Thomson Airways Reviews | Opinions of Thomson Airways shared by travelers

I have travelled with Thomson many times before and have allways been delighted with the service to the point that I would not fly with any other airline.I allways viewed them to be a cut above the rest.Unfortunatly things have changed.On booking two holidays for 2012 for a group of five we opted for inflight meals as we have allways done in the past.We were told that Thomson would no loger allow passengers to prebook inflight meals on short haul flights.We were traveling to Majorca and Lanzarotte.We were told that we would be able to purchase food on the plane.The trravel agent First choice which is part of the same group that thomson is part of had not been given any details of what would be on offer and the price and availability.We were advised to contact Thomson customer services.On telephoning Thomson customer services to ask for a menu,price list etc I was passed from one person to another then another.This went on for ages.In fact no one at Thomson knew what was being offered on their planes.I was absolutly astounded.I later checked out several reviews and found no end that gave what was being offered the thumbs down.No one likes changs and just because there were a lot of bad reviews did not mean that other people had not found what was on offer to be acceptable.We would be staying in Costa Teguise,Lanzarotte and knew that we would not arrive at our hotel untill after 9pm.The hotel could not confirm if any food would be available on our arrival and we knew that the local shops closed around 9pm.We decided to buy a meal deal from one of the outlets in departures and see what was on offer on the plane.If the offerings on the plane were not to our liking we would eat our meal deal.If the food on the plane was OK then we would eat on the plane and save our meal deal untill we arrived at our hotel.We were absolutly shocked to see shelf after shelf empty at all the outlets in departures.Meals and snacks were available but not to take out.I asked in a couple of outlets if any take away food was available and was told that the demand for meal deals and take aways had increased so much that they were unable to keep up with the demand.I was told that this had happened since "some of the airlines had stopped serving prebooked meals".We had no option but to buy on the plane.We found a menu and it offered Bacon Rolls,soup,chips,pizza and a few other bits and bobs.We opted for chips and a roll.Now we are not fussy eaters and have eaten in many different places,some good some not so good.I can honestly state that the chips were the worst that i have ever seen and tasted.Think worst of the worst of a motorway services and you will still be miles off.These chips were inedible.The bread roll was ok so we opted for soup.This came only just warm and full of lumps that were powder lumps due to it not being mixed properly.The cabin stank of grease and the cabin staff carried on regardless clearly embarrased with what they were expected to serve up.At that point we noticed a lot of people eating home made sandwiches.A gent sat next to me got a large carrier bag out of his bag and began handing round home made sandwiches to his party of about ten people.I asked him if it was OK to bring your own sanwiches as we had been told that we could only take on board food and drink that had been purchased from departures.He said that he was not prepared to eat what thomson had on offer and had "been caught out before with the ---- Thomson sell".In fact quite a lot of passengers were eating their own homemade sandwiches.On our return journey we were bused to the airport with a good two and a half hours to spare.What a sight greeted us.There were around ten checkins open but the problem was that there were no specific checkins for specific flights.This resulted in staff having to tell passengers to que jump in order that they were checked in to board there flight.The any checkin for any flight meant that some people near the front of the que were on later flights while people at the back of the que were on earlier flights.We eventually got checked in with minutes to spare.By the time we got through security we had to board straight away.There was no time to buy a take away as we had planned for the four hour trip home.We did not even have enough time for the toilet.Take off was then delayed due to what the pilot said was several runway changes.We were delayed further due to planes wanting to land.We eventually took off by now accepting that we would have to buy food on the plane.After about forty five minutes in the air it was announced that "Due to demand on the flight from the UK to Lanzarotte there is a shortage of food.Unfortunatly it is in very limited supply and some items are not available at all.There are no chips.I repeat there are no chips and there is only a very limited amout available of other items". This was discusting that thomson had not catered for both the outbound and inbound flights.Once again the cabin crew looked embarrased but carried on regardless.We ended up not eating at all.Again we saw many passengers eating packets of crisps,biscuits etc that they had purchased before check in.The plane we returned on was obviously a new plane but the seats were so small with virtually no leg room.Many people could not get the tray down fully due to the lack of room.The arm rest on the isle seats could not be raised on many of the seats.This made it extremly difficult to get in and out of the seats.Had there been a need for evacuation many passengers would have had a limited chance of getting out.There was no inflight entertainment and no film.If customers are clearing shelves of take away sanwiches etc in departures then to me they are not spending that money with Thomson.The other thing is that when inflight meals were prebooked Thomson knew what the demand would be and they could ensure that the meals were available not only on an outbound flight but also on the return.If this is the way that Thomson intend to treat its customers then they will end up as a budget airline that operates purely for profit without any consideration of its customers.Time will tell if Thomson do listen to customer feed back.I am not going to hold my breath.