Hi Jeff

It's something that was set up a while ago by admin, for a more in-depth explanation you'll need to PM one of them as I don't really know much about it

Pippy

Can anyone please tell me if the Sunshine Upper Deck flights to Sanford have a television screen on the back of the seat and is it worth paying the extra for the upgrade?

Hi,

I'm afraid to say no they haven't got any Seatback TV's in Sunshine Upperdeck(Sunshine premium do)

Here's a picture i took Back in May..



Hope this helps

Depending on the cost of the upgrade, you might be better off buying a portable DVD player (are those allowed on flights now?). I'm not sure what they cost in the UK but here you can get a cheap one for a little over $100.

Cheap ones cost about 75 pounds here. I have seen plenty of people using them on planes, especially kids, but don't know if the new security measures restrict them, especially to the States. Definately cheaper than a flight upgrade and something to keep for future use.

Got a really cheap deal with them on the weekend flying on Thursday to Orlando Sanford from Gatwick...

Never flown with them before, always been Virgin Atlantic to MCO...

Has anyone flown with them recently who can answer these questions for me?

- What AIRLINE do you actually fly with?
- Do you get seat-back TV's, if not, what is the in-flight entertainment like?
- What is the food like?
- And, what is Sanford like?

Just a bit confusing with people saying things about flying with MyTravel, Excel, Air Atlanta and even Virgin>Delta with them...

Confuzzled!!!

Cheers!!!

Travel City have their own Forum where you can find the answers to those questions.

http://www.travelcitydirect.com/tickets/bb/index.php

*Hopefully I'm allowed to add the link, if not admin feel free to remove!

Thanks but that forum has no flight info...

If you ask a question there someone will help you with the answers.

You'll find further TCD info HERE.

Pippy

Hi we landed back in the UK (boohoo) on monday 23rd Oct after our third holiday with TCD. I have read all the comments about them and people's experiences but up to now (touch wood) have not had any problems whatsoever.

The inflight entertainment is crap though, we flew twice with Virgin and had choice films, programmes etc, so my hubbie took his portable DVD player no problem going there or coming home, no questions asked all legal. We were the envy of the other passengers, ha ha. We were in the Sunshine upper deck with the ceiling tv if you are in sunshine upper premium you get seat back tv BUT only gewt to see what everyone else does no choice. Take a DVD it is cheaper. But like I said no problem aking it through.

Unlike myself who had to throw away my contact lense container which is (or was!!) about 1 inch long with solution in, nothing to do with TCD but customs, I had genuinley forgot to shove in my case at last minute after changing into specs.

Just been called by TCD, we have been bumped 24 hours because of a technical fault with a plane which meant today flight didn't fly. We were supposed to be flying tommorrow, nows its Monday.

Lukily Disney (where we were staying appear to be going to give us a days refund).

They are sending out letters and phoning people, but it looks like until they catch up anyone flying in the next week will have their holiday reduced by a day (assuming their flights are full).

It may be just one plane affected of course. (flight XLA130 is the delayed flight with the technical hitch).

Not great news but at least they caught you before you set off to the airport. I'm sure being in the comfort of your own home would be preferable to a long delay at Manchester airport.

is that the manchester -sanford route.
We were delayed by 9 hours coming home in may.

Nightmare at Sanford as they just don't have the facilities to cater for over 500 people overnight-wasn't even enough blankets-sort of kills your holiday a bit!

Thats why we stopped using the likes of mytravel TCD about 4 years ago, since then we have only used virgin and (touchwood) never had any problems

Going with TCD again on Sunday.

Hopefully no problems-unlike in May. Had this trip booked since Feb!

Wouldn't care but they were great in January!

Also we are taking our new 9 week old baby on this trip as well as our lively 3 year old-fun and games-not!

We've booked with Travel City Direct for next July.

The price for 5 of us (4 adults, one child) was £1200 cheaper than the cheapest travel agents. The travel agents were trying to put us off booking with TCD (obviously!) saying there's not enough leg room, the service is rubbish and the accomodation will be wjatever they couldn';t sell through other agents - but the accomodation is exactly the same as we went to 2 years ago with Airtours and 3 years ago with Thomson so they are obviously lying!

I feel (mostly) reassured by this thread!

good points -

i upgraded my car from economy to convertible before we left and was told it was £90 when i got the email convermation it was £195 i phoned up to a uk call centre and was told i should be 195 and the man i spoke to had made a mistake, i kicked off and they honoured the £90 that to me is great customer service

we were flying when the postal strike was in full flow with no sign of an end they phoned to tell us to pick the tickets up at manchester airport on the day - i was worried but they were there as they said

cheap as chips! no one can beat them on value

both flights on time

free drinks including alcahol

bad points -

you can't book flight only - you can only book fly/drive or fly/drive/hotel or just fly/hotel - you need a car in florida though

because of the above and because there was a full plane on our outgoing flight there was a 2 hour queue at the car rental place (dollar)

very bad point -

the plane we flew both ways was a boeing 747 - all well and good i tought untill we got on after noticing there were no tvs in the headrest in front i sat down and looked around and saw where somone had scratched "07" into the plastic near the glass there were other scratches too due to a lot of use - then i saw somthing that i had never seen on a plane in all my life ASHTRAYS i was shocked i asked one of the cabin crew how old the plane was she told me at least 20 but no to worry as they last for years - i was worried but we got there so thats all that matters really

on the way back as we borded i asked a different cabin crew member how old the plane was she told me 30 years old - it still had the same fittings and ashtrays i later found iut it was the same plane and that TCD use the same plane for manchester to sandford flights for every trip once a day one way but she told me the one we were on was gouing to be used for iceland trips i think thats what she said or sold to an icelandic airline or somthing and that TCD were going to use 767's instead for the manchester/sanford trip. A smaller plane i asked if they were to have tv's in the headrests she said no and all the TCD planes that had that feture had now been sold off (so no more tv's in headrests ever)

one our return flight i mentioned to the cabin crew member about one of the staff we had on the flight inbound. she asked me her name, i said i didnt remember it - "the reason i ask if that there were a lot of redundancies on wednesday and she may have been one of them" she told me (that wednesday she meant was 31/10/07) why the redundancies i thought?

since flighing with TCD found out they buy BA's decommisioned planes

overall TCD got me to florida and we had a great time - would i fly TCD again? probably not - cheap is good but cheap and nasty isnt.

Simon 25 uk

Not quite correct information re the TCD planes.

They are not decommissioned planes from BA, in fact the operator of the planes XL don't have any decommissioned planes from BA.

Like all airline companies they lease plane to and from other airlines, for correct information on XL (and other airlines) aircraft this website will give you the proper details about the aircraft they operate.

http://www.airfleets.net/home/

The 747 in service at the moment went in to service on 17/10/1984.

Again redundancies are also common at this time of year as airlines reduce the number of planes they operate during the winter months, nothing strange, sinister or newsworthy there either I am afraid.

Sorry mods if this has all gone and is more about TCD than America/Canada