MONARCH AIRLINES   Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  3 November 2009 by H Cole   (UK)

Gatwick-Larnaca return. Flight out was brilliant, had booked extra leg room because we always find ourselves cramped in planes. Great value for money. Way back awful. Picky women at Larnaca airport said we were 6kg over weight limit. Had to unpack suitcases and take it as hand luggage. Flight time changed (later when we got back we found out they had emailed us about this) by 2 hours. Left another hour late. Booked extra legroom on way back too. Never got it because plane we were on had 3x3x3, only had about 12 legroom seats, all taken. Did get refund. Maybe it was just our luck about being not extra legroom and delayed on way back.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  3 November 2009 by M West   (UK)

Gatwick-Sharm el Sheikh and back. The seats are not wide for all but the slimmest adult, and very hard seat backs, but found the legroom OK. Crew, service etc was fine. Did not pay for a meal but I don't think anyone did - everyone given the same small tray of food. Drinks, snacks, headphones etc very expensive. Comfort was a let down but no worse than expected.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  26 October 2009 by Barbara Heal   (UK)

Paid additional £100 for extra leg room. On outward flight only one of seats was classed extra leg room but was so narrow could not complete journey in it (am of moderate size) and had to move. Husband stayed but his seat had the bulkhead in the way which meant sitting was to one side! Return, did not get seats with extra leg room at all, in fact lot of folk complaining of same. Given card to submit for a reclaim. Over warm in middle cabin. Made for most uncomfortable journey.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  19 October 2009 by L Smyth   (Ireland)

Lanzarote - Dublin. Flight was scheduled to depart at 1640 hrs but didn't depart until approx 2315 hrs. We got 9 euro vouchers each which were sufficient as you could get a full meal and drink for this. No announcements made and they were not great at giving us information. We found out the information ourselves by ringing Servisair in Dublin Airport. We got a meal onboard the aircraft - not great but it was free because of our delay. Seats are very squashed together.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  13 October 2009 by Juliet Robson   (UK)

I booked extra leg room on a recent charter flight to Chania, Crete. I requested a window seat at the check in, and was told that there was one available for me. However, when I go on the plane I was told that I had been allocated an aisle seat as the window seat was for cabin crew only. This was untrue, as the same seat was occupied by a passenger on the return flight. The seat that I had been given had extra leg room, but was somewhat narrower than the other ordinary seats, a fact that I had been unaware of, and other passengers were allowed to keep using our leg room space as a corridor to cross from one side to the other of the plane. Other two passengers in my row and myself had a very uncomfortable journey as we were completely wedged in due to the narrowness of the seats, and we all had problems with the fold away trays, as there was simply no room for them to lie flat. The announcements onboard were gabbled and inaudible most of the time, and we were told that we could not have a second cup of coffee, after a rather nasty in-flight meal. I regretted spending an extra £30 for extra leg room under the circumstances, and feel very strongly that I should have been made aware that these seats were narrower than those in the rest of the plane. If I had been given this information, then I certainly would not have paid an extra £30.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  13 October 2009 by D Burr   (UK)

Barcelona to Manchester on A320 aircraft, I paid for extra legroom and was allocated an excellent window seat 12F - seat was over the emergency exit and had about 38 inches of legroom. The best seats on this aircraft are row 12 ABC & DEF, row 11 is also an emergency exit row and classified as extra legroom on the A320 aircraft, however the seats on row 11 do not recline, so row 12 is best because they recline fully. The cabin staff were very professional and gave good friendly service, I purchased a Lunch meal for £6 and this was excellent for an inflight meal. I would be happy to fly monarch again, book early for the best rates, I only paid £60 for the one way flight and this included the extra legroom seat, 20kgs baggage allowance and airport taxes!

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  8 October 2009 by J Nevill   (UK)

We went on a package holiday with Jewel in the Crown, flying with Monarch, and basically, have no complaints. Flight times were within a few minutes of schedule. The seats were a bit narrow, but no problem to us. The meal was admittedly mediocre, leg room was acceptable for a 4 hour flight - I certainly wouldn't be prepared to pay extra for more.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  26 September 2009 by S Bracey   (UK)

Gatwick to Sharm el Sheik. Boarded the plane but had to wait on the tarmac for an hour whilst they emptied the onboard toilets. Seats were very tight even for my daughter who is tiny. Food not great but maybe because you could smell the toilets still. On our return from Egypt all Monarch planes were grounded for some reason, we never got an explanation from anyone as to what was going on. We were left at the hotel for the first 5 hours then shipped to the airport for the next 5 hours. We eventually boarded a plane that had arrived from America to collect us and return us to England. The flight crew from Atlanta were great, polite helpful and very apologetic. I would never fly with Monarch again.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  19 September 2009 by J Doherty   (UK)

Booked a lunchtime flight to Majorca that was delayed for 6 hours due to that usual technical fault. Gave us £4 each to spend in the airport lounge, Drinks were £2.50 and sandwiches £5 so didn't go far. There was very little legroom and the seats were tightly packed in. Waited ages for our baggage. Reached our destination in the early hours so missed a day. Had to phone the 24 hour helpline the following day as we had word of a close relatives death, call centre worker was more concerned of informing me I wouldnt get any refunds rather than helping me (I hadn't even asked about refunds, just any flight details), instead he suggested I get a relative in England to book me another flight on the internet to get home. Flew home with Thomson which was both quick and efficient, and seats were bigger. Will avoid Monarch in the future.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  15 September 2009 by E Fryer   (UK)

