Thomson Holidays Reviews 

Thomson holiday booked and paid for April/Mat 2017 .further 4 Visits seats booked Tenerife Hotel Guayamina Princess. Inurance paid, seats, luggage booked in 5 working days go and received drilling at hotel. next to one booked major refurbish. Thomson sent e-mail Saturday weekend before going on following Friday, change hotel. Hence no availability at hotels given as change free of charge Tenerife as so many people complaining late details in e-mail 5 working days go, no one could book us in. Bad complaints, and no help, took money well in advance of going. Bad reviews on site, which means being going on for months in Tenerife. Rip off. never travel with them.

Dishonest, rubbish holiday and after travel support. This company must be investigated by trading standards ASAP.

I noticed other reviews here saying that Thomson had tried to take payment for a holiday twice. This also happened to us: they tried to "accidentally" take a £5,000 debit card payment twice in one day, resulting in frantic phone calls to and from our bank. Is this a genuine error in their system, or something more sinister . . .?

The problem is made even worse if you've booked a holiday which has a non-Thomson airline (ours was BA.) The Thomson customer service agents (when you get through to them after a long wait) refuse to discuss your booking, and they refer you to a mysterious "3rd party booking department" which appears to consist of a small group of overworked ladies somewhere in Wales. Strangely, the phone greeting for this number (0800 1071534) makes no reference to Thomson Holidays at all. The staff there will eventually try to unravel the problem that Thomson has created, but you're looking at several hours on the phone.

When I later worked out the profit that Thomson was making on the booking (compared to us booking the hotel, transfers and BA flights direct) it amounted to roughly £1,000. In other words, I've just paid Thomson £1,000 for doing something I could have done myself in 20 minutes AND I've spent half a day on the phone helping them to do this to me AND they tried to "accidentally" do it to me twice.

Am I completely stupid, or are Thomson very clever?

Either way, I won't be doing this again.

Amazing crew from Bristol to gran canaria 6 July Tom 6468....co pilot Mark gave us a superb intro pre take off and explained the flight route weather etc ...Amazing commentary !! Harvey Douglas the pilot guided us through invisible turbulence over the bay of biscay ...the crew leader David and his team nicki Emma Jacki and sasha were superb !! Congratulations

Thomson fly TUI well what can I say apart from been treated like a second class citizen going out from Manchester gate 300 which was like going down into a pit thought I was going coal mining that deep down , very claustrophobic atmosphere , then quashed on a cattle truck thing to go to the plane , good flight a plus point going out coming back returned to rain and was treated again like animals no cover on steps down to bus then quashed on it , before exiting I said oh second class citizen to a staff member who replied why I said no fingers tunnel available to which the reply was no its busy here at Manchester no fingers tunnels free luck of the draw he said ,I though sod it I aint going to argue , but on the bus to the terminal there were at least 5 finger tunnels free , nothing but liars Thomson staff , if they had been honest and said we don't pay for fingers now to keep cost down I would excepted that but been told lies to I cant
do with , but as every one knows once they had your money they don't care , a response from Thomson on review would be good but doubt they look at them , another e-mail to they CEO friedrich dot joussen at tui dot com see if he can enlighten

I've had a number of holidays with Thomsons and they have all been really great! The last trip I took was a Thomsons flight only as we booked our hotel separately, however I always love flying shorthaul with them because you just know everyone else on board is on their holiday, the air-hostesses and reps are really friendly and helpful and you know your holiday is off to a great start with them.

