Thomson Airways (Formally First Choice Airways & Thomsonfly) (Thomsonfly)

Member Name: hunnybabyuk

Product:	Thomsonfly
Date:	29/05/09 (616 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great value for money with excellent professional service & standards

Disadvantages: The TUI smile looks evil

Thomsonfly (now known as Thomson Airways) is a great well known charter brand (and did for a short while do some scheduled flights from Coventry). Everyone has heard of them and it's easy to see why they are the UK's largest and most popular tour operator & charter airline.

I have flown with them a few times now and never had any problems, yes you get delays from time to time but it's how the airline handles passengers during a delay not the fact there is a delay as ALL airlines have them.

The process of booking a flight on its own (known as flight only i.e NOT a package holiday) is easy, their website is easy to navigate around with destination ideas to give you inspiration on where to go, flight timetables so you can see at a glance when flights operate between certain airports and a very simple booking engine, simply select the flight you want and when you want to go and it brings up the best available deal. It shows you various options on dates close to the one you choose so you can see if it's cheaper for you to fly on a different date, it also shows alternative airports nearby which may be cheaper to fly from too. This helps you manage your money better and means that Thomson really want you to get the best deal for you. The booking engine lets you select extras including extra space seats, seats together, meals, hotels, car hire & insurance.

Their checkin is always super fast, well has been at all the ones I have used, Newcastle, Manchester, Palma Mallorca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Las Palmas Gran Canaria (can't think of any others right now). They operate a multi-checkin system, where all their flights that are checking in at the time, check in together so you may have 20 desks open and 8 flights checking in together but because checkin is spread over 2 to 3 hours, not all passengers checkin at the same time so you really do get a quick checkin.

Their aircraft are some of the best charter planes I have ever known, both Thomsonfly and ex-First Choice Airways planes (all now part of Thomson Airways) are spacious roomy, with ample leg room and now offer a cheap extra leg room upgrade fee which has been reduced this Summer. The cabin crew are friendly, always with that lovely TUI smile on their faces even at 4am.

There is some good onboard entertainment with top movies and TV shows to keep you entertained in-flight, along with their onboard magazine, Indulge, which has great stories from celebs to top holiday hotspot features. It also has their on-board duty free offering, with excellent deals to save money on alcohol, perfume, aftershave & cigarettes, buy onboard and you can save a fortune on the cost from the highstreet.

The inflight meals are very nice, I am the world fusiest of eaters so even your fussy kids (or adults like me) will enjoy their inflight meals, which have been designed by celebrity chef Aldo Zilli they are great value & low-cost, served also in bio-degradable trays so they are great for helping the enviroment too.

Overall Thomson Airways offer FANTASTIC value for money and great aircraft, happy friendly crew and a professional service.

Summary: The best charter airline the world has ever seen