Let’s have a quick runthrough shall we…
Monarch – I have flown with Monarch many times. My most recent trip with them was back in 1999, so not really recent! I flew an A300 to the Dominican Republic and an A330 back again. Trips before that were in the early 1990s on charter services to mainland Spain (Alicante, Malaga etc). With the long haul trips, their entertainment was quite good, meals were average and the crew didn’t seem to do anything to upset me.
More recently, my parents flew with them in 2001 to Holguin. They weren’t overly impressed.
Excel Airways – Two members of my family flew to Larnaca with Excel Airways in 2002. They thoroughly enjoyed the flight and were very comfortable in their leather seats.
JMC (Thomas Cook) – Have never flown Thomas Cook, but flew the JMC DC-10s in the Summer of 2000 to the Dominican Republic again. The aircraft was tired judging by the state of the interior. The cabin ceilings were starting to come away, the air conditioning system seemed to drench passengers with leaks and the entertainment was very poor! Crew were quite useless at the time as well, not willing to offer much help when we discovered one of our seats was broken, and another had a broken headphone socket. The flight outbound had a hefty 4 hour delay outbound.
Airtours (MyTravel) – Like Monarch, I flew with Airtours a lot in the 1990s to Spain and Crete. My most recent trip was 2 years ago (the last charter flight I made) to Montego Bay, Jamaica. For a 10 hour flight, I was very impressed. We flew on the hi-tech A330-200 outbound and departed Gatwick on-time. Excellent in-flight service and meals and entertainment which was unbeatable. The inbound flight was delayed by 4 hours and there was not much communication between Airtours staff and passengers at the airport. The 767 which flew us home was a real comedown compared to the A330 we had travelled on previously.
Britannia Airways (Thomson/TUI) – I flew Britannia in the 1990s on trips to Spain and my most recent trips were in 1998 from London Gatwick to Orlando Sanford (767-300s), 1999 from London Gatwick to Girona (767-200s) and in 2001 from London Gatwick to La Romana (Dom Rep, 767-300s). The 1998 trip was my first long haul flight and also my first Atlantic crossing. The service was much better than I was expecting. We had two hot meals and a hot dog towards the end of the flight – you don’t get more American than that! Excellent crew, very punctual (for the six trips I have made with them) and an airline I wouldn’t mind flying with in the future.
Comfort – I don’t think I’ve ever been comfortable on a charter flight. But the airline that offered such great service that took my mind off of how uncomfortable I was would be Airtours (now MyTravel).
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