I have used them regularly over the past four years and 'touch wood' have not had too many problems.
They are certainly not the cheapest no frills airline, but have excellent service, and a good record of departing on time. I have only ever had one small delay for 30 minutes on the tarmac, while the air-conditioning was fixed.
So off to the web. www.flymonarch.com
Their website is easy to navigate, choose your airport, destination and date and the site will usually show you a choice of days and times, both for departure and return. Click on your preferred flight times and continue to the next page, this is where those naughty 'add ons' appear. While I understand
that the advertised prices are before taxes it can still be quite a shock at the end, observe!
Pre allocation of seats: You do not have to pick your seats and can leave it until you check in at the airport, however, if it is during the school holidays or at busy times, beware! Not more than a couple of months ago we were approached by a desperate family of 6, including three young children who were going to have to sit in different areas of the plane, they wanted to swap seats with us as we had pre-booked 6 together. Unfortunately for them, I am not at my best at 6.00am in the morning, do not like airports and do not want to be separated from my family either, needless to say, we had to put up with three children running up and down the plane for the majority of the flight!
To actually book your seats you have a map of the inside of the plane and you click where you want to sit. This is extremely handy for us as a couple of the rows have one extra leg room and two standard seats, perfect if you and you partner are fairly 'normal' in size and your 'grumpy teenager' is about 6 foot 3!!
Costs are: Standard seats £5.00 per person each way Extra legroom £15.00 per person each way Extra legroom Cyprus and Canary Isle £20.00
Starting to get a bit pricier already!
Next is baggage and Monarch have jumped on the 'bandwagon' and started to charge for hold baggage. The cost is £3.99 per bag each way or £10.00 if you do not pre-book and pay at the airport!
Hmm bit more expensive now!
Then the killer! Credit card charges, oh yes! £1.75 per passenger each way, which adds a whopping £10.50 to our bill for three people, if that isn't enough they also levy a 50p per passenger each way for debit cards. That really annoys me as you cannot pay by cheque, so in reality you have to be charged either one way or another. The only cards they do not charge for are Solo or Electron.
A little more expensive!
In fact all the extras added over £70.00 to our return flights to Spain next year!
Once you decide to go ahead, you set up an account with Monarch, this is simple and just takes a couple of minutes. Every time you book flights in the future it remembers your details, so you do not have to keep filling them in! You can also use your account to change flights or details. Of course these changes do cost, no surprise there, £20 for a name change and £15.00 pp each way for a flight change plus any fare increase.
So you decide to go, enter card details and book your flights, quite easy really!
Another thing you can do using you account is to check in online, but only from Gatwick, Manchester, Luton and Birmingham for now. This involves answering the usual questions (have you packed your own bags etc) and printing off a boarding card. There is NO charge for this service but (there is always a but) you must have pre-booked your seats. You can do this 24 hours before your flight and then drop your bags at the 'fast bag' drop at the airport. Sounds good doesn't it? Well there is a wee problem, the last time we did this the 'fast bag' drop was also the check-in desk for Monarch Advantage Club members (more later!) and there were a lot of them, so we still ended up queuing for ages.
So now we have booked and checked in and it's off to the plane. Monarch do not mess about when it comes to boarding, the quicker they get you on the plane, the more chance they have of sneaking an earlier spot and flying off early, so please do not hang around the airport lounge too long! Last time we flew, we were back in the UK nearly an hour early!
Monarch use Airbus A330-200 Airbus A300-600 Airbus A321-200 Airbus A320-200 Boeing B757-200 Boeing B767-300
This means nothing to me, but I thought some of you may like to know!
On board: The planes are usually clean and tidy and are decorated in purple and yellow, looks nicer than it sounds! The usual safety talks take place and you are off. Drinks and snacks are quite pricy, but are served with a smile in a plastic cup. Can someone tell me why a gin and tonic in a little clear plastic cup tastes so wonderful on an airplane? Then you will be handed a menu. Usually I hate airplane food, but I have to admit I enjoy Monarch's. There is quite a good choice and it is always fresh and tasty.
Before 11.00am the breakfast menu usually contains a full English with roll and butter and tea or coffee for £5.00, a healthy veggie option with fresh fruit for the same price, a light option of cornflakes, muffin (light!) and a cereal bar for £3.00 and a good bacon panini for £3.50.
The main meals usually consist of a starter, usually a salad, a meat or veggie main and a pudding such as cheesecake or mousse, with the obligatory roll and butter, cheese and biccies and a chocolate! All for £6.00
Other options include freshly made sandwiches at £3.50 or hot paninis for the same price.
The food is much better than the in-flight entertainment! Seriously it is fairly awful, with old BBC repeats and a few ads thrown in, however, the earphones are free (You do have to give them back) so you might as well tune in, you can always listen to the radio although the 1980's disco hits I can do without.
Finally, yes I have nearly finished, do try and control your bladder as the toilet run is not an easy feat! The aisles are constantly filled with the trolley dollies but after you have eaten the dreaded gift trolleys make an appearance! One from each end each filled with watches, perfume and models of the plane. They will not move and if you get stuck behind one you may never make it back to your seat!
Overall I do like to travel with Monarch; I just wish these airlines were more up front with their charges. They seem to take customer care seriously. As I travel short haul I cannot comment on the comfort of the long haul flights but the shorter ones are just about managable as it is only 2 or 3 hours. If you travel regularly with them you can join their frequent travellers club (Vantage) with which, over time you can build up points for free flights (hmm the 'free' doesn't ring true) but you can also get an extra baggage allowance, use of executive lounge and other benefits, we shall see!
Flybe which operate from our local airport are a bit similar, but no in flight entertainment whatsoever. Happily as you say with short haul flights this is not too serious. Thorough review, thanks......Sue
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Advantages: Quality of British Airways!, Great on-board service!. Disadvantages: Pretty expensive as only recognised airline company which flies to Gibraltar!
Martin_Lee20 20.07.2000 ·
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Review of GB Airways
Oct 10th, 2007
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