THOMSONFLY review :  10 December 2008 : by Paul Ramshaw

Flew back from Sharm el Sheikh with Thomsonfly as part of a First Choice package holiday. On arrival at airport discovered that our extra legroom seats had not been processed by Thomsonfly even though I had made the booking well in advance and had paid the sum of £61.20. As advised, I wrote to Thomsonfly on my return requesting a refund. To date after numerous telephones calls and E-mails I am still no further forward with no acknowledgement or refund. If you write check the Customer Service address as it is now in Manchester not, as advertised on the internet, Coventry. In addition, expect to be kept on hold for at least 45minutes at premium telephone rates. When you get to speak to a representative, do not be surprised if you are informed that the computer is down, his/her manager is in a meeting or we will phone you back (They will not). Excellent holiday - poor customer service.

THOMSONFLY review :  1 December 2008 : by K Alder

Newcastle - Paphos. The worst leg room ever! This was made even worse due to the fact that we boarded the plane 1 hour late in Paphos, and were then told we would have to sit on the plane for an hour before take off as we had missed our slot. A complimentary drink would have been nice but not even an apology was offered.

THOMSONFLY review :  30 November 2008 : by J Earnshaw

Doncaster-Las Palmas-Doncaster. Doncaster Airport a breeze, only flight departing that morning so checked in and through security within minutes. Welcomed warmly on board, seats very narrow and legroom poor. I was travelling on a 737-300 with no entertainment, not great for a 4hr flight. After take-off, a hot breakfast I had paid for in advance was offered. Small croissant, sausage, bacon hash brown and omlette, juice and one cup of tea/coffee. Not great but welcome at 7am in the morning. Drinks for purchase, snacks for purchase, duty free items and finally scratchcard were paraded up and down the cabin all flight long - just one big sell. Return flight, just short of 5hrs. Hot lunch of chicken and pasta was actually very good - a summer fruit trifle good, small packaged roll and tea/coffee again - even chocolates and cheese and crackers were provided, so a very good meal indeed. No entertainment again which is not good enough on quite a long flight and again it was the hard sell. The legroom and narrow seats made these flights uncomfortable, the service was generally good with friendly cabin crew and the return meal was very good.

THOMSONFLY review :  7 November 2008 : by R Fitzpatrick

Doncaster to Faro. Passengers sent through the boarding gate and left to stand in the tunnel for twenty minutes with no explanation. Once onboard take off time came and went with no explanation as to why we were still waiting. Eventual explanation from captain, we have lost the flight papers and can't go anywhere. Forty mins later we ask for drinks and were refused, this didn't stop the cabin crew getting theirs though. Next update, the papers are on a plane going to Palma and must wait for it to land and have papers faxed back. We need something to eat and drink by now but are refused again, we start to complain. Surly stewardess who has by now had 3 cups of coffee, thinks we are making a fuss about nothing. After more than 2 hours sitting in the plane the papers arrive and we take off. Complimentary drinks you might think ,at least, but no we have to make do with an apology.

THOMSONFLY review :  7 November 2008 : by Tim Spencer

Manchester to Cancun return economy class Boeing 767-300. Excellent legroom helped by seat pitch and seat backs being thinner than usual. Seat base became a bit hard after about 7 hours though. Food just a little above average - only offered one small hot drink with meals which were charged extra at £20 per person per return flight. Anything other than water was charged extra. Cabin crew - not impressed at their attitude when several of us politely complained that we could not hear the announcements. Service OK but not great. Inflight entertainment - some seatbacks had going home programme and some had going away programme. Cost £5 per flight to make it an on demand system rather than watch as and when they put it on. My screen cut out and rebooted 5 times during one flight.

THOMSONFLY review :  6 November 2008 : by D Cook

Flight to Sharm el Sheikh. Paid extra for leg room for outbound and it was well worth it but not available on return. Just as well the person in did not recline their seat or I would have ended up with 2 broken legs. Paid extra for meals only to find there was no choice and was served some disgusting beef sausages and mash (£7!).What happened to the Thomson I used to fly on or has TUI gone for profit at the expense of customer service.

THOMSONFLY review :  31 October 2008 : by Nicola Neyhaul

Gatwick to Dalaman returnr, both times on 757-200. Leg room was fine. A good hot meal and drinks service both ways and I thought the crew seemed efficient, friendly and professional. A very pleasant experience!

