Monarch Airlines Passenger Reviews and Monarch Airlines Customer Trip Reports

Gatwick to Barcelona and back. The first time I had flown them and I wanted to like them. It started badly when they charged me £9 to get my boarding pass online, as they don't allow passengers to use the self service machines at Gatwick. I didn't want to queue with hundreds of holiday makers with baggage at Gatwick as I only had a carry on. The outbound flight was due to leave at 1305, but Monarch scheduled a plane which is due to land at 1440 to operate the 1305 departure, so there was no way our flight could have been on time and Monarch didn't plan to operate our flight on time, quite literally. Checking online using flight tracker websites I found this flight is delayed by one or two hours every day, so I fear some very poor practices occur somewhere. The ground staff and Monarch's Social Media Team told me the flight was late due to a delay with the inbound aircraft, which was untrue, the inbound aircraft actually landed ahead of its schedule, it was just Monarch had scheduled an aircraft which was due to land after our departure time. Onboard the crew were friendly and cabin clean. Landed about 1h 55 minutes late, which is no huge deal, I am just upset they sold me a ticket for an attract time it looks like they never intended to operate a flight at. Returning the aircraft left on time. I was alarmed when a member of cabin crew moved an old gentleman who was breathless into the emergency overwing exit row across from me and didn't brief him about how to use the exit. Whilst I am sure he appreciated the free extra leg room, this didn't seem very safe as I doubt his ability to operate a heavy overwing exit when he was struggling to breath just sitting down. Although the crew were friendly, this did make me question their competence. The plane interior was very old, in fact the seats still had ash trays, but was well kept although some of the interior cabin lights flickered towards landing, 45 minutes early. The fare was cheap, but I don't think they ever intended to operate a flight at that departure time and I was alarmed by some of the crews behaviour. So I won't fly them again.

Absolutely appalling! Delays as a matter of course. When told eventually that we could board our flight it wasn't even a Monarch plane. A Spanish airline that I have never heard of was taking us to Rome! The crew were obviously not happy (faces like thunder) about it either as we all had a bottle of water given to us and three biscuits and that was the last we saw of them until we landed. The return flight was just as bad with delays again and eventually they found a plane to come and collect us. I will never use Monarch again and I don't think any of my fellow passengers will either judging by the near riot on the return journey from Rome.

Corfu to Luton. Monarch had to substitute their standard plane for a Strategic Airlines flight for "operational reasons" If they were expecting that it would be a similar standard of service they were sadly mistaken. Told at check in it would be 75 mins late - eventually boarded 2.5hrs then told various lies about why we couldn't fly while we watched others take off around us before finally getting away almost 5 hours late. No food on flight, very unhelpful staff followed by an appalling landing back at Luton around 3am. If Monarch want to completely loose any reputation they have built up, then Strategic Airlines is the one to use. All the ratings I have given relate to the Strategic alternative rather than Monarch.

30 September 2012 flight from Manchester to Palma. Told at check in by a very unhelpful member of staff that the flight had been delayed from 16.45 to 21.15 and we were issued with £5 food vouchers (there were 2 in the party). Called to gate at around 20.45 and passengers requiring extra assistance were taken onto the plane. We then waited another half an hour and these same passengers were taken off the plane and extremely unhelpful ground staff member declared there was a fault, when asked to clarify he informed the waiting passengers he was not a mechanic. We were told there was a further delay of an hour as Monarch needed to utilise another aircraft. However in fairness the captain did come and talk to passengers. We eventually left Manchester at 10 past midnight and were given complimentary drinks. The crew on board were very helpful but to be honest I could've done without the flashback to 1970s air travel. Please note that I am writing this before embarking on the return leg of our journey.

LGW - Paphos on 21st September, returning a week later. Monarch A321's both ways, both punctual and clean with pleasant crews. Beware row 1, it has a bulkhead in front and overhead lockers are reserved for operational and crew purposes. Seats narrow and uncomfortably hard. Otherwise good flights.

Manchester - Spain - Manchester. On the way out we sat on the airplane for 45 mins with no reason or apology from the pilot or crew members. On the way back we had a delay of nearly 4 hours (although we were at the airport for over 6 hours). We were given a voucher for 6 euros so that we could buy lunch. 6 euros barely buys a sandwich at airport prices although we were grateful for the help towards lunch. When we finally got on the plane it was dirty with empty sandwich packets on the floor. Someone had stuck some chewing gum under my tray! There were 3 food trolleys on this plane - 2 started at the front and 1 started at the back. By the time they got to row 18 there were no sandwiches left. If there are three trolleys why can one not start at the middle to give everyone a chance of some food! It is always the middle seats that lose out as I have experienced this before. The staff were polite and helpful through all this and were extremely apologetic that having waited for hours for the flight home they then could not feed us!

