Thomas Cook Airlines (group)

Flew to Cyprus. Drunk party of people let on plane. Noise for 5 hours! Crew refused to sell more drinks. Loud and abusive. I thought it was illegal to let drunks on a plane. Complained to T Cook. Apologised and said they would retrain crew. We also had our flight changed and were on a different plane so didn’t get legroom seats we paid for. They ignored this in the reply. We paid for a service we didn’t receive. No compensation for money lost. Poor customer service. Won’t use again.

This was a RT between Boston and Manchester. I was supposed to make a connection at JFK on a Jet Blue flight back to Boston. Upon checking in at the Manchester counter, I was not issued a ticket for the Jet Blue flight. The Thomas Cook flight out of Manchester was delayed for over an hour. Communications about the delay were very poor despite repeated attempts by multiple passengers requesting updates about the departure time. Due to the delay, my connection at JFK was tight but still manageable had Jet Blue been able to issue me a ticket. Unfortunately, JB can’t even locate me on the passenger list. Thomas Cook obviously had the information about the connection, judging by the sticker on my luggage. But the information was not communicated to Jet Blue. I had to purchase a ticket ($400+) from JFK to Bos. I contacted Thomas Cook and was directed to email my complaint. It didn’t even have the courtesy to respond after 3 months. Unless you want a travel nightmare, don’t fly Thomas Cook. There’s no service to speak of, nor does it care to rectify its mistakes.

Two family trips to Orlando, but 12 years apart. It took that long to have the confidence to use Thomas Cook again. In 2005, we were delayed for over 24 hours – not ideal when you have children aged 6 years, 3 years and 12 months. Admittedly, they did not leave us as long this time – just 5 hours. However, we were shabbily treated – no complimentary food or drink, lack of information and being rudely maneuvered around the departure gates. I did contact them, but of course they had an exceptional circumstance – airport congestion. I went ahead with using an adjudicator and guess what – it was NOW a lightning strike and airport congestion that pushed the delay over 3 hours. Lets forget about the fact they failed to get the plane to Stansted on time due to overrunning with maintenance which would have pushed the new departure time back by 3 hrs 10 mins. The use of extraordinary circumstances won the day and they won the case!! Definitely will not use this unscrupulous company again and cannot recommend them.

I did not prebook as it would have been 24 hours to book and print out boarding passes if you hadn’t payed to prebook and I will not add any extra’s to a package holiday (it should be included in my opinion) The flight over to my holiday from Cardiff my husband and I were offered seats 8 rows apart, we requested to sit together even if opposite the aisle but apparently none were available. Returning from Tenerife at the check in desk my husband again asked if we could sit together this time we were given seats 5 rows apart. When the airplane was ready for take off I looked across from my seat and the seat directly opposite was free. Once the plane reached altitude I asked the steward if my husband could change seats, which he did. It seems to me that the ground staff on the check in desks just made it as awkward as possible because we hadn’t paid to have our seat allocated. I have flown with other airlines on package holidays and not paid to prebook seats and they still place us together. I was not best pleased all of this has put me off booking another package holiday with Thomas Cook. This was the first time in 10 years that I had done so

