Thomas Cook Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Grim seating. Nice Staff. I didn't realise that the "premium" cabin has no additional legroom. It was just so uncomfortable for me as a person of 6ft 4 ins. A friend booked us on this flight as we were going as a group, so I didn't get the chance to check on the legroom beforehand. The staff seemed nice and professional though. Sorry, just too uncomfortable for me to be able to recommend. If you are in the first row there is a bulkhead, so nowhere at all to stretch out your legs- not even under a seat!

Not Verified | We flew through a Thomas Cook booking with Condor Airlines. The flight was over four hours late leaving Los Angeles. No explanation was given and no refreshments or food vouchers offered. They tried to scam us into checking our carry-ons (for a fee) at the baggage drop, and if we hadn't known our rights, they might have succeeded. The departure board had departure times that came and went, and when we asked at the desk, no explanation was given.

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester to New York JFK return. This was the most stressful outbound flight experience I have had. I arrived over 2 hours early for my flight to NY and was greeted by absolute chaos in the Manchester check in area - enormous queues of passengers just not moving and angry "priority" passengers yelling at staff as normal queues were moving faster than them. Eventually they opened more desks and things got moving but it was nearly an hour by the time I got to check in. Outbound my hand luggage was 8kg (so 2kg over the 6kg luggage allowance) which I hadn't realised as I booked the flight the day before for a surprise visit my fiancé had planned. Most other airlines have a 10kg hand luggage allowance so the 6kg is unreasonably restrictive IMO, and is clearly not a safety thing as "premium" passengers are allowed 10kg. As we were only going for the weekend I had packed a trolley case with very little inside and since my partner lives in the states I took the chance to use my baggage allowance to pack some items we had not yet been able to take out there like bedding etc which was in a sealed box. The guy on the desk was adamant I had to lose 2kgs or pay £95 to check in my hand baggage. I asked if I could pay per kilo I was overweight as I had no way to repack the sealed box and could not afford to pay the extortionate check-in fee which is higher than additional baggage charges I have paid on other airlines when I genuinely have had to check a bag in. He was (rudely) adamant no. So I relented and said well if I had to transfer into my checked bag which was only 15kg then I needed scissors and tape to open and reseal the box. "Not his problem" apparently, and I was told I had to find somewhere else in the terminal to do it or pay the £95. Long story short the baggage storage counter was nice enough to let me use their stuff but I think the rudeness and disorganisation of the staff and stingy, inflexible and ridiculously expensive baggage policy is enough to put off flying with them again. By the time I got my bag checked the flight was boarding and I had to run through security to get to the gate. Had the same enormous check-in queue issue at JFK on the return leg, where the queue at 7pm for a 10pm flight was so large they had a separate side queue area before you got to the queues at the front of the desks. Credit to the 5 desk staff there though it did move reasonably quickly. My in-flight experience was supposedly better than normal due to them issuing a free upgrade to "premium" entertainment which was frankly poor in comparison with other airlines I've recently flown to USA with (Delta, Icelandair). On the return I had 5 films to choose from. Food was ok, but no complimentary drinks except a bottle of water and trolley drinks are expensive. There was a constant push to sell you stuff - you have to sit through 4 adverts back to back before you can watch anything. It really is like long haul Ryanair but with a stricter baggage policy. It took an hour after landing for my bag to come into reclaim so having got through immigration that was a 40minute wait, meaning I missed a train connection by 2mins. The gate from JFK also had no seats and we had to be bussed out across to the plane which was miles away. In summary - a totally budget experience which could be so much better if they could sort out check in and be slightly more reasonable on hand luggage weight allowance.

✅ Trip Verified | Dalaman to Luton. This has to be the most uncomfortable trip I have ever made, legroom was a huge issue as there wasn’t any. This flight was operated by Avion Express although the Thomas Cook livery was everywhere. The flight attendants seemed to be having a bad day with one in particular very snappy and barking orders at passengers and then shaking her head and making comments about them just loud enough to be heard. The food was typical of any airline and had to be prepaid. I haven’t used Thomas Cook in a number of years and now I remember why.

✅ Trip Verified | I purchased a full package holiday to Egypt for December 2017 (Birmingham to Hurghada) and was offered at a cost for Thomas cook to obtain our visas. I agreed as I had no time to check and sort them. I received a document 4 weeks before saying I had a pre-paid visa. I arrived at the airport excited to travel was allowed to check my bags and spend nearly 3 hours in the airport only to be to at boarding that I was being refused travel due to not have 6 months left on my passport. I showed my visa confirmation issued by their company but was still turned away. They are now taking no responsibility for anything and I am down £1300.