Just returned from Cyprus. Our flight out from Manchester was delayed by two and a half hours but the journey time was only four hours which helped to make up a little time. The flight was on a Monarch plane which was clean and the staff where helpful. The check ins where plentiful and efficient. Our return from Larnaca departed early and we arrived back in Manchester about 25 minutes early. Again it was one of their own aircraft and the service mirrored our outbound flight. After reading some of the reviews before we made our journey I was concerned but have to say our experience was generally a pleasant one.

I booked 4 flights with Monarch, both to Crete and return. The flight times were great until Monarch changed it, which meant we arrived back at 4 am! In June the outbound flight was with a European carrier, small, cramped, dirty with staff who were unhelpful. There were no goods on any of the 4 flights. On return in June we were delayed by 3.5 hours because our plane was still in Spain! Flying out in September flights changed again but too late to make alternative arrangements. European carrier with surly, abrupt staff all wearing different uniforms. Again very cramped. Coming back yet another European carrier with mass confusion over seating. People who had purchased seats with legroom didn't get them. The worst staff and a Captain you couldn't understand. What happened to customer service?

East Midlands to Faro September 2012: Chose to fly Monarch to Faro from East Midlands for their convenient early afternoon departure time, had an email pre-departure to say it would not be a Monarch aircraft which didn't spook me too much but then read that they were using Air Aurela as substitute on some flights and wondered if this would be our fate given recent incidents at Birmingham and Tenerife. Monarch replied to an email from me and said they had had suspended use of that operator and it would be another, carefully chosen operator so I felt a little happier. We then spent five hours delayed at East Midlands watching engineers from the terminal. We were then boarded (some might say cynically just before the 5 hour threshold for extra compensation) and waited another hour before departure. Some passengers had passed the 5 hours in the bar and a number only just made it onto the plane in state fit to stand. The operator (Air Italy) made no judgement about this and served them three more rounds of drinks during the flight. One of the ladies fell down on her face in the passport queue in Faro. Flight was smooth, aircraft was not new and looked it inside but that was not the issue. My first flight on Monarch. Thought I would give them a chance. Never again.

Gatwick - Lesvos, Greece - Gatwick. Flights on time. Elderly Boeing 757 aircraft. Pleasant cabin crew. Slightly odd that a "pay for" trolley food service was offered, before free meals were given out. It appeared that they were trying to hoodwink passengers into buying lunch, despite then giving out a free meal!

From Manchester to Sanford, flight was on time, the plane was clean and we had ample leg room. Son in law who is 6ft 4ins said he was quite comfortable going out, the staff were pleasant but inbound journey was quite different. Only came round with drinks once, apparently this was announced and you could get drinks at the back of the plane (we missed this announcement). The food we had was the same outbound and inbound, the breakfast was an orange juice, yoghurt, bun and a blueberry muffin - not what I would say is breakfast. The dinner was orange juice, chicken green beans and potatoes, with chocolate cake which was quite nice but the length of time between these meals was ridiculous. I would use Monarch again but I will be taking some food with me.

Have used Monarch as a family several times over the last few years and have never had cause for complaint. This year we flew from Birmingham on both flights found the staff helpful. They paid special attention to my youngest grandson who is disabled and made sure that he could have his own wheelchair as soon as possible. Despite a delay on the return, due to problems at Birmingham Airport, every thing was done to make our journey pleasurable.

We flew with Monarch out of Manchester to Venice on Sep 4th 2012. I tried to check-in on-line before the flight, but was unable to do this, I did email Monarch, but got no reply. We arrived at Manchester to check-in in good time but were horrified to see a massive queue in front of us, it took over 45 mins to check-in and as a result we barley had time to grab a cup of tea and dash to the loo before boarding. I do not want to start my holiday by standing in a queue for so long first thing in the morning. When we were called to board, we had to go outside and stand in the rain as the plane was not on an air bridge. At least the pilot was ashamed enough to apologise for "treating us like cattle" - his words. The flight itself was fine, we found ourselves in extra leg room seats that we did not have to pay for. On our return from Venice the check-in was slow with just 2 staff on. They did realise things were not going well and put an extra agent on the desks. Unfortunately this agent has some out-of-date views about what can and cant be carried in the hold. As always my wife declares here insulin and hypodermics and was told that she was only allowed to carry one syringe on the plane (this information is wrong), she insisted and as we were on the home leg we took the chance that our luggage might be lost or damaged. We have complained and await a response. Again the actual flight itself was fine. So, given our experiences and the recent problems reported by others it looks like Monarch should be avoided for the time being until they get their act together.