For anyone wanting to know about the new long haul First Choice flights.....
we flew to Dominican Republic on Sun 14/8 returned 28/8. We upgraded to Star Class Premier. We paid to use the day before check-in at Gatwick as we had an early flight, there was no queue whatsoever and we were done in about 10 minutes and we got seats together!
Arrived at airport next morning and had breakfast before heading to departure gate. Flight was slightly delayed by about 25 minutes but as we had a good tail wind we actually arrived early! We were offered a bucks fizz as soon as we were sat down and then once in the air the stewards come and take your drinks order. You have a choice of two main courses but starters and desserts are all the same. The food was okay, no worse and no better than any other airline food, mostly edible. Wine is served with dinner and then you can have drinks throughout your flight. The entertainment was good, quite a choice of films but they are the same films going as coming back so don't watch them all on the way out
The seats are very comfortable and the extra space although doesn't seem much does actually make a difference, especially when that person in front reclines
The only real quibble I have is the seating arrangement of 2-3-2 seems to cause some problems, we were lucky as we got 2 in front and 2 behind going and then 2 at window and 2 in aisle but next to each other coming back but both ways there were some unhappy people as they got split up from their party and on our return journey our rep told us that the seating was allocated back in London and there was nothing they could do to change them, First Choice seemed to put little thought into keeping parties together. As you can't actually pre-book your seats I would recommend getting to the airport as early as possible to guarantee seats together.
All in all we had good flights with First Choice and we wouldn't hesitate to use them long haul again. Although their Premier service still isn't quite as good as Virgin's (the seating lets them down) I would still recommend upgrading if you can.
Annmarie
we flew to Dominican Republic on Sun 14/8 returned 28/8. We upgraded to Star Class Premier. We paid to use the day before check-in at Gatwick as we had an early flight, there was no queue whatsoever and we were done in about 10 minutes and we got seats together!
Arrived at airport next morning and had breakfast before heading to departure gate. Flight was slightly delayed by about 25 minutes but as we had a good tail wind we actually arrived early! We were offered a bucks fizz as soon as we were sat down and then once in the air the stewards come and take your drinks order. You have a choice of two main courses but starters and desserts are all the same. The food was okay, no worse and no better than any other airline food, mostly edible. Wine is served with dinner and then you can have drinks throughout your flight. The entertainment was good, quite a choice of films but they are the same films going as coming back so don't watch them all on the way out
The seats are very comfortable and the extra space although doesn't seem much does actually make a difference, especially when that person in front reclines
The only real quibble I have is the seating arrangement of 2-3-2 seems to cause some problems, we were lucky as we got 2 in front and 2 behind going and then 2 at window and 2 in aisle but next to each other coming back but both ways there were some unhappy people as they got split up from their party and on our return journey our rep told us that the seating was allocated back in London and there was nothing they could do to change them, First Choice seemed to put little thought into keeping parties together. As you can't actually pre-book your seats I would recommend getting to the airport as early as possible to guarantee seats together.
All in all we had good flights with First Choice and we wouldn't hesitate to use them long haul again. Although their Premier service still isn't quite as good as Virgin's (the seating lets them down) I would still recommend upgrading if you can.
Annmarie
