I don't know about Thomas Cook I'm afraid as I too have always flown with Thomson. I'm a bit miffed actually. Just a few weeks ago I got a letter advising that our flight times had changed and we're now going with Spanair

Anyone travelled with them before?

There's nothing I can do about it though - I'm just glad that I'm going!

I flew with Thomas Cook last year from Portugal. We were due to be flying both ways with them, but on the outward journey we had a letter waiting for us at check in saying that due to a technical problem we would not be flying on a Thomas Cook flight, but would be travelling with Astraus (I am not sure that is spelt correctly) Air. They were actually very good. Travelling back on the Thomas Cook flight was fine - usual flight. It didn't really differ much to the Thomson flights I have taken.

Moved to flights forum.

Mark

WORST - Ryanair on a regular basis ... and British Airways when they lose my baggage.

BEST - Easyjet and Condor (charter arm of Lufthansa).

BEST? Definitely has to be Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong to Heathrow, and extra pleasurable because they thought we were connected to an official UK delegation (we weren't!) and up-graded us to Business Class even though I would have thought it was pretty clear that we weren't travelling with the Trade Minister. Unless of course civil servants always travel in plastic sandals and cheap batik sarongs

WORST? JAL to Beijing on the outward journey of the same trip with a 4hr stopover in the transit lounge in Belgrade - with the waiter who sat around looking bored all the time because there was nothing for him to do because there was no food or drink available for him to sell? China Airways on an internal flight between Beijing and Nanjing where the air conditioning consisted of a paper fan? No, it has to be Janus airways, Coventry to Ostende - we should have realised what we in for when at check-in my Dad pointed out the the J had fallen off the notice behind the desk!

SM

only do short haul so..

the worse in order

Ryan Air
Thomas Cook
excell [xl] air

Best in order [and this may be supprising as my first place no longer exists..]

Helios
Cyprus airways/ eurocypria
Monarch

wiz

Hi Wizard, so what's so bad about Thomas Cook? We are flying with them in August and July next year for that matter.

worst airline i ever flew with was danair to tenerife. 4 hours trying to get my legs into the space provided, and not succeeding. i ended up standing.
only flew twice with airtours and had delays both times, once a 12 hour delay from ibiza with the airtours staff basically telling lies to us, and as soon as it was proved to them that they were lying we never saw them again.
best airlines have been cyprus airways, where nothing was too much trouble;even managing to humour my partner for 4 hours each time when she was petrified of flying and was prone to panic attacks.
current best ,for me, is ryanair with whom i have travelled(or commuted as my boss puts it) nearly every month for the last year. every flight on time landing and i've had no problems at all with them.

had 4 trips with T/C not enjoyed any of them.. also found the staff from check in to flight less than amiable [food was as bad as most charters] best food was cyprus airways, best service was helios [god rest them]

Best longhaul: Air Mauritius closely followed by First Choice.
Best Shorthaul: Bmi (charter), all the rest of much the same.

Worst longhaul: Air France, by far!
Worst shorthaul: Dazbo Airways. My landings are always bumpy!!

Darren

Best Longhaul: First Choice (by far!)
Worst Longhaul: MyTraval Airways (never been in seats so narrow before!)

Best shorthaul: BA followed closely by Aer Lingus
Worst shorthaul: Ryanair (I just hate them!)

Worst shorthaul: Dazbo Airways. My landings are always bumpy

how many times do i have to say it.. any landing you walk away from is a good landing

[unless its in the sewage works]

Best - Air Berlin - though sadly they have now stopped flying to Majorca and mainland Spain from the UK. Second best would be BA.

Worst - a number of years ago flying to Alicante with an unknown Air Operations of Europe. Flight out ok - plenty of room on the very old plane but unbeknown to us they only posessed the one plane and on the return it went 'technical'. A long delay followed by a flight to Barcelona and then another flight to Heathrow was how we got home - trouble was our car was at Gatwick! Needless to say after that the airline went bust!

Pippa

Flew with Spanair years and years and years ago - my first flight ever. Must have been OK as it didn't put me off. They also had proper metal cutlery with the food rather than plastic.

Also flown with BMI and Ryanair without problems.

Would have agreed that Thomsons would be my first choice except for the appalling problems we had with them last year. First we were transferred to Hola airlines, then the plane had a technical fault, nobody seemed to know what was going on, then they ran out of food on the plane so what should have been a 7.30am flight eventually left about 1.45pm, so we lost a days holiday. Whilst I appreciate some of it was out of Thomson's control, the handling of the situation was terrible, and the complaints procedure was a complete waste of time as and they didn't know what they were doing.

Maybe cheap and cheerful, but give me the low-cost airlines at the mo!

iv only ever been on 2 airlines. first choice i have used three times and found they was great. could not fault them at all. last year we used thomson , never again, first a 4 hour delay at manchester so we finally took off about midnight, 4 and half hours to gran canaria. the plane was a wreck, they run out of food and drinks, had no blankets or pillows for the kids. you could not even plug your head phones into the radio as it did not have it, it felt like the springs had gone in the seat, im sure my backside was about 3 inch off the floor. to be honest it think it was the same plane that had the bird strick about 3 week earlier lol.the stewarts could do nothing but apolgise about the state of the plane etc etc. on the return trip the same plane had broke down at manchester so they set a 767 for us witch was better

this year we go with thomas cook, lets see what thats like lol

I only fly longhaul nowerdays.

Best:
First Choice (although I'm flying Emirates next month to Australia so this is subject to change: hopefully)

Worst:
Thomas Cook, for a LOT of reasons!

Worst:- Monarch, Monarch, Monarch. Peach Airways were hopeless at leaving your luggage. Did I mention Monarch?
Also BMI who reneged on a promise of upgrade a few years ago.

Best:- Thai Airways and any airline whose staff don't tell lies, sorry I know they all tell lies.Cynical, me?

Best: Monarch, Monarch, Monarch!!! (I find their short haul flights the best of the bunch, wouldn't do longhaul with them though), First Choice Airways, MyTravel Airways (Alas now Thomas Cook)

Worst: A flight back in 1999 with Air Atlanta Icelandic in a Tristar that appeared to be on its last legs!!

Best Emirates, travelled on quite a few of thier flights, comfort and food and inflight entertainment are top notch.

Worst , same as previous poster Air Atlanta, talk about old and scruffy !