MONARCH AIRLINES   Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  18 May 2009 : by M Bennett  (Spain)

I have been a good & loyal customer for over five years, flying between Gatwick & Malaga. Last month I was stopped, by a very unpleasant woman, after passing through the boarding gate at Gatwick and asked to place my correctly sized bag on the scales, it weighed 12.00kg. I was told that it exceeded their permitted maximum weight of 10.00kg, it would have to go in the hold and I had to pay £17 on the spot! The reason given to me was that heavier bags slow down the boarding of the aircraft. Funny even Easy Jet, don't have that problem, they do not impose a weight limit on hand luggage. Lets get real - it is just another con to raise revenue.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  15 May 2009 : by S Rouse  (Spain)

As a Gold Card holder (monthly trips Alicante to Gatwick) I am disgruntled to find that the lounge services have been withdrawn due to cost cutting. They can be made however suddenly available if one can stump up 13 plus euros a time per visit! When will these large organisations realise its the little niceties that matter! I await the next cost cutting exercise with bated breath - come on competitors get moving on lower flights and a frequent flyer club - I'm sure there will be plenty of takers!

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  15 May 2009 : by S Baxter  (UK)

Gatwick-Lanzarote-Gatwick. Overall pleasant experience. Flights pretty much on time. Clean, modern A320/321 aircraft. Friendly cabin crew, good selection of food and drinks. Enough legroom for a flight of up to 4 hours.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  14 May 2009 : by N Braithwaite  (UK)

Flew to Luxor with Monarch and would never fly with them again. My husband and I were given two different seats - the most narrow and uncomfortable I've sat in. I had an aisle seat and was constantly hit in the shoulder by passengers or the cabin crew. At one point one staff bashed into me whilst I was drinking coffee and I nearly ended up wearing it. She didn't apologise. Toilet was grim, food is passable. On return we were lucky enough to get to sit together and have three seats between the two of us which made it a marginally more pleasant experience. Take your own soft drink and snacks on board as theirs are very expensive.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  10 May 2009 : by R Cherry

Manchester-Murcia scheduled. First time using Monarch. Used on ine booking for flight and car parking, very easy to use and prices were good. One week before departure email to say return flight had been cancelled and we had been booked on return flight one day earlier. Phoned customer services and got outbound flight changed to a day earlier as well (long wait to get reply from phone no provided but no problems changing flight). Booked wheelchair assistance because my partner is disabled and there were no problems with this on either flight. Also booked extra leg room seats which were well worth the extra cost and very comfortable (aircraft was A320). Crew were very good especially on outward journey although the flight seemed to be totally taken up with trolley sales. Both flights early, outward by 15 mins and return by 25 mins. All in all a pretty good experience and we will certainly use Monarch again. (Just a pity they do not fly from Newcastle)

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  27 April 2009 : by Paul Denham

Gatwick to Goa charter flight return. I agree that the A330 used on this flight is cramped and uncomfortable. Outbound flight on time but headphones would not work in several seats so we no inflight entertainment during the 10 hour flight and had to ask for a refund of the £2.50 hire fee. The return flight boarded over 2 hours late due to late incoming flight. After boarding, we roasted because auxilliary power unit had failed on arrival so no aircon with outside temperature of 35 degrees. Engineers failed to fix problem and Goa airport has no ground-based equipment to replace failed unit. We eventually took off 3 hours late and the rest of the flight was uneventful. At least crew were friendly and food acceptable. We got free headphones and one free drink in compensation for late takeoff. Inflight entertainment worked on return but is limited to little drop-down screens which are too far away from many seats for adequate viewing. All in all, I would avoid Monarch in future for long haul if there was a better alternative. Kingfisher Airlines now flies London to Goa via Mumbai and, judging from our internal flights, would be a better bet.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  24 April 2009 : by Steve Short

