Anyone travelled With first choice recently

[bawden2]

Hi have anyone travelled with first choice recently. How did you find them. Was the seat pitch good, crew friendly, good food.
We have travelled Virgin which was great, Ba good flight, crew not so friendly and Airtours and never again. Nothing went right and they did nothing to help.

:simba: :simba: :simba: :simba: :simba: :simba: :simba: :simba:

[Save It]

I go with them on the 8th September from Manchester so i will let you know.:thumbs:

[xickle_loux]

Well i hope that it is good! We fly out on 10th Sept!:unsure:

[bawden2]

Thanks all. I am going 3rd Sep. Off to London on 2nd Sep. Have a good time all.

[Save It]

I booked with them on the basis of the below review; Have a great trip:thumbs:

"I had been looking forward to this flight since reading that they had refitted their fleet and brought some new planes, so here are my findings.

Stayed down at a Gatwick hotel overnight with the rest of the crew (off sailing around Caribbean),enjoying a couple of pre-trip drinks as normal. Up early next day for shuttle bus to north terminal, found check-in empty with hardly a queue for either Star Class or Premier, so once checked in straight through to the bar for breakfast and few drinks.

About 9.45am we ambled down to gate 46 for our FCA 92 flight. Anybody who has used this gate will realise that it is without doubt the furthest from the lounge, but the exercise was probably not a bad thing.

Boarding commenced at 10.00 with a call for all Premier class pax to board first (several y class were turned back), FCA obviously take their premium service seriously. The distance from the gate to the plane is probably the longest one in the airport as well. We were stopped just short of the plane as the security check had not been completed. Taking the time to chat with the agent who was waiting for the ok to load the pax, who informed us that they do 2 security sweeps of the plane, one immedietly after the incoming pax deboard and the other directly after the cleaners leave, all very reassuring.

Whilst standing waiting I heard on his 2-way radio that an incoming Delta flight 2 stands down had hit the airbridge with its engine as it pulled in. I expected at that point to be evacuated but it didn't happen. We waited for about 4-5 minutes and I was staring at the leather seats on the plane thinking that they hadn't changed much since my premier flight in December, that is, until I realised I was looking at the Y section of the plane, Wow!

Once boarded I found my seat (3c) had an amenity kit along with a blanket and pillow already on it. The pillow was slightly bigger than standard airline issue with a cutout along one of the long sides to fit around your neck. The amenity kit composed of a designer cardboard box which held the following; shoe horn (never seen this before on a plane), facial mist spray, toothbrush and paste, lip salve, tissues, pen and handcream.

Upon sitting down the FA was over with Champagne etc served in nice sized glasses, along with a fresh fruit salad composing red and green grapes and strawberries (nice touch). The plane was a 767 (the FA informed me about 6 weeks old) with a 2-3-2 seat configuration with 7 rows of 2 on the port side, 15 rows of 3 in the middle and 9 rows of 2 on the starboard side. If you take this particular plane starbord seats have about 2" more legroom than the rest. The cabin was full, 62 pax and was serviced by 3 toilets ( funny thing is on the return flight there was only one toilet for the same size cabin), one at the front, with the other 2 at the rear. Once in the air and the curtains pulled the FA,s were very quick to turn back the Y class pax from coming through to use them.

Anyway, back to the seats, which were very comfortable, noticably thicker/softer than both VA and BA's similar class. The tray tables were built into the arm rests and when in use I found they didn't push away from you far enough, maybe a diet would help. The screens were in the seat backs with contrast and brightness controls directly underneath. A hand set (similar to VA's) was in the seat back below the screen. My last premium economy trip with VA the controls were in the side of the armrest which I found to be a bit fiddly. During the flight no matter what position the seat back in front of me was in I had a perfect picture at all time. However, talking of the seat in front, when fully reclined I found it quite oppressive. My thoughts are that FCA have overcooked the amount of recline on their premium brand seats.

