 Shameful,
Apr 29, 2010
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reviewer: M Hodgson
from UK
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| We were stranded in Malaga by the volcanic ash cloud. Our experiences were very similar to other people. Monarch have no staff in Malaga so there was no one from the airline to talk to, we simply got our news form an airport employee who seemed as much in the dark as ourselves. Phone calls and emails have been ignored. Our current attempts to get a contribution to hotel and food costs are being ignored. I have had a mass circulation email saying to print a standard letter and send that to my travel insurer. I can't imagine them being interested. The worst part of all this is the way Monarch are hiding from their ex-customers, presumably hoping the wider media will not notice how they are acting. I can't help wondering, given that they are ignoring EU legislation regarding compensation, just how far Monarch would go in ignoring laws. |
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 terrible service,
Dec 22, 2009
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reviewer: clarky
from uk
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| booked and paid for 4 seats 3 months ago now monarch have pulled the flight it goes 24 hours later no sorry or nothing never will use them again |
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 Monarch customer service stinks,
Oct 17, 2009
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reviewer: LCarey
from UK
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| Booked a return flight to Tenerife with an inbound flight time of 22.15. Received an email telling me that flight time had been changed to 23.55, arriving home at 03.50. Not happy with this I rang them, asking if I could cancel the return leg as the late flight would mean I would be in no state to work the next day. The woman on the end of the phone showed no empathy whatsover, and informed me that I wasn't eligible for a refund as the flight delay was 20mins short of the cut-off, and I could only be offered a date change. No apology was offered, no concern expressed and her tone of voice was very abrupt. I shan't be using them again. |
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Flown a few times from Luton/Gatwick,
Mar 30, 2009
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reviewer: Anon
from UK
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I remember when I was a kid and flying with Monarch I even realised then, what unhappy staff looked like. A smile seemed an effort.
15 + Years later how they have changed. Not just all the different destinations you can choose from but the low no frills prices to great holiday destinations to choose from too. I think this is great as it gives me more flexibility to pay for what I want to pay for or include nothing and fly for cheap. Always on time and the crew and checkin staff, not to mention actual Monarch staff at the airport who would be handy for any issues I have to sort out and my breif encounter I had with them was smiley and polite in Luton. The info they gave was correct too. Food and drink prices are not too bad. It was less then I expected and hot food was very tasty. Better options and cheaper then easyjet/ryanair and BA. I would rather pay £6 for a decent hot meal then get it chucked in for free with BA. Always pleasant and look forward to my holidays with them this year and next. |
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 The good and bad,
Jul 09, 2008
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reviewer: Peer
from UK
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| Flight from LGW to LUxor was fine although the Monarch Plus is definately a waste fo money. Flight back was delayed 9 hours due to "technical difficulties". A more detailed expanation would have been welcome since this is an easy excuse to make. One free drink on the plane and a mumbled apology from the captian was all we received. Planes appeared generally tired and can be uncomfortable for 4.5 hour flights. Must try harder in the current environment. |
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Monarch Airlines,
Jun 27, 2008
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reviewer: Sue Middleton
from UK
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| I have flown from Manchester to Paphos and back with Monarch June 2008 and to be quite honest I think their standards and service have dropped considerably. Firstly the seats are narrower than other charter airlines I have used and we not only had an hour delay when leaving Manchester we had to sit on the plane for 4 hrs at Paphos when we returned due to some passenger count error in a temperature of 38 degrees and then they had the cheek to try and sell small bottles of water for 3 euros each. Surely knowing there was a problem it would have been better to keep us in the terminal. We also paid for extra leg room seats which we did not get. On both flights we never heard a word from the flight deck as to our whereabouts, or any of the other information that you hear on other airlines. I did not think the service was particularly good and the food was very poor. My daughter in law has used Monarch several times to visit her family in Alicante and she believes their standards have definitely dropped and hardly any flight is on time. |
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Fine for short haul,
Feb 24, 2008
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reviewer: David
from London
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I flew with Monarch to Geneva from Gatwick and was a fine, 1 hour flght. We were lucky enough to have the exit seats on the way out but had to take a regular seat ont he return leg. For a one hour flight I had no complaints. The food looked awful but tasted ok.
I wouldn't be so keen long-haul but at the end of the day you get exactly what you pay. The people who go on (relatively) low cost holidays to long haul destinations cannot expect to get scheduled airline comfort levels when the entire cost of the package is less than the BA or equivalent ticket price. |
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Monarch 8 Hour Shambles to Tenerife,
Jul 14, 2007
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reviewer: Dave Brown
from England
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What a complete shambles Monarch has become/ Flight out to Tenerife South on 6th July. Plane witheld due to technical problems, but only told after we had checked bags in. Delayed for 8 HOURS and only one measly meal with no contact or regular information from Monarch groundstaff at Gatwick. When plane finally does arrive, they say we can use the measly £4 vouchers for food they gave us at Gatwick for in-flight tea/coffee, so didnt even offer this as a FOC! Crew out were miserable and didnt care most of us had been at Gatwick for nearly 10 hours. Also crammed in with ridiculous legroom and seat width on a really old Airbus A300.
