flythomascook has just gone straight to the top of my most useless airline
list, and we haven't even been on the flight yet! We wanted to reserve seats
and order a veggie meal. You can reserve seats online, and on the extras
page there is a meals section. Trouble is, it doesn't link to anything, so
we spent 30 minutes waiting on the phone to be eventually told that even
though we had a booking reference, the request would have to be made by our
travel agent.

Next, we asked about the baggage allowance for diving equipment. No problem,
they said, but it would have to be in a separate bag, because otherwise
passengers might lie about what they are carrying! When I pointed out that
every other airline I've ever flown with has accepted a PADI card as proof
of the entitlement and that the weight of an extra bag would use up half the
additional allowance, I was told "if you don't like it then don't take your
diving equipment". Fair enough. I don't like it, so I will be careful in
future not to book with any operator that uses this airline, and I'll get
this information published wherever I can to warn other people to not use
them as well.

To end the story, my travel agent phoned to say that he had made two failed
attempts to contact them by email, then had to wait 45 minutes on the phone
before getting to speak to someone. So that's an hour and a quarter in
total, just waiting to make one simple meal arrangement. You really can't
treat your customers like this and hope to stay in business. I can't wait
for the flight.