Flights to Barbados - who would you choose?

[Cosmic Rays]

I am making a cruise booking and have been given a choice of flights from Manchester to Barbados either with Thomas Cook or Thomson.

 

Has anybody a preference and why? Who should we choose?

[cruiseluvva]

I can't speak from experience since we always arrange our own flights, but I am told by friends that Thomson is preferable.

[EOS-User]

Haven't flown with either to Barbados, but have flown with both long-haul, and I would say that Thompson are marginally ahead of the game over Thomas Cook.

 

If you can budget for it, the premium cabin will be a worthwhile investment - specially on the overnight return!

[wales4ever]

Flown to the Caribbean with both for cruises. No real difference with either for me.

[bee-ess]

I have only flown with TC but they were quite hot on luggage allowances. I was stopped with a hand luggage bag of 7KG and had to remove some items (which I just put in my pockets !!). Luckily our cases were within the allowance but we saw some that had to remove some stuff.

 

I'd go with whichever allows the best luggage allowance, we were told by others that Thomson are more lenient, but have no experience of that.

 

If you want to sit together I would pre-book your seats, there is a charge for this but it means that you do not have to be at the airport so early, we arrived one hour before the flight rather than the 3hrs recommended as we had our seats

[athurstance]

We've flown Thomson for the last few years with P&O - last year from Birmingham they were being very strict on the luggage allowance and checking hand luggage weights.

[BrianI]

If you are talking about P&O flights, then the luggage allowance is set by P&O, not the airline. Its currently 23kg hold luggage plus 5kg hand luggage whichever airline is used. At the time of booking you dont always know which airline it will be.

Brian

[Catherine Janaway]

I would avoid Thomas Cook as they have started to change some of the long haul planes to 29" seat pitch and on individual entertainment systems, rumour has it that due to the fact they haven't made so much profit this year they are going to withdraw from the long haul market.

 

Unfortunately I don't have any choice as we are flying from Barbados to Gatwick with TC in November.

 

I am hoping they still have the 33" seat pitch as it'll be a horrible flight home with no room to move my legs.

 

I e-mailed P & O with my concerns and they really didn't seem that bothered.

[annieuk]

Thomson every time, especially if they are using a First Choice plane (First Choice is now part of Thomsons). The entertainment on our last flight to Barbados on Thomas Cook was no-where near the standard of Thomson - and the seats were not as comfortable either.

[shoreham01]

I would enquire how many aircraft they have available for this route. Our son flew to Orlando with Thomson and their aircraft was grounded because of a fault and a short haul aircraft was sent to carry them, there and back. This meant no premium economy even though it had been booked and paid for, and if I remember correctly there was no entertainment. They would never fly with them again.

[dreamweaver767]

50-50 spilt, flew TC in 2009 and Thom last year. TC Airbus A330 more modern aircraft crew both ways excellent, clean plane slightly less room as it’s 3x3x3. Thom 767 ex First Choice seating better 2x3x2 more leg room and no as hemmed in. Aircraft is old and it’s showing inside despite being fitted with the B777 style cabin, Inflight entertainment broke, crew were down right miserable so in theory not much in them really.

Regards baggage they were S**t hot and Manchester I think 90% were stung for overweight bags, but this is a good money making scam. I believe that TC has lost the contract with p&o and will be solely Thomson next year. As regards to changing seat pitch I don’t think this will affect there A330s as they mainly do long haul and would hand computation over to Thomson, as they are getting rid of 3 of their A330s next year these being the newest of the bunch leaving them with the old airtours birds.

I think personal Thomson was better for room in the cabin but as stated there service is terrible, also Thom’s premium cabin is not worth the money, seating is still 2x3x2 and all you get extra is mood lighting which looked hideous, champagne pre take off and move movies choice, rip off really.

[Essexlass2]

Personally, I would choose Thomson every time. We have flown with TC to the Caribbean twice before and on the last occasion my seat was so uncomfortable that the crew had to take it apart and rebuild it by padding it out with blankets. I could feel every piece of metal that went into forming the seat and, with a back problem, it was so uncomfortable I stood for several hours before a crew member asked me if there was a problem. Maybe I should have reported it earlier, but I just do not like to make a fuss or complain.

 

Just our luck too that we got exactly the same aircraft and seats on the return journey and, despite the crew's promises to report this problem, absolutely nothing had been done other than to remove all the padding again! Hence, my husband and I set to and repadded the seat ourselves as we'd seen them do on the outward journey. There was not much leg room either and the in-flight service was not very good.

 

Someone on these forums mentioned that TC may well be in financial trouble and as our flights are again with TC, we're hoping that if they're going to go bust then it will happen before we are due to fly so that we get another company to fly us out!!

[Lovemychoos]

We've done both, and would agree with most others, definitely Thomson every time. Our last one was a First Choice plane, and to be honest, we thought the seats etc were every bit as good as the 'upgrade' we'd previously done with TC.

 

Louise

[caber]

We have done both and could not fault either of them.

[Dorset Cruiser]

Thomson - we flew with them a couple of years ago and some of the other passengers went with Thomas Cook - they had a far less pleasant experience than we did although we did upgrade to the premium seats.

[DamianG]

Regardless of who you fly with a good tip I read from another poster is to take a sandwich, meal deal or something similar on board with you. Flying to Acapulco last year we had to be re-routed for the scheduled refuelling stop and were grounded stuck on the runway in The Dominian Republic (unable to get off the plane) for an extra 3 hours. The (Thomas Cook) crew on the first leg were brilliant but their replacements were the complete opposite and the crew leader in particular had a terrible attitude which set the tone for the rest of the team. They refused to serve anything while we were grounded so we went approximately seven hours without eating, and when we were served it was an awful cheese, tomato and pesto toastie. You won't need a refuelling stop en route to Barbados but for the price of a sandwich you'll have an alternative if you don't like what they are serving.

On a happier note we soon recovered from the near 23 hour journey to get there and had a wonderful cruise!

All the best.

Damian

[hammers]

I am making a cruise booking and have been given a choice of flights from Manchester to Barbados either with Thomas Cook or Thomson.

 

Has anybody a preference and why? Who should we choose?

 

Our last two flights to Barbados have been with Thomas Cook and I must say both my wife and I were very impressed. The planes (Airbus), seat pitch, onboard entertainment and the flight attendants were first class. We both preferred the TC flights over the Virgin Atlantic flight we made last year to Las Vegas.

[Catherine Janaway]

Our last two flights to Barbados have been with Thomas Cook and I must say both my wife and I were very impressed. The planes (Airbus), seat pitch, onboard entertainment and the flight attendants were first class. We both preferred the TC flights over the Virgin Atlantic flight we made last year to Las Vegas.

 

I hope we have the same experience as we have no choice but to fly home from Barbados with TC and I've heard some bad reports about them.