Thomsons any more of my business as nothing turns me off more than stupid hard sell techniques

I wouldn't pay the extra either. Send an email to the following big cheese at TUI (Thomson) and make a complaint and let them know you've been on this forum. Whenever I've emailed this address, I've always received a prompt reply.

[EMAIL="johan.lundgren@tui-uk.co.uk"]johan.lundgren@tui-uk.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Also, to avoid the 0871 number phone the call centre in Coventry on
02476 283046 (just listen to the music and then a call centre worker will take your call).

OPR

Dave_C_2

Being very tall and not able to sit in a normal Thomson fly seat, I end up paying for extra leg room. It used to be free for us tall guys, but that's another story.
Despite that couples normally have to pay extra to sit together, I cannot just book an extra leg room seat for myself, but must also pay for an extra leg room seat for Mrs_C. We won't mind sitting apart for a few hours down to Greece etc. but no we must pay twice the extra.
This also applies to Thomas Cook.

The other thing that bugs me is that we booked and fly with Thomson, but why bombard us with countless Thomson ads and promotions on the plane. It's annoying.

Dave

Off_PeakReturn

Dave_C wrote: »

Being very tall and not able to sit in a normal Thomson fly seat, I end up paying for extra leg room. It used to be free for us tall guys, but that's another story.
Despite that couples normally have to pay extra to sit together, I cannot just book an extra leg room seat for myself, but must also pay for an extra leg room seat for Mrs_C. We won't mind sitting apart for a few hours down to Greece etc. but no we must pay twice the extra.
This also applies to Thomas Cook.

The other thing that bugs me is that we booked and fly with Thomson, but why bombard us with countless Thomson ads and promotions on the plane. It's annoying.



Oh, I'll keep your info about the onboard promotions to myself as my daughter has made the mistake of booking flight only with Thomson. From her experience, their customer service is cr*p and if she could afford to, she would not fly with them next week! Sooo, she's not going to take kindly to being a captive audience to Thomson ads ad nauseum.

Isaackite

14 months on. Same sorry story about Thomson. Since booking our trip to Cuba we've been plagued with up selling by the local Thomson Branch. This even included a recommendation that we purchased Canadian Dollars to exchange once in Cuba - apparently trade relations are stronger with Canada than the UK! That may be so but seems to me just an excuse to sell any currency to travellers visiting a destination that had a 'closed currency'. The most recent up selling attempt involved informing us that the 'plane has been swapped and that we now would have only 29 inches' instead of the 33 inches promised in their brochure as 'better than on Virgin flights' but we could upgrade to 34 inches 'at a price'.
Can't believe in these austere times that people are prepared to pay up for this 'guff'. Personally would only pay a premium for seats together if travelling with very young children or perhaps on honeymoon- on the outward journey anyway.
As a frequent flyer on scheduled airlines I am quite at home snoring next to strangers on ovenight flights (their problem not mine) and am dismayed at the cynical abuse by Thomson of their customers insecurities.

ThumbRemote

Since they've told you the plane has been swapped, I'd get onto them to ask what compensation they intend to offer for their breach of contract.

Truepat

My brother has a habit of "going off on one" and complaining about rip-off extra charges.

My attitude though is that I do not want to go back to the old pricing model where the price is much higher but the extras are then "Free" - I prefer the idea of paying the minimum amount and then paying for extras I want. Seats, flight meals, speedy check-in etc. all fall into this category.


As far as the OP is concerned I am sure the staff at Thomsons will do their best to seat you together but that may just not be possible.

Plane design has a lot to do with this. because they often use a 3-3 (e.g. B737?) or 3-3-3 (e.g. A330?) layout which means that couples leave a single seat vacant.

That is why they try to allocate the seats 3 days in advance so that they can put parties together, which is better than the randomness that may occur if left to check in staff. However at the airport some passengers may not like their allocation and demand to me moved, that means late arrivals can be booted out of their seats which were together and be dispersed all over the plane.

One solution may be that check-in staff are not given the ability to move complaining passengers but that would also be considered poor customer service. So they cannot win!

The bottom line is that if you really want to sit together then the best option is to pay the surcharge or get to check-in early (and even that has no guarantees).

C_Mababejive

I think there is too much negativity about this. Its clearly just a scare tactic used by tour operators to fleece paranoid Brits out of more money,,and good luck to those willing to pay it for it supplements fares for tightwads like me.

The great thing about being seated separately is that;

Absence makes the heart grow fonder
You get the chance to meet new people
If you are sat separately,well its likely others will be too so your not alone!

No doubt some enterprising individual will instigate a pre-flight game of tetris which will broadly work to everyones satisfaction although it may delay boarding/seating/departure

Paul_the_Painter

Issackite's problem may well be related to the late delivery of Thomson's Boeing 787s, you'll have seen the news about the battery faults. Not a lot they can do about that really. If that's the case they will have had to substitute a different aircraft that is configured differently to the one they had been planning to use, hence reduction in seat pitch.

lizziebabe

As with others I agree that this charge for being seated together is a scam to make more money for the airline. I travel on my own now and 48 hrs before the flight I check in online and book my seat for nothing.

Years ago my husband (now ex) and son (aged 11) were travelling back from the USA. The flight was overbooked as they had a large orchestra party flying, so we couldn't get seats allocated until we got to the gate. At the gate I spoke to one of the staff, who looked very harassed. I was very polite and said that 3 of us were travelling together and I understood that there was a problem with the seating. I said that we didn't all have to sit together but would it be possible if one of us could sit with our son due to him only being 11.

She asked us to wait and I thanked her. We waited and waited and I was beginning to wonder if we were going to get on the flight at all. Then she called me up to speak to her again. She said that she had managed to get us seats where one of us (adults) would be able to sit with my son and the other adult was 2 aisles away. I thanked her very much and then she added and 'You will be in business'. It was fabulous - what a result :rotfl:
We had a great flight, could never afford that again.