THOMSONFLY review :  30 October 2008 : by L Lillis

LGW to PFO return October 2008. Worst legroom I've ever experienced in my life! I don't understand the point of pre-allocating seats 48 hours before you travel, except that it's a money making scheme to make you pay the £12 per person fee to guarantee sitting together. The only thing that increased the score from 2 to 6 is that on the return flight I had a nightmare with the meal. I'm allergic to cheese and mango, and the main course was cheese and chicken pasta, and dessert was mango and passion fruit cheesecake! I couldn't believe my bad luck, but it wasn't the airline's fault. Cabin crew were great, they substituted the main course with a deep filled sandwich, and the dessert with a cereal bar and pack of fruit pieces. They didn't have to do this, but I was so grateful. Just a shame about the legroom and the rip off with pre-allocating seats.

THOMSONFLY review :  28 October 2008 : by Len Hunt

I booked a flight to Sharm el Sheikh with Thomsonfly and paid an additional £160 for Premium seats. The outbound flight was OK but Premium seating was not available on the inbound leg due to an aircraft change. No problem so far as I was entirely accepting of the fact that technical problems can occur. That was on 24/8/08 and I have still not managed to secure a refund despite numerous telephone calls and e-mails. The complaints procedure is an exercise in commercial brilliance as you, inevitably, run up horrific phone charges on the premium rate line waiting for The Next Available Operator who, oddly, never seems to be available. E-mails are met with an automated response that promises a reply within 28 days. Equally oddly, despite it now being forty days I haven't had any reply yet.

THOMSONFLY review :  24 October 2008 : by Colin Pay

PVK-LGW on B767.Flight very good, more legroom than the First Choice B757 outbound. All passengers given meal, which was a nice touch. Much better than other charter airlines I have flown with.

THOMSONFLY review : 21 October 2008 : by Stuart Tyler

Customer Rating : 2/5

EMA-PFO-EMA. Am 6'5"tall and tried 4 times (months before the flight) to book extra legroom but told to turn up early at airport. Did so and told no chance as already allocated. Same on return even having phoned local office and UK office. B757-200 now a bit long in the tooth and it shows. No way was seat pitch 33" as advertised! Flights were on about on time but most uncomfortable and will not fly with them again

THOMSONFLY review : 18 October 2008 : by Matt France

Customer Rating : 3/5

MAN-ACE-MAN. Plenty of Thomson/First Choice check-in desks at both Manchester and Lanzarote that led to very quick check-in times. Didn't receive the veggy meals we booked on either leg of the journey despite being told it would be rectified for our return home. Pilot decided to remove 36 suitcases from the hold just prior to take-off from Lanzarote due to a strong headwind and the difficult flight path out of the airport. This despite there being several empty seats. We were told that "it was either suitcases or some passengers!" Should have sacrificed the meals, duty free and scratchcards instead as I'm now minus 1 suitcase. Shame to see that the in-flight movie has also disappeared now that I've finally managed to collect the entire range of aircraft earphone sets.

THOMSONFLY review : 13 October 2008 : by H Southworth

Customer Rating : 4/5

MAN-MALAGA-MAN. Pleasantly surprised that seat pitch was more generous than some other charter airlines I have used recently, legs not pressed against seat in front etc. Cabin crew better on return journey than outbound leg. My sister ordered a vegetarian meal, this turned out to be a vegan meal which meant that there was not even any milk provided with the coffee, on the outbound leg the cabin assistant made us wait for milk- thus cold coffee. Cabin could probably do with a makeover but seats much more comfortable than Thomas Cook who have you sitting at a very strange angle. I suppose next year the airline will get an overhaul once it officially merges with First Choice.