I am surprised at the reviews that I am reading on here. My last 5 holidays have been via Thomson with great flights and excellent holidays. Perhaps it's just those that have had a traumatic experience that review on here. I feel sorry for them and it's sounds like a nightmare. I use a local Tui travel agent who deals with everything. Knowledgeable and efficient. I also ALWAYS use Trip Advisor to check out the hotel/ accommodation as well as Google to do the research.
If these reviews are 100% accurate I sugest that you get the name of the Chief Executive and e mail them. For me all companies get one chance to deal with something then if that does not work escalate immediately. DO NOT endure incompetent lower staff. Escalate and also e mail so that there is an audit trail of your concerns and ask for compensation EVERY TIME. Once they know it's costing them it's surprising how quickly problems are solved. Also advise that you are copying in all correspondence to your local TRADING STANDARDS OFFICE via the Council. If you experience incompetence try not to allow it to stress you. It's not worth it. ESCALE ESCALATE ESCALATE every time.

Please please please do not trust these people with something as special as your wedding day. The staff are lovely when taking your money but will deceive you and withhold important information only to be rude and unhelpful when problem arise. The phrase the customer is always right isn’t something that Thomson has heard of and the staff will do everything in their power to blame the customer in order not to part with any money. When we booked our wedding to Costa Rica we were sold a beautiful all-inclusive holiday with the promise of extras such as upgrades and extra cases to be added later on but when this time come we were told we could on upgrade if the whole party upgraded and we could only pay for an extra 5kg per case (we already get 20kg and you are only allowed 23kg per case). Not only this but the worst part is that when booking the holiday we openly spoke about our future plane as you do and that we would be trying for a baby straight away It wasn’t until 4 months later that my partners brother came back from Cuba and his girlfriend fell pregnant that the Zika Virus was even mentioned to us. I contacted the NHS straight away and was told that we would have to wait 6 months before even trying which was not only a blow to us but my fiancés sister who has been trying for a baby for a while. When I contacted Thomson and said surely we should have been informed about this they didn’t acknowledge the query and just said we could change the destination free of charge or get a doctor’s note and a full refund would be given not an apology for not bringing it to our attention or anything as courteous as that. After thinking this over we decided that we couldn’t do that to our guests and by this time we had our heart set on Costa Rica so decided to put our own planes on hold Unfortunately my partners sister is not in a situation to do that and decided to pull out of the holiday. I went into store on 3 separate occasions to clarify exactly what needed to be done and every time was told the same thing “ get a doctor’s note and a refund will be given” . After paying £35 for the letter my partner and I then went back and was told they would not give a refund for the deposit as it was not their fault. I’ve checked all my paperwork that I was given when we booked an there is NOTHING on there regarding the Zika virus. If we were told about this at the beginning we would have never booked and since then we have been sent on a wild goose chase to get this resolved with the result being passed from one rude unhelpful staff member to another. The whole thing has been one drama after another and the most stressful thing I’ve done we booked through Thomson because they are a big corporation and we thought it would be the most stress free option, turns out because of this reason they now think they can fob people off with no come back. I will not be dropping this anytime soon not will I be booking a Thomson holiday again!

First of all the hotel ( sun palace cancun ) was spectacular getting there on the other hand was hell.
The staff tui at Stansted were at best clueless most notable part was the boarding of the plane 2 escalators down to entrance to the (dreamliner) where a small problem happened which mention nobody could actually board the plane, not a big deal a few minutes wait not usually a problem but when you are pushing 200+ people into a place designed for around 30-50 more of an issue, and to that the staff keep feeding people down its getting silly now add to that pushing them down a moving escalator when the have now where to go resulting in a pile up of people at the bottom SERIOUSLY THOMSON.
Now to the nightmare liner outbound flight, faulty electronics in the seat TV disgustingly filthy dirty what looked like vomit on the back of the seat in front. It was by far the noisiest plane that I have ever been on. Add to that a really bad vibration throughout the flight which left me with a tingling sensation for two days after the fight. Important forms for security along arrival to Mexico sorry we only have Spanish ones we run out of English language versions.
Return dreamliner flight a lot better apart from the headrest of my seat falling off nothing major at all flight staff said thanks for letting us know we will get it fixed when we get back. A lot of help on a 10 hour flight. But a lot less noise this time and almost no vibration. My advice avoid Thomson, tui, and first choice holidays if at all possible

