If you have ever flown long haul to Orlando in a charter airline economy airplane you will appreciate you are not given the biggest legroom and seat pitch in the world. If you are after a cheap upgrade why not try upgrading to one of the premium services they offer. We did this last year on a Thomas Cook Airlines flight from Manchester – Orlando.
For us the upgrade cost around £250 return per person on top of the cost of the economy ticket. This I felt was good value for money as it meant we had extra legroom, larger seat and extra baggage limit.
When you check in at Manchester you have a separate check in desk to put your bags. This is a godsend and saves you loads of time as the other queues are pretty big. When we arrived we had only 1 other couple in front of us, so it took around 10 minutes to check all the bags in.
When called forward to the plane you are called forward first and greeted with a small pre flight drink. The cabin is separate from the main cabin and is located at the front of the aircraft. The configuration on the plane was 2 3 2 and had around 30 seats. As a pre flight drink we had champagne with some nibbles. Seats on this flight were 33 inch pitch and a lot wider than the standard economy seats. The cabin itself was very clean and tidy and the plane looked like it had recently been renovated.
All the drinks in the flight were included in the price of the ticket, this not being the case for economy. You can only have free drinks when the trolley is going round the cabin, however I have asked before and been given the drinks outside of this time. All movies on the plane were the same as economy, although we did have a few extra channels to view, specially for Premier passengers.
Throughout the flight I found the seats very comfy and the extra space certainly was worth the money. I also found the cabin much more quiet than the economy cabin. On our flight the seats in the premier cabin were all leather and had extra head rests at each side of your head.
When we got off the flight we were the first off and this seemed to save us time getting through immigration. Being first off a 300 seat plane means you get to the immigration desks first.
Overall I would rate the service and extra facilities as well worth the extra costs. We paid just over £550 per seat for the flight last Sept and this was around £20 more expensive than the equivalent Virgin flight. For the extra service I would say this is good value for money. Would I book the premium service again. You bet I would!
For us the upgrade cost around £250 return per person on top of the cost of the economy ticket. This I felt was good value for money as it meant we had extra legroom, larger seat and extra baggage limit.
When you check in at Manchester you have a separate check in desk to put your bags. This is a godsend and saves you loads of time as the other queues are pretty big. When we arrived we had only 1 other couple in front of us, so it took around 10 minutes to check all the bags in.
When called forward to the plane you are called forward first and greeted with a small pre flight drink. The cabin is separate from the main cabin and is located at the front of the aircraft. The configuration on the plane was 2 3 2 and had around 30 seats. As a pre flight drink we had champagne with some nibbles. Seats on this flight were 33 inch pitch and a lot wider than the standard economy seats. The cabin itself was very clean and tidy and the plane looked like it had recently been renovated.
All the drinks in the flight were included in the price of the ticket, this not being the case for economy. You can only have free drinks when the trolley is going round the cabin, however I have asked before and been given the drinks outside of this time. All movies on the plane were the same as economy, although we did have a few extra channels to view, specially for Premier passengers.
Throughout the flight I found the seats very comfy and the extra space certainly was worth the money. I also found the cabin much more quiet than the economy cabin. On our flight the seats in the premier cabin were all leather and had extra head rests at each side of your head.
When we got off the flight we were the first off and this seemed to save us time getting through immigration. Being first off a 300 seat plane means you get to the immigration desks first.
Overall I would rate the service and extra facilities as well worth the extra costs. We paid just over £550 per seat for the flight last Sept and this was around £20 more expensive than the equivalent Virgin flight. For the extra service I would say this is good value for money. Would I book the premium service again. You bet I would!