THOMSONFLY review : 7 October 2008 : by D Charlton

Customer Rating : 1/5

Just got back from a Thomson nightmare from hell! Booked holiday with them and they had subcontracted out for Futura Airaways to bring us home from Mallorca. Unknown to us Futura Airways went into liquidation 18 days before we flew out. Thomson made no attempt to inform us the flight time was significantly changing by 16 hours and we only found out when we queried the resort reps over the absurd flight time home. For 16 hours we were not even offered a cup of tea - unbelievable. Finally we arrived at the airport 9pm last night (when we should have been home 12 hours earlier) to be told there was another flight delay until 2.30am. 2.30am came and went and they tagged another hour delay on. We finally arrived home at our front door at 6.15am this morning - 21 hours after we should have done. Of course we was given the obligatory 8 euro voucher for Burger King the only venue left open at Palma airport. Thomson reps in resort and the airport treated the whole matter as one huge joke at the airline passengers expense and having just read the EC Regulations concerning passenger flight cancellations and delays, Thomson was also in breach of these regulations and what they should have actually complied with. Thomson has lost our custom for life, we will never fly again with a company who can treat their "bread and butter" passengers so despicably and I would love to see the Thomsonfly CEO lying on a filthy airport floor trying to get some sleep. Thomson should be ashamed of the shabby way they treat their customers and it would serve them right if they ended up with no customers at all.

THOMSONFLY review : 6 October 2008 : by N Batchelor

Customer Rating : 3/5

LGW-Funchal Boeing 737-800. The flight was on time, paid for food was quite tasty and beverages reasonably priced. What was disappointing about this flight was the disgusting state of the cabin, it didn’t look as if it had been cleaned for a while - lots of bits were falling off and coming loose including my seat arm and my tray table refused to remain at anywhere near horizontal. It was annoying also that during the safety demonstration one male member of the crew carried on a very loud conversation with his colleagues in the front galley area making it impossible to fully understand the safety instructions, being a frequent flyer is not a major problem.

THOMSONFLY review : 29 September 2008 : by Martin Hampson

Customer Rating : 1/5

MAN-NAP-MAN. Outbound boarded aircraft, 3 hours sat on tarmac in hot plane to remedy trivial technical problem. On arrival at Naples no Thomson staff to help. Car hire closed no Thomson assistance. Return flight should have flown 20:55 hours, midnight flight cancelled after plane diverted to Orly with generator fault, repaired but too late to fly to Naples. Taken to Hotel, long queues booking in 01.30 Sunday. Revisit Naples airport for 16:00 flight on Sunday, boarded, taxied then developed same generator fault. Thomsonfly decide to fly technician from UK with parts, to repair overnight. Taken back to hotel and told to get up at 05:30 for 08:00 departure Monday and then told plane not repaired. Thomson staff absolutely useless, did not pass on the vehement attitude of customers to head office managers. Eventually decided to fly another serviceable plane from UK which departed 11:40hours Monday. Thomson admit to a 39hours 30minutes delay, totally unacceptable and unnecessary, where was the replacement plane on Sunday at the latest?

THOMSONFLY review : 26 September 2008 : by S Balchin

Customer Rating : 1/5

LGW to Paphos. Check in appalling, staff arrogant, unhelpful, ignoring frail older people who had queued for over 2 hours with no help, no drinks, nothing! Duty manager decidedly offensive. Cabin crew complied with this predetermined standard, no assistance to passengers with young children - food inedible, drinks overpriced and not one apology for pre-embarking debacle. To top it all - no response to formal letter of complaint, telephone messages, e-mail correspondence. Goes without saying we won't be travelling with them again and I am sharing our experience to reduce the risk of anyone else having to tolerate this level of service

THOMSONFLY review : 26 September 2008 : by J Denton

Customer Rating : 4/5

LGW-FUE B757-200. Flight was delayed by approx. 4 hours due to a variety of reasons, but situation was explained and handled well by the cabin crew and a free drink was offered onboard as an apology. Service was good if a little slow, and the inflight meal was excellent - a big improvement on previous Thomsonfly breakfasts. The aircraft was clean and looked to be in good condition. FUE-LGW on B767-300. Aircraft was half-empty which meant lots of extra room all round - and the interior was immaculate. The meal and service was excellent.

THOMSONFLY review : 25 September 2008 : by Chris Wood

Customer Rating : 1/5

Manchester to Naples. Delayed 3 hours outbound due to technical issues. Return delayed by 39 hours! Original flight that was coming from MAN to NAP to collect us (same plane as previous week) had diverted to Paris due to the another 'technical fault' An overnight stay in a Naples hotel was provided with food. All good. Following day, flight scheduled for 4pm. We actually sat on the runway in the plane when the pilot advised that the same 'technical issue' was displaying on the instruments. Back into the terminal building for a number of hours. Zero co-ordination from Thomson reps as they had returned to Sorrento (having assumed we had taken off). Eventually word got through from airport staff to Thomson in UK who rearranged coaches and hotel again. Second night in same hotel. Day 3 - Advised by Thomson to be in reception for 5.30am for light breakfast before coaches to NAP at 6am for flight at 8am. Arrived in reception at 5.30am to be told 'you may as well go back to bed - flight cancelled!'. Thomson then advised that due to ongoing issues, a new empty plane would be flown out to fetch us. This arrived (jumbo jet - luxury seats etc) and departed at 12.20 midday. Terrible experience.

