Hello all,
I am new to all of this and to going to Goa.

I have been looking at flights for a couple of days, we want to go on the 29th nov for a week or 8 days.

Looking at sites that I stumbled upon like Travel Republic, they have the best deal on a First Choice flight. I am much more comfortable, possibly wrongly, about booking through third partes due to bad experiences in the past.

I cannot seem to book these flights direct with First Choice, which worries me slightly! I can get onto the Thomson flight fine through Thomsonfly but its a little more expensive.

Basically, are there any people with recommedations for third parties?

Also, they want to charge £10 pp for seats next to eachother, I have never had to pay for this before, are they for real in sugegsting you might not be able to sit next to a partner?!

Many thanks for any advice, once this is done you will be able to join me on the accommodation boards!

Edryn

edryn80,

Welcome onbaord

Travel Republic are just an agent. All they do is book the flight with the airline for you. You should be fine booking with them. If you've found a deal you think suits your needs, go for it. You may or may not be aware, Thomson and First Choice, and their respective airlines have merged. They are now one in the same. You don't say where you are wanting to depart from, but I suspect it's a Thomsonfly flight and that's why it's not showing with First Choice. The airlines will merge completely and become Thomson Airways on 1st May 2009 (it's a little complicated at the moment!). As for seating together, the pre-booking of seats is a chargable extra. This will guarantee seating together, or across an isle. For more information on this, and the airlines, please refer to the dedicated airline threads on the Flights forum.

Darren

Thanks for the quick response Darren.

It's all too easy to accept everything you read on the net such as the moving of flights, our dates are quite srtict and if the flights are changed then its nice to have a robust company to complain to.

I think I shall book the flights and get on board so to speak, bring on the sunshine!

Edryn

New airline to start flights from Birmingham to India

A new airline flying between Birmingham and Amritsar in Northern India launches on October 9, replacing services being dropped by Air India at the end of that month.

Called Bilga Air, the flights will be operated twice a week by Monarch, and using an Air Travel Organiser's Licence through tailor-made travel specialists Travelpack.

Flights will mainly operate on Sunday and Monday evenings from Birmingham. While some will have a technical stop for fuelling en-route, over 90% will operate non-stop.

Peter Vella, Birmingham Airport's business development director said: "Bilga Air's operation will help to fill a very popular market which exists in the Midlands, and following the disappointing news that Air India will temporarily suspend its flights between Birmingham and India from the end October, I'm sure it will be greatly welcomed by the Midlands Asian community."

The aircraft cabin will be a mixed configuration of economy and a premium economy product.

Flights start from £575 return.

The operator is named after the famous historical village within the Sikh faith, located close to Amritsar in India's Punjab region.

With permission from Travelmole

Does anyone know if we stop off on route to mumbai from heathrow or is it direct...

sleep_r_us ,

Who are you flying with? Should be direct.

Darren

Hello Dazbo..We are flying with Jet Airways flight No 9W0117 To Mumbai.

sleep_r_us,

Jet Airways from LHR operated direct

Darren

Thank you Dazbo.

I have flown First Choice ( soon to be called Thomson Fly I believe) long haul several times and think that they are great.
We are off to Goa soon but I'm already eying up the possibility of another holiday in February or March. Travelling via Monarch offers considerable savings.
The standard class in First Choice is good enough not to need to upgrade to premium in my mind as the extras you receive are not worth the cost of the upgrade. Many people obviously disagree and are prepared to pay a considerable premium for the sake of a 9 hour flight. In fact the equivalent saving would probably be enough to live in comfort for a week in Goa.
This is my opinion only, and I'm trying to balance the budget to maximise my holiday opportunities !
I have read reports about the discomfort of Monarch flights but just how bad are they ?! 9 hours of purgatory in a metal tube could ruin a holiday so I don't want to do that.
For those who have traveled First Choice and Monarch, if you rate First Choice 10/10 how many points would you give Monarch ?

