annie.f,

They wont intentionally split you up. They'll do their best to seat you together and most passengers are. However, it's inevitable some passengers will be split up. Unless you pre-book seating, there are no guarantees. Aircraft type is showing as a Boeing 757-200. These are configured 3-3 with 28" seat pitch. IFE is provided via overhead screens. Earphones are around £2.50 but you can use your own if you prefer (you'll just need an adapter).

Darren

Thanks for that will take my chances and make sure I get there early!

Darren
We are flying to Goa end of Nov and returning in Dec. I looked at the previous posts but couldn't find anything to point me in the right direction!

Redstingers,

Try this page, you'll find my long haul trip reports for information about the aircraft and onboard experience. Your flights are operated by a Boeing 767-300/ER. It's too early to say what the IFE will be.

Darren

Darren you seem like a really informed guy, can you give me some information please?

We are flying Manchester to Paphos with First Choice on 27/07/08 flight number FCA2772.

Can you tell me what to expect, e.g airliner, what type of IFE, seat pitch(i'm 6'4") plane set up etc....

Thanks in advance.

EllsBells,

MAN-PFO-MAN (FCA2772/3) is operated by a Boeing 757-200. Have a look at my post to Super Dan on the previous page for more details.

Darren

Thanks Darren,

wow, you're an absolute star

Cheers mate

Malcolm

Hi I have just returned from Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) with First Choice and the seats were not assigned a few days before. We used the day before check in and girl on the desk picked our seats (window seats near the front). Everyone that had checked in the night before was around us.

On the way home they checked us in at the hotel (so much easier!), and it was first come first serve they just put sticker on your boarding card and picked your seats from a sticky label sheet - no joking!

Never heard of this before!!

Whenever we have checked in night before at Manchester, we have always been able to pick our seats. (last 3 years) The seats had been allocated to us, but we asked to change them, and check-in staff did this for us no problem.
Denny

The last two posts do sound interesting.

Was this pure co-incidence or Company policy to pick your seats (subject to availability) on check-in?

Mark

You are preseated a few days before hand however certain check in agents will accommodate you more than others, just because you are able to ask an agent for 1A for instance doesn't mean Head Office didn't put you in 3G.

If they are busy or need to check in a lot of customers(multiple flights) to a deadline then they will just go on what the manifest tells them - i.e. where you have been preseated, however if they are not streched for time they can juggle every one around. Going on a personal recent experience I can tell you it is not always for the best like it may seem to be- passengers being chased in a terminal by handling agent supervisors with updated boarding cards, others being kicked out of Star Class Premier and others being upgraded by accident in their place- Bedlam comes to mind, however that would be too diplomatic.

I have seen the sticker thing before with Virgin Atlantic many years ago at downtown disney when some Gremlins escaped from Universal Studios and got into their computers

hi annief....

when first choice phoned me to see if i wanted to pre book seats for our sept holiday, the head office man did say that kids under 14 cant be seperated from one of the adults....so 1 adult and 1 child will sit together, but maybe not all 4 of you together unless you pre book.....

Hi BY-TOM-AMM-FCA,

We never even asked about seatings on the way out they were just sorting out the seating as and when you got to the check in desk - and manchester was very busy where we were there

Whilst it may seem like they seated you there and then, they will have had a manifest sent by our HQ as a guidline to follow. Along with the general rule- don't move anyone if avoidable. It happens automatically for every First Choice and Thomsonfly flight. Different airports/handling agents/check in agents will be more flexible than others for a variety of reasons, whether it be workload,weight balance of a/c,tour operator requests etc...

Not that i'm allowed to for Data Protection reasons, but because of this, I can tell you where you are seated approximately 24 hours before departure, what meal you have prebooked and any medical problems you may have- all this same information is sent to the airport handling agents the same time as its available to me, I'm not making it up honest, but you were preseated- you just got someone who was willing/allowed to break the rules for you

spoke to FCA yesterday regarging booking in the day before our flight from manchester.

Has anyone used this service before and what type of queues do you get. They told me to check in at desk 56 but if the queues are going to be the same as they would be on the day of the flight i might not bother.

EllsBells,

Queues are at there peak before lunchtime as that is when most flights depart. If you check-in in the afternoon or evening, queues should be small. Bear in mind everyone on the booking will have to be present to check-in the day before so it's sometimes not worth the trip if your flight the morning after is early (ie before ~8am before the queues build) or in the afternoon. I never use the service because it takes longer to get everyone to the airport the day before than it does to check-in on the day!

Darren

Ellsbells, I used the night before check in the night before from Manchester. Checkin desk 56 is only for night before check ins and when we went there was no queue at all.

After you have checked in you have to take your luggage to another desk so it can be stored overnight again, there was no queue here either

Desk 56 is also quite busy usually as this is the Star Class Premier check in desk so if there are a couple of long haul flights it can be busy, not just in a morning on a Wed and Thurs night (mombasa and male).

Used day before checkin at Manchester for the last couple of years. Usually go around 7pm - both times have been back out at 7.20pm. That was to checkin 4 adults and 3 kids. I think it's an excellent service and worth the extra £5pp. As you already have the boarding cards, next morning you go directly to the security line. Excellent. Denny