Thomsonfly ??

[Neil]

Hi,
Has anyone flown long haul with Thomsonfly? We are off to Jamaica next Feb and are booked in economy [n] (not my doing, its a family thing and we just kinda got dragged along with everyone else[n]) I have read some reviews and it doesn't look good, but I'm not sure if I should upgrade to Premium class for around 500 or to save that money, which will help me hopefully go towards us being able to afford our 1st UCS flight next year when we go SFO & Vegas!

Ok - im going on now, so back to the original point, anybody had any experiences??

Neil[:)]

I have flown on a few Thomson / TUI 767's to destinations in the Med and have found the main economy cabin to be somewhat on the compact side. IMO, the economy cabin on Thomson / TUI makes the VS economy cabin look spacious - and again, IMO, the VS economy cabin is not over generous with space.

I believe that Thomson / TUI use the 767 300's on their transatlantic routes - so it is a hard call to make as to whether to spend the extra money on extra legroom there, or save up for UCS on your next VS round trip. I would probably go for the latter option if it was me - put up with a lack of room on the Thomson / TUI flight and use the cash to really splash out when on VS.

Well the flight is only about 8 hours or so, so in my opinion it would have to be very dire to force you to u/g the whole family at £500 each on such a short flight. Or were you going to leave them at the back? [:)]

[Neil]

Was only going to upgrade my and t'other half, we are going with my brother, his wife, 2 kids, her parents/sister, her family etc... so we could just upgrade ourselves without feeling too guilty[:w] but think i would rather try and save for UCS, although 8 hours is a long time!!

Neil[:)]

I would be a grand lighter[:D].Mate of mine uses then quite regularly but never upgrades upfront always waits until the airport and has had some good results like £80 each 1 way.

We're doing their route - Doncaster - Sanford, Orlando, in less than a month.

Will do TR - lets just say I'm not looking forward to it much!

[Neil]

Thanks G-VFAB, really am interested in what its going to be like, like you not looking forward to it one bit, would be really interested in hearing your comments/thoughts when your back.

Cheers
Neil

Yea I'm quite interested too!

I'm flying Thomsonfly on Monday to Las Palmas for a week on the 767-300. Apparently they have just been refitted with leather seats in Economy. I will do a TR upon my return. Not sure whether they're all economy or have a few premium seats.

By the way Attitude23, I did MAN-Jamaica with Airtours 5 years ago and the flight time is 9h30 so you're in for a long one.

[Neil]

Thanks VS075 - be good to hear your trip report when you get back! I did Jamaica early 2005 with Air Jamaica in Y which wasn't too bad, but got a funny feeling Thomsonfly just isn't going to be as roomy!

Neil

I am going to ask how much it will be to upgrade, I doubt I will though, will need to be about £50 for me to upgrade!

A little late but you will find that upgrading with Thomsonfly will be very exhausting on your wallet[:0] trust me.

It costs about £12 to get extra legroom seats per person, per leg in Economy and if you watned to sit together thats a further £27 I think.

Notice that their slogan on their website is 'The low fares airline that goes further.' At those prices??? Here's a better one...

The low fares airline that goes further to get more of your money

Sorry everyone for resurrecting this thread from 2006 but I'm a bit worried.

Didn't think we were going to be able to travel to Florida this year and have left it incredibly late to book flights.

Couldn't get anything with VS at all and have ended up with the dreaded Thomsonfly.

We are travelling in economy and not being au fait with the ways in which another airline works (always fly VS) I tried to telephone and find out answers to my questions. What a nightmare. All I got was sorry we don't have that information to just about everything I asked other than will you want more money from me which was a resounding yes each time.

So please help I'm sooo anxious. Has anyone travelled Thomsonfly recently in economy, 'how was it for you' do the seatback screens still work? How much are they going to sting us for drinks etc. (we have paid extra for meals), are the seats really 33' pitch, do we get complimentary headphones or are they to pay for and is it correct that they have a funny fitting to plug them into which means we can't use our ones at home? Do you get a choice of movies, tv etc in economy or is that only available in premium. Where would be the best place to sit because I don't want to be left on the end of the meal run with no choices left[n]

I looked over on The Dibb but other than a mixture of happy passengers and absolutely appaulled passengers, I haven't really got my answers [?]

thelaceys

Well from looking at this website from Thomsonfly times have changed. The product seems very much like what is on offer at FCA, which is no surprise really considering their forthcoming merger.

I'm doing PFO - GLA one way with them in June and am already baulking at the thought!

John

Originally posted by thelaceys
Sorry everyone for resurrecting this thread from 2006 but I'm a bit worried.

Didn't think we were going to be able to travel to Florida this year and have left it incredibly late to book flights.

Couldn't get anything with VS at all and have ended up with the dreaded Thomsonfly.