THOMSONFLY review : 25 September 2008 : by S Bradshaw

Customer Rating : 1/5

Birmingham to Orlando Sanford. Outward flight delayed for two hours due to the plane not having enough fuel onboard, had to wait for Shell to turn up with the remaining fuel! Once inflight all was ok except the individual tv screens only worked sporadically (the system had to be rebooted 4 times) this meant it was almost impossible to watch a film! Return flight was a complete shambles! Again the inflight entertainment was a joke. When it came to the food service, 14 of us never got the meal we ordered. Eventually some of us had childrens meals and some had crew meals. First we were offered free unlimited drinks from the bar, but then after one drink the staff changed their minds and no more drinks were served! Overall the attitude of crew was diabolical and rude.

THOMSONFLY review : 22 September 2008 : by A Humphrey

Customer Rating : 2/5

LGW to Bodrum. 0840 departure ended up (officially) in 1845 (10h 05m delay!) though I think it was some time after that before doors closed and we finally took off into the night air. Initially, TV screens said 1 hr delay, then after 1hr it became 2, then after 2 it said 3, etc. No one from Thomsomfly, or whatever they call themselves came down to speak to the paying customer, instead they left it to Servisair reps, who were not well informed. Fair enough, this was also the day when their main rival Excel went bust, but this is exactly when the paying customer wanted to know what was going on. As the pilot later told us, the delay was caused by a faulty windscreen, three new windscreens were tried, engineer sent from who knows where etc. Aircraft had to be replaced. Due to lack of info throughout the ordeal, passengers kept on nipping off for a quick drink which eventually brought out the worse aspects of certain passengers who were then prevented from flying or verbally warned by police due to behaviour. 4 people taken off (their hold bags as well) and the people sat next to me were cautioned Sussex's finest and told they couldn't have another drop. Staff were pleasant, food decent, entertainment was latest Indiana Jones movie played through those headphones (you had to pay for) with the special airline plugs. Bodrum-LGW was only subject to 1hr delay, food on board was an Aldo Zilli's pasta dish which was delicious. Not everyone gets food flights consist of Thomson package hols as well as flight-only PAX. Both legs were on 757-200, few spare seats if any. Again, as with first flight, food was served after on-board shop and the paid snacks had slowly trundled down the aisles. Decent enough airline, though I wish they would deal with the cock-ups better, even if the issue wasn't of their own doing.

THOMSONFLY review : 19 September 2008 : by S Fennell

Customer Rating : 1/5

Manchester to Catania, delayed both ways - 1.5 hours delay out, 8 hour delay back. The explanations for the 8 hour delay were confused and changed as they day went on, but the final version from the pilot on the way back was that the airline had to change planes when the initial plane lacked key paperwork - so it's clearly their fault and not something beyond their control. Slow and inefficient check-in. Best avoided if possible.

THOMSONFLY review : 13 September 2008 : by P Shepherd

Customer Rating : 4/5

Have used the Bournemouth - Malaga route several times in the last few years without any serious complaint, though I think the seating would be a bit tight for a longer flight. Staff have always been pleasant and check-in efficient. I note the comments about expensive drinks etc and tend to excuse (but not use!) them on the basis that the firm has some justification in trying to make a few bob when the fares are cheap.

THOMSONFLY review : 9 September 2008 : by Sandra Hart

Customer Rating : 2/5

Cardiff - Herakalion. Check-in very good. Flight on time. Plane old 737 very cramped - no entertainment, food & drinks very expensive. Crew okay. Return very unhelpful staff in Crete. Flight on time. Plane once again old 737 same as flight out but cabin crew a lot more friendly. The best bit was the flight getting into Cardiff 15 mins early. Would never use them again. A far cry from Britannia Airways days where they were one of the best.