Beware of Thomas Cook’s cabin baggage scam.

TCs expect you to rely upon your hold baggage allowance
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TC do not include an allowance you have to pay extra for it


've just been caught by another Thomas Cook scam, or rather by Netflight, Thomas Cook's online flight booking company.
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I thought Flythomascook was their online booking company.

We can call them all we like but us wanting to return to UK from Turkey in November/December on direct flights from Dalaman/Bodrum are grateful as all of the other charterers finish at the beginning of the month.
 
I have flown Easyjet and Ryanair. While the seat spacing is tight, it is not as tight as Air France on some routes.

In particular for Paris/Tel Aviv. That was for me the worst flight ever - the most unconfortable, the worst service, the worst inflight entertainment (there wasn't any), the worst food and it is a pretty long distance to be couped up in an Airbus 320 with the seat layout for a short hop.
 
I managed to reduce a cabin bag from 14 kgs to 5 kgs by turning my sailing jacket into a poachers coat. There is no weight limit on clothing as long as you are wearing it.

Thomas Cooks leg room is dreadful, anyone over 6ft tall is going to have a very painful trip.
 
charles_reed said:
We need to face reality - it's the budget airlines who are making profits, because of their innumerable surcharges, working their planes to and beyond the limit, underpaying their pilots and working them to (and sometimes beyond) the legal hours.

2nd officers who can't speak or understand English, Irish hours 20% more than UK or US.

Virgin America, voted 3 times best airline of the year loses $207 million.
Spirit the US embodiment of Mike O'Really makes record profits.

It's the travelling public who promote the rip-off airlines, by continuing to buy their tickets - sheep on the way to the shearer.

I make a point of flying "Real" airlines - usually get better all-in prices than any budget airline offers and don't feel I'm on my way to Ravensbruck.
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I flew back to the UK this week from the Algarve, on a Ryanair plane. Both of the flight deck crew spoke excellent english, as did the cabin crew, more understandable than many UK citizens as well. The plane was based in Portugal but the crew was multinational.

You get what you pay for, and yes the standard of service compared to BA Club class is poor but I probably paid 20% of the BA fare, got home without having to change flights as I would have had to with BA. As I was paying, and have all the time in the world being tired out when I got home was not a problem, If I had been traveling on business I would probably have had to stay an extra night to be at my most alert, so the saving on the fare may well have been eaten up by the hotel costs.

Horses fo courses and budget airlines have their place as do the full fare mob.
 
Affinite, if you read the small print...

...you'll find nothing whatsoever that prevents the carrying of diving weights on your person or in carry on baggage. The nazis in security might take some convincing of that but they have only a limited (and usually faulty) knowledge of that is allowed and what isn't.

I carried a Yanmar 3 cyl cylinder head form Dalaman to Gatwick last year. In the cabin. Why not? What hazard could it pose?

The Airline's own dangerous goods policy is one place to look, the other is the home office guidelines on prohibited items, those are the definitive documents. If anyone tries to make you do different to those they're overstepping their authority unless they have a very good and convincing security reason.
 
MASH said:
Affinite, if you read the small print...

...you'll find nothing whatsoever that prevents the carrying of diving weights on your person or in carry on baggage. The nazis in security might take some convincing of that but they have only a limited (and usually faulty) knowledge of that is allowed and what isn't.

I carried a Yanmar 3 cyl cylinder head form Dalaman to Gatwick last year. In the cabin. Why not? What hazard could it pose?

The Airline's own dangerous goods policy is one place to look, the other is the home office guidelines on prohibited items, those are the definitive documents. If anyone tries to make you do different to those they're overstepping their authority unless they have a very good and convincing security reason.
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I tried taking a drill without battery and bit in my hand luggage they said it looked like a gun and charge me 70quid to put into the hold..
 
rtboss1 said:
I tried taking a drill without battery and bit in my hand luggage they said it looked like a gun and charge me 70quid to put into the hold..
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You should have scrapped it... a brand new 14V Dewalt or Makita drill driver (body only) is sold for around £30....

For those interested in Airlines matters...

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/491559-4-ryanair-aircraft-declare-fuel-emergency-same-time.html

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/495368-af-321-close-stall.html

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/498350-another-air-france-incident.html

when accountants take over the running of an airline, this is what happens, on top of their scandalous ways to con you out of your own already scarse cash... This is madness.
 
al.carpenter said:
You should have scrapped it... a brand new 14V Dewalt or Makita drill driver (body only) is sold for around £30....

For those interested in Airlines matters...

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/491559-4-ryanair-aircraft-declare-fuel-emergency-same-time.html

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/495368-af-321-close-stall.html

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/498350-another-air-france-incident.html

when accountants take over the running of an airline, this is what happens, on top of their scandalous ways to con you out of your own already scarse cash... This is madness.
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No it was a top of the range Ma( cannot spell it ) the three batteries and charger was in my baggage in the hold ,I did not want the risk of it being broken .

I had taken it back and fro to Greece for years
 
rtboss1 said:
No it was a top of the range Ma( cannot spell it ) the three batteries and charger was in my baggage in the hold ,I did not want the risk of it being broken .