the discrimination of the customers by your company. I did contact Thomson yesterday about the difficulty for online check in and I did call today about the same matter. I was told that only 70% of the passengers can do online check in and the rest should go and queue at the airport. Why ? I paid the same money as they did, I want to have a stress free holiday as well, they can see where they are sitting now and have their boarding passes, I cannot. It is wrong , it is a discrimination. You do advertise on your site and in the email to do online checkout to save time so why this is not available for all the customers? I feel discriminated and devalued as a customer and it is a shame way of conduct. How canit be stress free holiday if its 5 days and i do not if it will be even enough places in the plane for me and my child.
I am going to forward this letter to watchdog on the basis of discrimination.
irene

DISGUSTING CUSTOMER SERVICE

This company is despicable, DO NOT SHOP WITH THEM.

I have had the most terrible experience with Thomson and I can absolutely guarantee that I will never use them again, and I will encourage everyone I know to do the same.

My partner and I had booked a holiday to Crete this September, and unfortunately since then we have split up. As you can imagine this was devastating to both of us, and we needed a quick and easy cancellation from Thomson.

My ex-partner is still happy to go on the holiday by himself, and I want to cancel my place. I already know I am going to lose my £200 deposit, and as inconvenient as that is to me, I understand the rules and I am willing to do so.

SUNDAY: I phoned up and advise Thompson that I am cancelling my place on the holiday. The woman tells me that this is not possible. Of course, this IS possible, as I am very familiar with their terms and conditions that state that if I cancel 70 day before departure, I am free to remove myself from the booking. Sunday marked 140 DAYS before departure, double the time that Thompson say you must allow. I would like to state at this point that I AM WELL WITHIN MY RIGHT TO CANCEL MY PLACE ON THIS HOLIDAY AND THEY ARE KEEPING ON THIS BOOKING AGAINST MY WILL.

Of course, I was not impressed with this, but for some reason the lady I spoke to said that the situation would be different by Tuesday. So, I waited.

TUESDAY: I phoned them back (please note that every time I phone I have to go through their lengthy queueing system, wait on hold, and then have to answer every security question under the sun) and spoke to a gentleman. Although the man was polite, he was clearly reading from a script, not listening to me, and he was CERTAINLY not willing to help me at all.

Again, this man told me it was not possible to cancel. Again, I told him that I am well within my rights to cancel and I want it done immediately. Apparently, because the man could not get hold of the hotel that my ex-partner and I were supposed to stay in (heaven know why not!), I cannot cancel. WRONG! I AM WELL WITHIN MY RIGHT TO CANCEL AND THEY ARE HOLDING ME TO THIS BOOKING AGAINST MY WILL.

I then got an automated phone call from Thomson asking me to review their customer service, so of course I did.

About an hour later I get a call from Bogani, a manager at Thomson. Now, for a while this was looking positive as Bogani listened to me and said that he would absolutely resolve my issue. He said that he needed to get in touch with the hotel and once that was done he could remove my name from the booking. He said this would take 24 hours, until 2pm the next day. Although I was not happy that I could not be removed immediately, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to wait another 24 hours. I said to Bogani ‘do you promise me that this will get done and I will be removed by 2pm tomorrow?’, and he replied with ‘I don’t make empty promises, it will get done.’

WEDNESDAY: 2pm came and went and I had not heard back from Bogani. I phoned the company again (going through the lengthy hold process) and I spoke to Rachel. Rachel told me that Bogani would phone me back within the hour. Fine. However, there was no phone call.

So, I phone back again and speak to Cathy. I explained everything to Cathy and said that I needed to speak with Bogani immediately. Cathy put me on hold for 5 minutes and then came back and said that Bogani would phone me straight back. I said that this was not good enough and I needed to be transferred straight to him. So, Cathy put me on hold for another 3 minutes and then came back and said ‘I’m sorry but there is no-one who works here called Bogani’. WHAT?! SO WHO ON EARTH DID SHE JUST PROMISE WOULD PHONE ME STRAIGHT BACK?! I couldn’t believe the audacity. I told Cathy that Bogani does exist and that she should check the notes on my account to see that I had spoken to him.

