111op

I've not finalized my itinerary yet, but one scenario is this: I use them to fly between Venice and Manchester on a Friday night.

I need to be in Manchester on a Saturday.

I'm concerned about a flight cancellation. If so the next scheduled flight is on Sunday night, but I'm planning to return from Heathrow on Sunday.

Is this too much of a risk?

There's another carrier Jet2 that flies this route. This is not so convenient. Otherwise there's BA, but I need to connect in London.

According to flightstats, Thompson hasn't had recent cancellations.

Thanks!

carolinetaylor

Until recently Thomson weren't a low cost carrier, they specialised in package holidays.

There planes are nice, and as far as i'm aware they are reliable.

I'd say they are more reliable then jet2

SuzieCII

Hey 111op! Glad to see you back. I always enjoyed reading about your travels.

111op

Thanks for the Thompson info. I'm also thinking about easyJet, which has a flight that leaves around 9pm so I can maximize my day in Venice. I'll have to fly to Gatwick, however. Still easyJet has flights every day so I'm thinking that could be safer.

Thanks for the kind note. I've been busy. I'm still traveling but just haven't had the time to post trip reports. But since I don't have time to do extensive research for this trip, I'm back at Fodor's trying to get people to research for me.

rkkwan

I think the carrier you're talking about is called Thomsonfly. No "p", but add "fly".

111op

Thanks. Sorry for the typo.

Any thoughts on this dilemma? Well I guess it's not quite a real one yet. My friend can change her mind -- yet again!

111op

Maybe it doesn't matter anyway. I think there's a late flight on BA to London on Friday I can take, which I can connect with an early Sat. flight to Manchester. Of course that has a risk of cancellation also.

But at least I should be able to be back in London by Sunday evening even if there're some cancellations along the way.

WillTravel

Check airlinequality.com . I think Thomsonfly is mostly OK.

If the Manchester flight didn't happen, then could you scramble for a flight back to London instead?

willit

I know this doesn't really help you with this route, but I have used them several times between Bournemouth and Pisa, and have never had any problems with them.

Frances

If your flight from London to Manchester is cancelled you can always get the train.
Do think about the options . If I really have to be somewhere I never ever book the last flight which would get me there.Look also at a flight to Birmingham or Liverpool -maybe you could get a direct flight here from Venice? or Treviso? Have you checked out Air France via CDG?
The more you think about this the more options you will discover.

111op

Ok, this is my thinking.

Finally my friend has decided to get married on September 8 in Manchester, which is a Saturday. (I hope that she doesn't change her mind again!)

Thomson is the best option in terms of convenience. I can leave Venice late on Friday, maximizing my sightseeing time, and fly directly to Manchester.

However I'm concerned that Thomson can cancel. If so, I'll miss the wedding, but more important I want to fly back to NYC on Sunday, and Thomson's next scheduled flight is Sunday night.

I think that I'll take BA instead and connect in Gatwick. If I take the last flight out of Venice, the price is the same anyway where I overnight in London. This is less convenient than Thomson.

If the flights are cancelled, I'll miss the wedding, but I should have no trouble connecting to my transatlantic portion.

If I take easyJet I have to go to Manchester by train. Right now all the morning trains are priced at 60 pounds, so it's more expensive than the BA option.

Have I missed something in this analysis? Would people risk the Thomson flight over the BA one?

Thanks!

111op

Actually I spoke too soon. Thomson is just 30 euros as I just checked again, as opposed to BA's $133.

So the difference is pretty substantial -- about $90 per ticket -- and there're two, so $180.

Maybe I should go with Thomson.

If they cancel for some reason, do you think that they will fly me out on Saturday or just put me on the scheduled Sunday flight? What sort of compensation can I expect? Missing a transatlantic flight would be disastrous.

I guess I can buy a last minute ticket from Venice to London, but I wonder how much that is.

111op

I hypothetically priced a VCE-LGW flight for tomorrow. It's about 830 euros on BA.

So this may be the worst case scenario if I go with Thomson.

lincasanova

thomsonfly will only put you on their next flight, if there are seats.. no one else´s.

sounds a bit risky to me..
especially knowing how tempermental italian air control employees can be.

things seem hot .. spain is having trouble with one of their sindicated airport security companies.. staging slow downs at the valencia airport, at least.

hard to know what to tell you, but doesn´t seem to leave much solution in case there WERE a
1) strike
2)storm
3) technical problem unable to solve
4) improbable over-booking

i would like to have another way to get there in time in the unlikely case something DID go wrong.

i always like to have "plan B".

WillTravel

The problem is if they cancel, lots of people will also be in a similarly bad situation, leaving competition for the remaining spots.

You could try seeing what a last-minute ticket from Venice to London would cost, say today (or try this on the weekend). That would give you a ballpark idea.

WillTravel

I had my post open for quite a while before submitting it. That's why the advice is all out of order.

111op

Well great minds think alike. I guess we should weigh these numbers probabilistically -- i.e. (1-x)% change for a 70 euro saving vs. x% for 800 euro loss.

Empirically x = 0 for the last two months. But not sure if I want to take a chance like this. Also it's unclear that the loss is limited by 800 euros, since as you say, if they cancel, there could be a mad rush.

vhs100

Thomson or thomsonfly is a household name in the UK and you can generally expect a reliable service.

Dukey

I do not understand where you are getting the idea that ThomsonFly is goping to cancel a flight and that the same possibility is somehow much more remote with BA.

111op

No it's not that the possibilities are much more remote with BA. It's that if BA cancels, I think that my worst case scenario looks much better because has BA has four flights from Venice to LGW every day.

Thomson doesn't fly that Saturday and its scheduled flight on Sunday is too late for me to meet my flight back to NYC.

I'm not claiming that Thomson will cancel. I just want to prepare for a worst case scenario since there are few scheduled flights.