Monarch Airlines

Birmingham to Fuertventura. Plane left on time 8.15am and arrived on time. Birmingham airport is well organised and checking in was simple and quick. The planes are short on leg room and not the most comfortable for a 4 hour flight. The service on board was efficient and the cabin staff were friendly. The problem was at the destination. We had booked for transfers to our hotel and we had to wait over 2 hours for the bus. We contacted the Cosmos Rep and also the people in the airport who were organising the transfers. They smiled and said it will be here in a minute. It would have been cheaper and quicker to have caught the local public service bus.

Flew from Luton to Rome. Monarch was a poor experience even by the acceptable standards by a budget airline. From the moment we checked in and the lady behind the desk didn't even give us a baggage ticket and had to be asked to give us one the experience was poor. After passing through airport security at Luton which took an eternity (not Monarch's fault) we arrived at the gate. the plane was cramped and had a distinct lack of leg room the least I've had on any flight. The seats were an uncomfortable plastic! The staff were disinterested in helping and they never seemed to smile! All in all a very poor experience.

Had the worst flights of my life with Monarch to and from Sharm El Sheikh. Appalled at lack of space - proverbial cattle class being the best description. I am 6 ft and found 5 hrs of cramped flying a nightmare - goodness knows how anyone bigger than me would cope. Return journey was made even worse by 2 hour delay at Sharm hence landing Gatwick 01h10 and then having to endure 2 hour wait for baggage. Monarch use Swissport baggage services and on this evidence they are substandard - baggage hall was like something out of the 3rd world and an embarrassment to the UK. Never again!

Monarch's Birmingham to Funchal service was the latest to add to the recent misery of my 50 year flying experience. 40 minutes late departing - no explanation or apology "are we really late" said an attendant when we enquired. The return flight was also delayed by 3 days. The aircraft legroom (A321) was a good feature although the cabin was noisy. The food indifferent.

Travelled from London Gatwick to Grenoble on Sat 23rd February 2013. Original schedule was 12.50 and amended to 13.25. On arrival 4 hours before takeoff to book in we were confronted by long queues and advised technical issue with plane would result in flight being split over 2 planes. 7 hours delay and Pilot stated minor fault which was taking a long time to repair and the plane had to complete 2 other routes before taking us. On return to Grenoble on 2nd March smaller plane supplied with approximately 100 passengers deprived of flight due to overbooked! Additional plane supplied with overall only 20 minute delay over original schedule. Same letter supplied regarding technical issue as the week before. Best guess is 3 flights were under booked so squeezed into 2 flights with large delays. Avoid this airline at all cost.

Flight ZB0627 - Lanzarote-Manchester - 12/2/2013. This is the worst flight I have ever been on can cope with a 2 hour delay but to be informed that there was not enough fuel to return to Manchester due to winds is a worrying prospect. All in all it turned out most unsatisfactory luckily I had pre booked meals but other passengers were no so lucky as food quickly ran out. Also because of security checks at Gatwick any duty free liquid purchases were taken even purchases made on the flight. All in all not very good at all.

Gatwick to Lanzarote. Flights pretty much on time. Extra legroom seats paid for both ways so was comfortable on the way out. Aircraft switch on the way back meant no extra leg room which in reality meant no legroom at all. And no apology or refund either. Ran out of all hot food stewardess says that's because they want to get you pay for it in advance so they don't waste any and maximise their profits. Upon seeing the slop that was served to those who had pre-paid for food was glad to go hungry. Not a cheap flight either at nearly £500 per person. Looking forward to BA starting this route and maybe forcing Monarch to up their game.

Return flight London Gatwick - Tobago flight on time both ways. Price was cheap and so was the 'service'. In-flight meals - 2 served something that was supposed to be breakfast and one that was intended to resemble dinner was more a joke than anything else no complimentary drinks except a cup of tea or coffee after the 'meal' not even water! All drinks had to be purchased. Overhead video screens as inflight entertainment but you had to purchase headset for £2.50 in order to get any sound. The screens were hard to see from our location. A330 that was used had a seat arrangement of 3-3-3 as opposed to the "standard" 2-4-2 on these planes making seats and aisles extremely narrow. By far the worst plane I have taken and sitting in a narrow space partially sideways for 9 hours is not a experience I want to repeat. In Tobago we were rushed into the plane by the crew. Be aware also that allowed hand luggage is a joke with a limit of 5 kg (11 lbs). I was carrying a bag with a laptop + charger and a couple of other items which lead to a slight overweight. The bag was weighed in by staff at Gatwick and was grumpily told to remove some items from the bag to be allowed to carry it on the plane. No constructive solution or suggestion offered. Will not recommend a long flight with Monarch to anyone and unless I have absolutely no other choice I'll stay far away from them in the future.

Two reasons given for a 7 hrs delay. Captain claimed headwinds forced a landing in Gatwick vs Manchester while stewardesses claimed EU flying directives forced an early termination. We took our luggage off the belt at 00.20am and left stranded in Manchester. Needed to book a hotel and Re-book train next day back to Scarborough. Still no official letter or explanation for delay as promised. We lost all our duty free liquids as we had to disembark and re board through a fresh security check. No food for x12hrs and all that was offered was a glass of water. Very shoddy treatment. ZB627 Lanzarote to Manchester flight on 12 Feb 2013.

Gatwick - Grenoble on an Airbus A330 was a very pleasant experience no doubt assisted by the fact that we upgraded to extra leg room seats for a very modest £15. Unfortunately Monarch switched the aircraft for the inbound journey to one of their ageing Airbus A300's and the experience was much less enjoyable. They squeeze 9 seats across (the aircraft is only designed for 8) and somehow cram in approx 350 passengers no doubt aided by the non existent leg room. The seats also only support you up to around the upper back so you cant rest your head at all. Unless you're relatively small or thin you're in for a very uncomfortable flight. There was also an extremely annoying shrill noise which whined constantly both on the ground and in the air. The Cabin crew seemed resigned to the fact that they have their work cut out trying to placate passengers' grievances on these aircraft. It's high time Monarch retired these A300's and replaced them with something newer and more comfortable.