Virgin vs Travel City Direct

I am looking at booking a holiday to Orlando next year and up until now have always gone with Virgin Holidays flying Virgin Atlantic. However, I have discovered another company, Travel City Direct which are a lot lot cheaper. For around £350 return you can upgrade your flight to ‘Sunshine First’ which gives you the following:

50” seat pitch
• Late Check-in at your UK Departure Airport (up to 90 Minutes
before departure)
• Priority Check-in and Boarding
• Priority Baggage Claim
• FREE Pre-booked Seats
• 40 Kilo luggage Allowance
• Welcome Aboard Drink
• Upgraded Meal Service offering a choice of Meals
• Personal TV Screen with a wider choice of In-flight Entertainment
• FREE In-Flight Drinks (Excluding Champagne)
• FREE In-Flight Headsets
• Dedicated Cabin Crew

Normally fly Premium Economy but with all the above and the huge difference in the whole cost of the holiday, I am very tempted to book with Travel City Direct.

Anyone have any experience of this company or any reasons why I should continue sticking with Virgin?

Comments much appreciated!

Never heard of them before - but thats not to say they are not a decent compnay and they are showing ATOl membership!!

I guess on this route there is lots of choice - there are a number of charter and scheduled airlines which fly to Orlando - I have often looked at a "premium" charter service - but I guess it comes down to personal choice and what you want.

On a -relatively small- number of points I would raise the following:

1. It flys to Sanford which is further out then Orlando's Main international airport

2. They only have 1 plane on the route so reliability may be an issue?

3. Theres no frequent mileage schem which is useful if you use a particular airline to fly elsewhere

4. The flight times are a bit late for both out and back!!

5. Probably one of the key reasons for most of us on this board - it aint Virgin and wont have Virgin service!!!!!

I have just run a costing comparing TCD and Virgin Holidays and because I am a frequent Virgin I get pretty much the same price for a 2 week holiday staying at Disneys Carribbean Beach - and the above points now swing me strongly towards Virgin.

Its also interestsing that the TCD doesnt include Ultimate Hopper passesat the Carribbean Beach

But hey - its a free world and you pays your money and makes your choice!!!

And OK - I am biased too!!!

[Nottingham Nick]

Mark has summed it up pretty well.

There has been several mentions recently on the competition VS are facing on the B&S runs from charter companies. Especially from northern / midland airports.

The main arguments for me are - I don't want to fly to Sanford. The Flying Club and the fact that I like VS.

If anyone travels with a charter company in these new cabins, I would be interested to hear about it. My only experience of charter to Fla from MAN, is one I wouldn't like to repeat, so I would take some convincing.

Nick

[buns]

Not actually used them myself, but they are agresively marketing thier offers both on TV (Teletext Travel TV)and in the papers.

I think they are going for the VH market share and no doubt will attract those who have not travelled to Florida before or may be unhappy with VH.

All I would say is that the number of posts on the forum about the 747-200s out of MAN would give me a clear indication that the newer LGW fleet and VS service gives VH the edge.

Buns

TCD I like, never travelled on them, but, they have one advantage for me:

they're gonna be operating the first 747 in regular service at NCL.

However, if virgin get rid of the MAN 742s, (or move them to regional airports) then virgin will have the upper hand on the B&S (strange name to be calling the orlando route, no beaches near orlando) route. fewer tech delays, better IFE, increased capacity.

All I would say is that the number of posts on the forum about the 747-200s out of MAN would give me a clear indication that the newer LGW fleet and VS service gives VH the edge.


they have the upper hand in the south, but in the north, where there are a lot of people still, they are on a pretty equal footing.

In the north, people have a wide variety to travel on:

Thomas Cook
Monarch
My Travel
Britannia
First Choice
TCD
VS

TCX, MON and MYT have got A332s on the route: modern, pleasant, decent IFE. First choice and britannia have half decent IFE (roof screens, this might have changed) failry modern 763/2s.
TCD and VS are both using pretty damn old 742s, delays quite often and the IFE is at best, unreliable, but decent when working.

VS flies to MCO, which is closer to kissimee and disneyworld, while the rest fly to SFB, which gets you out of he airport much quicker.

now, which would you rather fly? me: TCX/MON

If you do a search on a number of the Florida Travel sites people are not impressed with Sunshine First - use very old planes, think ex BA that break down, no personal screens and long delays. Try this for a trip review http://www.top-forums.com/forum/showthr ... ravel+city

I've travelled both Virgin and TCD and without a doubt prefer the Virgin service. Whilst the MAN plane is a bit old and the IFE can sometime go a little wonky the overall service is why I would trather travel with VS over a charter flight.

On other forums people have complained of being downgraded from Sunshine First to economy or they have changed the flight times at short notice. I have a mate who was booked with TCD from NCL and he got a call last week to say his flight had been cancelled as the flight wasn't full. - You wouldn't get that from Virgin!

I too have read a number of topics on TCD on other forums and as mentioned above their aircraft are very 'tiered' to say the least.

Last year their own airline went bankrupt and they now lease (I think I'm right on this one), from Excel Airways and Air Atlanta.

For the prices that they charge you have to look at the service that you are getting for the money you have paid.

Myself, I would stick with what I know and know what I am getting!!

I have only once flown in to Sanford, and I would prefer MCO over that anytime.

Matt

I flew with TCD at Easter this year. My son (lucky b****r)flew VS because he was only going to FL for 8 days mid-week.

I paid the £350 upgrade for sunshine first. In neither direction did any of the priority boarding, disembarkation or baggage off-loading. TCD were not at all interested in the failure of their ground handling when I complained. The flight itself is a wet lease from Air Atlanta.

