This year for my summer holiday I travelled to the gorgeous Island of Fuerteventura. I booked the holiday as a package deal with Thomas Cook and the flight which they offered me was with the company "Futura International Airline"
I am not going to give individual prices as more often than not this changes all the time, depending on how many are travelling etc. What I am going to describe is my experience flying with Futura.
As I booked with Thomas Cook, and it was an all inclusive package deal I didn't have a choice as to which airline I would be travelling with. I had never heard of Futura before, but then again I had never travelled to Spain.
On arrival at Glasgowairport (my chosen departure) We arrived about 2 and a half hours prior to our departure time, (really good flight times departing Glasgow at 4:40pm on a Wednesday, departing Fuerteventura at 9:30am on a Wednesday) The flight takes around 4-4:30 hrs to arrive at its destination. Checking in was very quick and efficient, there wasn't a huge queue at first but more people did join after me, but it all went very smoothly. The staff at check-in were friendly and bid us a safe journey. After checking in, and getting our boarding passes etc, we made our way to have our lunch in the airport. Then we browsed some of the duty free shops…bought some drinks and snacks for the flight as we had declined to pay the meal surcharge.
Then we went through the search and my bag got searched…lovely! Only because my son's medication was in it though, which I had declared, they just wanted to check though so I didn't mind. Can never be too careful! Soon we were sitting in the departure lounge awaiting our flight call, and it appeared on the board, telling us which gate to go to.
So off we trotted to the gate. We had our passports and boarding passes checked and soon got on the plane, no one showed us to our seats, so we were left to try find them ourselves…ours being right at the back of the plane right next to the toilets….nice! The seating arrangements were in the 3/3 formation…so quite a small plane really. I had expected the 2/3/2. Not to worry this meant that both my children and I were seated together and we had a window seat. It was my daughter's first time flying and she was very excited. Son pretended he wasn't excited at all, as he had flown a few times before but he couldn't hide his excitement very well as he talked non stop lol.
The staff on board the flight were all Spanish, or at very least definitely non British. It was sometimes difficult to understand some of them as it was obvious that their English wasn't perfect. But this didn't pose any real problems. They went through the usual safety procedures, then there was an announcement that passengers were asked not to eat any nuts aboard the flight as they had a passenger travelling today who was allergic (my son) and then the in-flight movie was announced. There were 2 TV screens on each side of the plane, one at front and one halfway. As we were sitting at the back the one half way was closest, and we could see it just fine, although my children did have to sit up on their knees to see it. The film shown on the way out was Alvin and the Chipmunks. We purchased 3 pairs of earphones for 2 euros each (why aren't these supplied free?) Once the movie was done we listened to some of the music channels.
There wasn't a lot of legroom where we were sitting and even for my 5'1" size I felt a bit cramped. My son and daughter were fine, and even had their small bags with their PSP and NDS at their feet most of the time. Also our seats didn't go back at all, possibly because we were sitting at the back…So very uncomfortable if you wanted to nap. No pillows or blankets were offered at any time and I didn't see anyone else get any. But then again it wasn't cold. We opted out of meals but from what we could see, other people got the usual meat, potatoes and veg. and glass of fruit juice. The hostess came round a couple of times with snacks and drinks for purchasing and also came around about half hour before landing with duty free goods. On the flight out I experienced no real problems apart from being a bit annoyed at people shoving past me to get in and out the toilets all the time. But to be fair this couldn't be helped as the aisles were fairly narrow.
On arrival at our destination, we were shown off the plane and into the airport bus to take us to the airport. We retrieved our suitcases…although it did take us some time, and my small suitcase was quite bashed, which I was very annoyed about as I had only just bought it. Whether this happened at Glasgow or on arrival I will never know. We then met our Thomas Cook rep who showed us where to get our bus.
Checking into Fuerteventura airport on the way home was pretty much the same as in Glasgow, no queue, quick efficient and friendly staff, with our rep helping out at the check in desk, My luggage was very slightly over the baggage allowance of 15kg per person, but it was overlooked…even though I had been told that they were extremely strict here about baggage weights. But to be fair it was only about a kilo in total over. (46kg for the 3 of us)
So we had another quick look at duty free, buying some snacks again for the flight and some breakfast as we hadn't had time for breakfast in the hotel. We boarded the flight with no problems, managed to get through the search without being accosted this time, and only then did I look at my boarding passes, I thought we would have been sitting at the back of the plane again but this time we were seated a good few seats down and on the opposite side. This meant the TV screen was closer and we were a good bit away from the toilets. We re-used our earphones to save a few pounds. Soon meals were served and the hostess leaned over to make sure we were the passengers with the nut allergy…I informed her we were (my son is allergic to all nuts) and she handed me a specially prepared meal…I informed her that we hadn't paid for meals and she said don't worry we have extras. So we ended up getting free meals on the return…which was a nice touch. Albeit these meals were the usual meat, potato and veg micro-nuked rubbish that aeroplanes insist on serving.
My son asked the hostess for a coke when the trolley came around later, and I asked for a white coffee. We were ignored! The hostess walked right past us, and when I asked again a little more loudly in case she hadn't heard us, she gave us a look of total contempt! Not only was this very rude but it was very unprofessional. Maybe she was having an off day, but that's no excuse really in my book. We then waited a good 10 minutes at least before she came back and almost chucked a can of coke and plastic tumbler at my son, and thumped the coffee cup onto my tray which meant it splashed over me a bit. It was just as well it wasn't piping hot or I would have been burnt! I threw a look of total anger at her, but she just walked away oblivious to it. Nil points for her! The rest of the staff though couldn't be faulted in any way, one man in particular went out of his way to be friendly to people, asking if everything was ok now and again, chatting to children as they passed on way to toilet etc. I can't recall what the in-flight movie was on the return flight as I was engrossed in the book I was reading, and my children were sleeping for most of it. But it couldn't have been that interesting or I would have watched it. On arrival at Glasgow airport the staff thanked us for travelling with them, except the sulky one…whom I suspect had been reprimanded by someone as she looked positively fuming. We got through customs with no problems and located our suitcases quickly and easily.
To sum up my travels with Futura I would say it went quite smoothly with no delays, and apart from one member of staff was quite a friendly flight both ways, with no real problems. The fact that my son's nut allergy was announced to the passengers was good, and that we got free meals on the return flight was an added bonus. The aisles were narrow and slightly cramped and seating wasn't that great either, although I am sure the seats at the front of the plane looked more spacious, I am sure that if you asked for more leg room at time of booking you would have got these seats. All in all I would choose to travel with Futura again, but just remember if you are tall or have long legs ask for more legroom or you'll end up feeling very uncomfortable!
Thanks for reading Michelle (Oct08) (also appears on Dooyoo)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Not head of this airline. Rude flight attendant should be really well told off. Sue
frankiecesca 16.10.2008 12:43
Great review with lots of details - I like that they made sure passengers were made aware about the allergy although shame about the rude hostess! x
kirstymack80 16.10.2008 12:36
I agree with susie191! How rude was that 'flight attendant'?! Not sure I'd like this airline as I'm tall and it sounds a bit too 'cozy' for my liking!! KM
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