I booked a trip to Malaga with Monarch because the times were the most suitable. The difference between the advertised price and the price paid having been charged extra for everything was huge, but I went ahead, attracted by the larger seats. The first email was to inform me that the time had been changed, but not by much, not a big deal. The second email was to inform me that my outbound flight had been cancelled, and I had been put on another one, this was not acceptable, but when I eventually got through on the phone (the only way to sort this out) I booked an alternative flight on another day. The third email was to inform me that my return flight had been cancelled, and that I had been put on another (unacceptable) one. A bit fed up by now, I telephoned again to sort out an alternative, and waited for 35 minutes on the telephone to talk to somebody, all the time being told how important my call was to them. I did not waste this time however, I used it to book flights on BA instead and cancelled my Monarch booking when they finally answered. I am told that although it only takes 5 seconds to take my money, it takes 5 days to give it back.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  22 April 2009 : by E Timms

Birmingham to Alicante return. Both legs on time. Cabin crew professional and courteous. Food and drink served quickly and pleasantly. Irritating that on the outward leg passengers who had not paid for extra leg room sets moved into them without any comment from the crew, though on the return leg it was made clear they would have to pay.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  15 April 2009 : by G Marsh

Upgraded to more roomy seats Gatwick to Luxor. Comfortable because there were only the two of us in a row of three seats and we were able to put the arm rests up. Food was ok but unremarkable. Crew not particularly friendly and seemed more interested in selling their duty free. No seat back monitor only drop down screens. Return flight Aqaba to Gatwick on an A320. We were given bulkhead seats which meant that there was no room to stretch your feet out. The seats were narrow and quite uncomfortable. The food was better on the return leg but difficult to eat without the room to spread out and the other passenger had his elbows in my ribs for most of the flight. This was the worst flight I have ever taken in terms of leg room, elbow room and comfort. I would strongly advise people not to fly with Monarch.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  7 April 2009 : by Francis Hall

Gatwick to Goa. The entertainment system is antiquated no seat back screens only 1 dropdown screen for about 4 rows. Hard to see due to size of screen. Food was not too bad but the price of the beverages was a bit steep. 3 pounds for a small can of lager. On our flight all cabin crew were friendly and although the seating area was a tad small we enjoyed the flight. No delays and toilets were clean.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  17 March 2009 : by A Collinge

Manchester-Tenerife 21st Feb. I don't see the point to the online check in. It doesn't save any time or hassle when you get to the airport. However, I checked in on-line and pre-booked our preferred seats according to the diagram on the website. According to the diagram, at the rear of the plane there are two rows each containing only two seats, the rearmost coloured grey which I assumed were for cabin crew. So I selected the two directly in front of them. Guess what, these seats don't exist. All the seats are 3 to a row! After take-off the cabin crew announced the name of today's movie and that headphones could be rented for £2.50 per set. I wondered where the headphones could be connected because none of the armrests had headphone sockets! A short time later another announcement was made to the effect that they wouldn't be showing the movie. Then the drinks trolley came round so we bought a drink each to quench our thirst until the food arrived. It took so long to serve the food that we had finished our first drink before we got to eat. Guess what, they weren't serving alcoholic drinks with the food, only tea or coffee! I bought a bacon bloomer that was absolutely disgusting. After the meal had been served to everybody I waited for the drinks trolley to come round again. It didn't, so about 90 minutes before we were due to land I pressed the button for assistance. When I asked the young lady for a drink she said that she was just about to bring the drinks trolley out. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes she did do. But she walked right past me, all the way to the front of the plane and started working backwards from that point! We were served our drinks about 30 minutes before landing and about 30 seconds after my Wife had chosen to go to the loo. During this time the Captain issued an instruction to straighten our seat backs, raise our trays and prepare for landing. A rubbish collection was then made and I was told off not raising my tray. I explained that I couldn't raise it until my Wife came back from the loo because I had to holder both bottles of wine and both glasses which had wine in them. My explanation fell on deaf ears. Finally we landed at Tenerife and were asked to disembark through the rear door. As we were leaving the plane my Wife said goodbye to the female member of staff near the door but she didn't even raise her head to acknowledge it. I would never fly with Monarch again. Late last year we flew with EasyJet. We hadn't booked with them because of the reputation they have but they bought the airline that we did book with. We were very apprehensive before the flight but I can honestly say that the quality of EasyJet food and EasyJet service was brilliant.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  13 March 2009 : by T Wright

