I came to be flying by Monarch Airlines after booking a holiday to Egypt with Cosmos (both these reviews to come later). As you can imagine it was quite a long journey departing from Manchester at 10.00 am and arriving in Egypt at about 5.30 p.m. our time. To do my review I’ve broken it down into the following sections the plane including legroom, the staff, in-flight meals etc, and entertainment.
PLANE INCLUDING LEGROOM
Outbound Flight **** **** ****
On the outbound and returning flight we were in an Airbus A300-603R, my initial thought of the plane was that it was quite small looking and when I got inside I was not disappointed in spite of the fact the plane seats 361 people. We were in row 10 I say we were in row 10 meaning we were squashed into the row it seemed that legroom had been given over to an extra row of seats.
I am roughly 5’8 and was squashed if the person sitting in front of me had put their seat back they would have created problems as they would have damaged my knees. Believe it or not their was a bloke who was nearly hitting 7 foot on our flight and they put him in one of these rows and he had to sit with his legs apart for most of the flight.
Also if you are of a slightly larger build you will be really uncomfortable my mum is a size 18 and found the seats really narrow with no room for give I must admit I am a size 14/16 And also found very little room for movement. And for those of you who are saying well at least you could get up and walk around on the plane WRONG the rows were extremely narrow and due to the amount of rows of seating movement during flight could only be restricted to toilet visits.
One good point was that the plane was clean.
Return Flight *** **** **
Again the return flight was on the same type of plane this time however we were allocated seats at the front of the plane which had a lot more legroom and the seats had more room to wiggle in as well. Even though again you couldn’t really get up and walk about at least you could stretch the best seats though were the seats on the emergency exit which is where they placed the bloke who was 7 footish but even then he said that the width wasn’t much better.
I can definitely say that the return flight was definitely more comfortable than the outgoing flight. STAFF
What can I say about the flight attendants let me see on the outbound flight I wonder if they had heard of customer service? They were sullen and not very helpful and the only time you really seen them was when they at the beginning of the flight, when handing out the meal and doing the bar and when doing the in-flight service. The majority of the time they could be found behind the curtain gossiping between themselves. On the plus side however they were well turned out.
Again the return flight wins for staff as they actually smiled well most of them anyway and for some of them at least there was no trouble, however despite the fact it was a night flight and departed Egypt at 7.30 p.m. not arriving back in the UK until 2.30 a.m. they were no blankets onboard. Upon asking one flight attendant my mum was ignored and was given a look that was like why are you asking me can’t you tell it’s too much trouble for me. However upon asking another flight attendant 15 minutes later we were informed that they had no blankets on board but she would ask the pilot to turn the heat up which he thankfully did, also you did see the flight attendants more on the return flight.
INFLIGHT MEALS & Entertainment
I have to say that I enjoyed the in-flight meal, probably more on the outward flight than the return flight but they were both quite nice. On the outward flight it was pasta salad as a starter with beef and potatoes for the main followed by a fruit tart in custard for dessert and cheese and biscuits. On the return flight it was tuna pasta starter, chicken and veggies for the main, chocolate gateau for dessert again with cheese and biscuits. The downside was that if you wanted soft drinks water, juice etc. you had to pay for it the average price being 75p for soft drinks and £1 for water.
For entertainment a word of advice take a book, there is in-flight entertainment but unless you are lucky enough to be sat in front of a screen only in the middle row you will struggle to see the screen and end up with neck cramp. The films we watched were (ore tried to) wee not that good and the stuff played to fill time was reruns of porridge or the vicar of Dibley. Not worth the £1 for headphones.
Well I hope this review has been informative and if you can think of any ways it could be improved please let me know.
More details
Class flown most frequently
Economy
How often do you travel with this airline
First time
Where did you book
Travel Agent/Tour Operator
Safety
Good
How well does it cater for disabled people
Don't know
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