Eventually, Cathy confirmed that Bogani does in fact exist, and does work for Thomson however she apparently could not transfer me. She said she would send him an email asking him to contact me immediately.

Of course, there was no phone call from Bogani, so I phoned AGAIN and went through all of the options, and menus and security questions, and spoke to Cshedi.

I explained my situation AGAIN to Cshedi and said that I must speak to Bogani. She told me that he had ‘knocked off for the day’. Brilliant. Fantastic. Wonderful. Several phone calls and a lot of stress later, NOTHING has been done. Despite Bogani’s ‘promise’.

I asked Cshedi to send Bogani another email saying that he needed to contact me at 9am the following morning. I asked her to note that I was EXTREMELY unhappy.

THURSDAY (today): 9am came and went. No call from Bogani. At 10:10am I phoned up the contact centre again and spoke to Ayanda. Of course, I had to do all of the security questions all over again, and fully explain myself. She said that Bogani would phone me back.

HALLELUJAH! I got a phone call from the elusive Bogani who told me that HE HAS STILL NOT GOT HOLD OF THE HOTEL AND THAT I HAVE NOT BEEN CANCELLED OFF OF THE BOOKING AS I HAD ASKED ON SUNDAY!

I am in complete shock. DISGUSTING customer service! He ‘promised’ me again that he and Rachel are working on it, but this is not good enough! I asked him how long it is going to take as he had already ‘promised’ me that it would be done by 2pm TUESDAY! It is now THURSDAY! He didn’t have a clue.

I have asked Bogani what time he is in the office until today and he said 6pm. I have made it very clear to him that I need to hear back from him by 6pm today. If I am unable to answer his call because I am in a meeting, he is to leave me a voicemail message.

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH that I am completely within my rights to cancel my place on this holiday. It is over 100 days before departure and I am prepared to lose my deposit as the terms and conditions state.
THOMSON ARE KEEPING ON THIS HOLIDAY BOOKING AGAINST MY WILL.

As if it is not traumatic enough have to deal with a break up, my ex-partner and I do not need this stress.

This is a simple request and IT IS NOT BEING DONE.

I have never in my life been more disgusted with the customer service I have received. Thomson and a despicable company and I will encourage everyone I know never to use them.

I am also determined to spread the word on social media and every review site I can find.

Bogani needs to sort this out IMMEDIATELY, or I will be speaking to higher management. I have played by all of Thomson’s rules and I have read the terms and conditions. Thomson are not doing their part, and not removing me from a booking I am absolutely entitled to be removed from.

Disgusting.

We paid extra to "upgrade" to Thomson flights for our holiday to Gran Canaria. What a mistake that was, they are truly awful and have absolutely no consideration for their customers. Our flight back (TOM1131) was delayed by 45 mins BUT it was not until we were on board and the doors closed that the captain announced that NONE OF THE TOILETS WERE WORKING but that they were confident that once we reached 36,000ft the vacuum system would fix the problem - WRONG!! After an hours flight with no facilities the captain advises that the toilets are still not working an we are being diverted to Tenerife (which is now behind us) for repair. On landing we were not allowed to disembark for the toilet (although the captain could not get down the steps quick enough to get off the plane). After almost an hour on the ground, during which time the plane was refuelled whilst we sat there - is this even safe? we were advised the toilets were working. He SPED not taxied, this a man in a hurry. In the air the Thomson training kicked in - After 3 hrs with NO access to toilets did the cabin crew advise that they were now operational - NO - they immediately announce before the seatbelt sign is off, that the drinks service will now commence - brilliant, no toilets for 3 hrs but their priority is to SELL the passengers more liquid. The trolleys then blocked the aisle delaying passengers getting to the toilets and indeed got annoyed when I said I really had to get to the toilet (their friendly advice was that I would have to wait until they went beyond me - UNBELIEVABLE. After this delay no free refreshments or food were offered BUT they were desperate to SELL as much as they could - indeed that was the only concern they had. The captain of course had another motive, not passenger comfort or safety but only to get that plane on the ground in Edinburgh to avoid the 3 hour compensation ruling (the real reason we were kept in the dark about the NO TOILET FACILITIES until we were locked on the plane). The ONLY thing Thomson, the captain and the truly awful cabin crew were concerned with was getting as much money as possible out of us and avoiding any potential compensation. They did not give one jot about the discomfort and distress they caused. I have to say that the behaviour of the children on that flight was exemplary considering the lack of facilities for such an extended period - well done kids. We will have to be really desperate before we even consider Thomson again far less pay more for an "upgrade". The worst experience and behaviour of staff in over 40 years of holidaying abroad. USE THEM AT YOUR PERIL!!