Trip to Florida for 7 people from Manchester. On way out and on way back the check in opened after stated booking time. The food was poor on the whole but the meal on the way back was acceptable for airline food. The service was the slowest I have ever seen on any airline and was totally dysfunctional. Trays were not collected from travellers for far too long after the meal. The tea and coffee was not offered for 30-40 minutes after the meal and the staff went completely past our row so we had to wait ages for her to come back and request a coffee. It was frustrating that we had paid for meals and drinks with our meals but our 12 year old was only offered tea or coffee. Not many children drink this type of beverage and no other was offered. We were not informed in advance that children do not get drinks with their meals. Without going into all the finite details the staff certainly need training because they were slow to serve and collect and did not seem to know what they had in store for purchased beverages, duty free etc. Staff on way back were pleasant to people though. For a transatlantic flight the tv screens were insufficient and could not be seen from our seats about midway up the plane. They announced that we would see the same movies on return as on the way out and when I asked about this she said they often make this type of mistake but could not say if they could solve it. I wish I had believed the comments on this site before we booked but thought it would be OK. Don't say you have not been warned.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  15 September 2009 by K Ross   (UK)

Gatwick to Orlando. Monarch's fare was some two hundred pounds cheaper than BA or Virgin but you get what you pay for and to be honest, unless you desperately need to save that two hundred pounds this airline is worth giving a wide berth! Monarch run Airbus A330 on this route which are configured for maximum density seating. Economy is a 3-3-3 configuration. I am 5'10" and was pleased that my knees did not touch the back of the seat in front but I am a hefty chap and found the width of the seat crippling. I spilled over both sides of the seat which was embarrassing for me and no doubt, annoying for the person flying next to me. Anyone over 16 stone (224lbs), in my opinion will suffer the same. The isles are only the width of a seat too making moving up and down the plane extremely difficult and impossible when the trolleys are out. No seat back TV's only blurred drop down TV screens from the roof. Monarch operate pre-allocated seating which means you have to sit where you are put! They would not entertain any requests to vary or move seats outbound or inbound. As I said at the beginning though, they were considerably cheaper than the schedule airlines. I have travelled cross Atlantic with all the UK airlines now and the best economy seat in my opinion is the BA on the Boeing 777.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  15 September 2009 by Peter Spence   (Spain)

Monarch Airlines appear incapable of understanding the fact that passengers who have paid for extra legroom seats are not happy when, as soon as the door is closed, the cabin crew allow all and sundry to move forward into unoccupied extra legroom seats without charge. The catering is getting worse and worse. On one flight they had completely run out of everything by the time they reached me in row 5! Also, although the menu is supposedly changed every 3 months, the main meal was pork sausage and mash inbound to the UK for the last 3 months and is now pork sausage and mash outbound from the UK for the current 3 months and the only other non-veg hot dish, bacon panini in both directions, has been unchanged for years! I was also informed by a Monarch cabin crew member that they now carry catering for only 20% of the booked passenger load. Perhaps if instead of holding down the price and reducing quantity and quality they were to increase the meal price, serve a decent meal at a fair price and realise that their are other meats other than pork, their catering sales figures may improve. With the abolition of the in-flight entertainment, newspapers, hot towels and the uncertainty of being able to get anything to eat, in my opinion Monarch have now lost the advantages over BA euro-traveller that they enjoyed over the past few years. Monarch are still better than the low-cost carriers but they have slipped lot in my estimation recently.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  10 September 2009 by Mark Rouse   (UK)

We have just returned from Spain using a scheduled Monarch return flight. Outgoing flight was on 'old' 757. The interior looked tired and the leg room was non-existent, fortunately I had booked extra leg room seat due. The service was very good with drinks, snacks and meals, and the flight was on time. Our return flight was on an A321, new aircraft, newer interior and I had managed to book all 3 of us extra leg room £17.50 each, worth the extra. Lot's of room! I am 6ft and I could stretch my legs, we were very impressed with this flight, room, meals etc. So overall thumbs up for Monarch, but please either get rid of the 757 or update the interior!

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  10 September 2009 by Jill Staines   (UK)

Luton to Gibraltar return. Excellent extra leg room seats selected when we booked six months earlier. Checked in online for the outbound flight & quick & easy bag drop. Flight left on time despite 2 people not showing up at departure gate & having to offload their luggage. Good cabin staff - bacon pannini was like cardboard with no flavour. Long queue at check-in for return flight. Just one person on Vantage club check-in & one (who told us she didn't feel well!) trying to book in the rest of us. However, flight left on time & chicken meal wasn't too bad. We would fly Monarch scheduled again.

MONARCH AIRLINES customer review :  9 September 2009 by J Taverner   (UK)

BHX to PMI, bank holiday Saturday. Online check in a breeze. However, for return check in there was no sign as to where the fast drop was - after asking it was where the vantage members check in.