This is going to sound very much like a rant but this all due to the terrible experiences on board Thomas Cook Airlines. The first time i flew with Thomas Cook was a few years ago when going to Florida. I arrived at the airport very excited as this was my first long haul flight. After waiting in the checkout queue for well over an hour with no explaination for the delay, a solitary Thomas Cook rep came out with a pile of letters, gave them to the person at the front of the queue and told them to take one and pass it on before the rep promptly disappeared again. The letter told us that there had been a delay to our flight, a 23hr 50 mins delay. Fortunately we were put in a 5 starhotel for the night but it was no consolation for missing a day in Florida. On the way back a similar thing happened when we had a 5hr delay and again there was no Thomas Cook rep in sight. On returning to the UK we found out why the 23 hour delay was caused. An airliner in Canada had broken down so Thomas Cook loaned one of its aircraft to it as the payment they recieved as compensation from the other airline was more than the cost of putting us up in a hotel for the night. Not really doing much in the way of making its own customers happy. But what made us even more infuriated was the 23hr 50min delay meant we could not claim compensation as it has to be a 24hr delay. A bit sneaky and underhand from Thomas Cook i think.
The second experience i had with them was slightly better with no problems when leaving the UK. However coming back was a different matter. There were no delays but the cabin staff were very unhelpful and quite rude. We were told that we were not allowed to go into the galley area at the back of the aircraft to reach the rear toilet. This was fair enough. However they blocked the access point we should have taken to get to the rear toilet with cardboard boxes which meant that people had to walk all the way down the aircraft and all the way back up to go the rear toilet. An inconvienence. What is not an inconvienence is the fact that these cardboard boxes blocked a potentail escaper route from the aircraft if there were any problems. This is just dangerous and totally unacceptable. Then when i did go to the toilet i went to the one in the middle of the aircraft which was downstairs so i joined the queue on the stairs. I was then told by an rather pompous air steward to 'Get off the Stairs'. No please and not a hint of politeness. Not what i call friendly at all and totally unacceptable especially because up until that point we had not been told not to stand on the stairs and the queue was caused by them blocking a fire escape.
At the start of the flight we were told to drink lots of water during the flight but we were only offered a cup of water twice during the flight because for the most part all the attendants did was stand in the galley and talk. I ask if this is the norm for a flight attendant crew during a flight because i was not impressed by their work rate at all.
So i urge you not to travel with Thomas Cook who are rude and not interested in customer satisfaction, but just the money they can make. Choose a different airline please!
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Aug 31st, 2008
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