Megabear2

Reclining seats are highly contentious which is why short haul they're being phased out on some airlines. As Zap says it's polite to ask before doing it. Mind you if you had refused the airline wouldn't have done anything about it. On a Virgin flight from Orlando my OH couldn't actually sit in his seat when the person in front reclined. Staff just shrugged their shoulders and suggested my husband used their jump seat when he needed to stretch his legs. As I said elsewhere TUI won't even move the overnight lavatory queue away from emergency exit seats because the staff are instructed to avoid confrontation issues.

Perhaps our Graham could get you a bulk deal on your sweets then!l

Most importantly if the person in front fully reclines you still have space. You can actually stand up and get past the person next to you without disturbing them too. My OH doesn't sleep well at home because of his pain so if he manages to drift off even for an hour it's good news. When we used to have 2 aisle seats there were obviously others needing to get out for the loo etc. With PE I try for a pair and he sits outside. It's a big help and well worth the £1,000. Actually if you didn't realise the cost you most likely didn't realise why some of us with balconies/suites say we pay £7,000+ for a two week cruise.

I don't think they took the decision at all. Reading airline forums there just aren't any planes to spare in the world so their hands are tied. Damned by their own long distance planning would seem to be more accurate. Reading the TUI2 forum site regarding aircraft, some TUI staff themselves are quoted as saying the 787s are "knackered" and in need of heavy maintenance because they have had to work holiday routes non-stop since restart which is leading to breakdowns and flight delays. Fascinating reading but not very helpful in some ways but certainly enlightening on how they haven't enough aircraft to meet their own schedules let alone anyone else's.

P&O must know the entertainment is a biggie. Our flight home from Barbados didn't have any and there were lots of moans and groans. I wasn't worried as once onboard I out my earplugs in, take my meds and sleep, no food drink and certainly no entertainment necessary. On return I had reason to speak to P&O about a billing discrepancy after disembarkation. Whilst dealing with it the lady noted I'd been on that Gatwick flight and asked if I'd asked TUI about compensation for the missing entertainment. Rather surprisingly when I said no she added £25 obc to my next cruise account as an apology as she put it. Mentioned it on here and several people informed me people could indeed have a claim for the missing entertainment. I'm guessing that may be one reason they're warning in advance to stop further problems down that route.

The food is very good and you can mix in the sushi. Actually the vegetarian sushi was my best meal on Arvia along with the beetroot starter.

There are 63 seats in total according to Seatguru plan. They are very much sought-after even at a high cost of £449 each plus £78pp return to reserve particular ones. Most people book them for comfort level. Until my husband had his fibromyalga diagnosis we paid for the so called extra legroom seats on one 787 from Birmingham. They are severely restricted in width with fixed arms, by the exit doors so very cold and very rude and inconsiderate people gather righting your extra legroom to queue at all hours for the lavatories without any regard to people trying to rest. After one such sleepless flight we nearly crashed on the M1 with falling asleep and ended up finding a Travellodge to rest an extranight rather than risk the drive home.

Your planner should have your flight details and time now this has been confirmed.

There are two flights, about an hour apart. If you have confirmed TUI in your planner it shouldn't change according to flights department. Remember there are only two of these aircraft, the rest are TUI planes.

The sun's out, blue skies and 9 degrees. Thankfully our garden and drive drain very easily and my cars are no longer standing in 6 inches of water. My own car was my dad's Ford, now 19 years old, battered and bashed but working like a trojan with only 41,000 miles on the clock. I've just received my insurance renewal from the people who don’t make a drama out of a crisis. Drama, hmm, there wasn't one till their email arrived!! Anyway good news, my household insurer just offered a car insurance quote and on checking like for like I'm only going to pay £12 more than last year so the moral is take the time and do the search, work and maths.

My reference to the bad publicity wasn't to this forum which, as you say is miniscule. I was actually referring to the travel agent industry and its trade magazines who are apparently extremely unhappy with the way this is being handled. A quick Internet search brings up immediately the headline "Agents and customers livid after P&O Cruises partners with one-cabin airline with no entertainment". I have an Upday screen with news headlines which opens news stories based on my searches to direct me to items of interest. Currently I check P&O and Cunard sites daily, the first as I'm accessing my cruise planner, the second because their 2025 itineraries have just launched and go on sale shortly. By yesterday evening this news headline screen carried four articles with headings such as the one I've just quoted. Word will be out and spreading, newspapers love a bit of outrage. Anyone carrying out a search to buy a cruise most likely will see these too. My reference to prices is simply because currently there is an offer on Caribbean cruises running for departures up until 31 December 2023. This ends soon and no doubt will be replaced. There's also a big batch of payment dates imminent for cruises after 31 December 2023 and at that point we will be able to see who, if anyone, walks.

