This time last year I was booking my holiday to the Dominican Republic with my boyfriend & of course I do all the booking & he shows very little interest until he gets his tickets. At the time of booking both our tickets came to just less than £1000 so I decided we would go for a bit of an extra as it was a special trip our first holiday alone together & we wanted some thing to remember so I opted for the premium economy seats at the price of £195pp not telling my boyfriend I just gave him the final figures to pay. I booked through Portland direct online & thought little of it. About a month later I thought I would go on to the Thomson website (as Portland is an umbrella company of Thomson & they have their own everything!) & see what we would actually be getting for our money & to be honest I was a little disappointed. I didn't expect big things as I knew it was only a cheap price but I started to think that maybe I had wasted our money.
From what I could grasp we would be getting
An extra 5 inches legroom economy being 30inches & premium being 35 inches
One hour check in as apposed to the economy, which is at least 2 hours before
Priority boarding (so in other words we had to sit on the plane the longest!)
Wider seats
Footrest
Travel pack
Seat back video system (if not available free hand heldDVD)
Specially designed menu & selection of meals
Complimentary drinks It may look a lot written down in a list but I knew for a fact it wouldn't be a lot when we got on board.
I also found out that if you wanted to guarantee to sit together you would have to pay a further £10pp which I thought was daylight robbery what a cheek we have just paid an extra £195 & now your telling me we won't be sitting together. Well I soon dismissed this & thought what ever I've travelled in parties of before & we've always sat together this just a con (like I hadn't been conned enough!) There was also an extra charge if you need 37inches legroom £20 if you are flying short haul & £30 if you are travelling long haul. I was disgusted by this charge I mean legroom to me is not to important I like a little bum room if anything because I find it comfy to sit with my legs up to me not dangling on the floor, but in other peoples cases if they had paid extra for that legroom they need not have bothered they could have just paid an extra £30 for extra legroom. If I were one of these people I would have been flapping to say the least. When my invoice came later it also included a £10 meal charge which I know is
appropriate on all flights now you either pay to eat or buy from the trolley, but when you are buying a service which states specially designed menu what are you supposed to think? I was annoyed but more annoyed with myself for being so naive & it was going to be a nice holiday so tried to de stress about the whole thing & just look forward.
So here it comes Tuesday 5th July 2005 Me & my boyfriend are all packed & leaving for Birmingham airport we get their with about enough time for a 1 & a half hour check in & there is only a small queue so we join the end & patiently wait. I then spotted a premium check in counter, which was full of cabin crew checking in for the flight! Well what a cheek but this didn't bother me because I was thinking of my lovely holiday. After check in me & my boyfriend had a drink with my mum, dad & little sister & they knew about the premium seats & my dad asked me how much & before I could think I blurted out £200 & my boyfriends face oh dear he couldn't believe I didn't tell him but being him I knew he wouldn't be angry with me (well not yet anyway.)
After about 20 minutes we went through to departures & where called to the plane straight away I didn't even have time to get some thing to eat.
OUTBOUND Upon boarding the front of the plane I looked done the whole aircraft & ever seat looked exactly the same I couldn't tell the premium seats from the economy & everyone boarded from the front & as we where already seated it was really boring I heard a couple of people say oh this is the premium bit but don't know how they realised. Our seats may have extra leg room not that I had noticed it was still the cramped seats as in economy that I am used to I couldn't spot the difference & the chair where so uncomfortable they where upholstered in a multi coloured material with hardly any padding & for the recline well I can honestly say it was a head tilt which I remember on all the flights I have been on you could hardly call it an increased recline. The seats where set out in a two three two way just like in economy & the plane wasn't fatter In our cabin so it just shows that there is not increased bum room which I craved. The only good thing about it was the foot rest a little metal step that could be placed high so your legs where diagonal & not straight. My fears had come true our £200 had been washed down the drain! As you are excited though you try not to let things get you down so I just made everything sound great to my boyfriend saying oh look you get the pillow & blanket for you as soon as you board (didn't mention that everyone did) & he liked the fact that we got our own little remote control for the seat back TV's & music channels.
