Tell me about it

Hi i have also flew with tcd before and am again next year,without any problems at all.Take off no delay at all,coming home 1 hour delay which i wished was more as there was a terrible thunder storm taking place.Flew with thomas cook this year to turkey 2 hours delay so it can happen whatever you fly

MikeCunliffe

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:25 pm Post subject:
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Hate to upset you Sue, but if you fly Virgin from Manchester to Orlando you'll be flying on a plane operated by Air Atlantic....who, together with Excel Airways and Travel City Direct are part of the same group - Avion Travel.
I flew Virgin back in summer 2000 M/cr to Orlando and whilst we were lucky and had a genuine Virgin aircraft, my parents joined us 4 days later and had a terrible experience - Virgin had contracted Air Atlanta to operate the service. We experienced the same bad service on our return.

I believe the flight prefix EUK is Excel Airways. If you look at the Manchester Airport real-time flight display on the web (http://www.manairport.co.uk/) and search for flights beginning EUK you'll see that several arrived late/have yet to arrive - often 12hours plus late.

Worth avoiding the whole of the Avion Group.

This is no longer true, Virgin now operate their own plane from MAN-MCO with full Upper Class Suites

Hate to upset you Sue, but if you fly Virgin from Manchester to Orlando'

No chance of that. I live in East Anglia so always use Gatwick.

Just a quick price comparison here

Travel city direct

Mum and dad and one child travelling to Orlando from Gatwick, staying in a two bed condo at the Bahama bay resort, with a full size four door car, with platinum insurance Date of travel 15th sept 2005 Total price £1512.00

Book the same holiday with Virgin

Mum and dad and one child travelling to Orlando from Gatwick, staying in a two bed condo at the Bahama bay resort, with a full size four door car, with platinum insurance Date of travel 15th sept 2005 Total price £ 3071.35

All the above info was priced online tonight, travelling next month

Travel city direct are less than half the Money of virgin

I have never travelled with Travel city direct, so I can't comment on service but the price speaks volumes

TCDs price is about right, not really a cheap bargain, Virgin as usual are overpriced
Sept. 15th LGW to SFB, 2 adults, 1 child

Flights (MyTravel) £687.00

Car Hire (Airline Network) £289.00

2 Bed Condo (Island Club) £518

Total £1494

Probably be able to knock that price down quite a bit as there will be loads of cheap fly-drives in September once the kids are back to school. Given the choice between TCD & MyTravel I'd go with MyTravel, much better aircraft and punctuality record

i have flown with TCD this month, just coming back from my holiday last monday. I was quite worried over all these negative points people were saying about the airline. I have to say that the points were all correct. This is the worst airline i have ever flown with.

Firstly turn up at Gatwick to find the flight was cancelled. GREAT. they other us a £50 to go home or they would put us up in a hotel in brighton. My family done the brighton hotel. the hotel was fine but brightons not quite america. they gave us some breakfast vouchers to for gatwick although we couldnt use them because we would have missed the coach to brighton other wise. The next day we had to get up at 3 in the morning to get back to gatwick. They only had 2 check ins open. So you could imagine 500 passengers tryin to check in our bags. we were like 2 hhours checking in. we got on the plane at 8 which was supposed to take off at 7.

once on the plane we wernt moving, they blamed it on baggage people not signing things and the printer wasnt working which they needed. finally after an hour sitting on a plane the pilot comes on saying "theres a problem with the engine temperature gauge" so thats further delay. that got fixed and we were off at 12noon. after sitting on the plane for 4 hours. in total the delay was 24 hours. the flight was awful. couldnt see thee tv, rubbish music stations, water dripping down on people from the air conditioning which was shoved with tissues. baggagelockers would not close properly which fell on somone. My dinner table would not come down properly. sorry bout the long writing but theres just so much to say.

i would not fly with these again. i would not suggest these to anyone.

Just out of curiosity which airline do they use now ? When we went with them 2 years ago they used to stop to refuel just inside Canada. Literally the back of beyond.

I too would never use this TCD again. They are just awful. I wish I had heeded advice from a friend who had a really bad experience with them in 2001 but just thought it was a one off.

