Fiona, cheers .......... and dont be to harsh on yerself. You're just being a good samaritan.

Polly ...... its not so much the aircraft but the doubling up of take-off and landing thats put the cat amongst the pigeons with us. I've just tapped my booking ref into FC's website and it says it doesnt exist. Also if you tap the destinations into FC's website from Manchester on the 4/12/08, Goa 'aint there anymore ??

Couple of things that have us annoyed is 1) the reason mentioned above, and 2) Not being informed by FC.

damned annoying.

gemma ......... thanks for the posting, thought i was going mad when colleen said she was still on a FC aircraft non-stop from Manchester, and double-checked my booking ref. ............... as mentioned in my post above, the booking ref doesnt exist !!!

Knobsy, Irishcolleen, Polly50 and myself are all on flight FCA086 from Gatwick (not Manchester) I wouldnt have booked this if I had known it was going to be a Thomsons flight as we travelled with them March this year and apart from the extra leg room, there was no seat back TVs, entertainment on board was dire.
As I say I have written to Thomson/Portland holidays for confirmation so will post again when I get a reply.
It was actually Polly who brought this to my attention as she was checking online.

My apologies ......... < note to self > I must read the whole string thoroughly before posting !!!!

After reading your post about the Thompsons flight, its made our minds up to look at other destinations. Truth be known, we'd kinda decided upon this anyway because of the 2-stops flight, but was just looking for that one extra reason to swap.

Mixed emotions at the moment .............. sadness at not going back to Goa, excitement at looking at other destinations. Thailand is somewhere we've always wanted to go, so I'll have to have a look-see at that DG within this forum.

Ooops Im not on the same flight as you but flying from Manchester on the same day FCA172

No you're not i'm afraid !!!

FCA172 was the flight we were booked on direct from Manchester. But, as I've said above, it doesn't exist anymore. Try and find it yourself via 'Your booking ref.' on FC's homepage.

You'll be flying to Gatwick first on a Thompson flight so I'm led to believe. My mates wife spoke to a manager at FC to clarify this.

Good of them to notify you, eh ???

PS ......... please, please dont take my word for it. I don't want to upset/ruin anybody's holiday here at all. I'm just pointing out that this change was the first I'd heard of it today, and only from a friend .... not the tour operator.

So please check yourself that there may have been a change of schedule for your particular flight.

I just did and you are right, as you say its nice of them to let us know. They will be getting a call from me first thing in the morning
Thanks for letting us know anyway, it proves how useful this forum is and how we can all help each other. Are we still flying on the same day?

I hope they don't change our day we have booked flights from Belfast to London and hotels too like you all say its nice of them to let people know what the devil is going on here it would cost us a lot of money to have to book these things over again ......colleen

I've had my Internal Jet-Lite flight Mumbai - Goa put changed (going an hour). India has the same problem at present with charters, 20% have been cancelled. So even for those traveling internally, check your times.

I'm on the last flight of the day coming back from Goa (via Mumbai) so if that's changed at last minute .... oh dear. I am well covered by insurance though.

Our Goa - Mumbai flight in Dec. has had it's take off time changed by 5 min.! They emailed me immediatley with the news. We've to connect with an Emirates flight to Dubai so heres hoping , no more changes. Jetlite cancelled quite a few flights last year, so rather than take a risk we went with Jet. The new mega tour companies after their mergers, obviously could'nt care less about their customers, and will move times and dates to suit their own ends, I'm just glad I've given up on them, as they are the pits. We're off to Oz in March with Aisiana, a Far East carrier, and our seats are booked, and check in completed, and there's still six months to go, with technology, there's no reason the tour companies, who own their own airlines, could'nt do the same, but as they have a stranglehold on the market, it would be too much bother for them, as customer satisfaction, is'nt something they care too much about. Alan

Gramps... yes I got informed by email very quickly, in fact it wasn't an hour it was 40 mins. I'm glad I was told though.

I E.mailed First Choice last week and they explained they are changing all there prefixes
from FCA to TOM from 1ST November
they explained that TOM is Thompsons and ToM (small o) are First Choice customers
not sure what differance it makes as to aircraft though.
Its as clear as mud really !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pat

we were booked to go on thurs 11th december and come back on friday 2nd january with monarch. now monarch say they have cancelled the thursday flight throughout the season and changed us to saturday 13th december. not that much of a problem going out but we now come back on sunday 4th january and have to go to work next day instead of a couple of days off before work. They kindly informed us that the change would not cost us any more.

oh dear Phil- I don't think I would manage work the next day.
to HT!

Hello and Philf .nice to have you as a new member you will find everyone so so nice and more than helpful ....colleen

I have finally managed to speak to somebody at FC, my flight is now TOM 1137 leaving Manchester at 1310 [20/11/08] and picking up in Gatwick before going to Goa. Apparently there is a letter on its way to me to inform me of the changes. Do I believe them

This happened to us in November 2007 when we went to Goa. We'd booked with Thomsons, and were meant to fly out on the Saturday, then then changed it to the Sunday, plus we had to stop off at Birmingham from Manchester on the way.

Ended up waiting 2 hours at Birmingham before we set off on our way again, wasn't even alowed off the plane, so it was a real drag.

Coming back wasn't too bad, as we just had to wait 45 minutes in Birmingham.

Not ideal though

Philf, are you going from Manchester? If so, you will be on the same flight as us, we will be wearing our wristbands so come and say hello.

Brenda & Liz