Thomson- We've Been FORGOTTEN!! (Thomson Holidays)

Member Name: OhLala-17

Product:	Thomson Holidays
Date:	10/10/09 (111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice Rep at Apartments.

Disadvantages: Might Get Forgotten About.

I have just got back from a holiday booked through Thomson. I have never used Thomson before but as they are a very large holiday travel agent I thought lets just go for it!


- Booking The Holiday -
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I booked the week long holiday on Thomson's website, I found it extremely easy to use and they had a good range of accommodation.
When you first go onto www.thomson.co.uk you click on what sort of holiday you want.

We decided to go for a cheap package holiday as we just wanted some Autumn sun and only booked about 3-4 weeks before travelling.
I put in when we wanted to go, how long for, where to, airports etc.. and it all loaded very quickly with results.
Getting a flight from our preferred and closer airport was a bit of a pain, even though Thomson fly from there we couldn't get one. This isn't Thomson's fault as I had to plan the trip around work so the only times I could go is when Thomson were only flying from Gatwick.
In the end flying from Gatwick wasn't a problem.

Thomson's website is ATOL protected, which means you won't be stranded abroad when the company goes bust! And you stand a very good chance of getting your money back.
You are charged £1 per person for this, but it's definitely worth a pound to know you won't have to fork out an arm and a leg to get home again.

Overall Thomson's website is brilliant, very simple to use with a wide range of destinations.
I can't find anything to fault about the website.


- The Holiday / Holiday Rep -
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Thomson are also joint partners with First Choice, when you get to the airport it's mainly labelled Thomson, but First Choice customers go to the Thomson check in desk.
First Choice and Thomson are located in the North terminal of Gatwick airport.
As we walked to Check In there was nobody there except 2 people. We literally walked straight through the queue line and went to a desk, which is a first!
The lady was very kind and in less than 5 minutes are suitcases were gone and we could go through to departures.

The plane we boarded was a Thomson one (can sometimes be First Choice), it was a Boeing 757 and consisted of 3 seats, aisle, 3 seats.
We were seated slap bang on the wing! So views out of the window weren't great, but you could still see a fair bit.
The seats weren't all that big, even I found leg room constricted and I'm fairly small.
But the seats were comfy which is the main thing for a 4 hour & 30 minute journey.
We had TV's on board, they weren't seat back ones but they hung in the aisle. I was sat next to the window and I could still see the TV very well.
They played The Proposal, Top Gear & The Simpsons on the way out but you needed to pay £2.50 for a head set, so I just decided to read my book and have a snooze.

The cabin crew were good, I have to say not a fan of there uniform! The blue shirt was ok, but the Khaki skirt wasn't that attractive- sorry. They should have a nice navy blue skirt or something... something more Thompson.
You can get a meal for a price of £7.50 each totalling at £15.00 outbound and inbound which I think is a ridiculous price to pay for an aeroplane meal!
If you opt out of the meal like we did you can purchase drinks and food on board, they are a little pricey but not to bad.

We actually had a meal at Gatwick which filled us right up and then brought a drink and Mars bar in Boots!
On board you can get Duty Free's: Cigarettes, Alcohol, Watches, Perfume & Toys. These prices were very good!

We took off on time at 6pm and landed in Tenerife 30 minutes early! Which is brilliant, I don't think I've ever taken off on time before.
At Tenerife airport, after you have collected your luggage follow the exit signs and you will see a Thomson / First Choice Rep.
They give you a welcome pack which has booklets about Tenerife and they tell you which coach to get on.

The coach was a Thomson one and was nice. It took a while to set off though and the Rep didn't travel with us!
Travelling time was only 35 - 40 minutes from the airport to our apartments, and when it was our turn to get off we couldn't understand the driver as he only spoke Spanish. Good job we knew we were the 3rd stop!
He simply pointed down the road and left us. After a while of looking around we saw the sign for our apartments.

We checked in, got to our room and slept!
The next morning we woke up to see a letter slid through the door by our Rep. It told us there was a Welcome Meeting at 10.30.
We went to this and our Rep was lovely, she told us all about the island and didn't force is into buying any tickets for attractions as we have experienced before by other tour operators.
Through out our stay we saw her around the apartments and she always spoke and was very friendly.
Again I couldn't fault our Rep!

Now, after a fantastic stay in Tenerife, with a kind Rep, lovely apartments and a great tan it was time to go home.
Our bus was coming to pick us up at 8.45pm.
At 9pm a Thomson bus came, so we stood up with our cases and got ready to get on.
Instead the bus travelled past us going quite fast- to fast to stop!
We didn't really think anything of it, maybe it was dropping people off, as it was pretty much empty?!
After 35 minutes of waiting we went to our reception and said our bus still hadn't come, the receptionist said they are never this late and rang Thomson up for us.
Thomson rang back 10 minutes later and said they had no idea where the bus was and to ring the airport to see if it had turnt up there and forgotten us.
The airport didn't know either, and so Thomson decided to send a mini bus for us as we had been forgotten about!!!

Fifteen minutes later a mini bus came, the man apologized and we set off at some rate of knots! It was gone 10pm at this point and we took off at 11.30.
The man turnt off into a hotel, it turns out we weren't the only ones forgotten about!
In total we stopped at 5 hotels, we arrived at the airport and 4 Reps were waiting for us.
They said sorry and that the bus broke down, but we had actually been told by our receptionist who rang Thomson the bus driver forgot to pick people up from 10 hotels in total. (All people from the different hotels had also been told they'd been forgotten about.)

Check In was kept open for us and we had to rush to our departure gate.
We got to our gate at 10.35, and at 10.55 we started boarding!
We still believe the bus driver forgot about us because people who were on our coach when we arrived in Tenerife were already at the airport looking fairly bored!

After that very stressful experience we got on a First Choice Boeing 757 with 3 seats, aisle, 3 seats.
The staff were very good on this flight!
Again we were sat on the wing, but not slap bang on it this time. The seats were leather and very comfortable. I also found there was slightly more leg room!
They had TV's hanging in the aisle. The film was Star Trek and they also played Hannah Montana and Top Gear.


- Overall -
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When I was on holiday I actually thought about Dooyoo and writing a review on Thomson, giving them 4-5*'s.
Now I don't think I would travel again with them!

They need to put Rep's on the coaches! Our receptionist told us this wasn't the 1st time they'd forgotten about people.
Forget about trying to cut costs and give customers what they pay for!
In the long run it probably cost Thomson more to send that mini bus for us.
We saw a Thomas Cook coach stop at our apartments with a Rep on board, he actually got off the bus with them and told them where to go.

Instead of Thomson leaving it up to a Spanish coach driver to pick and drop people off, they need a Rep on board!!!

Advantages
* Lovely Rep when we got to our apartments
* Reasonably priced holiday
* Planes are in good condition
* Easy website to navigate
* Lots of Thomson travel agent shops
* Nice cabin crew coming home

Disadvantages
* They forget to pick you up to go home
* No Reps on coaches
* Some unfriendly airline crew
* Not much leg room on Thomson planes
* Coach driver was unfriendly

So there are more advantages and bad, but if we had missed our plane it would have ment a very long night in the airport. I also had to work the next day and we had someone picking us up!
It was also very stressful.

I still like Thomson, just not as much. I'd love to go back to the apartments we stayed at again but, I would compare prices with Thomas Cook!
There is a chance I'd travel with Thomson in the future although it would have to be a good price!

I want to give them just 2*'s, but due to all the other good points I think it deserves 3*'s.

3*s - 50% Recommended.
October 2009.

Summary: Forget About Trying To Cut Costs & Give Customers What They've Paid For!!