There always seems to be something wrong with their aircraft. For the life of me I cannot remember who they were who we flew with. It was an American airline. The tail fin had a palm tree drawn on it. Most uncomfortable & treated like a herd of cattle. Unfriendly crew who made you feel that we were doing them a real favour that they were there.

My friend got stranded in Canada on the flight out to Orlando. Engine trouble or so they said. The crew were put up in a posh hotel but the passengers were put in sub standard accomodation.

My advice to anyone considering going with TCD is DON'T. If you have only paid your deposit think VERY carefully before you go with them. Its worth the los of the deposit. They are truly dreadful

It was an American airline. The tail fin had a palm tree drawn on it. Most uncomfortable & treated like a herd of cattle

It would have been "ATA" American Trans Air" and you probably flew on one of their L1011 Tristars. They typically refuelled in Gander.

Travelcity no longer use them for flights although the airline still operates charter services for the US market.

I must be one of the lucky ones then because everytime we fly with tcd and other members of my family we have had no problems at all,so until such a time when things go wrong tcd it is

I swore I would never use TCD again after last year's disastrous flight on Air Atlanta (paid to go sunshine first at an extra £250 each, they refunded money later as the Air Atlanta plane did not have that facility). The flight was awful but, in fairness to TCD we have never had any complaints before and we have travelled with them several times either on their own planes or booked through them on Delta or Virgin.

This year, due to the reviews on HT, we are all absolutely dreading the flight, if I had not fully paid up (going 1st October) I would gladly lose the deposit. How come they are such a successful organisation when most people have nothing good to say about them? I wish now that we had booked with Delta, not much more expensive than TCD and, being a scheduled flight they usually fly on time. Last year with TCD we had a 5 hr delay going out and we had leaking A/C units, smelly toilets (both ways), my seat wouldn't go back, bad service. Why, oh why, was I foolish enough to give them another chance, instead of looking forward to 1st October I am dreading it.

IME like cokney girl ive never had complaints with travel city direct but ime worried this year because we on the air atlanta plain by the looks of things oh well fingers crossed

My friend went with TC last august and was stuck there an extra few days in Hurricane Charlie
they were put up in a 5* hotel and all meals paid for, she said when they went to the airport on the day they should have flown home there were Mytravel passengers just stranded there, at least TC had got coaches for everyone and accommodation and meals, they flew back 2 days late
they had great service, no complaints at all
I am due to go on 14th Oct with TC (first time to Orlando)
having normally flown to the med with the likes of first choice and My travel and not having the luxury of comparing it to Virgin, BA etc..I am under no illusions and I am just gonna take it as it comes, it is a means to an end and hopefully we will have a problem free holiday

Just as a postscript to this topic, we flew back from Sanford last night with ThomsonFly departure time 17.45, took off at 18.00 becuase of local thunderstorms. TCD (Air Atlanta) departure time 18.15, estimated to actually depart at 01.25! Nice!

we went to turkey this year with a well known tour operater and had 5 hours delay,so it can happen anywhere

Yes, delays can happen with any flight, but it seems from this thread and others it happens more than it should with TCD and Air Atlanta, due perhaps to the age of the fleet. Does any one have a link to a site that lists airline punctuality?

hi Travel City direct use air atlanta. The airline that got the worst delays in 2004. they also use excel in catering i think

Oh well each to their own we all have different opions and until you try it you will never know,all i know is i have had excellent service from tcd ,some people expect a good service at a cheaper price,i would rather buy cheaper and have the little bit extra for those extras like clearwatwer screamer etc,as long as i get there 9 hours or so flight we can put up with,bad service,smelly toilets,a delay great my children love love it in the games room at sanford for as long as they like while we sit in the bar

as long as i get ther in one piece i dont care.delays- dont worry have a beer enjoy have a sleep,on the plane-not enough room stretch your legs,walk up and down the plane,look upstairs,dont like food-take your own snacks,cant see tele-take yor own dvd player,watch a film on there,smelly toilets-ask people to wash before taking a flight and not to poo in the toilets.Car hire b--- fantastic havent heard about problems there yet,anyway as i said each to there own you either love it or lothe it and i love it