Way back, on time, but again crammed into an ageing plane and as for the aircrew, well. A lad called Nolan was taking the mickey out of passengers and the pilot all the way through the flight, tipped coffee over one guy, and was yawning and scratching his personal parts in full view of the passengers.
If this is what Monarch has become, my advice is to stay well clear. How they got to be "Leisure Airline of the Year" is beyond me... |
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 NO COMPLAINTS,
Jun 15, 2007
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reviewer: S.BURNETT
from U.K.
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WE HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM LANZAROTE ON THE 14TH JUNE 07.OUR SEATS WERE VERY COMFY PLENTY OF LEG ROOM, WE ARE 5FT 6 AND 5FT 7...STAFF VERY HELPFUL AND PLEASANT.FLIGHT WAS ON TIME.PLANE VERY CLEAN STAFF ALWAYS COMING ROUND COLLECTING ANY RUBBISH.
WOULD FLY AGAIN WITH MONARCH... |
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NO COMPLAINTS!!!!,
Feb 17, 2007
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reviewer: Jane
from Manchester, UK
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| We flew with Monarch from Manchester to Tenerife and back again only last week. After reading the previous reviews before we went we were a little apprehensive due to people complaining about leg room,uncomfortable seats and long delays. Both our flights were on time, all the staff were extremely pleasant and courteous at all times and the seats were more than comfortable enough for our two 4 hour flights. Both myself and my husband aren't skinny, but far from obese, we are 5ft 6 and 5ft 11 and the seat widths and leg room were ample. As previous passengers have said, you get what you pay for! As we knew there wasn't any in flight meals included in the price we took our own sandwiches so we cannot really comment on the food. However, you could purchase both hot and cold food should you so desire. Thank you Monarch for 2 pleasant flights, we will not hesitate in flying with you in the future! |
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monarch to goa ( manchester)dec 2006,
Jan 24, 2007
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reviewer: milly
from uk
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have flown monarch ( unfortunately ) several times back & forth to goa india. this airline has to be the most squashed uncomfortable experience to be had anywhere. sitting on one of their longhaul flights is more like torture than travel, the actual width of the chairs is teeny (i am not a large person & my rear end was a very 'neat' fit in the chairs and dont get me started on seat pitch - abysmal). even the aisles are so narrow in parts of the plane you have to shuffle down them sideways!
the inflight entertainment screen on our flight back was broken.........we were offered one free drink as compensation..........whey hey how generous is that!
i dont expect comfort like you get on most schedhuled airlines as lets face it these packages that use airlines like monarch are cheap but i dont expect to emerge from a 10hr flight feeling totally numb with total bodily cramp either. the worst thing is that they make announcements about the risks of DVT telling you to move around the cabin & exercise your limbs!! how mr monarch, the trolleys are constantly parked in the aisles so you cant move and exercise your limbs in your seat?? maybe a contortionsit could do it but a 5 ft 7 fit 42yr old cant no matter how hard they try, toe & finger wiggling is about the best you can do.
however i have to say that the crew on all the monarch flights i have been on in recent years have been excellent, friendly & helpful which must be hard when stuck with 200+ miserable squashed customers. the food most times ok, but i do think the least they could do is provide you with a small oj or water on the tray with your meal, if you havent bought anything from the bar/trolley beforehand there is absolutely nothing to wash down your meal with - poor. tea & coffee takes a while to arrive.
the drinks from the trolley & snacks are overpriced and they just do not come round often enough so you end up buying a couple of drinks that get warm as you try & make them last. i remember when charters used to announce that after the trolleys have been around if you want any more drinks to come down to the galley. they seem to positively discourage that practice now. i dont advocate encouraging passengers to get inebriated on flights but why treat us all as if we will be irresponsible.
to end on another positive though our flights on monarch have all been on time and checkin although queues can be long & a little chaotic (esp in goa) has usually been quite efficient. |
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Fantastic,
Jan 18, 2007
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reviewer: alison
from Scotland
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| I have used this airline alot inthe past few months and it has been fantastic everytime. The cabin crew are very polite and always willing to help. THe food and drink was a bit over priced but I saved a fortune on the return flight fair so I was more than happy to treat myself to a meal and drink. THank you monarch. |
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Don't fly Monarch,
Nov 02, 2006
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reviewer: David Allen
from UK
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We flew from Manchester to Cancun via Gatwick as part of a late-availability KUONI package.
Having experienced the Monarch service we would not recommend this unless like us you get a good late-availability £price. This is because the legroom, seat comfort, food, entertainment and service are strictly short-haul standard and not suitable for a 10-12 hour long-haul flight. This flight is seriously long, even without delays (and we suffered delays on departure for both legs of the journey including sitting on the tarmac apron at Cancun coming back for 2 hours as they'd forgotten to get the necessary documentation to enter Mexican airspace). Monarch charge for everything, the quality of food and entertainment is low and Monarch’s punctuality record is poor (2 weeks before our holiday the actual connection from Manchester to Gatwick was cancelled). For us the £250 Premium cabin upgrade each would have effectively almost paid for another person to come with us, and still only takes you to the Economy class of most scheduled airlines. For this reason we would not book another holiday with Kuoni using Monarch regardless of how good the actual deal or hotel was. We definately wouldn't fly with Monarch again and will vote with our wallets. |
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