Once the plane started to take off there was the usual safety procedures & then we where given a glass of fresh orange which was quite nice & we where really excited so it all added to the affect. Once we where up on the air an announcement came round to say that they where selling the head phones for £3 I was shocked I thought after all this money we will even have to pay for our headphones but then they brought everyone one in the premium section there's which where free (well I should think so as well!) We soon realised we didn't have great seats either sure enough we got to sit together close to the front next to the window but my boyfriend TV kept pausing & flickering, we reported it to the cabin crew but as you can imagine they had better things to be getting on with. We had been in the air 15 minutes & my boyfriend was already telling me to write a complaint letter to get our money back. After a few minutes the drinks trolley came round & we just settled for a couple of cans of coke & a mini pot of Pringles, which set us back £1.50 ! What happened to the complimentary bag of nuts or cheese squares that you used to get when you had a drink? The programmes then began so we settled down to watch there where about 8 programmes on including Little Britain, My family & a coronation street special on the live of Deidre & Ken! All of which repeats that I had already seen. The main film that they plugged was Miss Congeniality 2 (which I had seen) & then because we where premium there was another two movies but they where that good I have never heard of them & settled on reading the Sun we had grabbed on the way to the plane. The cabin crew then came round to ask if we wanted Chicken or Beef & onion we both chose Beef after about an hour into the flight they brought us our lunch at 11am I must say we did enjoy It there was a fruit juice, two sweet little choccies in a box (very much like ferero Roche) then there was the usual cup for tea or coffee, fresh salmon in a little box of salad & a piece of strawberry cake. The beef was succulent but as usual the vegetable where mush but on the whole very enjoyable & my boyfriend loves food so this went down a hit. After eating we settled into the movie (you have to do some thing on a 9 hour flight) & in the end I eventually dropped off for about an hour & awoke to find they hadn't brought any drinks round so I pressed my buzzer & they brought me some water but as soon as I did this the whole plane where pressing there buzzers lol I started off a frenzy but I think because the drinks are free why shouldn't you take advantage of this after all this is what we paid for. About three hours before we landed we started to get peckish & where not sure whether we would be fed again & there was no sign of the drinks trolley all the cabin crew where determined to do where sell you a load of overpriced duty free. I very grouchy & buzzed to get another drink but they never came & then nearly everyone was buzzing & still no answer (what bad service being ignorant!) I think in the end they got the hint & brought the drinks trolley round & announced it would be the final time. Is it me or do you need more than 3 drinks in 9 hours especially when you are advise to drink plenty to avoid the big DVT! The cabin crew didn't seem to really be bothered about what we wanted more like what they wanted to do.
Two hours left to land & they decide to bring around a small box for everyone I thought it may be our travel pack but no it was a food parcel that everyone on board was getting it consisted of a cob, slice of cheese, butter, a small sachet of branston pickle, a couple of celebrations chocolates, a scone with clotted cream & jam & a small cup of sealed over orange juice. Sounds good but was very dry & just left me even thirstier. When this was packed away we where then told to put on our seat belts for landing we got all excited & thought wow we are landing early. After all that my boyfriend decided he needed the loo & so did a few others all in which where greeted with a scowl from the cabin crew & told to hurry up. My boyfriend was the last to go & by this time the cabin crew where getting grouchy & as soon as he shut the door one air stewardess was rapping on the door telling him to hurry up! This made me think we where going to land quite soon but as soon as he sat down the pilot announce that we would be landing shortly approx 45 minutes! Well you can imagine my boyfriends face at that, not very happy.
INBOUND Coming home was a lot better than going out which was quite nice as soon as we got onboard we where given a complimentary newspaper (which everyone had) & our orange juice again & we where then offered another free set of headphones. I am glad to say the cabin crew where much more attentive & brought the drinks trolley round about 4 times & would always come if you rang the bell. They seemed a lot more focused on customer service than ramming the duty free down the aisle. On the way back we where given a choice of Steak or Fish we chose steak & thoroughly enjoyed it again the meals where a nice treat this time we had the steak, vegetables & mashed potato, a drink of juice a chocolate moose, cheese & biscuits & a fresh salad (that wasn't too fresh) I personally don't mind aeroplane food anyway but this was a treat. We also got our free travel pack on the way back about half way through the flight which consisted of a plastic Thomson bag in the shape of an eye patch that you use to sleep you got one of those eye masks, a flannel, tooth brush, tooth paste, lip balm, hand cream & bright green travel socks. Overall the flight home was good the only thing that I didn't like was the fact that there was 3 different films again Hitch (which was good) A sharks tale (which my boyfriend liked) & Million dollar baby (which I really liked) but these where all played three times on different channels so none of the programmes where on & I ended up watching Hitch twice I was that bored. I know they are good films but I wouldn't have minded watching some of the programmes because by the end of the flight they had ran out of time to show them all, but I suppose we can't complain as our TV's where in working order. Towards the end of the flight instead of getting a food parcel we where given a hot breakfast which I couldn't eat because I never have liked aeroplane breakfasts but my boyfriend did & finally this was an extra economy didn't get they just had another food parcel not sure what was in those but what ever it was it was cold.
After this flight I have learnt a lot do not buy some thing just for the sake of it, as it will never be what you expect. I know it was only £195 & you get what you pay for blah blah but I was very disappointed I am no snob I suppose that is what happens when you get carried away in the moment & my boyfriend never mentioned it when we got back so the flight home must have made up for it. I wouldn't recommend flying premium economy it just isn't worth it the little extras are nice but not worth £195! After the flight out I was quite angry at the way where treated & was thinking of writing to Thomson or Portland but to be honest I couldn't be bothered & knew that I wouldn't get a satisfactory answer from them so I didn't even bother!
Sorry if I have put anyone off but I am sure there are better companies out there but if anyone else has some premium economy stories from any airline I would be pleased to hear them.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I honestly cant see what your moaning about, i have travelled in thomson premium for the past 3 years and have been thrilled by the service. You can tell the difference in seats, trust me 12 hours to san fransisco on BA economy aint nice!!! Definitely worth the added expense!
Paul99ine 30.09.2005 09:43
A very interesting review. Quite a rip - off you experienced. Pauline.
darkangelwing 22.09.2005 17:40
Another fab review, i usually have a fab time on planes the food delicious the leg room seems to be deteriating though tskkk, a fab review, very well done, nice elegant style(-:
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