V-Flyer

Evening,

I'm increasingly tempted by these late offers by Thomson. They've been as low as £160 and currently sat at £220pp. We are able to fly next week and could have an enjoyable fortnight in Florida...

This sounds awful, but out of my last ten long haul flights, 90% have been in UC and the other one in PE.

The thought of flying with them and then, in economy, genuinely brings on the cold sweats.

Has anyone here flown with them and what is it like?!

Mike

At the outset I will say i have never used Thomson to travel to Florida.

However on my recent visit, I was intrigued by the number of people i spoke with who had changed allegiance from VS - of course one of the plus points being their availability from local airports.

On my return, I have done a bit of You Tube trawling and I have to say from what I have seen, the Thompson Premium product does bear up well to PE. Access to the No1 Lounge at Gatwick and a fairly good menu will no doubt influence a few.

buns

If legroom is important, Seatguru says Thomson economy has 33" seat pitch - 2" more than VS or BA. Premium, on the other hand, has only 36" - 2" less than VS or BA.

At the end of the day I think most economy products are much of a muchness so it really comes down to price. It's only in the premium cabins where the airlines try to differentiate between their products.

There are two schools of thought; Mine and Mrs D's

Mine: It's only an eight hour flight and I can cope in Economy. My money can be better spent elsewhere such as on better car hire. (I like luxury cars)

Mrs D: My back hurts. I can't sit for 8 hours if I can't go Upper I'm not going.

So next years flight is already booked in Upper and done on miles so I've only paid £900 in tax and fees.
Hang on, my free flight is costing twice as much as I'd have to pay flying with Thompson?

I think there was a recent TR with someone flying Thompson.

Dick D

I've also noticed some really good deals with Thomas Cook at the moment, as low as £440 return direct during the school holidays, almost unheard of prices. The recent trip report was with Thomas Cook in PE not Thomson but I think they're much of a muchness viewtopic.php?f=21&t=293105

Upside of Thompson is they operate the 787, downside is they fly to Sanford so a bit of a longer journey on the other end. Sanford immigration tends to be quieter and quicker than MCO.

Fuzzy14 wrote:I've also noticed some really good deals with Thomas Cook at the moment, as low as £440 return direct during the school holidays, almost unheard of prices. The recent trip report was with Thomas Cook in PE not Thomson but I think they're much of a muchness viewtopic.php?f=21&t=293105

That explains why I couldn't find it on a search.
Dick D

Think it would give a cold sweat as well. You get what you pay for, upgrade seats with Thomson were ok last time we went to Orlando with them we did get the front seats with a bit more legroom, but as we are older we prefer comfort now so depends what age you are and width and height.

I am with Mrs Dotcom on this did Vegas last year in Premium and just about managed it. If price is the key factor driving you then a last minute deal is a no brainer. Also the extra time from Sanford to Orlando and the dreaded tolls.

We haven't flown with them, but I think that in the main, economy is economy. We like to fly PE/UC with Virgin, but as we had a 3rd long haul holiday last year, the budget would only stretch to economy and it was more than bearable. Yes, there are much nicer ways to travel, but ultimately it is 8 hours and unless you have something that would physically/mentally stop you from being able to do it, then I think some times if it means getting on holiday cheaply it's defiantly worth doing.

I spend a lot of time on the Trip Advisor Air Travel Forum, where 90% of the posters seem to fly with Thomson! They love it! They love the Dreamliner and honestly think it is manufactured by Thomson. Their Premium product seems very popular.

What I have gathered is that Thomson have a very strange 90 day seat booking procedure, whereby you can only chose seats 90 days before your homebound flight!? This of course, means that people going for shorter holidays, get a better seat choice. It's all very odd and something to look into IMHO if you do decide to fly with them.

It might be worth going onto the forum to get some ideas?

VS had a similar seat selection system until relatively recently. It was the source of much confusion here.