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester to Varadero, Cuba. Never used this airline before, but had no reason to think it would be any different to the many long haul flights we have taken over the years. Wrong! We had no idea we were flying with a long haul version of Ryanair. Nice clean plane, decent amount of leg room with rather uncomfortable seats. We had had to pay £25 each way to choose our seats or risk the real possibility of having to sit separately on a 10 hour flight, which had already added £100 to the cost of holiday. The overhead lockers are quite small, and the baggage allowance is a measly 20kg hold and 6kg hand luggage which is strictly adhered to. On the return journey we were 1.2kg overweight, and were charged £20 by the completely inflexible ground staff - no receipt given, and cash only payment. Have been overweight by this trivial amount several times on other airlines, but have never ever been charged! Disgusting daylight robbery. On board we got settled in and once in the air the drinks trolley came. We were charged £2.80 for a cup of tea! I thought it was a joke , but everything was to pay for, at 10 times the cost of the supermarket (1.30 for a kit kat!) The only free drinks were a bottle of water on the outbound flight (none on the return) and the tea with the two meals, which was half the size of the one you had to buy. We also got a complimentary cornetto on the outbound flight, which was so small it was gone in two bites. The out meals were quite nice, coming back the breakfast consisted of a yoghurt and a cake, Who eats cake for breakfast? Turns out we do, because we are starving ! The headsets were free but poor quality, the entertainment was rubbish, uless you wanted to pay an extra £5 for a better choice of films etc. The cabin crew were pleasant enough if a little disinterested. Overall not a pleasant flight, and not only will we never use this airline again, we would not recommend it either.

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester to Ft Lauderdale via New York JFK. This booking was made via the Thomas Cook call centre, with a 2 hour connection in JFK from the Thomas Cook Airlines flight which landed in T4 to a JetBlue domestic flight to Fort Lauderdale which departed from T5. As you would expect in the USA, we knew we would have to collect our bags at JFK, clear customs and them drop on another belt for connecting flights. Not at JFK apparently! The first sector of our flight from Manchester to JFK was operated by Air Tanker, which I had low expectations of, but actually a fairly decent newish aircraft. However, the cabin crew operating the flight clearly were not happy to be there. From the moment we stepped on board we had to listen to 3 of them stood by the exit door where we sat, constantly moaning about their terms and conditions and how they should not be asked to operate as Senior Crew on the Air Tanker plane as they were not experienced on it (correct me if I'm wrong, but its the same type as they operate in their own fleet?). It was terribly unprofessional. One of the passengers must have been Cabin Crew staff going on holiday and must also have been the Union Shop Steward or something as she stood with them telling them all how she's written to head office to complain etc. It was just awful and off putting to listen to! By the time we were due to take off, there was then a hive of activity in the hold and they began loading baggage and cargo... at the time we were supposed to take off! This took them over an hour to complete, so we took off 1hr 20mins late! Clearly this flight actually going was a surprise to the baggage handlers as they hadn't prepared for it! Knowing we had a short connection at JFK we asked the cabin crew for advice on what to do. They had no idea on how connections worked at JFK as I forgot - they're basically a charter airline trying to play scheduled service. We landed at JFK over an hour late. We were met by a member of ground staff who handed us a "speedy transfer card" which was supposed to expedite our journey through the usual miles of queues at US airports. However, it was about as useful as waving a piece of loo roll at someone! There is no facility to drop you bags through for a connecting flight, so by the time we ran back, we missed our connecting flight! There is no Thomas Cook representative at JFK T4 until 3hrs before the flight leaves, which is really not helpful when you're going to miss your last hope of a connection! Eventually we got hold of someone in the UK at Thomas Cook and got rebooked, but not without a lot of stress and worrying we may not even make our cruise leaving the next day out of Fort Lauderdale! We found the Thomas Cook aircraft on the way back was very tired, uncomfortable, dated and worn. The service outbound and return was minimal, with just one drinks round offered on a 7hr flight to me just says lazy! We were encourged to buy everything we wanted on the one round, then what do you do with it all! The food has gone really down hill. Bland, tasteless and minimal effort. It was never this bad a couple of years ago! I will not travel with this airline again as they clearly have no concept of offering connecting flights and minimum connections times. My whole holiday could very well have been ruined by them if I hadn't intervened.

✅ Trip Verified | Gatwick to Palma. This is possibly one of the worst airlines I’ve ever flown with. Rude boarding staff and unreasonable policies. The price given is totally misleading as the hand luggage cannot weigh more than 6kg. All bags are weighed religiously - the atmosphere is unpleasant and the whole experience makes you regret ever dreaming of a holiday. You got charged £65 one way for having a weekend bag 2.5kg over this ridiculous limit. This means that everyone is expected to have a check in bag which of course takes the original price way up and therefore not competitive. Absolutely ruined the long weekend. Thanks Thomas Cook. That’s the last time I fly with you.

✅ Trip Verified | I recently flew with Thomas Cook Airlines to and from Barbados from Gatwick Premium Economy with my wife in seat 5F/5G. I paid £300 pp. I have never had such an awful pair of flights. I have to say the staff were great but the food was terrible with plastic cutlery. The extras ie earphones were disgrace and in general the whole experience was far below the standard expected for this service. I have traveled using Thomson/Tui and found them to be at a different level of service and comfort. This is a sad reflection to the airline and was never worth the money,

✅ Trip Verified | Tenerife to Bristol. Despite the weather we returned to our home airport just three hours late, one of about two planes to land in Bristol yesterday, and we were kept informed by staff from the moment we arrived at Tenerife South Airport. Credit where it is due, the pilot and cabin crew did an excellent job.