I am disabled and use Monarch every year for a number of locations around Europe - most of my flights are 4 hours - so not simple hops. In every case the staff have been more than helpful. In addition the group I fly with (none of which are disabled) the standard seating has been good enough. It leaves me wondering, what do some people expect.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  12 March 2009 : by S Angus

Gatwick - Male return. We chose Premium class, good decision, comfortable seating, food of surprisingly good quality for a Holiday Tour flight. Cabin crew attitude / friendliness outbound just acceptable, very good on return, no consistency. Inflight entertainment not as much choice or as versatile as other premium cabins on charter airlines; you select your chosen channel and have to accept whatever point it is playing at, you cannot start or pause at your convenience. We would fly Monarch again but only in Premium class, main cabin looked cramped.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  10 March 2009 : by Robert Campbell

My wife and I recently travelled to Taba Heights in Egypt with Monarch - having had experience once before of their seat, we paid an extra £140 for extra leg room. On the way out we were in Row 1 so feet up against the bulkhead and on the way back although more room in a exit row we had starage containers by our feet, so staff on the floor to recover items for retail. In fact ooking at the ordinary seats, the armrests are hinged as opposed to the leg room seats", without a seat in front which are fixed due to the in arm tray, there is in fact less room than in the standard seat fit which is at standard price. To add insult to injury we travelled with friends who had been refunded their extra seat supplement due to non-availability only to be allocated better seats with legroom at no extra cost.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  3 March 2009 : by J Stark

Luxor to Manchester - icy cold in central rear section of plane - apparently a know problem. One toilet not working, the other stinking and flushing dirty water. Stewardess surly and unprofessional - two of whom carried on an argument throughout the flight. Seat room poor for long flight, aisles particularly narrow meaning everyone with an aisle seat got regularly hit by passers by.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  27 February 2009 : by E Timms

Birmingham to Faro return. A321 clean, cabin crew polite and pleasant. Food was pleasant. Fast bag drop not that fast, but still much quicker than queuing. Not cheap due to the usual pointless school holiday price hikes, but head and shoulders above their low service rivals.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  23 February 2009 : by S Clifton

Has a Monarch executive ever sat in a seat on the A300? Unless they are slinky-hipped, short legged and with no tummy they would know that it is completely unacceptable to put people in those seat spaces. The staff have a terrible time getting the trolleys down the narrow aisles - you have to feel sorry for them. However, the return trip from Goa on the Airbus 330 was fine.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  18 February 2009 : by Sandra Taylor

Manchester-Luxor. What an experience - the seats were so narrow they seemed to pinch and couldn't sit comfortably for 5 hours. The tiny amount of legroom was concerning too. I really don't want to fly Monarch ever again but we have already booked a package to Lesvos in May and now I see this is Monarch. We had paid for a meal but everyone got food, regardless whether they'd paid or not. Why does the travel agent take money for food. The crew told us for a 5 hour flight everyone gets food whether they've paid or not!

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  16 February 2009 : by Ian Morley

Manchester to Gibraltar then Malaga to Manchester the next day. Surprisingly I found both flights fine. On time, clean, comfortable. Leg room was a little tight on the Gibraltar flight but not a problem, was even better on the Malaga flight. For the price they were a pleasant airline to travel with.

MONARCH AIRLINES review :  1 February 2009 : by D Covell

Gatwick to Luxor charter return. Hardly any delays, check in very quick. However, be warned maximum hold baggage is evidently 20kg before charges kick in, and the real nightmare hand baggage limit is a ridiculous 5kg. Some of our groups hand baggage got weighed, one member had to pay excess! Seats were awful - even less room than Ryanair. For a 5.5 hour flight unreasonable. Food provided was good, very tasty. Purchased food and drink normal prices. Due to the leg room problem we shall not fly Monarch again.