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.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
They took £20 too much from my bank account for legroom seats for a flight in Feb 08and still haven’t refunded (june 2008) Even worse when you ring to complain it costs 10p a minute! Their customer servcies are hopeless but there is a simple solution - Don’t fly with them.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
My wife has just pointed out to me that although we booked extra leg room on our special holiday we cannot find reference to it on our booking details. There is an awful lot of abreviations such as MIT/LPA, 1 TWIN3 PB WC BL CS now why hand me a load of c**p like that? When I was in the navy I understood that S.N.O.W.I. meant Senior Naval Officer West Indies but I wouldnt expect a lathe turner from the west midlands to understand. When I booked the holiday with Thompson it was six months ahead. I would like to explain to my wife, ” Dont worry love, its with Thompson, everything will be alright on the day”.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I too have had the same problem on a flight form Doncaster to Rhodes.
We were allocated seats 12D & 12E - these were ordinary seats, with same the legroom as any other, but the window seat (12F) had been removed for access to emergency exit ie the extra room was at the side of our seats.
Have wrote 3 times to Thomson & been fobbed off - asked for confirmation had booked extra legroom, then for boarding passes, then told must have been in bulkhead seats which were correct (wasn’t). Have now written to ABTA in hope they will sort it out for me. Agree with previous posts, have paid for this service many times before - won’t part with £80 for nothing again.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Follow up …. TUI group (own Thompson) wrote a response to my statement that I was to initiate ABTA complaints … and stated they never sell ‘extra legroom seat’
Only ‘extra seats’ whcih may include bulkhead seats.
Unfortunately this was rubbish, as clearly stated on my booking form was the extras … which included “extra legroom seats”
I have therefore made a complaint to ABTA on false representation.
It took ABTA 9 weeks to respond to me, but at least I have a formal case reference with them now.
January 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
would like any updates on the cases listed. I had problems in May of 2008 - sat in seats 12b and 12c so similar to Caz. ABTA are refusing to investigate saying that we flew with Thomsonfly which is not registered and that the flights were subject to their conditions. However the flight confirmation clearly states that the contract is with TUI UK ltd which is registered and so I have gone back to them on this basis.
I know its only £40. but its the principle - Tui did not deliver in line with their contract.
I wonder how many others have been caught in this way
February 18th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Hi
No further forward - had same response as al from ABTA stating they do not deal with flights (even though flight was part of package holiday). Wrote several more times to Thomson, got same cut & paste fob off letter in reply - last response was an email acknowledgement from ‘aftertravel’ on 28/11/08 saying Customer Services dept has moved to Manchester & case had been sent there for reply. Not heard anthing since. Am thinking of contacting one of Consumer Rights columns in newspapers as am more annoyed with their refusal to accept complaint as valid, or even respond to any of points made than I was about charging for service I didn’t get!!
Let me know if you have any more luck
February 22nd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hi
This has really freaked me out as I am booked to go to Mexico in a few weeks time and we are in Row 2 A & B and have booked extra legroom seats. I will be ringing my travel agent tomorrow, so she can pay 10p a minute to check this out. I would also add that the same airline offer 23kg of luggage for passengers booking Premier holidays, but the tickets always state 20kg and then they charge you for excess baggage. Having paid up once, I always send the tickets back and insist on them being changed now, but they still try it on.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
I have written again to ABTA - twice- but they do not reply. They obviously do not want to get involved and it just makes it clear where their interest lies!. They stated in a previous reply that if I could show that my booking was with Thomson Holidays and not Thomsonfly they could look into the matter. My booking clearly shows my contract is with Tui uk ltd which is registered with ABTA and so I,m convinced they should investigate. The final option is to make a claim through the small claims court and this I,m prepared to do if necessary.
I would really like to know how many others have been caught in this way and particularly if anyone has successfully had their money returned.
May 12th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
yep, we,ve been mis-sold the seats too. Asked for ectra leg room (and this was printed on our invoice and booking forms) but it was just extra space. We couldnt put our legs out properly. They said write to customer services, which we did - came back and basically said couldnt help us as in their opinion they hadnt done anything wrong as the terms changed end dec 08 from extra leg room to extra space. We were not informed of this. They said get in touch with where you booked holiday. Shop tried to say write into customer services and still say you are not happy. I said to shop “no you do it !” Shop said we could have put a wheelchair in the space ! idiots - we wanted our leg room to stretch our legs. case on going