Hi Fly

Cartagena, Colombia to London Gatwick on Hi Fly. We took off late because the airport did not have a fuel bowser sufficiently large to refill the plane in one go. Hence dinner was not served until three hours into the flight (after 10 pm). My pre-ordered veggie meal was not available so they reheated an already cooked but left over meal from the outbound flight (it was awful). Then lights out and off to sleep but just over one hour later we were woken up (lights on) for an inflight snack of crisps and a ham/cheese hot melt sandwich (no veggie option available so I went hungry). Lights off and then about 90 minutes later we were woken up for breakfast. It would have been better to have given us the melt asap after takeoff and let us sleep after the late dinner. The inside of the plane was grubby and the seats had not been cleaned for a long time - the seat pitch was reasonable for economy. The inflight entertainment was a multichannel loop affair but no one knew what was playing because there was no inflight guide and the crew did not know either. The cabin crew were vaguely interested in their job (one at the back was very good) but there was no real customer care. Upon landing there was a technical problem with the airbridge but the captain did explain what was happening and how they were planning on fixing it (well done him).

This airline replaced our scheduled Thomas Cook flights. The aircraft cabin layout was different to the advertised Thomas Cook one so the reserved seating was no longer suitable. Luckily we were able to change. The Hi Fly crew were good but there were also some Thomas Cook crew on board which led to a disorganised feel. I think it would have been more appropriate just to let Hi Fly crew operate the flight.

This flight was a replacement for a TAP flight that was cancelled the previous day. The aircraft was an and there was no inflight entertainment what so ever. The crew was young and pleasant. We enjoyed the experience.