We had our letter of confirmation today regarding our upgrade to Premium Class.
If you all remember we were booked on a First Choice Flight, FCA086 outbound and FCA087 inbound departing at 15.55 from London Gatwick.

Our letter of confirmation says the following:

Departure date Friday 27 November 2008
Flight Number TOM1137
Departing at 15.30 hours Arrival in Goa 06.20 hours

Departure date Friday 12 December 2008
Flight Number TOM1138
Departing at 08.05 hours Arrival in Gatwick 13.10 hours

hi there Gemma33

this is the same flight number we are booked with but on thursday 15th january and same flight time, so do i assume that this flight is the same for all the season with the new flight number? and is it now a Thomson plane or First Choice one? ohhhh, this is so complicated

if anyone knows which airline it now is could they post on here, many thanks

i did phone First Choice last saturday and they still said no changes, but i do not believe them!!!

thankyou Gemma33 for posting the information, greatly appreciated

Silver Angel

We fly on Saturday the 13th December with First Choice from Manchester, just checked our booking details on their website and the flight number has changed. Originally going out it was FC136 this is now ToM135 and coming back was FC137 but now ToM136, the flight times are the same. I did read on another website that it is still the same plane just the flight numbers that have changed, I also read that it is only the Thursday flight from Manchester that is now going via Gatwick, the Saturday flight remains the same direct through to Goa. We booked this holiday last December and we have not been informed by First Choice of any alterations to our flights.

Debs

Gems is it not thur the 27th ...and back home on friday the 12th dec you have me worried now

Sorry Irishcolleen ... my fault ... yes we fly out Thursday 27 November and you will fly out Thursday 20 November (arriving in Goa early Friday morning)
I think its a First Choice flight Silver Angel, but I am not entirely sure. Hopefully someone going before us, at the beginning of November, will be able to confirm this.

Oh good gems with all going on with the flights this last few weeks I thought something had changed again as you all know they have yet to tell us about the time change ... .

IC we are on a First Choice flight, me from Manchester and you join us at
Gatwick

jettii you keep my seat warm for me and have a drink waiting for me with ice and a slice ...what time will your flight leave from M/C ..if it picks us up about 3 .30 ish I think .....

We depart at 13.10, we will have our HT wristbands on but I should recognise you anyway. Getting excited now we have done the visa application [what a performance] and cant wait to go, hope you will make it to a meet at Zicos

Jetti .... you will recognise Irishcolleen ... she is the coffee drinker

I do feel sorry for all you FC people, I am beginning to feel quite lucky flying Monarch with no changes - not yet anyway! Debs we fly out from Manchester on the same day as you but as I said with Monarch, we may see you at the airport, we will have our wristbands on. Hope you all get sorted out soon with your flights, it spoils all the excitement of the forthcoming holiday.

The only things which appear to have changed with our FC flight at Christmas is the flight number, changed from FCA to ToM, and a little matter of a significantly reduced baggage allowance - but that is subject to a rather indepth letter currently with FC, which to date has taken them 3 weeks to respond to, with only a courtesy letter telling us that they feel our query deserves thorough investigation! Not surprising as they are very surprised that I have things in writing and am not the liar their Customer Service telephone assistant accused me of being!

Gemma, Im a coffee drinker too

People, people,
you all need to take a chill pill at least at this moment in time weather you are traveling with First Choice Thomson's or Monarch, we and I include myself, we all have our thoughts of holidays forthcoming, think of all those poor people that where booked with XL Holidays, this time last night they where dreaming of Florida, Spain and the likes, tonight most of them have nothing and the way things are going we all need to wake up and just think, a little alteration to your plans albeit moving of dates times is just a little to pay than not having anything, like the XL clients, re: flight hotels etc, etc.

The way things are going at present there is still time for these biggies to crash (sorry I use the term loosely), so I would say stop moaning and just except a little disruption, I believe that there is something big happening within the travel industry and I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, I would say that the days of good deals look over.

