Ooooh, its hapened again! Split with wife, moved house, no internet till end of August! Still, at le...
Ooooh, its hapened again! Split with wife, moved house, no internet till end of August! Still, at least I wont have to face the mother in law again! Just hope she hasn't put a spell on me! Catch up soon...
Member since:27.10.2005
Reviews:13
Members who trust:8
I flew with Thomson last year when I took my family to Tenerife on a package holiday, which I booked through the company's high street travel shop. The holiday was great, but here I am reviewing the actual flights, which were part of the package.
We flew from Gatwick to Tenerife, in the Spanish ruled Canary Islands. The predicted flight time was four and a half hours.
THE OUTBOUND JOURNEY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We were due to fly around seven in the evening, and were expecting to be settled in our hotel by one o'clock in the morning. However, this is where the problems began, and we hadn't even left the departure lounge.........
Shortly before being called to board, we were told that our aircraft, a Boeing 767/ 200, was not being allowed to fly due to a failed safety check.
I wanted to go home. I was a roadside recovery technician at the time, and the thought of mechanical failure thirty thousand feet above terra firma sent shivers down my spine. I had visions of my immediate family being wiped out in a plane crash, and that's when I regretted not taking the mother in law!
But it wasn't that serious, the Thomson staff explained, after about twenty minutes. The warning light that is supposed to illuminate in the event of undercarriage failure had failed, and a switch needed replacing. A new part was being flown down from Stanstead, and could we please go back to the duty free area, and wait for the flight to
be called again.
No offer of food or drink, just sit and wait for three hours.
We were served a meal mid- flight, which was quite tasty, and not at all bad considering where we were. I was pleasantly surprised. The only drawback was that I am overweight, and I couldnt fold the tray down properly ( the small piece of plastic loosely attached to the back of the seat in front ), because it dug into my stomach. I am not enormous, and I asked the person behind if they minded me moving the seat position back slightly, they were fine.
The food did not fill me up though, and the children were too tired to eat. Considering that I had paid extra for the meals, I wasn't too impressed.
Without going into too much detail, we eventually arrived at the hotel about four in the morning, very tired, hot, hungry and thirsty. No arrangements had been made to feed us, and there was nowhere open. I didnt sleep, and as far as I was concerned, had lost the first night of my holiday. I had at least expected a couple of drinks in the bar...........
I do, of course, realise that some people have experienced far worse than this, but that didn't make it any better. It was as if nobody from Thomson really cared, and although the statutory apologies were made on behalf of the company, the representatives did not sound very sincere.
THE RETURN JOURNEY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is where I really got angry. The return flight was due to land around three o'clock in the morning, and I was wide awake. I couldnt drink, because I had to drive home from Gatwick, and I was a bit fed up because I didn't want to go home. Feeling fidgety and on edge, we were stuffed onto the aircraft more or less on time, and took off without any problems.
During the flight, my six year old daughter needed the toilet, and wasn't allowed to leave her seat- the stewardesses were doing their department store bit, and trying to flog a load of expensive tat from a couple of trolleys. My daughter was told to wait until the trolleys were gone before she could get past, and she ended up in tears, because the manner in which she was spoken to gave her the impression that she was being told off. It was only when I quietly told one of the stewardesses that unless they made an effort to let little Alex past, she would have to go to toilet where she sat, that they reluctantly made way for her. A couple of the passengers commented aloud, ( in my favour), and maybe thats why the following episode took place.
After the in flight meal had been served, I took out a book, and tried to read. Getting a stiff neck, I folded the tray down in front of me, and rested the book on it. I was quite comfortable, until the moron in front of me suddenly reclined his seat as far as he could, without so much as looking behind him.
I was amazed at his ignorance. The book was pushed into my neck, and the tray dug into my stomach. I couldn't even fold up the tray, it was that far in. I am 19 stone and big boned, but not Massive.
Moron Face didn't have a clue what he had done. And his chavvy looking girfriend had her head buried into a magazine, probably drooling over a picture of Becks in his boxers or something.....
Not wanting to cause a scene, I somehow extracted an arm from the squashed up stuff beneath my chest, ( narrowly avoiding giving poor little Alex a dig in the head with my elbow ), and rang for a stewardess.
Guess who turned up? Yes, one of the phantom isle blockers. I quietly explained the problem, ( as if it wasn't hard to see ), and asked her if she would be kind enough to ask the lovely gentleman in front of me to re- position his seat so that I could breathe normally, as I thought that it would be more polite coming from her.
BIG mistake.
I remember her words exactly. Verbatum.
She looked at me like I was a naughty schoolboy, and said,
very patronisingly:
"Why don't you recline your seat and just go to sleep like everybody else- its half past one in the morning!"
WHAT?
What did she say?....
I must have gone purple. In the end, I had no choice. I put my arms on the back of the headrest in front of me, and pushed sharply and as hard as I could.
The moron woke up with a start, and looked behind at me. I said sorry, but I couldn't breathe properly, and would-he-mind-moving-forward-a-bit-please.
He started whining, and it ended up with me being sat at the rear of the aircraft with the stewardess, as this was the only way I could be reasonably comfortable. I was very angry, but contained myself, until some smart alec steward suggested that next time I should pay for extra legroom!
The whole thing was very embarrasing, and the rest of the flight was spent by people staring at me as they went to the loo. I was sent back to my seat for the landing, and the moron adjusted his seat to let me in.
I wil never fly with this company again. I wrote a letter of complaint, but had no reply.
Extra legroom seats can be booked in advance, and they are usually the front seats, and the seats directly adjacent to the wings on each side of the aircraft, although the only reason they have extra legroom is because they are also the passenger access to the emergency exits, which is why they are further away from the seats in front of them.
On some budget airlines, where seats are not allocated, if you are lucky, you can get one of these seats at no extra cost, by getting to check-in early. These airlines offer a first come, first serve boarding policy.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COMPANY... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The airline began as Euravia in 1962. This turned into Brittania Airways, which in 2005 was rebranded as Thomsonfly.
The travel agent division was Lunnpolly, and Thomson were originally tour operators, but now the three companies are all part of German based TUI AG, the world's largest holiday company.
The company now operates a complete online holiday and flight booking service, as well as a large nationwide chain of walk-in travel shops.
I would like to add that the staff who booked my holiday, and the reps that I met on holiday, were all fantastic, and it was only the cabin crew on the flights that I had problems with. Maybe they are trained seperately, I don't know.
One thing is for sure. I will not be going back for more......
good detailed review, but cannot fault thomson airways at all, fly with them all the time. Cabin crew are trained separately to those who work for the tour operator and the travel advisors in the high street shops.
pefidler 12.08.2007 13:56
Poor customer service (and why should you expect anything less in the UK). I fly with scheduled airlines and book my own hotels. Okay, it;'s a little more expensive, but worth it from a sanity perspective!
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Jul 21st, 2007
very helpful by (96%):
helpful by (2%):
somewhat helpful by (2%):