The IFE on offer is not V-port but is definately the next best I have used to date. There were 12 film, 12 music, 7 tv and 10 game channels all with rewind, fast forward options. A couple of the games I found interesting were the crossword puzzles ( I couldn't get anywhere near completing one) and "Who wants to be a millionaire". The latter a mate and myself played for about 90mins and we didn't get a repeat of any questions on either of our screens. Some of our crew were in the rear section of the plane and for them to watch any of the 4 best films or play the 4 most popular games they had to pay £5.00 direct to the cabin crew (well it is a charter airline so they gotta make it when they can I guess)

Pre take off the FA's (4 dedicated to the premium section, with an additional one helping before take off) came around with a selection of 6 quality magazines and headphones. The headphones were incredible! They measured approximately 100mm deep and 75mm across with superb padding around their perimeter, better than mine at home. This is the first ever flight I have been handed sound deadening phones of this quality (on my return flight I had a lady breast feeding a young one in the seat directly behind as I took my seat so I knew I was in for a sleepless night. I've got 2 kids of my own so although its a pain I can accept it. However, with the head phones on I can say that I don't know whether the baby cried or not, I never heard anything all the flight).

Take off was delayed 40 minutes with a projected flight time of 8 hours 40minutes. Once in the air you realize how quiet the front sections of the new 767's are.

Lunch menus were given out and drink orders taken immediately the seatbelt sign was off. The FA's brought the drinks out individually from the forward galley rather than use a trolley, upon asking, the senior FA said this method worked far better as they had 1 FA acting as barperson in the galley and the others acting as waiters. It was noticable in the front section that all the drinks were from full sized bottles.

The menu included all the food for the whole flight and read as follows;
TO START; fanned honey dew melon
THE SALAD; a crisp mixed leaf salad served with a balsamic dressing on the side
THE ENTREE; tender beef bonne femme, served with daupinoise potatoes, parisienne carrots and fresh broccoli florets OR chargrilled chicken breast smothered with an asparagus and champagne sauce, served with roasted potatoes and mediterranean vegitables OR penne pasta baked in a mediterranean cherry tomato and fete cheese sauce.
A LITTLE ON THE SIDE; a selection of fresh, warm breads with butter.
SWEET TEMPTATIONS; a mouth watering chocolate orange bombe.
TO ROUND IT OFF; Butlers mature cheese and crackers, your choice of freshly brewed tea or coffee and a final indulgence - Lily O'Briens chocolates.
A TREAT FOR THE MOVIE; vanilla napoli ice cream
AFTERNOON TEA; ham and plum tomato focaccia OR beef tomato and buffalo mozzarella focaccia, a cheese and onion brioche wedge, fresh grapes,a fruit scone with clotted cream and preserves, tea and coffee with shortbread biscuits.

There were 3 wines on offer; Havana Hof Chenin Blanc, Regenoak Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon and Cuvee Traditionalle 1415 Sparkling wine. I'm definately no wine buff but the red was fine and plentifull.

The tray the food came on was slightly under the width of the seat and some of the courses were brought individually from the galley as there was not enough room on the tray. All the food was served in or on china, with the cup being a full size mug with a handle you could actually put your fingers through. All in all the food was extremely filling and excellent. I had to keep reminding myself I was on a charter flight.

Lunch was served about 2 hours into the flight after a couple of rounds of drinks.

I took the opportunity to wander back to see our mates at the back of the plane and as I came through the curtains the FA hadn't seen me emerge but noticed me standing by the curtains as I searched for my mates. She took the trouble of crossing aisles to tell me I couldn't go into the premium section of the plane, as I mentioned earlier they seem to take this very serious. Found my friends and swopped seats for a short while, Well I did, he didn't as they wouldn't let him into the premium section incase he got free drinks. The seats in the Y section are very similar to VA's apart from the increased legroom.

On returning to the front I managed a bit of sleep with the rest of the flight being uneventfull.

