This post is more about how stupid policies as a merchant can lose you far more than what you think, bascially ThomsonFly are going to lose around £20,000 over the next few years due to not refunding me £40 for something I didn’t get, So if you are a merchant you may want to have a rethink about your policies and complaint handling system, £40 may not actually be £40 in the long run !
I booked a fantastic week in the Ritz Carlton in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt with Thomas Cook, the flight was with ThomsonFly out of Doncaster, I booked an extra legroom seat on the way out and got a fine seat with plenty of extra legroom.
I couldn’t book seats both ways for some reason so was told to book the return extra legroom a few days before the flight back or sort it in the airport. I took the latter option and when I checked in I asked to upgrade and was passed over to a very polite Egyptian guy who sorted me out two extra legroom seats for £20 each, he wrote me a receipt for £40 and off we went.
I was somewhat confused when I was shown to row 2 seats E and F, row 2 on this particular plane was directly in front of the bulkhead and offered less legroom than a normal seat would have as you can’t even put you legs out in front under the seat and the bulkhead is literally about 5 inches from the end of your knees when seated (and my legs are short at that so 
it may be even less for the vertically gifted).
I complained immediately as I didn’t relish the thought of 6.5 hours with my feet tucked up my butt, especially so when I’d paid £40 for the pleasure of EXTRA legroom and was lumbered with LESS legroom, I’ve since had two replies to my three letters, all very politely say the same thing along the lines of “no cash, book again lets show you how good we are” so I wrote saying I’d be happy with a £40 cheque, a voucher off another flight (no daft conditions) or two free extra legroom (non bulkhead) upgrades.
To date I’ve written three letters of complaint only to find that whilst ThomsonFly “appreciate, understand and empathise” with my dissatisfaction they do maintain there is no case to answer to, their seating policy may allocate bulkhead seats as extra legroom seats despite the fact that to anyone but a dwarf they are clearly not.
I’ve written with my polite but firm business head on asking them how they expect me to keep using them when they clearly don’t value my comfort or custom, I travel with them about 4-5 times per year at present and envisaged that to be the same for the next 10 or so years. This would add up to around £15,000 to £25,000 in ticket sales over that period as I’m not always travelling alone and the average ticket price to where I fly is around £150 to £275 each depending on the time of year.
I’ve also pointed out that I will not give my custom and tens of thousands of pounds to a company that doesn’t value me enough to give me a £40 voucher, upgrade or refund when I feel I have a genuine issue that needs sorting, that being I paid for something I simply did not get, regardless of their “seating policy” I asked for, paid for and was sold an “extra legroom seat” even my receipt says “extra legroom seat” on it yet I spent 6.5 hours with my calves wedged at 90 degrees to my thighs with less legroom than a normal seat would offer.
Sounds like a case for trading standards to me, I really don’t see how they can sell a seat as extra legroom yet you may end up with less !
January 9th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
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March 31st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
how did you get on with this? … I just had exactly the same on a Thomson Flight to Mexico .. paid £140 for the extra legroom and had much less room than standard seats.
So far they have refused any claim .. saying that they were extra legroom, when plainly they were only extra kneeroom, and actually reduced leg room.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Hi Rick
I hit a brick wall with them, the didn’t even bother to reply to my last letter of complaint, seems the PR machine only plays ball when it’s good news for them.
Annoying thing is my complaint was for £40 and I’m miffed at the way they handled it, the amount is immaterial to me really but then again if I’d paid £140 and been fobbed off I’d now have paid a farmer to have a 40 foot billboard in his field on the way into the airport or something saying just how much the thomson extra leg room policy sucks, wouldn’t care if it cost £100 per month long as every thomsonfly customer had to drive past it and think “what’s that about.. hmm I don’t think I’ll book extra leg room”
I still find it hard to believe the way they have behaved over this, it’s not a money thing, it’s a not getting what you’ve paid for thing, certain seats are not suitable for classification as extra legroom yet have been, I don’t really care how much extra I have to pay for some services but if I choose to pay ifor them I should get what I pay for, in fact I happily fly and pay first class fares on Virgin to America, China and Dubai and I do so regularly, I’ve probably spent £10k in first class fares in the last 12 months yet I got what I paid for and was very happy with it.. so you ‘d think that thomsonfly would look after those few customers that will pay for enhanced services like this yet they have the complaint and customer service handling skills of a back street dodgy trader.
They seem to be obsessed with this attitude of it being an extra legroom seat just because some feckless unnamed chimp has classified seats as extra legroom even when mathematically it offers no extra leg room whatsoever.
hey ho.. I hope is that this blog post ranks high enough to cost them far more than my £40 and your £140 in lost extra legroom sales and in doing so gives them a nudge in the right direction for refunds and a revised leg room policy.
I would love to hear from anyone else that has been stiffed (litterally) like Rick and I have been, I’m sure there are far more out there who have been and will not fly with or at least book extra legroom seats again, the ball is in their court I guess although going on my experience so far I have little faith in their PR and marketing departments so don’t forsee any positive action in the near future..
the word feckless springs to mind when I hear thomsonfly now!
April 11th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
On a recent flight (March 2008) from Luxor to Manchester I purchased extra leg room sets.
I too was shown to row 2 seats E and F, row 2 on this plane was directly in front of the bulkhead and offered less legroom than a normal seat would have as you can’t even put you legs out in front under the seat and the bulkhead is literally about 5 inches from the end of your knees when seated
I complained to the cabin staff who agreed with me but said they could do nothing, they didn’t know of any complaints procedure.
I therefore complained to Thomsonfly by letter and email and basically they didn’t want to know, after numerous letters and emails ther final outcome was
“Whilst I appreciate your comments, I can only reiterate that the seats you purchased were extra space seats and as you received what you purchased I cannot issue a refund on this occasion.
I can only advise you that if you still remain unhappy with this outcome to now seek third party advice.
I am sorry we have not come to the outcome you would have hoped for”.
In other words they dont give a stuff.
Basically Thomson fly take your money and thats all they want customer relations just do not exist.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:22 am
I just received another letter from Thompson … saying much the same …
I have now asked them for formal ABTA complaints procedure …
I purchased extra legroom seat, I had restricted legroom seats supplied .. therefore they did not supply me with what they had contracted to.
Wish I could get access to the plane to measure the difference in seats so I could use this in my case.