Thomas Cook Airlines Customer Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

We flew to Fuerteventura for Oct half term. Flight out was ok but the flight back TCX6335 was delayed for 23 hours due to a technical fault. Having sat on the tarmac for 2 hours we were sent to a shabby hotel for the night. Children on the flight back had to pay for earphones despite the horrendous delay. This is not the way to treat your customers. We will not book with Thomas Cook again. Finally got home at 2am on Monday morning when we should have been back on Saturday night.

Scuba Equipment. I noticed on the website that if you show your diving log book, you get 5kg extra baggage allowance for scuba gear. I checked in at B'ham airport and the check in staff accepted my diving certificate offhandedly. On check in at Sharm airport, I was told I would have to pay for excess baggage over the 20kg limit. Although I quoted the 5kg extra allowance and showed my diving certificate, they had no knowledge of it and persisted to charge me. Fortunately, I had printed out the terms for scuba equipment from the web- site and only when I produced that did they allow the excess free.

Just returned from TFS from MAN. 4 house delayed because they had an unserviceable aircraft. The planes are old, the seating is the worst and service is poor. Ryanair for me.

TCX2157 Larnaca to Manchester delayed 5 hours - 'flight no longer available for operational reasons'? No-one around to give explanations or apologies. Booked this flight because of good flight times in first place! Food vouchers OK. Arrived back Manchester to then experience further delay disembarking - very slow, bussing passengers to terminal bit by bit as 01.30 in morning by now. Then further delay getting baggage - total nightmare. Later found out this flight has appalling on time record!! Will not use TCX again.

Having read page after page after page of poor and negative reviews one might wonder what the point is as there seems to be little done about the recurring complaints but here we go. Memo to Chief executive: "strap yourself into one of your tatty planes, sit for 5 hours unable to recline or even move due to the ludicrously tiny space you seem to think is adequate, add to that no ventilation, oppressive heat and cabin crew more interested in gossip than service and see how you like it". Why do they have to ruin a holiday with such shoddy service!

ACE-LGW. Check in very good with helpful staff. Boarding fairly quick and smooth. B757-300 looked a tad shabby but much more comfortable than Airbus. We had elected to have a pre-booked meal which was quite pleasant. Cabin crew were friendly and professional. A surprisingly good experience.

Glasgow - Tenerife - Glasgow on a Boeing 757-300. Flights left on time, crew friendly enough. Main gripe is the exceptionally mean 5kg hand luggage allowance, even the low-cost airlines give you 10kg! We booked an extra-legroom seat and a seat by the emergency exit (this being the same price as a regular seat), both had excellent legroom. Stewardess told us that the emergency exits on the 757-200s don't have as good legroom as the emergency slide sticks out, however this is not the case with the 757-300. Meal coming back was OK, breakfast going was poor. When purchased as part of the bundle for choose your seat/meals/luggage it works out OK value for money. No in-flight entertainment whatsoever.

LGW to Sanford. Boarded on time then sat on the runway while fixing problem! Left hour late then 3.5 hours into the flight we got redirected to Iceland! No mention of when we would next fly. We had to call the UK to find out what was happening. Finally left the hotel at 1.30pm on the Saturday (landed 5.30pm Friday) to be told we would be flying 16.55, then delayed until 6.30, after boarding sat on the runway for 1hr. Finally arrived in Orlando 2.30 am Sunday morning, when we should have landed 2.30 pm Friday! On return flight, no reclining seats! Again boarded on time then again some excuse and left yet again an hour late.

We flew Manchester to Tenerife South recently and I must say I wasn't looking forward to it after reading bad reviews. However, I must admit we had an excellent experience. We left Manchester on time and arrived back in Manchester half an hour early. We managed to book extra leg room on the return journey, which was good, but even in the normal seats we had as much leg room as other airlines we have flown with. There was no entertainment on the outward journey, but we were treated to a film on the return leg. All in all a stress free experience and I would definitely recommend to family and friends for future travel plans.

Delayed 3.5 hours with no explanation. Flight times changed twice during the delay. Inflight service was terrible. No drinks offered with dinner, you had to ask for them, tea and coffee finally came round a good 45 minutes after dinner. No garbage collected. Two babies in front of us were allowed to stand on their mother's knees during take off and landing. Nobody did a pre-take off or landing check to see who had seat belts on. I will never book Thomas Cook/Air Transat again.

Stansted to Dalaman. Delayed going out by 2 hours even though they boarded us as if we were on time. Flight deck insisted on telling us we were sitting on the plane because they were performing running repairs on landing equipment. The seat pitch was unacceptable, so tight and uncomfortable and the flight staff were scruffy and unhelpful. I even had to draw their attention to the state of the loo! Whoever was in charge of the announcements on both flights was dreadful - got all her words mixed up and giggled in the middle of her announcement.

Outward flight from Gatwick to Orlando delayed 5 hours due to technical problem with Airbus! Return flight from Orlando to Gatwick delayed 25 hours due to technical problem. Premium seats were comfortable. The outward bound food (by chef James Martin), sausage and mash- very good, Thai curry - very dry. Return flight food, not very good and the breakfast is not worth bothering with, may as well just offer fruit juice or a tea/coffee. This is the first time we have flown with Thomas Cook, overall experience has not been a good one.

