Thread: thomson seat pitch [problem]

booked holiday to cape verde ( 6 hour flight) advertised in faraway shores brochure, which is full of long haul destinations..on cover it says 33 inches of legroom in economy

On the cape verde page it says fly from london- manchester-birmingham 33 inches of legroom in economy.

I now discover that they have reclassified cape verde as short haul and downgraded the seat pitch to 29 inches....am I being unreasonable or are they in breach of contract?? Due to fly in 4 weeks

Just my thoughts.

You first need to check there is nothing in the terms that allows them to do this, if there is it could still be possible under misrepresentation, but don't know.

If nothing in the T&C's (and Europe wouldn't define a 6 hour flight as short haul - though I don't know of any hard rules) then you might want to write to them and state that this is not what you signed up for!!

Article 10
Upgrading and downgrading
1. If an operating air carrier places a passenger in a class higher than that for which the ticket was purchased, it may not request any supplementary payment.
2. If an operating air carrier places a passenger in a class lower than that for which the ticket was purchased, it shall within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), reimburse
(a) 30 % of the price of the ticket for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less, or
(b) 50 % of the price of the ticket for all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres, except flights between the European territory of the Member States and the French overseas departments, and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres, or
(c) 75 % of the price of the ticket for all flights not falling under (a) or (b), including flights between the European territory of the Member States and the French overseas departments.

I'm assuming distance, and it may not be construed as a downgrade. Is to me - what else could it be.

7 (3). The compensation referred to in paragraph 1 shall be paid in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques or, with the signed agreement of the passenger, in travel vouchers and/or other services.

I'm no fan of reading T&C's. :-|

261/2004 regs are in the sticky.

Short haul flights usually equate to a flight up to 3 hours long!

Medium haul is around 3 to 5 hours!

6 hours plus is long haul!!!!

Great News I have just been told by Kate Fleming at Thompson Travel help line that it doesn't take 6 hours to fly to Cape Verde. She wasn't sure how long it is??????? but it is under 6 hours that is why it is classed as a medium destination and only 27" pitch on a short haul airplane. 0 out of 10 for intellegence Thompson. Good heavens it gets worse. She tried to tell me I couldn't book extra leg seats because they had already been booked although they weren't on offer when I booked the holiday and I logged in to choose your seat straight away I received it. Hard to believe.

Wish I had known all this would never have booked and will never book with them again.

I know there is advice to ring watchdog but the industry should be monitoring this and acting