Iv'e not used First Choice but before starting to use Sheduled airlines to India, I had many bad flights with Monarch. Basically if you are anything other than short, the leg room is auful for a flight of that length. The staff and catering is no better or worse than your usual charter. The only two solutions to the leg room is to buy extra leg room seats at a cost of £60 per person, that involves phoning Monarchs seat booking number, the longest I was in a queue for that pleasure was 30 min! The other option is their so called Premier cabin. I'm not sure of the present cost but the few times I used it it was £200, for this you got the leg room but not much else, the free drinks were few and far between, and the "digibox" they give you is a poor substitute for a decent entertainment system. Also that takes your ticket price up to what you can pay for a scheduled flight. Others will likely come along and say it's fine but from my point of view I'd need to be getting a great flight price before I'd venture on to Monarchs Goa flight again Alan

Thanks Alan. I think you have put me off Monarch which is no bad thing if they are poor. To be honest First Choice are as comfortable as British Airways economy class. The food is acceptable and the seat back entertainment is fine although I have little interest in it.
I'd still be interested to hear a score out of ten for both F.C. and Monarch from anyone who has used both.

DaveWales wrote:

For those who have traveled First Choice and Monarch, if you rate First Choice 10/10 how many points would you give Monarch ?

I have flown both Monarch and First Choice long haul over the last 12 months admittedly didn't spend much time in either airlines Economy Cabin.
Monarch economy 3/10
Monarch Premium 4-5/10(I would love to get a ruler and proove its not 34")
First Choice economy 5/10
First Choice SCPremier 9/10 far superior to Virgins Premium offering

Oh and it along with Thomsonfly will be called Thomson Airways effective from November 1st 2008.

Hi Dave

In my opinion I would say from having travelled on both flights to Goa that firstly the Monach flight I would rate as a 3.The reason I say this is that the seats have what seems sutch a tight pitch & the width is ven worse.I have never been on a direct flight with Monach to Goa, I have always been lucky enough to have a stop in Bahrain.At least you can go to the toilet, have a good cup of coffee & take advantage of the cheap duty free compaired to Manchester.The only direct flight we have done on such a small plane is with MYTRAVEL & let me say, you wouldn't consider it.I won't be doing that again.It may only be nine hours each way, but it was in total 18 hours of hell.

We have done premier on first choice, but this is two years ago & we had 30kg of luggage,now the allowance is only 23kg & I don't think its worth it.Although I have to say that the food & drink are better than in economy & the seating is far better.But you have to look at the cost against what you receive in benefits.As youu say £200.00 goes along way in Goa.

When we travel in Feb 09 to Goa we are travelling with First Choice & this will be our first time in economy, but we will take everything we can to make the fkight as pleasant as possible ... Like our own snacks, as usually we can't eat the infight meals.Why we pay for them I will never know.

Hope the above helps

Dawn

Well you have convinced me to forget Monarch.Thanks everyone for your input.
Dawn, personally I have no problem with FC economy but we do pre book our seats so we end up with two together by a window so we can slump across each other !
We travelled to Costa Rica last month which is about 11.5 hours. The in flight meal was OK but the sandwich for breakfast miserable. On board snacks are very expensive so it pays to take some with you on a long flight as the provided food isn't exactly filling for a hungry Horace like me ! We are off to Goa in a few weeks but, having blown the budget a bit recently, we need to look to a cheap option if we are to get a Feb/March break in as well. Hence the Monarch enquiry.

Just got a letter from Olympic to say that there is a slight flight amendment

MON 4502 Outbound from Manchester now setting off at 18:05

MON 4503 Inbound to Manchester departs at 12:40

I was expecting this, not too bad only about 30 minutes earlier.

( Sat 24th Jan)

Lisa

As a new member may I compliment all concerned for the wonderful resource that has been created.
Having browsed several holiday forums I am having a few concerns over the FCA/TOM consolidation,
Any info. on TOM307, East mids,16/02/2009 gratefully received.
Once again my thanks to all concerned.

calangoat,

Welcome onboard
You might want to have a look through our dedicated First Choice Airlines and Thomsonfly threads over on the Flight Only / Airline and Airports Forum. Specifically, TOM307/8 are at present operated by an ex-First Choice Boeing 767-300/ER. This may however change as the aircraft are due to be retrfitted with blended winglets around the time you are flying so it may change to a Thomsonfly aircraft. What concerns are you having? Both airlines, soon to be Thomson Airways offer a good standard of service.

Darren

What a service, thanks for lightning response.
Small concern that Man flights are rumoured(sic) to be having times altered, just checking if East Mids is safe