Thomas Cook expands at Newcastle

Thomas Cook will base a fourth aircraft at Newcastle International Airport next summer.

The introduction of the aircraft means that Thomas Cook has reintroduced flights to Bourgas in Bulgaria.

Extra weekly flights will also operate to other holiday destinations such as Paphos, Larnaca, Dalaman, Izmir, Mahon, Ibiza, Palma and Tenerife.

The new aircraft will offer around 70,000 extra seats throughout the summer season, taking the total number of seats available for holidaymakers to around 300,000.

Ian Derbyshire, chief executive officer at Thomas Cook UK & Ireland, said: "This underlines our commitment to the North East and to Newcastle International Airport.

"We are particularly pleased to have made this happen on the back of the problems caused by the recession and the ash cloud crisis. The region has always been strong for us and we see that continuing in the future."

With permission from Travelmole

Gower,

Thanks, I've looked at the tickets and it says B763 for the TCX754k flight, is this a 767?

Phil

Hi

Seems like Thomas Cook need to get their customer service sorted. Booked to LAS (TCX043K and L) from manchester with Direct Holidays. Told couldn't book seats online but managed to do so immediately after booking, although Thomas Cook double charged me for it which they refunded after a long wait to get through on the telephone - their lines are permanently busy.

Received tickets this week which said the seats we had booked were not able to be booked. Rang the airline and was told yes they can be booked even though it says on the seat plan on the ticket that you can't, and they confirmed that we are booked on those seats.

Also noticed i had a diabetic meal booked on the outbound journey but not the return. customer service said not to worry as you cannot book a special meal just one way.

Just hope the flight on Oct 13 is OK!!

Perhaps we will stick to Thomson in the future as we have in the past

Chilton,

The B763 is indeed the Boeing 767-300 Aircraft

Gower

Hi all, I booked a holiday with Direct Holidays who are part of the Thomas Cook group. I have been trying to book "your seat, your choice" online but as it's a DH ref number Thomas Cook website doesn't recognize it. Anyone know how to do this? Don't really want to phone their premium rate number as last time I was on hold for ages.

You need to go to the Thomas cook airlines website sharon not the TC one

http://www.thomascookairlines.co.uk/ click on the on line check box

I did that Lyn but it won't accept my booking reference for some reason. I will give it another go but I have been trying for days.

hmm that's odd . My booking was with Direct too and it worked fine . have you tried http://www.saynoto0870.com for an alternative number.

No, if I can't get on there by tomorrow hubbie is going to ring them from work or on his work mobile. This is a nuisance because it means we can't check in online either now. Anyone else had this problem?

Trouble with phoning them is you can't see the layout of the plane .Is it an eight digit ref number sharon . Do you have your tickets .If so is the ref number the same .
Might sound silly but have you tried doing it from another computer .

Yes it's an eight digit number which I have checked against the tickets. I can log in to DH site no problem, it's the TC website that won't recognize the ref number. It says on invoice I can check in online from Monday, I am now wondering if maybe TC won't have our details until then? Oh well, it's their loss as I was going to pay for seat choice. Very frustrating, I am sure I can't be the only one experiencing this problem though.

hi,

i booked a direct holidays package through thomas cook and when i had to go online for ysyc with thomas cook airlines, the reference i had to put in started with an X and ended with a T, with 6 digits inbetween: X......T. i had to go onto thomas cook chat and ask them for the reference.

hope this helps!

Thanks for your help Lyn. I was about to give up when I decided to try the flight number(even though it asked for booking reference) anyway, it worked! Seats sorted, just the online check in to do on Monday now. Wish me luck, TC site is not the easiest. My surname is hyphernated and it wouldn't accept that either. They really ought to change the booking reference request to flight number, lots of people use DH and would have a completely different ref number to TC. Thanks cagzy, they don't make it easy do they? It is the same company, you would think they would recognize the ref number.

no they don't!!

wonder if anybody can help please?

i've got my 1 piece of hand luggage, it's within the required dimensions and weight, but is stuffed full, so if i buy anything in the airport after security, will i be able to carry my hand luggage plus a carrier bag?

thanks!

tcx618l
went tech on alicante runway tuesday 21/9/2010, plane was fully loaded with pax and luggage from 1030am till take-off at approx 14.35pm, one cup of water offered, then given a complimentary drink at 15-35pm five hrs after boarding.
said they had paper work issues, after fault was fixed, but no-one too sign it off?
question,
why didnt they just take off pax back too terminal? thought it was wrong too keep people on aircraft, just my opinion, thanks.

kopite,

From what I know the problem was fixed fairly quickly, however the engineer's based in Alicante (Monarch & Jet2) didn't have the authority to release the aircraft. It took a few phonecalls between TC & Monarch & the engineer in ALC to sort it all out and eventually Monarch gave their engineer authority to sign the papers.

In a situation like this, you could offload all 333 pax to the terminal, then board them again, however, it seems that they were just waiting for the phonecall to give them the OK which could have happened at any time. I'd guess just under an hour to get everybody off (and do a security search) and boarded again after they go wondering about in the terminal. Unfortunatly it just took a bit longer than they thought.

If it were Ryanair however you'd have received no water, and no complimentary drink!

Hope that answers your question.

flyboy543 wrote:

kopite,

From what I know the problem was fixed fairly quickly, however the engineer's based in Alicante (Monarch & Jet2) didn't have the authority to release the aircraft. It took a few phonecalls between TC & Monarch & the engineer in ALC to sort it all out and eventually Monarch gave their engineer authority to sign the papers.

In a situation like this, you could offload all 333 pax to the terminal, then board them again, however, it seems that they were just waiting for the phonecall to give them the OK which could have happened at any time. I'd guess just under an hour to get everybody off (and do a security search) and boarded again after they go wondering about in the terminal. Unfortunatly it just took a bit longer than they thought.

If it were Ryanair however you'd have received no water, and no complimentary drink!

Hope that answers your question.

thanks for reply, but disagree over boarding timing, as you know, security isnt required when going back too the gate? weve already passed that stage? i think its more to do with incuring "charges" ie stairs & buses. 4hrs on the runway, when your 40 mtrs from a terminals facilities is a joke. took people for granted on this flight and money was a part of it. just my opinion.

We are flying to Goa on flight TCX049K going out and TCX049L return. I am looking to book seats, so could anyone tell me whether seats 11J and 12A actually have a window? Thanks

Hi can anyone help me?, we are flying from Gatwick on 3rd Dec 2010 to Barbados on T/Cook TCX35, as I am 6 foot 3, we have paid for premium economy hoping to get some leg room for this trip, but I cannot get any info on the aircraft type or even work out where I am sitting (5h & 5j) anyone help me on this please ?
cheers
alec