I further booked with TCD sunshine first to LAS for September this year. We got a letter out of the blue stating that they were consolidating the flight to now go via MAN (so no longer a direct flight) and that we were now travelling economy. No apology, just a reduce invoice removing the sunshine first upgrade supplement. Needless to say, they were told to stuff it and I splashed out on VS UC to SFO for the same dates. Trouble is I probably won't want to fly down the back again!

BTW, TCD only allow you to upgrade to sunshine first if you are booking either or both od accommodation or car hire through them.

I will never touch TCD again, which is a pity as the flights themselves were quite enjoyable in sunshine first.

I have flown with TCD in the years when I was still a Virgin Virgin![:I]
(sorry but I was a student;))
They didn't have their own planes back then (I believe this is a fairly recent thing!)

in the past I flew on charters like britania (though TCD)
TCD are big volume sellers they were one of the early Teletext Advertisers and are a good choice for a last minute option as I've flown with them for <£150 inc tax.

TCD will always win on price so if you do choose them it will be interesting to compare with scheduled services.

Definately check the IFE status as florida is a long flight!

Cant comment on the new company. There was another company operating a 747 from MAN who I believe went under. This plane was a lot older than the two VS 747 200's based at MAN and was a wreck compared to the Virgin Plane. I recommend that you do some digging to try and find out if this is the same plane. Whilst on the thread i flew MYtravel premair gold to Jamaica (NO VS available) and the cabin / service / food was excellent and better than PE on the MAN flights.


Paul

TCD's TF-ABP is only 24 years old and was once used to serve VS, as was the sistership -ABA

According to jetphotos.net:
Registration: TF-ABP
Operator (Owner): AIR ATLANTA ICELAND (API 1045 LTD)
Delivery Date: 1973-10-16

that makes her 30

bloody airliners.net

said it was delivered in 1980 to CX.

I have just spoken to a member of my staff who travelled with TCD on the old 747 (then I lbelieved operated by EAL). She said would not fly again not seat back IFE and plane old & tatty. I suspect that although EAl has gone bust that the same planes are being used. There are a couple of old plain white 747 200 at MAN and they certainly dont inspire from the outside.

a friend of mine traveled tcd last year and would go again tomorrow said it was great all round

i have traveled chsrter in 2001 with thompson /britania in their upgraded cabin and was happy with it found it better than vs ecconomy and cheaper than vs pe

steve

Thanks for all your replies

I have taken the view you get what you pay for! so have booked with Virgin.

I read a while ago on another post that Virgin are making changes to their flights at the end of the year to PE and economy which will put them ahead again of the competition, any news on this?

My sister has booked through TCD a couple of times over the years and hasn't been overimpressed, but you get what you pay for, besides she's never flown VS so has nothing decent to compare it to!
These flights were indeed operated by EAL 742's before they ceased ops. and are now, as already stated operated using Air Atlanta 742's.

[HighFlyer]

Check out http://www.thedibb.co.uk and search for 'TCD' in their forum. There are plenty of first hand experiences to read about, some fair but many non-favourable.

TCDs main route is Orlando (my cousin is booked with them next year) but i wouldnt touch them with a barge-pole. You may get the seat (if they domt downgrade you without telling you first) but the service is a real hit and miss. Somtims its great and other times its a nightmare. The main thing i hear with them is that they change pax bookings without notification a lot.

Incidentally, my cousin could have got his trip with V Hols and it would have been a damn sight cheaper too, so all in all they are not really that much better in terms of price beating.

For me, i prefer the security and proffesionalism that an experienced carrier brings. I no longer fly charter anywhere as they pale in comparison. Even on an hours flight to Europe i will choose BA, AF, etc because at least if there is an issue they know how to deal with it.

Just my $0.02 ...

I'd say some charters have a lot of experience, Britannia and monarch have been around since the days of BOAC. Although monarch is not strictly a charter airline as it's half scheduled.

other charters, like first choice and my travel have been around for a few years, although under different names. They're pretty experienced.

Then you have the newcomers, like Thomas Cook and TCD. TCX have more experience in my view, TCD seems like one of these operators that serves the small travel agent chains, take your money and run sort of thing.

Also, charter airlines run a very tight ship, with no hub system, it's all point to point, which the customers like as they fly from local airports, however if something goes wrong, and this can happen on some of the older a/c in the fleet, although many are buying new a/c, then it often means a long delay to get a/c from the main base (usually MAN or LGW)

[mitchja]

There's nothing 'wrong' with any of the charter companies as such - it's only when you book with someone say like VH then you see the difference in the service you get.

My first ever fly-drive to Florida was with Air Tours - nothing much wrong with it, OK there was no rep or any extra info given when we arrived at MCO (it was when Charter airline still flew into MCO)- a bit daunting as it was my first fly drive to the US, but after booking a similar package 12 months later with VH and I saw the differences you get, there's now no going back.

I'm talking 5 or 6 years ago now so things should be different now - back then there were no premium cabins on any of the charter airlines either.

It would, however, now take a fair amount of persuasion to get me to book to Florida with anyone other than VH.

Regards

quote:Originally posted by mitchja
nothing much wrong with it, OK there was no rep

Some people would call that an advantage...

Boo
(enjoys being an independent traveller and hates being hassled by reps...)

[HighFlyer]

quote:Some people would call that an advantage...

LOL

*Shudders at the mere mention of the words 'welcome meeting'* hehe

[mitchja]

I never go to the meetings either but it's still nice to know your holiday company have acknowledged your arrival as they meet you at baggage collection plus they provide a contact number in case you require any further info or you run into problems.

I'm not saying the charter companies dont do this now - I don't know, but they didn't several years ago if you were on a fly-drive package.

Regards