There are horror stories for every airline, based on our return flight with Virgin last December I'd never fly with them by choice, the seats were very uncomfortable compared to the USAirways A330 we flew out on, poor seat pitch and even with over 200 empty seats in they couldn't manage a decent service, lack of drinks for the children etc., I see similar reports on most of the review sites now as well.

As for TCD, they are really going downhill, their take over by the Avion group will not help matters as they also own Air Atlanta and will continue to use the existing fleet for as long as possible, most of the aircraft are really showing their age with upholstery held together with duct tape and the frequent failure of the IFE systems, condensation drips etc. etc. the amount of aircraft going "Tech" is off putting to say the least

Hi we are using TCD in December and as my hubby is 6'5 tall we have booked PREMIUM seats ( this is all th at was left apparently??)
We have travelled with Virgin in the past and booked Economy Premium seats for the extra space and had no problem ( apart from their horrendous prices!!).
So is TCD PREMIUM similar to Virgin Economy PREMIUM? Anyone who has used them I'd be grateful of your comments...
Thanks

We went with TCD this August and even though we booked and paid EXTRA for an Executive villa we were put in a very dirty shabby villa with 6 towels between 8 of us and a filthy green slimy pool .After a day of complaning to very unhelpful reps we finally got moved to a villa of the standard we were expecting.Even the pool guy told us he had not seen such a dirty pool for a long time.I think TCD are cheap and we have used them before with no problems but i think they have really dropped their standards.
Sue

travel city direct are cheap and thats why people are using them so you has a wasted first day of your holiday was the whole holiday ruined because of one day?

If one day was 'wasted' because of the poor performance of the tour operator you have a legal right to claim the full cost of that one day back from the tour operator. That's 1/14th (or 1/7th if only a weeks holiday) of the entire holiday invoiced cost - as paid to the tour operator.

I don't see an issue with this position irrespective of how cheap the holiday may have been (in comparison to other more expensive tour operators).

Does anybody happen to know what the seating configuration is in TCD's 747 in the Sunshine Premium cabin?

well mike it looks like you determined to put people of using travel city direct thomas cook had a 31 hour delay or something like that 22 hours is better than that

No one should be subject to really long delays, or put up with some dirty stincking villa, just because people cannot do their job properly. And no it would not ruin the whole holiday, but it would certainly put a dampner on it.

Also i have known people who have gone without holidays for a year or so to save to go to Flordia. For some it is a holiday of a life time for them and their children. I think they would deserve better than this.

sorry about spelling, new computer and keyboard

You are right Wendy the smelly dirty villa did ruin two days of our holiday which we saved up for(working loads of overtime) for 18 months.Before our holiday this year with TCD i was recommending them to people as when we used them 2 years ago everything was fine.
Sue
P.S we also had a 5 hour delay coming home.

Hi its a shame about the villa,my sister stayed in one of their villas this year and it was an excellent villa,spotlessly clean and well maintaned,i suppose it depends on the people in charge of the cleaning etc

the problem is travel city direct do not own the villas they are privately owned villas which are then leased through a property management company and travel city direct work on information given to them through the management company

With respect the problem is that TCD and the other tour operators pick up spare rental weeks from villas that have not been rented privately by their owners or the owners management companies so they can pay the absolute bottom rate for them, it's all down to making as much profit from the rental as possible.

The net result of this is that the actual; villa owner receives very little or no profit at all from the rental and the vila suffers as a result, the cost of maintaining a villa is Florida is extremely high, heating/air conditioning, pool filtration, refrigeration etc. etc. must be ran 365 days a year regardless of whether or not the villa is occupied because of the problems with humidity, insects etc.

It is all down to the attitude and people skills of the reps. There will always be problems that arise. If the response to a complaint about the dirty villa was...we are terribly sorry and of course you are right this is not acceptable. We will correct the problem for you and take the cleaners to task....then that would be enough for most people. It is not always the problem but how it is dealt with that makes things worse.

If you book a package from TCD then you would complain to them. If their rep was doing the Oh god what now routine then it would make your blood boil.

i personaqlly have never had to complain about travel city direct and this will be my fourth time with them went to spain with thomas cook once and most of the hotel got food poisoning and the rep was no help at all but ive found that the reps working for travel city direct were very helpfull but then again ive never complained to them about anything

Hi Mark

I must admit that after finding this site i consider myself very lucky. I have flown from..BA club class to many of the smaller airlines Air 2000,Monarch, booked holidays through Holidays Direct, First Choice, Kosmar, and never never had a massive delay or a naff holiday.

I suppose this being a complaints thread people are not going to put good stories on it. There must be many people out there like yourself who have had great holidays with TCD.

But knowing how important my holidays are to me and im lucky or greedy enough to have a couple a year. I do feel very very sorry for anyone who has an unhappy or rotten time.

Perhaps it would be better to work 2 weeks a year, and have 50 weeks holiday, what do you think?

I was just curious to know if this thread is a record in terms of length and time - its already had one birthday ???

Perhaps HT.Com should make an award to TCD for outstanding contribution ?

Unfortunately, it does not bode well for TCD if it has this dubious honour.

Nevermind, I for one will miss it IF it ever disappears - I will feel as though I have lost an old friend.
PS n0c0mment - I bet you wished you never asked !!!!

could go for that wendy ha ha but then again been on holiday for last 20 weeks with a fractured kneecap so its been like a holiday this year

I was a TCD knocker, first to admit it even though we've used them many times and I was regretting booking with them this year due to the many other 'knockers' on HT. No complaints this time though, just got back on Sunday and we had no delays either way, comfortable leather seats (we paid for extra leg room), excellent service although we were in economy, crew very helpful and friendly, food not too bad - nothing special but acceptable, and also clean toilets.

On the day of departure we took advantage of the Free Time check in at LBV which we had pre-booked at $5pp ($10 if you book on the day), it is open from 7.30am until 11.30am and we went at about 8.15am and were vitually in and out. We then had a full day to do as we liked as we didn't have to return the car until 6pm. I can recommend this service as it gives you a full day to do as you wish and no queuing at the airport as you already have your boarding pass so you can go straight through to the departure lounge after checking through customs.