Sorry to hear you are having problems. I know how important extra leg room is. My husband is 6'6" and we always book the premium cabin.

Thomas Cook, I'm sure, will have this covered in their T&C's. There is usually something in there that says that may change aircraft/airlines. I don't know what flight times/numbers they are wanting to switch you to but Monarch have a charter flight going out on 22 May showing premium seats available. This may not be the same flight as the one they are offering you though. Hopefully the agent will help to get something sorted for you.

I know how you are feeling, i am very tall and always upgrade to exit seats at a small premium or premium economy. I doubt very much that seating has all gone, why state 90 days before departure, when in fact you are not going until next May? Possibly they haven't even been released yet.
I on a personal note wouldn't fly with Monarch, been on them several times and each one its been a personal disaster, of course problems can arise from any airline, but Monarch do have their fair share. Its not as if florida is a short distance either, i would stick to your guns on this, obviously you had specific reasons why you booked with TC in the first place.

Good luck

Our Thomas Cook holiday flight to Goa in January has been changed from Thomas Cook flights to Monarch,and we did not book a holiday that flew Monarch on purpose!!!!
We still want our holiday but not at all happy about the seat pitch,When will Monarch wake up to what people want,other airlines seem to have managed it!! Paula

The reason Monarch do not reconfig their fleet to a long haul standard such as Thomas Cook and Thomson is for the following reasons:-

1) They do not have a large enough in-house operator to fill enough aircraft to warrant refitting the aircraft. You are just as likely to see their A330's going to Alicante as you are Goa. Thomas Cook & Thomson can guarantee customers to their own in house airlines hence refitting some aircraft for long haul flying.

2) Monarch are at the mercy of tour operators. Imagine if Thomson contracted them to do a load of long haul flying, they spend hundreds of thousands refitting an aircraft and then Thomson pull the plug. Monarch are left with a long haul config aircraft and no flights to use it for. In a high density layout it is much easier to sell to various different operators, therefore by removing loads of seats they would be seriously reducing the market for their aircraft.

3) Thomas Cook & Thomas are strictly inclusive tour operators. Monarch is actually 60% Scheduled flight only, with 40% being inclusive tour operators, of which only about 15% of the seats are sold by their own in house tour operators. Therefore the aircraft are quite often operating Monarch Scheduled flights which are only Europe/Canaries.

4) If Thomas Cook have contracted Monarch to do their Florida flying then it is Thomas Cook who are at fault. Monarch have simply sold seats on their aircraft at the request of Thomas Cook.

Monarch are a very different operation to the other operators, hence why they continue with a short haul seat pitch. IF Cosmos/Monarch Holidays were able to guarantee to fill enough of their aircraft for long haul flights then they would have done the upgrading of their A330's by now.

I hope this goes someway to explaining the difference between Monarch and the others, hence the difference in the specification of their aircraft.

Mark

I take your point Mark, but isn't it a bit chicken and egg? Like Millimeg, I avoid Monarch long haul like the plague and am prepared to pay more money to fly with someone else. If they were to upgrade their planes to a similar standard to First Choice for example, then I would be happy to use them as, I am sure, would many others who currently choose to use another carrier.

Surely they could have a mixture of long and short haul aircraft.

If you want to choose your carrier you need to book a scheduled flight i.e. British Airways. All tour operators using charter flights reserve the right to switch aircraft and airlines to allow for consolidation if flights not selling well. If booking a holiday with Thomas Cook you are booking the holiday with them and not a definite flight with Thomas Cook Airlines. Even if you book premium seating this can be cancelled if the aircraft is changed to an aircraft without premium seating.

Kind Regards
Stewart

As I say KatieP, Monarch's in-house operators are a fraction of the size of Thomas Cook & Thomson, they are not large enough to guarantee to fill the capacity. Most of Monarch's package holiday business comes from other companies, not their own.

Even before Thomas Cook & Thomson ugraded their fleet in the days when they had the same leg room as Monarch, Monarch could not fill an entire aircraft just based on the sales of Cosmos Holidays.

Maybe if they got a long term contract from an operator such as Thomas Cook or Thomson then they would upgrade their fleet. Unfortunately operators work season by season and so no operator is going to sign a long term contract, therefore Monarch are not in the same position as Thomas Cook or Thomson who are so big, they are able to guarantee to fill their own aircraft.

If Monarch did the same as Thomas Cook or Thomson have done and an operator approached them and said 'We want to hire your aircraft to fly to Spain for 6 months', Monarch would then say OK, its got 260 instead of the normal 360 but we still need to make the same amount of money as we would if it held 360, therefore we are going to have to charge you X amount per seat.