I am coming back from Cyprus with Thomsonfly.having booked through last minute.com flying out with Easy Jet.the reason for flying back with Thomson was that they were coming back to Bristol earlier. However since then Thomson have change their return time they are now coming back two hours later than Easy Jet. Thomson flight is now 3.15am!! But thats not all,have been trying for days to check in but can not get into their check in site.it told me I could only book in 7day before one day after we are in Cyprus i ASK YOU!! but then I saw if you book you seats you could CHECK in 14 days before so I paid for our seats, a rip off,!! still cannot Check in.Lesson here Should have stayed with Easy Jet never had any problems checking in with them, 30 day before take off .
Further to my review have now managed to get my boarding passes not with out some problem tried for days on line no good rang Thomson fly there told to book in in Cyprus three hour before take off this would be 0015 on Sunday not willing to take a chance on this. So came up the idea
of going to a Thomson travel shop,. wonderful within five minute had my passes but my advice to anyone do not go for a late flight, put you in a tight corner. and do not mix your flights.Stay with one airline easyjet are good you can check in really early.and sort all your problem before you go. Have manage to get a late departure from my apartment for 50euro and an upgrage of two bedrooms for all my problems with R.C.I but thats another story.Nightmare over!! I HOPE. P.S. Forgot to say Thomson Also told me to go to my local airport to try, bad advice cost me £4.00 parking fees and the advice was load of rubbish.

Not long since back from a flight and holiday to mexico the outbound flight was ok but the flight back to Manchester was awful delayed due to a manic passenger who in everybody's opinion except the crew and captain should have been escorted off it was a joke the drinks and food poor the wine was vile and gone are the little bottles of miniature spirits you are served from a bottle and if your face fits you get a double if not its pot luck as no measure is used the stewardess relayed to a passenger behind a blow by blow detail of a foam paarty she attended the previous day whilst on a stopover in mexico was very unprofessional if you want a so called healthy meal you will be given a fruit pot with one grape and four squares of melon for both meals oh and a bag of raisins for breakfast !!! Will never ever book another first choice or Thomson holiday again the hotel was not up to scratch and the flight the same

If possible i would rate it less than one star but I have to give at least one star, no choice.

Lets start with pickup from palma airport.

We were 7 people including two kids. We waited almost an hour in the coach for other passengers.

Once we reached the hotel condesa de la bahia we had to wait again for more than two hour to check in. This was very inconvenient as we started the journey from London at night 2.00 am.

When we asked the receptionist to check in we were told we would have to wait as the previous guest extended their stay in your room so it wouldn't be available until hey left. This meant we waited with our luggage in the reception for a very long time before we could check in.
we had booked for two double rooms and one triple room but the rooms we were given were identical with two single beds pushed together.

The food was pretty much the same everyday with little options for vegetarians and had no markings at all to say what it was. This made the whole experience very difficult.

There was no communication in regards to the journey back to the airport. We waited at reception on time thinking we would be notified when the coach arrived. We then asked at reception as nothing seemed to be happening to be told that the coach had already left. There had been no sort of announcement or message prior to the coach leaving. The staff were unhelpful as we asked to contact the coach or tell us about the next pick up point and they simply said they don't have any information.