Norwich to Palma on airbus A321, the legroom is shocking. I am 5ft 11 and found it quite uncomfortable. Staff were friendly onboard and the service was good. Will use again providing there is more legroom.

Just returned from two weeks in Florida, outbound journey was 5 hours late leaving due to technical problems, received a voucher at the airport which was acceptable. Crew on board were very attentive and our 6 year old son was sick they were very helpful. Seats were reasonably comfortable, food and entertainment ok. Return journey a different story, delayed 25 hours due to technical problems, after a wait at the airport with no information as to what was going on we were told to take bits from our cases for an overnight stay, taken to a local hotel for the night. Eventually left 25 hours late! The plane was dirty. Crew were not particularly helpful. It was an experience I would not want to go through again and will not fly Thomas Cook ever again!

Just had 2 weeks in Florida. The flight out was good, staff were excellent and the aircraft, an airbus, was comfortable with good leg room. Flight back was terrible, 3 hour delay with no explanation, the seats were very narrow and extremely uncomfortable on this aircraft, a Boeing 767, and they did not recline at all. No seat back entertainment, just overhead screens in the aisle but this didn't matter because none of the sound sockets controls on the right side of the aircraft worked anyway which is a joke when flying long haul with children. We asked to move but were told we couldn't even though there were empty seats at the rear of the cabin. Very poor.

LGW-LPA-LGW - Very old 757-200 on both legs, overhead screens for IFE on the way over but no IFE on the way back. Leg room was an absolute joke! Made worse when the person in front tried putting their seat back and jamming my legs completely in place for 4 hours. Crew were not the greatest and on the way back were too busy talking. Glasgow based crew on the way over far more friendly and chatty to passengers rather than each other. Check in a LGW very good with no wait at the bag drop desk at LGW, return check in at LPA only 2 check in desks opened and Thomas Cook wanted an extra €10 to jump up the line, waited 50mins to get to the front, agent was very chatty and pleasant. Didn't buy anything on board and the food looked quite poor quality. Wouldn't choose to fly with them again I'd rather pay a bit more and fly with a proper airline.

Only chose Thomas Cook due to it's preferential flight times to Larnaca. Plane was an old 757-200, it still has the old style televisions hanging out of the ceiling, showing one film and desperately old TV shows. You'll need to buy headphones at £2.75. If you do bring your own, make sure you get a double pin adapter, otherwise you will pay £1.50 for one of those. No personal air conditioning. Return flight was so old and tired that it had no auxiliary power meaning no air conditioning at all when on the ground. The seats are terrible, 28" legroom is all that you get, which means you spend your flight pinned up against the seat in front of you. Equally the width of the seats is poor too, meaning you have to take great care not to knock out the person next to you whenever you move! We only flew as far as Cyprus - I pity anyone who has or will travel any further. The service is okay, but is clearly a charter flight style - continually trying to sell something to you. If you haven't paid in advance for food, you can buy it on the plane, but it is expensive for what it is and pretty mediocre. They don't even give you water, tea or coffee during a 4.5 hour flight. In conclusion, I will never travel with TCA ever again. I should have listened to the reviews I read before travelling.

Due to travel back from Tenerife South on 26th Oct 2012. Take off should have been 1.40 instead without explanation it ended up being 01.40 on the 27th Oct. Absolutely no customer service. Updates were by means of the flight board, There were 11 changes to the flight time. Ended up on another airline, Cosmo brought us to the UK on our return journey. Handed a letter on arrival at Newcastle airport giving the flight details and how to make a claim through our own Insurance Policy.

Flying out to Orlando we were delayed 5 hours, when we checked in the night before, no mention of any delays, however when we looked at the board before our flight it said it had been pushed back 5 hours. Flight itself was horrible, small seats, no legroom. Inflight entertainment was even worse, 3 movies to choose from and you had to start watching at the same time as everyone else. After a lovely holiday in Orlando we were meant to fly at 12.30, given a hotel, and our flight is now 17.30 - a delay of 25 hours.

Birmingham to Antalya on 13.10.12. However we had probably 20-25 % children on board and the choice of film for general viewing was poor and was not suitable for kids viewing. Secondly, I flipped up a tap on the toilet washbasin to find it was filthy with slime under the head. Obviously a long time since any cleaner had investigated the area. Other than these things, the flight went well with all other aspects being ok.

Travelled TCX4329 from Lanarca to Birmingham. Arrived early at the airport waited to check in and must have been 20th in queue. After experiencing cramped conditions on inward journey asked for extra legroom but none available so asked for aisle and next seat, were put on row 30 right next to toilets, no leg room and head pushed forward for whole journey. Staff oblivious and unprofessional, did not do a last cabin check to make sure every thing stored and seatbelts on - more interested in selling lottery. We paid a lot for flight, would now use a low cost airline over TC every time.