That customer would say forget it and approach another airline who can sell the seats to them cheaper.

If Thomas Cook and co. didn't contract Monarch to do some of their long haul flying then I very much doubt if Monarch would be in this market at all. Thomas Cook contract them knowing full well what the seat pitch is but business is business, Monarch are not going to say no, but on the same token, the level of business they get for this sort of flying does not warrant possibly losing short haul business as a result of having a long haul configured aircraft.

Beleive me, if Monarch were in a position to upgrade the aircraft they would but unfortunately it doesn't fit in with the majority of their flying programme.

Mark

Update - Thomas Cook will not budge. I have to accept the change or lose my deposit. To anyone buying a long haul package with Thomas Cook - you have been warned! What you book may not be what you get.

Want to know the best bit? Decided we would leave our accommodation booking with Thomas Cook so as not to lose our deposit and have gone hunting for separate flights to Florida. Found a flight that leaves Gatwick on the Friday (one day earlier) at 10.20 in the morning - for 4 of us it would be just over £1850, meaning we only have to pay an extra £100 in total for the holiday.

Guess which website we found these on - yep, flythomascook.com with Thomas Cook Airlines. Haha, you couldn't make it up. Am going to ring our local TC tomorrow to see if they will transfer us all onto that flight - what's the betting they will want an "admin fee". If so they can go swivel - will cancel everything bar the accommodation and book the rest ourselves.

Ironically, by trying to save themselves money, they will probably lose out on thousands from us - 9 flights plus car hire plus park tickets. Oh well - I'm still going to Florida! Woo-hoo!

I had the same letter regarding the change of flight from Thomas Cook to Monarch from Gatwick to Sanford Orlando on 5th June 2010. I phoned up the number on the enclosed letter and complained saying that it was not the holiday i booked. My son is also 6 ft 4 inches. To get extra legroom seats on Monarch was an extra £140. I told them that they could pay for the extra legroom seats or upgrade us to premium.
I got no joy on the phone in fact they were quite rude to me. I did say i would contact Watchdog . Low and behold today i recieved another letter from Thomas Cook telling me the Monarch flight on the Saturday was "Over Subscribed" due to an error in the reservation system.
I now have a Thomas Cook flight on Friday 4th June. At least it is now the holiday i originally booked. Though a day earlier. I hope this helps. I think the thing to do is just keep complaining. Hopefully they will give you what you want.

We are now all booked on the Thomas Cook flight on Friday 21 May - exactly the same as we originally booked, only a day earlier. I've had to pay over £200 extra for the privilege though! Anyway, it was the seat pitch that was most important.

This whole thing has left rather a sour taste in my mouth - there is no way I will be booking another holiday with Thomas Cook, ever! Let's hope that they don't change this flight as well - that would just about finish me off!

.....but you now have an extra night there!! and for only 200 quid extra for 9 of you is not bad at all!

or are you coming home a day early as well?

Sorry - I was unclear. Coming home a day earlier.

I have also had a thomas cook flight moved to Monarch!!! I have found out that whilst Saturday flights from London Gatwick flights have been transferred to Monarch and Thomas Cook say they are not flying they have instead introduced a Friday flight from London Gatwick which some of you have been transferred to for a fee!! I am currently fighting to get on the Thomas cook flight on the Friday ( A DAY EARLIER) as I to do not wish to fly Monarch long haul!! Thomas cook are playing at something as I work with people who have also had India flights transferred from T Cook to Monarch.
I would say this is Thomas Cook trying to maximise money!!!
I too will contact watch dog as should you all if you wish to fly in the seat pitch you choose and with the brand you choose. This is like purchasing the Tesco brand and getting the LIDYL brand ( no offence to anyone) merely highlighting you shop for what you want and expect to get what you have purchased.
For info were flying Thomas Cook 11-09-2010 got put onto Monarch 11-09-2010
Pushing for a FREE transfer to T Cook 10-09-2010 NOTE THIS FLIGHT NEVER FEATURED PRIOR TO SAT FLIGHTS BEING CANCELLED.

thomas cook have always flown to Sanford on fridays, for at least the last 3 years! so it did exist.

Thanks for this could not find a T Cook flight from Gatwick on a Fri when we looked at the time of booking. This still does not make being transferred to Monarch on the Sat any easier to swallow. Will still try to get on the T Cook flight on the Friday.