Hi

Flown Thomson 3 times in PE and once in E.

Pros
787 , much better than the LGW 747's
Price, just compare taxes charged by Thomson out of LGW and VS, a surprising difference
PE service is a good as VS, seats comfortable

Cons
like VS non raising arms in PE, but less legroom so difficult to get out of seat without disturbing your neighbour, alright if it's family but a bit awkward on return flight when everyone's trying to sleep

Economy no better or worse than VS

Flies into Sanford, I personally don't mind and stay local for the first night before going off to the beaches, but add 50 mins drive down to Orlando. however on the plus side getting through TSA and into a car is much quicker than MCO. Last trip I was in my car 30mins from exiting the plane. So you pays your money (often a lot less) and take your chances.

Still always prefer UC and back to Orlando on Saturday

Steve

Has anyone flown the Stansted to Sanford flight with Thomson as I would like some feedback.My son is visiting me and taking this flight.

I dont mind economy for 8 hrs
Also seen these low prices & tempted.... or an all inclusive to Turkey!

Lucky Suzy wrote:Has anyone flown the Stansted to Sanford flight with Thomson as I would like some feedback.My son is visiting me and taking this flight.

I would love this to become a regular schedule from Stansted and not just a seaonal flight.

I certainlty would use it, couldn't care less about booking an economy seat coz there are so many advanages for us.

Thank you all for your replies.

Since posting, a load of work came in two days later so we decided to leave it. A few other things we thought about when potentially booking these:

1. By the time you pay for luggage - HBO is very tight on Thomson - and by the time you pay for seats, the fares increase significantly. 52% to be precise!
2. We had no plans to go and the cheap fare was tempting us. We then thought that if we were that desperate to go we could have always booked reward economy seats with VS and enjoy the benefits of both being Gold. Yes this would have cost miles but it doesn’t exactly break the mileage bank for two economy seats to MCO.

They’ve had some good reports on this thread but with the above reasons alone, I think I’ll stick to VS.

Thanks for your time.

Mike

dickydotcom wrote:There are two schools of thought; Mine and Mrs D's

Mine: It's only an eight hour flight and I can cope in Economy. My money can be better spent elsewhere such as on better car hire. (I like luxury cars)

Mrs D: My back hurts. I can't sit for 8 hours if I can't go Upper I'm not going.

So next years flight is already booked in Upper and done on miles so I've only paid £900 in tax and fees.
Hang on, my free flight is costing twice as much as I'd have to pay flying with Thompson?

I think there was a recent TR with someone flying Thompson.

Dick D

I am with Mrs D Dicky & my other half is more in your camp. On a recent UC flight to Miami Mrs oldboy commented that PE seats looked more than adequate for a day time flight& suggested that we try that cabin on our next VS flight which prompted me to comment that I hoped she wouldn't be lonely back there.

oldboy wrote:On a recent UC flight to Miami Mrs oldboy commented that PE seats looked more than adequate for a day time flight& suggested that we try that cabin on our next VS flight which prompted me to comment that I hoped she wouldn't be lonely back there.

I had similar comments once which ended up with one of us in BA Club and the other in Economy on the same flight from BKK. No need to say what seat I was in!

After that I never had any further interjections that Economy would suffice

I've flown over 500,000 miles with Virgin, most of them in economy and lived to tell the tale! Yes, UC is nice, PE is nice but at the end of the day, for a lot of us, they are just not viable options.

Traveller2 wrote:I've flown over 500,000 miles with Virgin, most of them in economy and lived to tell the tale! Yes, UC is nice, PE is nice but at the end of the day, for a lot of us, they are just not viable options.

Flights are just an inconvenience of getting from A to B

Just flown with Thomsons to Tenerife on a Dreamliner and although its only a four hour flight, we found it very comfortable and I think a longer flight wouldn't be that bad.
We were in the front of the aircraft, which has Economy seating on short haul, but with Premium seat pitch/leg room.