The aircraft economy seats have less seat pitch - 30 inches to 33 inches (an industry leader apparently) and there's no premium economy cabin on offer. For me as someone who rarely books premium economy seats for myself not a problem. If it was my 6' 4" husband with chronic fibromyalga and other health conditions it would be a big problem. We have on recent flights moved to paying for at the very least an aisle seat with extra legroom. If we were advised in advance of no extra room seats we too would most likely have cancelled for the lack of room. As I have mentioned many times on this thread I am fully aware of the contract not offering a definite named airline, others clearly were not. As I see it the later people booked the more chance there was P&O didn’t have a seat on an aircraft at the point of booking. Whilst it's dangerous to assume on the part of the passenger it would have been fairer for P&O to let travel agents and direct callers know once the allocation of TUI planes had been filled that the remaining planes hadn't actually been sourced and not to take anymore PE bookings until they had been. Passengers booking at this time would then have been able to make the informed decision as to whether to go ahead or wait. Once the plane was sourced people could have been advised if PE was available to recommence bookings. The economy flight seat bookers were lulled into a false sense of security on who they'd be flying with because until 2019 there had always been flights with well known companies. That is unfortunate but people must surely have seen the stories on lack of aircraft, staff etc so with no cast iron guarantee in the contract with P&O sadly shouldn't be surprised. It will be interesting to see how the remaining Caribbean season cruises sell now this has been announced. I noticed today several cruises which had limited flight availability now appear to have more. Whether this is due to the planes now being sourced or cancellations only time will tell. If prices on Arvia in particular start to slip in the same way as last year whether because of this or other reasons it will soon become clear. Certainly until the flight situation becomes clearer I think many will hold off on booking next season's Caribbean offerings and this publicity is certainly not ideal when the group are pushing to sell out all their offerings for 2023/24.

If it's true you can bet your bottom dollar these will rise in price pretty soon. If people are prepared to pay for extras in MDR there's little doubt that anything else will rise too. The extra lobster tail charge on RC etc started a whole chain of events, I'm sure this would too.

Thank you. Very interesting that the travel agents are apparently unhappy with the way this has been handled. Looks like the PR people didn't do a good job for neither the agents or affected passengers.

Both jabs successfully delivered. I was beginning to think I might need to call Noah to help us get there though. Floods everywhere and not much sign of a let up any time soon it seems.

Going well over there today! What with coconut airways quotes and now this I'm beginning to think that P&O are deliberately declaring war on the customers over there. DL keep us upto date, sounds fascinating.

Is it only the same menu offered every day, just on certain days or what I certainly wouldn't go for it, £30 for two to sit in my normal seat doesn't appeal to me but I'm one of those who think MDR food is okay in the main. If I've got to pay more to eat better food I'll simply go elsewhere I'm afraid.

According to flights department allocations will not change unless the airline needs to do so. These new planes seem to be making up the shortfall for those who haven't been allocated a plane. You should be fine but be aware TUI are at liberty to change out the plane for technical reasons. There are only two of these planes chartered, P&O need a lot more than that and this outfit haven't got enough to provide them all.

ICF posts mainly when he has a cruise booked and he's just done that for February. No doubt he'll pop along and give you the benefit of his wisdom shortly! I confess to finding it amusing and sometimes rather overpowering and rather stupidly get led by the nose but it does liven things up!

I really enjoyed the food in there but it was virtually empty every day apart from the Sushi bar which was well supported. The costs did add up in there compared with the other speciality restaurants but overall I liked the food a lot and thought it was quite innovative. Interestingly despite the lack of other restaurants and MDR problems the attendance did not seem to increase.

That's lovely to hear. Are you happy with the itineraries being the same every year presumably yes. Were you cruising before these ships arrived and if so is it just the facilities you like onboard. Not just P&O, most of the other cruise lines leaving Southampton are just repeating exactly the same itineraries year on year so do you think you'll be happy with those itineraries, shows onboard etc in say three years time? Please don't think I'm picking on P&O, I'm not, I've noticed a lot of the lines' itineraries are shorter in ports and with little variety.

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/maltese-carrier-to-run-po-cruises-caribbean-charter-flights Well it's official then. Two aircraft.

A330 are actually lovely aircraft so really nothing to worry about there. Reading into the history of these aircraft most have belonged to Middle Eastern airlines and these have been known for years to be some of the finest airlines in the world. The A340 mentioned by someone previously belonged to Virgin Atlantic, an airline that has one of the best safety records in the world. As I am constantly saying when people call a cruise ship old it's not age that is important it's maintenance and repair. Many on here say how good Jet2 is - they aren't easily available down south apart from Stansted so I've never had the pleasure - but they actually have a fairly elderly fleet. Age really shouldn't be an issue.

Best batten down the hatches for a few months! It certainly won't be quiet or without controversy over on some threads I feel.

You may find this interesting. Sadly A380 production line shut down and no more will be built. Having flown on several of these under BA and Emirates I'd say they are ideal for bulk flights such as the P&O charters. Certainly BA have used theirs a lot this year to assist with the popular European holiday destinations. It's a mute point if they'd want to lease any for charter, but they most certainly are there if they could be persuaded. Also P&O's use would be winter and assumedly the need to boost European holiday destination flights will be less. https://simpleflying.com/almost-half-airbus-a380s-stored-scrapped-maintenance/