Manchester to Tenerife & return with Monarch & First Choice

Well after much debate three weeks ago we booked a last minute deal to Tenerife, now normally we go Airtours/MYT every year for our main holiday but this time it was to be Cosmos/MON & FCA as Airtours do not accept kids at our hotel. We chose the lovely Hotel Vulcano in Playa de las Americas (more about that later)

At the time of booking we were planning on going for 9 days but to my delight after playing around with Cosmos’s booking system we could go out on a Monarch A300 and a First Choice B757, two planes i’d much rather go on than at Monarch scheduled A320 simply cos they are both beasts! So it was booked and ready to go…..

….

Friday 24th August

Well as I live not far from York and our flight was at 07.00 we left at about 3 (i think could have been 2? i wasnt paying attention really at that time in the morning lol) so after an hour and a bit drive we parked the Thomas Cook and LOT Polish airlines check in desks i cant for the life of me remeber the desk numbers but thats not really important. Arrived at check in at 04.45 recieved our boarding cards at 06.00, the queue was so slow!!!!! everyone was getting annoyed and there was no apparent reason for being so slow. We then moved onto security …… yet another huge queue, the biggest I have ever seen in T1! And by the time were were through security our flight had ‘gate closing’ on the board so half of our flight was running to the gate only to find boarding hadnt started and didnt do for a further fifteen minutes.

MON3106
STD: 07.00
ATD: 07.40
STA: 11.30
ATA: 11.05
Airbus A300-600 G-OJMR
Seat 40F

So we were called for boarding which was carried out really quickly considering 350 people boarded in about 10 minutes. I was surprised on entering on what good condition the plane was is, I was expeciting it to be tatty but really it was quite nice!

So the doors were shut and we taxied to Runway 24L but we were 10th in line behind Jet2 73’s. XL 757, BE Q400, BA A320, BMI ERJ and a few others, but the queue moved quite quick and we accelerated down the runway which seemed to last for an eternity then swiftly up into the air and into cloud. I didn’t have a window seat but the route was over southern ireland, northern france, northern spain, then parralel to morocco and then down to reina sofia airport. It was a very en eventful flight but still a nice nice ride. For this flight I rate it:

Cleanliness of aircraft: 9/10
Comfort: 5/10 … the leg room isnt great neither is the width but no worse than any other charter
Crew: 9/10 they were realy friendly and kind
Entertainment: 5/10 it was quite good, but not sure if yes, prime minister really appeals to little kids
Overall flight: 7/10 ….. good job Monarch

Hotel Vulcano is a more mature guest suited hotel, although there were a few other guys around my age and my little bro’s age. Great location, great food/rooms/staff/pool, a really nice hotel I would reccomend it to anyone! From our room there was limited visibility to the approach for Tenerife airport, the following are really poor pictures but just to give you an idea ……

These two are really poor but are really for TommyInYork,
His ride in:

And his ride home:

Well it was time to come home 🙁 so we got picked up at 12.30 AM this morning (Saturday … god that seems ages ago!!!) and arrived at the airport to be greeted with CHOAS!!!!
Two FCA flights going to MAN within half an hour with very similar flight numbers: FCA2583 and FCA2573, so imagine two 757 loads of people in a queue that wasnt moving and the check in staf didnt have a clue which flight was which until some FCA reps turned up.
There were 4 queues with a mix of the 2573 and 2583 pax in, it was decided that as the 2583 was leaving earlier it was best to check that one in first, this resulted in a lot of angry people who had been waiting in line for the 2573 but then had to go to the back of the queue or just wait in limbo. Eventually it sorted it self out and everyone got checked in, my mum asked one of the reps why was there such a messup and apparently every single flight to the UK yesterday left 100% full and there was a backlog of people? So as the swarm of 500 FCA pax moved through to the gates there were delays of about 40 minutes of each flight which made the situation worse for some people (we found it quire funny really! :diablo: )

Our flight, FCA 2573 was allocated gate 9, suddenly a plane pulled up to the gate, there was a scurry of actuvity to get in the queue BEFORE the airbridge had even been attached only to the news that the plane that was at gate 9 was a XLA 757 not our 757:(

Not long after our ride home pulled up, the mightly looking G-OOBJ after a quick disembarcation (i think thats a word!!:D ) she was ready for boarding. Of course as usual EVERYONE rushed to the gate only to wait ages when there were seats all round where the odd few sensible people waited.
The queue went down and we got up to board, we were greeted by a smiling FCA lady who showed us where our seats were. This time I had a window seat, we were parked next to the XLA 757 that I just mensioned, not a bril pic but it was hard in the light …

Soon everyone was on and the doors were shut.

FCA2573
Boeing 757-200 G-OOBJ
STD: 03.00
ATD: 03.45
STA: 07.00
ATA: 07.59
Seat 27A

We taxied behind the XLA and after a swift take off we headed north over the Islands Capital Santa Cruz, then over lisbon, Porto, Bay of Biscay, Channel Islands, Exeter, Cardiff, Liverpool and then into Manchester. The flight was very smooth but I could not get comfy in the seats for the entire journey, although 90% of the flight did and were asleep all the way home!

We didnt pre-book meals but the friendly crew offered us then anyway as no body much was going to eat them, we had a scrambeled egg breakfast which was really realy nice!! After breakfast was served the sun rose and made some nice effects in the sky, I wasnt at the right side but it still looks pretty cool!:

When day arrived I took this picture of the cabin:

It shows just how vibrant FCA’s seats are!!! We came down through low cloud and glided smootly onto the runway and taxied to a remote stand and were met by a bus. I was really impressed with FCA,

Cleanliness: 9/10 .. a few marks and rips but noting too bad
Comfort: 2/10 no idea why the seats seemed less cramped but I just couldnt get comfy!!
Crew: 10/10 they were really enthusiastic and helpful and just generally really cheerful! good on you!
Entertainment: 9/10, TV’s clear and a good choice of Spiderman 3 and top gear
Overall flight:8/10 …. very good FCA!!!!

Overall both nice flights and will definatly use Monarch and First Choice again (if I have chance before they become TUI:( )

Right I’ll stop waffling on!! Sorry about the quality of the pictures it was really hard to get them sharp at such a distance!

Thanks for reading!