Thanks Darren & paulbos; tried phoning Thomson but got stuck in a queue of unknown length (on an 0844 number!) so I've emailed them.Will just have to wait.

brewerdave,
the baggage allowance depends on when you booked and the brochures that were being used at that time.
If you booked from the first edition of the summer 2011 brochures then the baggage allowance is 23kg.
This changed to 20kg when the second editions were published.
So, even though the website and current brochures do say 20kg, Thomson will automatically honour the baggage allowances valid on the day you made your booking.

Hope that helps.

brewerdave

Premium economy is still 23kg hold and 7kg hand luggage. I enquired about this myself a few months ago and got an email reply.

Changes will come into affect for all customers who book a holiday from 16th December 2010 departing after 1st May 2011. Bookings that have been made prior to this date will remain unaffected and the original allowance will be honoured. Customers who have booked Thomson and First Choice standard packages, including splash and kids club products will now receive a hold luggage allowance of 15kg. Customers who have booked Premier holidays with First Choice and Thomson will now receive a luggage allowance of 20kg rather then 23kg and for customers who have booked from our Small and Friendly, Gold, Holiday Villages, Thomson Families, Chic and Unique, Simply, Thomson Villas & Pools, Faraway Shores, Florida and Tropical products will all remain unaffected and will receive a 20kg complimentary allowance. For customers who book premium seating on their flight they will still be entitled to a luggage allowance of 23kg.

Approximately 4 hours before your departure time. There's no need to get to the airport early as seating is pre-allocated the day before.

A friend's hubby tried to pre-book seats last night for their Thomson trip to Cuba and the system showed that their seats had already been allocated and it would cost them £50 return to change them. They don't fly until the 21st July I've never heard of seats been allocated this far in advance. Does anybody know if this is standard now?

shirley
I think seats are automatically allocated. Not sure at what point in time though, but obviously more than 90 days before the flight, because then you can pick your own. They can be changed but the cost is £25 per person to select seats on longhaul, whether done at time of booking, or as an add on at a later date.

but if they've automatically allocated seats to everybody already, there won't be many seats left for people to buy

If they've only been allocated by Thomsons computer, and not paid for, you can swap your allocated seats for someone else's allocated seats. Only the one's that have been paid for can't be changed.
I always ring the airline to book my seat numbers. I know others who do it online and have already had seats allocated when they check the seating plan, so if they don't like them, they swap them. That is my understanding of it, but could be wrong.

OK so turning this on it's head then - if I look, and see I've been allocated tidy seats and hubby & I are sitting together, I could look again next week and be sitting elsewhere, because someone's paid for my original ones If that's the case, If I don't want to pay, I won't really know where I'm sitting until the day before

I had an email last week to say that the seat plan for my flight was now available (we fly 9th sept) when I went online the only seats available were 1 row 40 a,b,c or d,e,f.
I booked 40 e and f and am happy enough with those seats, BUT what is the point of paying for seats together and more to choose thae actual seats when in reality there is no choice?
There were no other seats available or at least I wasn't offered any other seats. all the other seats had a cross through meaning not available to book.
I don't mind in the least paying to sit together and to choose my seats but it's not really fair when you end up with no choice??

It certainly sounds like an odd system Denny! It wouldn't really bother me sitting apart for a short flight, but I'd want to sit with hubby for a long haul. It sems that the first come first serve system at the airport, has long gone.

If they've only been allocated by Thomsons computer, and not paid for, you can swap your allocated seats for someone else's allocated seats. Only the one's that have been paid for can't be changed.

Maybe my friend's hubby (a member here) will read this thread and clarify but according to his wife, he went on line to purchase seats last night and found out that they'd already been allocated seats- even gave their seat numbers and it said that if they wanted to change them it would cost them £25pp return. So they haven't bothered. I don't think they'll be too happy if somebody else purchases those seats they've been allocated and they'll end up somewhere else or even apart from each other.

We booked extra legroom seats on a recent holiday to Greece. When I got the email I went on line to find that we had been allocated seats - but I was free to swap with about 10 other ELR seats on the flight - only a couple were unavailable.
denny.53 - possibly to do with number of people booking in flight meals - row 40 is normally allocated to people who don't want meals?

shirley
They're not paying to change them, they are paying to select their preferred seats, thus being sure of sitting together. If you don't pay to select your seat numbers your final seats will be allocated the day before the flight. The computer does it on a best fit model taking into account seats already paid for, medical seating etc.

Helen
You are correct. If you don't pay you won't know until you get to check in.

Morning All, i am new to the forum so please be gentle!

I am flying with Tom to Sanford on the 18th August from Man in premium economy.

The last 2 flights (23/06 and 28/06) have both suffered seriuous delays 6 hrs and 4 hrs each. Also both ex FCA aircraft were substituted by ex TOM 767's.

Does anyone know the reg nos of the 2 ex TOM aircraft that have the premium economy cabin in, as i believe 4 are used on short / medium haul routes and 2 are long haul.

Also any reasons why the Sanford flight seems to be delayed more than the other long haul routes? or is just a question of TOM having to use 18 / 19 year old planes that should have been retired 2 years ago but weren't due to the delays of the 787.

Any informationand reassurance greatly received as beginning to wish i'd booked Virgin!

Jon

desk jockey,

Welcome onboard
There have been a few technical issues with aircraft that has caused delays, and knock-on effects to some flights. It happens unfortunately. The long haul ex-TOM 76W is G-OBYD (ops from BHX/GLA). The short haul are G-OBYE/F/G/H. Ex-FCA long haul 763's are G-OOAN/BL/BK/BM, G-PJLO and G-DBLA and operate from EMA, NCL, MAN, BRS and LGW. Delays happen for many reasons, not just technical problems and even brand new aircraft have technical problems. Aircraft are swapped as it's a case of a lengthy delay and lost holiday time with greater knock-on effects for later flights, or slightly less room on the aircraft. It's just bad luck it's happened to the SFB twice.

Darren

thanks for the explanation Sunaddict, I finally uinderstand how it works So I'd better let my friend know that unless she pays there's a chance that she won't end up with the seats they've already been allocated

Hi Darren

My friend is flying on a TOM118 from Manchester to Sanford on 4th August 2011 - could you please advise which plane it is. She is on row 21 and 22 - are these good seats?!

Thanks.

Thanks Darren for the update.

Re the recent tech issues with the SFB flights, do you have any details as to what the problems were, as seemingly both aircraft came in on time from their previous flights?

Just interested more than anything!

Jon

desk jockey,

I can't comment on specifics in those cases, but hydraulics have been their achilles heel.

Darren