Interesting you say you're not keen on TC aircraft as I was looking at them for a trip to Mexico and was wondering what the aircraft are like compared to Thomson.
Have you experienced the flight to Cancun with TC before ?

yes,we've just returned from cancun,flying with tc.dont get me wrong,the flight was great,but we did up-grade yo the premium cabin!i did walk through economy and it just seemed to be very tight!however on speaking to some passagers,they said it was ok.
premium config was 2 3 2.while ecom was 3 3 3.hope this helps.

We flew with TC to Jamaica last September from Manchester.. never again. their aircrafts are just not as good as Thomsons or First Choice. We tried to upgrade to Premier class before we went but were told several times they were fully booked. My husband is 6'3" and didnt fancy 10 hours in the economy section but we had to suffer it as we were going to a family wedding in Jamaica while were there. Before taking off (both journeys) we were told that indeed there were seats left in premier class and we could upgrade on the day - but they still wanted the full amount (although you didnt get to experience the dedicated check in desk or take advantage of the upgraded luggage allowance!). No thanks!!! Their seat back tv's are rubbish, you have to watch whatever they are watching when they are watching it - 2 movies in a 10 hour flight (you cant choose individually like FC or Thomsons), the quality wasnt good and I spent half the time watching the screen jump up and down. And you dont have the option to play games either. The seat pitch was a lot smaller too. In general, TC long haul flights just arent as good as Thomsons or FC... in my opinion.

We are flying to Cancun again in October with FC Premier class and cant wait as I'm actually looking forward to what I know will be a good flight!

Many thanks for the replies, all very interesting.

We used FC for Cancun 2 years ago and I thought the standard cabin was excellent, much better than Virgin/BA.
We're using them again this August for Aruba.

Was looking at Mexico for xmas and the TC price for the same hotel/same date/same duration is way cheaper than FC, hence the interest.

TC do state their long haul seat pitch as 33", the same as FC, but they adopt a 3-3-3 arrangement instead of 2-3-2 which must make it all seem more cramped I guess.

Well in the end TC were a colossal £2200 less for exactly the same holiday, so needless to say we went with them over FC.

Paid the extra to reserve specific seats now (for xmas !!!) and grabbed two rows of the two wide 2-3-2 seats at the back of the A330, which hopefully will feel less cramped than the 3-3-3 arrangement.

Hi crockett, we flew to mexico with TC at easter and had pretty decent flights, liked the downstairs loo's, never had them before.

Downstairs loo's, never had those either.
Were they at the front or the back ?

hi crockett downstairs loos are in the centre of the aircraft

Just to clarify TC have the same seat pitch 33" in economy as TOM, however some people find TOM aircraft a little more comfortable because of seat width.

Also worth noting there is no Premium cabin for TC next year, so if you fancy premium better be TOM.

BefreeTODAY - are you saying that Thomson seats are wider than TC in economy?

We normally do long haul in premium for the wider seats and are trying to decide if we can cope with economy to Mexico?!

hi northern_rose thomsons seats are wider than tc but in my opinion i would go premiere class every time we did an economy to mexico with monarch ( never again ) and a premiere to mexico and what a difference i know its an extra expence but why not treat yourself xx

Thanks we normally do book premium but for the two dates I am looking at for March 2011 it's either not available or takes the price outside our budget! The holiday going on a Sat is £3k with both tc and Thomson, on the Monday it's £2300 with tc but no premium available!!
So the decision I need to make is whether it's worth the extra £700 to fly on Sat with Thomson!

hi northern_rose when we went to mexico we met some people from our flight with tc who were flying economy and they said never again and both them were really small slim people i spotted one guy a big guy squashed in his seat in economy and he looked really uncomforable im on the large side and my husband is 6ft1 so it was a no no for us to travel economy we were looking next year for mexico and yes tc is cheaper but 10hrs squashed on a plane is not good hope you have a good time what ever you decide

We few to DR last Oct with Thomas Cook - in the cheap seats and it was totally fine.