After a smooth landing at Antigua it was good to see that the premium luggage was first out on the carosel and I managed to get out onto land side within 30minutes of landing. Oh how I dislike Antigua airport! Sadly couldn't see any signs of the new one being built perhaps I didn't look hard enough though.

Our mates who flew in the rear section of the plane were in total agreement that the flight was the best flight they had ever had.

I thought the flight was in total excellent, however, with that amount of leg room in the back I'm not sure whether I would pay the extra £350 to sit up front again."

[bawden2]

Thanks for a great repl. We are in the back as premier was full. It shouds good though.
:wiggle:

[Catherine]

Save it, sounds wonderful, we are flying First Choice next yeat to the Dominican in the Premium cabin, the write up sounds great.

[dizzzy]

Wow that flight sounds nice. We're going to florida next may with first choice and are going in premier seats. I can't wait now.

[Hall Family]

Hi,
Just a quick reply as I got back from Florida this morning, we aslo flew Premier and yes it was definatly worth it. The seats were comfortable abd spacious (though I'm a size 14-16 and didn't have alot of room either side so if your much bigger you may find that the fact the armrests don't move uncomfortable, I know this is a problem on many airlines but just worth mentioning).
The meal I can't complain about, it was fabulous, there was plenty, my daughter was offered a child's meal there and back even though not book, to be honest when they brought out the second meal / snack I wasn't in the slightest bit hungry.
The films were good though waiting for them to start particuly on the way home took forever (nearly an hour on the way home). I did find it frustrating that the television programs didn't change as I'd seen them all on the way out.
The drinks I have to say depends on the crew, on the way out my glass was continually topped up and no problem (to the extent I was worried I'd be too tipsy to get off the plane but they did slow down and did seem to be taking not of how people were holding thier drink) on the way home they didn't seem to want to give you a drink, we ordered our first drink which came after about 30 mins then got a small glass of wine with the meal and no more offered, on a seperate note I also found if you pressed the call button it was ignored so you couldn't even request more.
The staff on the way out were fabulous and made everyone feel special, on the way home I have to say the passengers were almost made to feel we were in the way of them running the aircraft, I understand there are jobs and security / saftey things that have to be carried out but as we first started decent my daughter was in agony with her ears, she had been bunged up all the way over and I'd tried to give her a Sudofed about an hour before landing to loosen everything but she couldn't swallow it, anyway she was in tears and obviously in pain, I pressed the call bell and was ignored, I aslo tried catching peoples attention but they just ignored us, eventually I got some help to be told that the first aid box is in the back of the plane and they had to take thier seats but I should of asked earlier!!! Trust me I tried. Thankfully the decent after the first steep down seemed to be quite slow so it wasn't as painful as it could of been but I was not impressed.
Anyway after my winge we were first on and off the aircraft and our baggage was very quick so that was excellent.
The last small complaint I have is on the way out we were front row in the middle and I'm sure half the aircraft cut though in front of us rather than through the galley (the crew did ask people to go through the galley but then when they took thier breaks the curtain was closed so back over us it was.
I probably haven't given this as good a review as I planned, overall I must say I was very impressed with the new aircaft, the selection and the service, unfortunatly like most things it does depend on the crew and as I say on the way out they were wonderful, I would use First Choice again and I would fly Premier.

[dizzzy]

Hi
Hope you enjoyed your holiday. I'm pleased to read that would use first choice again (I'm going with them next year). It's a shame that the staff weren't very good on the flight on the way home. I suppose it just goes to show that the plane might be very good but you need the right staff to go with it.

[bawden2]

Hi we are back from the magic.
First choice were great. Plenty of leg room and the food was good, although on our return flight we had to wait 3 hours before we were fed. A long time for children but my only complaint. We were in star class and it was fine. You could upgrade to all movies for an extra £5. We did not bother as there was enough to watch.
My daughter has special needs and they were excellent with her. They allowed her to have her seat reclined for take off and landing and also through turbulance.
I would fly with them again.
:hehe: