Hi guys, I'm 30 & live with my hubby and fat cat in Coventry, although I'm from Sunny (?) Wolverhamp...
Hi guys, I'm 30 & live with my hubby and fat cat in Coventry, although I'm from Sunny (?) Wolverhampton originally. My fave topics for reviews are holidays, hotels and travel - my all time favourite pastime, although I do diversify ocassionally! Enjoy!
Member since:02.04.2004
Reviews:33
Members who trust:4
After making the decision to go to Las Vegas for our summer holiday, my boyfriend and I set about looking for the best (and most convenient) flights available. To travel for a week in June we were looking the region of £500-£600 for direct flights with Virgin, BA et al, and even flights which included lengthy transfers were around £450.
It's easy to seen then, why we were so impressed when we stumbled across My Travel Airways, who were offering direct weekend flights on their internet site from Manchester to Las Vegas for the bargain basement price of £264 including all taxes. We'd heard of My Travel (formerly Airtours) before and had flown with their budget-airline arm, My Travel Lite on a couple of occasions before, so were happy to book with them. We read the small print looking for the 'catch', but couldn't find one, other than the fact that that this flight-only arrangement didn't provide a meal. That said, however, on booking, we found that we were charged a total of £279 each, which included a meal. This extra charge didn't bother us too much, however, and so we proceeded to reserve our places on the plane and arrange our hotels,
car hire etc separately.
The first shock came when our tickets arrived, stating in bold letters that our baggage allowance was … 15kg each. That's only 3 times a standard hand luggage allowance! Now I never take an excessive amount on holiday, but that sounded quite small, so I checked out the weight of what I had planned to take with me. This turned out to be about 20kg and my boyfriend's bag was also 18kg. Bearing in mind that's before you buy any presents or treats for yourself on holiday, I immediately called the (national rate) number on the invoice to enquire about whether this was correct and whether it could be increased or not.
A total of 3 calls (I was cut off twice) and approximately 40 minutes later (I was put on hold A LOT) I finally managed to speak to someone who seemed to know what he was talking about. However, all 3 agents I spoke to were rude, aggressive and entirely unhelpful. They all claimed that this had been clearly stated on the website at the time that I booked (it was not) and that the only options I had were to a) only take 15kg each; b) take more and pay around £4 per kilo extra IF there was capacity at the time we checked in (if there was no capacity any excess would have to be left at the airport either here or, if there was no capacity on the return leg of the journey the excess would have to be sent via courier separately); or c) pay £90-150 each extra to upgrade to PremAir plus and thereby increase our baggage allowance to 30kg each. However, the capacity for upgrades would be unknown until we checked in and if I chose this option I would have to take the chance they had spare room when I got to the airport. If not, see option b.
Faced with that 'choice' we had no choice but to play it safe (particularly as we live 150 miles from the airport and were staying in an airport hotel the night before the flight) and so went through our luggage, cutting it down to a combined weight of around 20kg.
When we arrived at the airport we soon realised that unhelpful staff was what My Travel did best, both at check-in and on the plane itself. All of the air-stewards/stewardesses were rude, the meal and any drinks we ordered were flung at us and it was almost impossible to understand a word that was being said by the air-staff over the intercom.
The 10 hour flight itself was smooth and the landing was gentle. We took off on time on our outbound flight and, despite being delayed for almost an hour on the way back, made up the time and landed at Manchester only 10 minutes after the scheduled arrival time. However, the plane itself was old, small, cramped and fairly dirty. The temperature on the plane was quite high also. The seating formation was a standard 2/3/2 but the seat pitch was horrific, and it was almost impossible to get any sleep at all. This wouldn't have been a problem on, say, a 2 hour flight to Malaga, but on a 10 hour flight to the USA it's a different matter!
I am a frequent flier, both long and short haul, with both budget and superior airlines, and don't believe that my expectations of a standard level of service on a long-haul flight are excessive. Basically: I don't expect to be charged £1 for a tiny bottle of water, particularly in light of recent medical advice to drink plenty of water on long haul flights. I do expect to be able to see a TV screen (no seat-back screens here and even aside from the centre screen not working, neither I, nor many more passengers in the cabin were within easy sight of any of the (pathetic) 4 tiny screens per cabin). I don't believe in being charged £2.50 for the privilege of being able to watch the films or listen to the radio stations. I also don't believe in being abruptly told by the cabin staff that I am not meant to read while the seatbelt signs are on during take-off and landing, as it is a distraction (!!!???).
On the return flight home we did enquire about PremAir as we were concerned at the thought of the tiny cramped standard seats and worried about the excess weight from all of the bargains we'd picked up on our holidays! We were told that the upgrade would cost $200 USD each (around £110-ish each) and would include free drinks throughout the flight, but the seats were exactly the same - save that in the centre block of 3 seats the middle seat was blocked out …. Suffice to say we declined, especially as our joint luggage weighed in at 30kg exactly!
While I'd never say never about travelling with My Travel again - their prices certainly are a lot cheaper than their competitors and are therefore ideal if you're on a tight budget - I wish I'd been more aware of the poor quality of the service and plane conditions. If you're thinking of going on the cheap, prepare for the worst, take plenty of your own food & drink and lots to read and do on the plane in case you can't see a TV (but don't read it during take-off or landing!!) and don't hold out any hope for any sleep en route!
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May 31st, 2005
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