Travel City Direct, What Are They Like?

AAE and XLA are merging. TCD was bought by the Avion Group last year and the flights have been operated by AAI and AAE crews for some time now anyhow and never operated on their own callsign. Since November last year the crews became solely AAE. With the merger AAE will cease to exist and so will the 5A/EUK/Snowbird identifiers hence the change from 5A to XL.

Yer well also if you read IMPORTANT INFORMATION

it says that the flight code for travel city direct 5A is changing to XLA

Jon

I’m pretty sure they are talking about the fact that this winter Excel have been operating the LGW SFB services on the 763. This ends the end of this month when one of the 743’s returns from operating Hajj charters. Should there be extra flights going, I have no doubt we will do them on the 763.

basicilly means no, lol and ive just been browsing there website and there getting a Boeing 767 not to sure of the size (200/300) probably from excel airways

http://www.travelcitydirect.com/AniteNextPage.asp?p=NEWSINFO_OURFLTS

Go to Introducing Travel City Direct flights, read it and it will explasin

Jon

nay’s?

I think so, erm so im expecting delays now.. lol

Jon

I think the nay’s have it on this one

i forgot the crew are nice lots of males:S lol ( joke), when i went in 2003 (november again) we were delayed again because they couldnt get the baggage containers on the a/c so we were sat there for a hour, when we arrived at sanford they couldnt get them off lol :S 🙂 any mor questions? just fire away

Well i will tell you my story which i did Manchester to Sanford in november… arrived checked in ( couldnt organise how 2 get drunk in a pub) finaly got checked in and we went through. i saw the a/c been towed past the window to the stand. it got to 12.00 when we were due to go and it said wait for further information and did that till 9.00pm finally mr air atlantic finally came down and said the plane havin engine problems:S at this time we watched it out on a remote stand all day. well any ways finally got in to the radison which they payed for for 500 pax and the rep people came to visit us. next day arrived got food tickets for sum food, time came for boarding FINALLY got on and waited 1 hr 30 mins cos it took ages to get baggage on. randomy some people got up and said they wanted to get off so they did and so then they had to find their baggage!! back to the story we finally went at 12.00 24 hrs late. leg room was good but leather seating so it got a lil sweaty lol ( no need 2 know that) tv’s were them silly projecters at the front of your section of cabin ( i was on row 14) and also the captain was sayin they were having problems with the navigational device:S lol “Ladis and gents wer some where over the atlantic its dark and were lost:P” good thing is on retrn we followed morning all the way home so people were asked to put blinds down and they turned off the lights:) but i got a plane white air atlanta on way home (same as TCD (travel city direct) as in tv is a silly projector. cant think of any mor to write it is rather random but hoped it help 🙂 (sorry about poor english)

Not quite Travelcity Direct but I travelled back with Air Atlanta Europe from TFS to MAN last year (aboard TF-ARS). The flight was delayed by 2 hours inbound from MAN due to ‘baggage problems at Manchester’. We then had to sit on the aircraft whilst the majority of the bins were taken off and unloaded next to the aircraft. I lost count of how many baggage trucks appeared with suitcases for the return journey. We then sat for nearly an hour and watched all the bins being reloaded, however there was a problem. All the bins had been filled and there was still three baggage trucks left! The Captain announced that we should be airborne soon, just awaiting the baggage handlers to throw the last couple of suitcases in the rear baggage hold. After another half hour or so all the suitcases had been loaded. I was however rather worried as the check-in staff didn’t weigh any cases and there must have been nearly 500 passengers on that plane. I knew we were over on all four of our cases and had expected to have to shell out some cash. To say that aircraft used every inch of the runway was an understatement. The captain nearly ran over the marker lights at the start of the runway positioning the beast and then the fence at the other end appeared around two seconds after the main wheels lifted off. The flight and cabin crew were not the most professional or friendy I’ve experienced although like other people of said if you book the cheapest…..

LBA-EGNM you did the same route as what i am doing what was the service like and would the leg room be good for a 6 footer? also whats the seat layout because im not sure on the 300 is it the same as the 400 or 200?

Jon

i went on the 747 and the leg room was good, shame about the TV it was like a projector at the front of the section of cabin

it will most probably be the TF-AME from Manchester which isd the one im on the 747-300

Jon

last week and it was 2 hours late arriving under a XLA flight number, passengers complained about lack of leg room.

Probably on the 767 then. Delay due in part by a faulty anti-collision light and then further by a particularly long flight time. As of the end of March, all flights on will be on the 747. I operated the SFB-LGW sector so should know. Don’t remember any legroom complaints though.

last week and it was 2 hours late arriving under a XLA flight number, passengers complained about lack of leg room.

Can i just say i had a bad experience but its not all that bad like mentioned before, there are sum good points. so not all that bad but not all that good

It seems many of you have experience of what it once was and not what it has become. The flights are operated by Air Atlanta Europe now, a sister company of both Excel and AAI being owned by Avion Group, and their crews are top notch and really wouldn’t be getting a dangerous aircraft airbourne. A lot of the cabin crew you will be flying with this year will be Excel and they have a very good reputation for doing things exactly by the book. The service on board is generally good with free headphones and drinks (normally charged for on Excel flights). If it is the cheapest, you have to set your sights low in relation to your fellow punter. Chav City Direct is a well know nickname.

any posative comments?

My friend has travelled on them and he hates the bottom bit so he usually upgrades to first class or whatever it’s called on TC.

any posative comments?

Well, the pilots seem nice enough when their aircraft taxi past the viewing park…

Indeed,as I recall,taxiing to the gate at Sanford,the flight engineer came over the tannoy

“Ladies and Gentlemen,we have arrived at Sanford and should be at the gate shortly, It’s (can’t quite remember now) local time, but the bad news is that we’re due some rain…….the good news is though,we can go to the pub now, yippppppeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Boy that made me laugh