We are travelling in economy and not being au fait with the ways in which another airline works (always fly VS) I tried to telephone and find out answers to my questions. What a nightmare. All I got was sorry we don't have that information to just about everything I asked other than will you want more money from me which was a resounding yes each time.

So please help I'm sooo anxious. Has anyone travelled Thomsonfly recently in economy, 'how was it for you' do the seatback screens still work? How much are they going to sting us for drinks etc. (we have paid extra for meals), are the seats really 33' pitch, do we get complimentary headphones or are they to pay for and is it correct that they have a funny fitting to plug them into which means we can't use our ones at home? Do you get a choice of movies, tv etc in economy or is that only available in premium. Where would be the best place to sit because I don't want to be left on the end of the meal run with no choices left[n]

I looked over on The Dibb but other than a mixture of happy passengers and absolutely appaulled passengers, I haven't really got my answers [?]

thelaceys

Stop worrying . We used them for a quick break to CUN last year. I was dreading it but was more than pleasantly surprised. The pitch WAS 33ins+ (size does matter regardless of what others tell you). Cabin service was excellent. Much better than the economy offering from VS. The food was much better than some of VS(UC) slop of late. We bought some champagne (about £20 a bottle- brought in an ice-bucket) with nibbles, and some pre-pepared Pimms ( 2 for £6 I think??). Seat back TV on demand cost £5 ( if I remember correctly)but worth the outlay and the leather seats were very comfy (compared to VS comparative offering in Y). Crew were professional and attentive on both legs. IMHO much better than Y on VS. Only downside is the baggage allowance.
I'm sure you'll have a great time.
DL

I've flown to Paphos and Crete with them recently and was pleasantly surprise. I upgraded for about £70 at the airport on one occasion and the extra seat room was well worth the money IMO. Had to pay about £3 for the headphones and from memory the prepaid food was predictable airline offering but noticed most hadn't bothered and just ordered a sandwhich. These are relatively short flights and I would certainly use them again for a similar length of trip.

Stop worrying . We used them for a quick break to CUN last year. I was dreading it but was more than pleasantly surprised. The pitch WAS 33ins+ (size does matter regardless of what others tell you). Cabin service was excellent. Much better than the economy offering from VS. The food was much better than some of VS(UC) slop of late. We bought some champagne (about £20 a bottle- brought in an ice-bucket) with nibbles, and some pre-pepared Pimms ( 2 for £6 I think??). Seat back TV on demand cost £5 ( if I remember correctly)but worth the outlay and the leather seats were very comfy (compared to VS comparative offering in Y). Crew were professional and attentive on both legs. IMHO much better than Y on VS. Only downside is the baggage allowance.
I'm sure you'll have a great time.
DL

Thank you very much for that and thanks to the other posters too. I am feeling a little bit better about this, but I think that's probably due to the extras that I have booked at the other end through VS just so I can keep some level of normality to our trip ie hotels, tickets etc. How silly to be feeling nervous about trying something new, we are just creatures of habit[;)]

thelaceys

Edited to fix quote - honey lamb

Forgot to say the headphones were free - we had our QCs so they wern't needed (they told us to take them regardless). Boarding was also very organised -Premier (or whatever they call it) first and then by strictly enforced row number (this may have been down to the handling agents though).If you are desperate to be guaranteed seats together the only real option is to pay the fee. We didn't bother but were still assigned two seats together (window and aisle)both ways.
DL

Originally posted by DragonLady
Forgot to say the headphones were free - we had our QCs so they wern't needed (they told us to take them regardless). Boarding was also very organised -Premier (or whatever they call it) first and then by strictly enforced row number (this may have been down to the handling agents though).If you are desperate to be guaranteed seats together the only real option is to pay the fee. We didn't bother but were still assigned two seats together (window and aisle)both ways.
DL

Thanks for that DL.

I didn't really understand about the baggage allowance stuff I must admit and I booked it all online. The site said 20Kg allowance but you could increase that weight to 25Kg for an extra £30 each so I did thinking that brings it more into line with VS.

What I didn't realise is that the standard weight was 20Kg for checked in stuff and 5Kg for hand baggage and all I had in fact succeeded in doing was paying for an extra 5Kg in my hand baggage, what a waste of £90 for three pieces of luggage. There are three of us going and we only ever take one piece of cabin luggage between us which never weighs much anyway[?] What do people put in their had luggage that weighs so much if they aren't taking laptops or something similar?

thelaceys

I used them to go to Male in February and would echo everything Dragonlady says - particularly the part about their Economy being better than VS.

I wouldn't worry about the Thomsonfly long-haul offering as it has improved leaps and bounds. You get 33' seat pitch, AVOD system, meals by Aldo Zilli, and to be honest it looks better than the VS Economy offering (taxi booked!).

I think if our good friend Neil (the OP on this thread) was flying to Jamaica in Feb 2009 instead of Feb 2007 he will look forward to the flight better...but after his recent UCS flight from MCO I'm not too sure. [:?]