As we had no option left we had to book two cabs from the hotel to the airport which cost us 140 euro.

Back home we called Thompson but all they said was we can't help you. No customer service at all.

OVERALL THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU BOOK WITH THOMPSON!

Thomson are fine as a package company. We have used them for 30 years and generally enjoyed the holidays they provide, the hotels we have visited, with one very obvious exception, and the overall service. However, if there are any issues do not expect any great service. Examples have included: no rep in the hotel and no info how to contact one (German Tui rep there but not interested in English Tui clients), wife ill on flight but staff too busy selling things to help and denying there was an issue when I wrote to complain, being given wrong seats on a flight despite the fact there was nobody in the seats we had booked and paid for and then forced to move on the return flight (I did, eventually get a refund but no explanation or apology), a row at Palma over suitcases being slightly overweight despite me paying for this in advance (they had no record of this and would have charged me again, if I had not sensibly taken along the email with this on. This, of course, had to be taken away and checked with a supervisor. No apology from them and daggers from the lengthy queue behind us that we were taking so long.), dodgy youth gangs in Domican Republic being allowed into the airport perimeter and running a nice grab your cases and charge a note to get them back (amusing reply saying yes it is terrible but that's the way it is!). You are basically on your own if things go wrong. There have been exceptions e.g. When we stayed on an island hotel in Croatia, the ropey one I mentioned above, the rep arranged a special boat to pick us up and take us back to the mainland to get an early morning coach excursion. I expected it not to show and so was pleasantly surprised when it did.

I booked our holiday to Costa Rica in store (Woking branch) and was initially very pleased as the package itself was ideal and seemed reasonable. Having discussed currency and what we would need, and having 'trusted' her I ask if it was a good exchange rate and she verified that yes it was at the 'Exchange rate' & they don't charge commission! What more could I ask for?! Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine or know that they 'pick their own' exchange rate, ( it was at a rate which on research the colon has NEVER historically ever been!). We later learnt that the company decide on their own 'exchange rate' at any given time... we 'lost' £275 by exchanging money with them.. Having sent emails and reported to the rep on hol ( apparently lots of other Thomson guests had complained about the same thing too) we haven't heard a thing. While I can except slight variations in rates £275 is nothing short of 'legalised theft'. Not only that the manager verified that she had been to the resort the previous year failing to mention that the resort AND LOCAL AREA ALL USE DOLLARS (as it was Central America), it seemed to add to the fact that the store was obviously getting an extra 'good deal' from us that week! Disgraceful practice from a 'reputable' company - I will never use Thomsons again and want to warn others to exchange their money elsewhere..

In short. Thomson fly owe us a refund of £38.00. This has been going on for six weeks. Despite emails, 8 telephone calls and Facebook contact , still no refund. We have been promised our refund THREE times in a six week period, each time being told we will receive a call from their Accounts Dept within 72 hours......this has not happened. Extremely annoyed at such poor customer service. Last contact was 2 days ago when I was asked to resubmit my details. NEVER again will I use this shoddy travel company.

I was pleased with all aspects, the flight was good, no major wait times and friendly staff.

Went on a holiday to Dominican Republic. Announced on check in there would be a 'slight' delay to flight as have to deliver an engineer and spare part to other end of island to our destination. After an hour on the ground with no drinks on offer or even available in hot weather at first airport, we took off for a 45 minute flight to other end of island - more than the 30 minute delay both the pilot and check in told us - then we were told we had to turn back as they had no fuel and there was a 'storm' at our destination. Landed for another hour, no crew OR DRINKS on offer again - then landed more than 5 hours late at our destination. NO compensation due to the 'safety' of passengers and the storm. Question is - we would have landed on time if they hadn't diverted us. But then the Indian customer service have no english and no clue, so easy cop out for Thomson - useless people, useless service - useless crew