I would like to be the First person to say i will miss First choice airways when they get rid of the airline at th end of April next year.
The quality of the long haul aircraft are amazing and its sad to see thomsonfly getting First choices aircraft and the dreamliner!!!

Hi little legs ...

hi we fly in november and my daughter will be 7 1/2 months does any one know if i can take a bottel of milk on the plaine with me

Baby food sufficient for the duration of the flight can be taken on board, but you may need to taste it for verification purposes during airport security checks. We have a separate topic which discusses current hand luggage restrictions, you can access it by clicking on the link in my signature below.

David

I would like to be the First person to say i will miss First choice airways when they get rid of the airline at th end of April next year.

I obviously haven't been keeping up with the news! Is that really happening? FCA will be no more? What a great shame. I've flown with them many times and they're the best I personally have experienced.

Pippy

Pippy, it's because of the merger between First Choice Holidays and TUI Travel. Info I've seem on other sites suggest that one airline will be formed of a merger of the two - likely to be under TUI banner.

Haydn

Thats a shame about FC, i have only flown with them once before to Lanzarote last year but will be flying with them longhaul at the end of this month. Even with flying with FCA the once, in my opinion I feel they are much better than Thomson but maybe as they have merged it will be a new good service!

Pippy, it's because of the merger between First Choice Holidays and TUI Travel. Info I've seem on other sites suggest that one airline will be formed of a merger of the two - likely to be under TUI banner.

Thanks Haydn

I'd heard about the merger but thought the airline would remain as FCA. Never mind, just have to get used to a different one next time!

Pippy

The airlines are likely to remain seperate. There has been some confusion because they have announced they are going to operate both of them under the Thomson Air certificate, but it is likely that both airline names will remain until at least another 5 - 10 years.

So in short the First Choice name and the ThomsonFly name are remaining seperate.

No the airlines are merging by april next year i work for fc

Just because the two airlines operate under one certificate doesnt mean they will be one airline. There will be one airline with two brands, Thomsonfly and First Choice even from next April, thats where the confusion is.

I work for First choice and have been briefed on the merger of the two companies into the one Tui brand, the two compaines are keeping seperate brandings on the high street but the airline is going under one branding as Thomsonfly, in April 08 the 2 airlines would have come under the one Thomsonfly Air operating certificate.
Manchester currently houses the First choice airways operations centre and this is moving all down south to Luton.
Therefore the airline will be no longer First choice.

Best to wait for the business review to be completed in December first before any more speculation about airlines dissapearing or not.

All i can say is wait and see what the review brings, things may not go as people may think, or they could go completely differently.

Ok been reading the comments inthis post so guess this is the place to post my queries about FirstChoice & Thomson Fly.

A couple of days ago I booked flights via Thomson Fly website but they are actually on a First Choice flight in late June 2008. Reason for booking them via Thomson Fly was that in total I was over £200 cheaper with Thomsons for three people. This in itself I found strange, but guess the previous comments could shed some light on why this was the case. I have a number of questions however, and Thomson call centre couldn't help me and told me to contact First Choice direct.

1. Will I be sent tickets or is my e mail confirmation our tickets ?
2. Who/Where do I contact to request that we sit together.
3. I've always gone on packaged holidays, and paid extra to sit together, in other folks experiences is it necessary, or if we turn up early enough at check in will we be ok ?

Hi, Well from my previous experiences with Thomsonfly i think i can help you, We have only ever taken a print out of a confirmation code, they use this at the airport and that was it, we have also never booked to sit with each other, turn up early enough and we always get the seats together, I am not sure about booking the sitting together if you still want it, can you not modfiy your booking on there website?

booked with FCto Goa in November and called to book seats together - there are 4 of us and we wanted 2 x 2. However FC say can't do, can only book 4 together and can't guarantee it won't be a 3 + 1. They say the configuration on long haul is 2-4-2 but it wasn't in January when we went with them. Think we'll wait 'til we get to airport. Thomson lets you book online .

Thanks for replies folks. Thomson didn't let me book seats sitting together on their website, presumably because it was a Frist Choice flight as opposed to one of their own.

We aslo got to choose our seats with thomson long haul last year....

But flying with first choice this year and they wont let you choose your seats seams to be the only thing that lets them down as the reviews of the cabin are very good real shame they wont let you pick your seats though.......

I have e-mailed First Choice three times to ask how seats are allocated (at check-in or a few days before on a first booked basis) and they still haven't replied. So I assume from suntanman1's message that they are pre-allocated.

I don't think seats are pre-allocated with FC because if you book in night before (available at Gatwick or Manchester ) you get to choose your seats. May be different at other airports though. Denny

thats a point actually if you check in the night before does that mean you get the priority seats? Or are they pre allocated i.e. at the time of booking, for everyone?