sherie_in_oz

Anyone thinking of booking a very cheap flight Oz-UK or UK - OZ with Britannia/Thomson/ through bestflights.com/Austravel READ THIS AND THINK AGAIN!!!!

I have just returned home to the Gold Coast after what should have been a great day out to see Peter fly backto the UK to clean and sort out his tools and arrange for our furniture to be sent here.....

Our house is finally selling in the UK and funds have been getting tight so we decided to go for one of these cheap flights and paid only $139 + taxes for a one way for a flight from Sydney to London Gatwick through www.bestflights.com.au
We thought they seemed incredibly cheap but when we got to check-in in Sydney we were told the Britannia/Thomson plane had broken down and all passengers would have to be put up in an airport hotel for the night as there were mechanical problems .... that was on WEDNESDAY night.
Today (Thursday) we were told everyone would have to be put up at the hotel for a further 2 nights and Thomson/ Britannia couldn't give us any more precise details of when the flight was going to be leaving Sydney as there is only one incoming flight to Sydney each week....so IT WOULD BE AT LEAST SATURDAY BEFORE A PLANE WOULD BE AVAILABLE!!!

As you can imagine there has been chaos in the hotel as families had nothing to do but wait for further news, people have missed all kinds of connections, and most were just not able to afford to make alternative arrangements. Fortunately travelling on his own Peter ended up paying 2000$ return just to get a last minute flight with Qantas so it turned out to be no saving at all and there was no one at the airport to complain/ask anything. The only method of communication from Britannia/Thomson was messages sent to the delayed passengers thro the hotel reception.
So if you want to be sure to fly DON'T take a charter/cheapie its just not worth it!!

DunRoaminTheUK

IMHO there is no better maxim than "You get what you pay for". We have been caught out in the past (to a lesser extent I grant you) by deals that seem too good to be true and the general rule of thumb is that they generally are too good to be true.

The false-economy is booming if you ask me.

Pollyana

Exactly; they are cheap for a reason - because they are more of a gamble than an expensive flight. Maybe for a flight to Spain its worth the gamble, but for a long flight like Aus - pay the extra, its worth it.

ABCDiamond

I flew with them once SYD-London, and the comfort factor has to be considered to. I'm sure that flight was just as "comfortable" as the 2 hr flights to Spain.

billy0911

Hi
we have to agree it is worth it for a cheap flight to Spain but not transatlantic but again it is down to luck and if you are traveling with kids etc

Vicki & Billy

australia to canada

Just been through a horror flight too, flying visit to UK paid full price to go on emirates. Very disappointed considering the reviews on emirates.

Main problem, out of Dubai many working aussies coming back to Aus after a nice dry spell booze wise, guy next row downed a litre of scotch between dubai and singers, flying off his face basically with the sort of behaviour we stopped flying qantas for, drunken aussies egging him on, vomiting, throwing meals around the aisle, the worse it got the more the mates encouraged it. Pom family in row in front looked terrified were flying with 3 under 5's, absolute nightmare for them.

Flilght crew politely explained to us (after 7 compliants by various people) that on a 300 person flight with only 8 crew very little can be done, personally stopping serving them might have helped , by the time the crew spoke to them they were surrounded by emirates supplied wine bottles all over the aisle and floor as well as the duty free supplies. We were assured on the next leg the flight crew would be warned, yet again they were served booze all the way.

Would not risk flying again, an engineer on the flight (fully sober aussie) told us the flights often end up like that when full of aussie work crews.

ABCDiamond

Better off flying Monarch

03 January, 2006
Monarch divert flight to dump drunk passenger
Monarch Airlines dumped a passenger on a remote island in the Atlantic after he became drunk and abused cabin crew.

The BBC said the man became aggressive on a flight from Manchester to Tenerife after he was refused more alcohol.

The pilot diverted the flight to Porto Santo, a tiny Portuguese island 25 miles from Madeira, and threw the passenger and his luggage off the aircraft. He was then led away by police.

Preston

Cor blimey love - you will be giving us poms a bad name - they will be calling us whinging poms soon - $139!!! AND 3 night FREE holiday in a hotel - thats what i call VALUE FOR MONEY !!! Unbeatable!

Wol

Joking aside, if you choose to fly with a very low cost operator, you must accept that there is very little backup to their flights. With one flight a week it's very unlikely that a "spare" aircraft will be found and if your flight goes U/S it will be a matter of waiting until the duct tape is found.

I remember a Laker flight LAX - Gatwick landing instead in Manchester because it was hours late and its next revenue flight was Manchester - Spain. The LAX passengers were just offloaded in MAN and put onto a BA MAN - Heathrow flight, there to fend for themselves. They were really p****d off yet, true to the Brit cheer-for-the-underdog ethos, were full of praise for Laker and critical of BA for not flying them to Gatwick! C'est la vie...

CaliforniaBride

Ahh, the good old Laker days! Flew them loads. Do you remember all the freebies? Plastic holdalls, suit covers, hand luggage in red white and blue Laker logos? Naff or what?

Grayling

I got a slating on here from some posters when I said this a while ago in relation to Thomson.

G