I myself have had my flight times changed with First Choice and we are now picking up at Gatwick and traveling two hours earlier, so the changes they are affecting me and before anyone snipes at me, that they only have so many days to work around dates, we all know when you book any package holiday, times and dates can be altered....jxk8

jxk8 I dont think anyone is moaning, we just want to know what is happening.
Of course times of flights can change and sometimes even a date, but when I write to the holiday company to query this I would like some answers to my questions instead of them sitting on the fence and not committing themselves. We have a situation here were a few people have paid for their holidays in November (not me personally) and yet they dont know the time of their flight or what airline they are flying with. In my opinion that is not on.
I wanted to book flights to Gatwick and initially I couldnt do this because I didnt know what time I was flying out, or if I would still be leaving on the same date. During this time the price of the flights has rocketed.
Three holiday companies have gone bust recently and those travellers have my deepest sympathies but it has nothing to do with First Choice and Thomson flights to Goa.

Hi Gemma

It sounds like everyone is having a nightmare.

Do you not think all this could stem back to the visa problems of last year when everybody was saying they will not return to Goa because of all the hassle caused by the Indian goverment and they tour operators got wind of all this and then decided to pull off their flights because they thought they would be half full and it would cost them a small fortune, the operators are totally in the wrong for all this but i do think it stems back to last years problems, just my opinion.

I hope you get it sorted out quickly, keep me updated either on the site or email me. Looking forward to seeing you again when you get over here.

I have been in the UK ( VISA RUN ) and i have not followed this thread until now but it is just as i expected a nightmare, there is a lot of unhappy bunnies out there AGAIN, i wonder if the Goan/Indian goverment will realise something has to be done before it is to late.

Mike

The problem facing Gemma33 and loads of others, is that you scrabble around to get the best possible deal for your trip to Goa, but once you've got it you have the problem of getting down to the likes of Gatwick from Scotland. A 2hr. flight change is an inconvenience if you are travelling by car or whatever, but if you have booked an internal flight to connect it can be a disaster. The longer you put off booking your domestic flight up and up goes the price until your good Goan deal becomes lost in the increased domestic flight price. It's all very well leaving a five or so hours transit time to take in flight delays, but when you factor in the uncertainty of flight time changes before you even go, it becomes an nightmare Friends I know are booked with Jewel in the Crown, and are getting more and more worried, as they see it as another smaller player that could be at risk in these troubled times, but feel powerless to do anything about it, other than worry from now until next spring. We're going in Nov, flying with Emirates and if the likes of them go burst then goodness knows what will happen to the travel business as a whole. Alan

If Emirates go bust their is absolutely no hope for the stability of any other airline. I know you cant be 100% secure but I can't imagine a massive Middle Eastern company like Emirates going bust or letting fuel prices get in the way for that fact.

Hi Mike glad youve landed safely back in Goa. Really looking forward to seeing you and Carol again in Novemer
As I said in my previous post we have upgraded to Premium Class and we've had a letter of confirmation with times, dates and flight number so hopefully it wont change We have also booked onward travel to London Gatwick. Coming down by train so I can bring my extra luggage allowance with all my kids stuff in it and when we return to the UK on Friday 12 December we are staying overnight in London, going to the theatre in the evening and flying back to Glasgow from Heathrow on Saturday evening, sorry ive gone a bit Anyway will keep you updated if any more changes occur.
Gramps yes I good deal can end up very expensive if internal flights etc need to be changed, plus my work are not the best at allowing extra days off work etc. We go to the Marinha Dourada every time we visit Goa so to be honest we dont look for a cheap deal, that kind of thing doesnt interest me in the slightest, and I would rather stay in a "nice" hotel than get a bargain and stay in a flea pit. But we do try and book as early as possible before the prices rise for our chosen hotel.
Emirates might be another option from Glasgow and book our hotel directly online