Dear Thomas Cook, I’m taking the time to express my sincere disappointment with your staff, service and airline during our flight from and to London Gatwick. I haven’t in the past ever felt the need to spend my time writing a formal complaint but I guess it’s a good use of my flight time as flying with Thomas Cook has been a worse experience than any other airline I’ve flown with previously. Our flight (..flight number.) from London Gatwick to Dalaman began with an incredibly rude and bad wishing assistant at the check in desk. We were unaware that hand luggage allowance with Thomas Cook is less then any other airline at 6kg. For someone that flies over 10 times a year for both personal and business reasons a 10kg hand luggage has always been standard with other airlines and there has never been any issue. However we decided that as this is the regulation we will re-pack bags in order to be at the 6kg and try not to let the nasty assistant ruin the beginning of a holiday. Once we got to the boarding desk we find out that she’s actually flagged our names on the system to be weighed again (clearly has hands on her time to not trust customers). This was completely unnecessary and if anything just an action on her part to try and make our life more difficult. I regret not noting down her name but at the time I let it go and thought we were just unlucky with the person and didn’t take it as a reflection on the airline. Anyway regardless we’d laughed of the rudeness and lack of customer service and boarded our uncomfortable flight with absolutely no legroom or assistance. During our holiday we made sure to buy a hold baggage to fill and check in on the way back to avoid all the hassle with the hand luggage. The night before our flight back (….flight number) we went to check in online (which wouldn’t work due to errors with the Thomas Cook website) and pay for one item of hold luggage. The website allowed us to do this so we entered our payment method and received a confirmation of our 20kg checked in baggage allowance (a page we later on regretted not screen shotting but was not expecting any issues). Once at the airport in Dalaman waiting over 30mins in the check in queue arriving at 12 with a hand and hold luggage in tow we get to check in desk 7 to find out our seats were automatically allocated and cannot be changed. As we had two 6ft7′ men we’d asked if we can change the seats to exit rows due to the leg room required (a small request every other airline always accommodates and understands). Thomas Cook did not. Apparently seats are allocated and cannot be moved even if the person in the exit row doesn’t need or want it, people that need it cannot have it. Computer says no basically. Anyway accepting another flaw in the TC system we come to the biggest con I’ve ever seen an airline do to its customers… We find out we don’t actually have a paid for hold luggage! Despite allowing us to book one during the check in process for £25 it was actually afterwards declined by Thomas Cook due to the policy of not being able to get hold luggage within 24 hours of the flight. Yet check in is only possible within 24 hours. A system clearly designed to catch people out and make them pay double the cost (£50) at the airport. As much as you want to create the illusion that there isn’t enough time for it to go through the system otherwise (which we all know is BS) it is purely because you know most people that would pay for a bag would do it as part of check in. After all no one wants to go on the airline website more than once during their holiday time or is thinking about their flight home until check in, which you take advantage of to make more money. So I’d like to highlight 2 very unhelpful, unconcerned and rude individuals; David Nelson and Victoria Richardson. The only 2 Thomas Cook representatives on site apparently and the most senior roles present. They did absolutely nothing to help and offered no alternative other than to complain to someone that can actually help online to get the £50 refunded. I truly hope this is the least compensation that’s offered as none of the troubles we went through were at a fault of our own. To continue, we went to pay the £50 but they told us they don’t take card! Again clearly a rip off tactic as most people spend their foreign currency prior to getting their flight home. So we had to find the nearest cash point, get money out (obviously this could only be the local currency in Turkey and not pounds) which we were charged for. So we go to pay in lira when we realise we’re being charged more (250 lira vs £50) which by no exchange rate is equal amounts. So the woman behind the desk tells us to exchange the money to pounds at another desk for the better cost. We do exactly that where we should get £54 but they don’t give coins so we end up with £50 (again robbing us of cash). During all this, we receive absolutely no help or reassurance from any of the staff on site which is disappointing. Now I understand that the latter part is more due to the awful airport we were flying from but you’d expect as a customer of Thomas Cook to have some support or at least some customer service at hand but that was not the case sadly. Having paid over £300 for a short haul flight I was expecting you to be at the same standard as flights of a similar cost by other airlines. I can honestly say that I was shocked by the absolute 0 help we received and the attitude of trying to make our life harder and more unpleasant. I would honestly avoid ever flying with you again even if I got flights offered for free. It’s not worth the heartache, stress and surprises along the way, especially at the price we paid. I’ll be doing my best to relay this experience onto everyone I know to make sure no one else has to go through what we had. I now truly appreciate the likes of even budget airlines such as easy jet who provide helpful and friendly staff at a fraction of the cost. I seriously hope you acknowledge this complaint and are aware that you have lost 4 customers that will be doing a very high amount of flying in the future. And to think all it would have taken was friendly and helpful staff that recognise you did everything to follow their rules yet the airline systems still wouldn’t allow it is a shame. Possibly your brand mission is to con your customers and enjoy making their life difficult and you’re not bothered by return customers in which case I’d recommend to anyone that wants good service and a stress free experience to choose a different airline (and save yourselves some money even). Thanks