koral blue airlines

[MaxedOutMan]

Having read these reviews, I felt compelled to comment and add my views.

Firstly, I work within the aviation industry, I know a fair bit about aircraft, rules, regs, policies, etc. Secondly, I have just flown to and from Egypt with Koral Blue (although booked through Thomas Cook).

The aircraft that Koral Blue use, an Airbus A320-200, reg SU-KBA, is 9 years old. This is fairly new compared to other airlines - some of Thomas Cook's and Monarch's A320's are 15 years old. The CAA would not allow any aircraft deemed unsafe to land in Europe, as has been proven in the past with certain airlines being banned from European airspace. OK, the aircraft may be a bit shabby, but this sole aircraft flies all round Europe all week - the UK, France, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland. Tour Operators will not contract with a company that flies unsafe aircraft - one 'incident' would be enough to ruin them! Furthermore, no experienced pilot (and I can assure you the pilots in Koral Blue are very, very experienced) will sign for an aircraft that is a deathtrap - like every person, he wants to go home to his wife and kids every night!

Ok, no duty free, but there's shops at the airport. No alcohol on board, well can't you do without this for 5 hours? No entertainment, again good point, but how many times have you got on a charter aircraft and had problems with the entertainment system not working? My kids were happy with their Nintendo DS's for the flight, I was happy with my PSP. Make your own entertainment!

And the service, well I'm not going to fault it at all. As soon as we had climbed out of Bristol, the attendants were up and about the cabin, chatty and helpful, getting pillows and blankets, serving drinks (more than one each) and meals. I was even having a chat with a couple of the crew, and they were apologising to me as their English wasn't very good and they were embarrassed - I apologised to them as my Arabic was non-existant and I should be the one embarrassed. When we arrived at Sharm (a very good flight followed by a smooth landing), the captain stood outside the ****** saying 'goodbye, have a good holiday' to everyone. Our flight back was just as good, in fact the service was better, with drinks being offered as requested. And although the landing was slightly rough, it was only expected with the weather conditions outside.

I'm sorry to rant, but what some people need to remember, to have a first class service, you need to pay first class prices! If you want great service, pay the extra and fly with BA (via Cairo of course)! If you expect this with Thomas Cook, then you are very mistaken. And to look at an aircraft's interior and have a quick smell and say it is dangerous and shouldn't be flying, well I'm not going to say what I think of those kind of people on this review!

In the past Koral Blue may have been somewhat questionable service-wise, but my guess is someone has given them a kick up the backside and they now provide a good service to the passengers. Also provide free meals (£15 each on a Thomas Cook aircraft) and 20kg luggage (an extra £15 on a Thomas Cook aircraft). Would I fly them again - Yes. Would I recommend them - Yes.

[cojo]

So any ideas how i can get my money back from thomas cook for the extra i paid in meals and baggage allowance that all passengers got as standard ????!!!

thomas cook wont pay because when i booked it was a thomas cook flight , it was them that changed us to the airline , i just want my £142.50 back !!

any advice please

[leisurelad]

To be honest, any decent company would look at the matter and say "ok, why has he paid when everyone got it for free", although they may say that as per their terms and conditions the reserve the right to change aircraft and airlines without prior notice.

Depends how they want to play it but any decent company i would of thought would have refunded you for this. Can only write in and complain as its not just £20 your talking here, its quite a bit.

[cojo]

thanks but i have written to thomas cook and they dont want to know ,they are denying everyone got a meal on the plane even though i have provided a letter from the cabin crew (how sad am i) stating everyone on flight had one.i have also provided seat numbers of a couple who said on the flight they had not paid for a meal.

thomas cook have had my money and i think i can now say goodbye to it . theyre not bothered.it annoys me to think if they did this to every adult passenger at £30 a head when a meal and extra baggage allowance is included anyway they are on a good money making scheme.

thanks anyway

[isawlashings]

Take 'em to Small Claims Court. TO's will often drag their heels hoping you give up and go away. A bit of legal should soon have an effect!

[amber123]

OK MaxedOutMan. Firstly, if I pay peanuts prices (which I did) I do NOT expect a first class flight. I do, however, expect a safe flight. My brother has also spent time in the aviation industry but even so it does not take a mastermind to realise that the ****** door should NOT be open. Ever heard of 9/11? The CAA may not allow unsafe planes to fly but I didn't notice a CAA inspector sat on my plan to check! Or do thay check every single plane in every single airport before it leaves? I wouldn't have said I'm a nervous flyer but I do like to know that I can use all the safety measures on board. It may be that different cabin crew and planes are assigned to different flights and you were particularly lucky but all I can tell you is what happened on our flight. I expected it to be a crappy plane - like I say, we paid peanuts - and the no alcohol, duty free, entertainment is not the end of the world but my point is that I did not expect it to be dangerous. Taped up oxygen masks, broken seats, so little pitch that you cannot reach life jackets? I'll never fly again if, as someone who's worked in aviation, you think this is safe. As for Thomas Cook - good luck trying to get any money out of them. They have not even acknowledged receipt of my letter, completely in violation of the ABTA code so the chance of any money is remote. I did also flag up with them the cost of inflight meals etc but they said you only got them if you paid for them blah blah blah. Utter crap! My advice? Stay away from Thomas Cook and if you see a Koral Blue plane, run like hell!