I had taken it back and fro to Greece for years
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That's what I mean, a top of the range Makita drill driver brand new would have been much cheaper than what they charged you... and you would have had a brand new product compared to your old one with its worn gears.... batteries are what cost most...
Anyway, I think this behaviour from this airline is outrageous... you were lucky not to end up in Guantanamo......



http://www.toolbox.co.uk/makita-6281dz-144v-drill-14213-117948
http://www.toolbox.co.uk/makita-bdf453z-18v-drill-15981-117639
 
I rest my case.

How many times do we have to say "READ THE EFFIN SMALL PRINT"!!!

Your drill is not allowed in the cabin. Had you not read the.... oh dear! it is a workman's tool and as such is banned in carry-on. Really, it hardly takes a grain of common dog to see that a cordless drill could - just perhaps, be used for some nefarious purpose - so it's surely obvious. Basic security regs.

Al, not sure which bit you think is outrageous. Security for preventing a forbidden item getting on board (which is their function and nothing whatsoever to do with the airline), the airline for charging to put it in the hold (rather expensive, but if you don't read the instructions whose fault is that? The airline's?)

And please don't carry LI Ion or LiPO batteries in the hold. Google "battery explosion" to see why. Hold fires are often terminal.
 
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MASH said:
I rest my case.

How many times do we have to say "READ THE EFFIN SMALL PRINT"!!!

Your drill is not allowed in the cabin. Had you not read the.... oh dear! it is a workman's tool and as such is banned in carry-on. Really, it hardly takes a grain of common dog to see that a cordless drill could - just perhaps, be used for some nefarious purpose - so it's surely obvious. Basic security regs.

Al, not sure which bit you think is outrageous. Security for preventing a forbidden item getting on board (which is their function and nothing whatsoever to do with the airline), the airline for charging to put it in the hold (rather expensive, but if you don't read the instructions whose fault is that? The airline's?)

And please don't carry LI Ion or LiPO batteries in the hold. Google "battery explosion" to see why. Hold fires are often terminal.
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what I find outrageous is charging nearly TWO DAYS WAGES of an employee on min wages (in Ryancrapair case declared in ROI so that they can bypass the local labour laws and charges... see Marseilles and Spain court cases) to carry 450 grammes from the reg desk to the hold....
 
Dangerous goods

It may be no surprise to many but alcohol is classified as dangerous goods. I shudder to think how many gallons/litres are stowed in the cabin. The airlines get round it by having the "authorities" give it a "special dispensation" classification.

It is also a requirement for the passengers (as well as the crew) to be sober.

As for work men's tools, I have managed to get my favourite workman's tool through security every time. It's a computer!
 
Dangerous goods

I had a tube of Gasket Goo confiscated by security at Stanstead a couple of years ago. On querying why I was told that as it has the international symbnol for poison on the tube it was not allowed in the cabin. I had to exit security, go the WH Smith, buy a jiffy bag and stamp and post it to myself at home.
Finally having cleared security we bought the usual bottles of booze and carried these on board.
Now if I had wanted to do some damage on board the plane a broken glass bottle would be my weapon of choice over a tube of Gasket Goo.
 
MASH said:
I rest my case.

How many times do we have to say "READ THE EFFIN SMALL PRINT"!!!

Your drill is not allowed in the cabin. Had you not read the.... oh dear! it is a workman's tool and as such is banned in carry-on. Really, it hardly takes a grain of common dog to see that a cordless drill could - just perhaps, be used for some nefarious purpose - so it's surely obvious. Basic security regs.


I am a frequent flyer and had no problem before this time.

Fair point, however, I had taken it in February this year, what change for June?, I had gone through the security screen and had no drill bits or means of working the drill, on my person and they went through my hand luggage .

As for the batteries because my hold baggage was over sized I was taking a duvet , they checked and opened it and looked at the batteries,no comment made about them.
What they made me do was put the drill into my hand luggage and put that into the hold. In total I was still under my 20 kg limit but that did not stop them charging me extra.

Ah well you learn as you go on

Cheers bobt
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Do not expect too much predictability or consistency of procedures or decisions from security even at the same UK major airport between one team and another. Do not expect them to know even their own (security) rules correctly, let alone the airline's dangerous goods policy which as I've said is a completely separate matter over which they have no jurisdiction at all as long as basic security is not infringed. Individual UK airport security operations are able to add their own interpretations to the D of T rules - some make you take your shoes off, some don't, some consider an ipad a computer and make you take it out of your bag, some don't (its only a large iphone, not a computer) so that sort of thing may be a surprise, but they should know the Rules, and as they are generally rather poor at that, plus being the sort of people they are they tend to make up inane local and even personal procedures to assert their authority. Plus there are a LOT of real randoms in the job - it attracts the worst sort of jobsworths and bullies - the sort that reject a drill because "it looks like a gun" instead of the correct reason which they probably hadn't thought of or didn't know...

To avoid hassle, know the regulations thoroughly.

UK airport (passenger) security is more about politicians being able to slope shoulders and say "Not our fault, look at all the security features we put in place" next time something nasty happens - because the public can't see the vast array of other ways to get anything you like into an airport (just one way is through service vehicles etc none of which can be searched.) and it looks as if lots is being done. Lots is being done, but often not in the right places or in the right way, and this bolleauxs of harassing the customers the way they do falls right into that category.
 
MASH said:
And please don't carry LI Ion or LiPO batteries in the hold. Google "battery explosion" to see why. Hold fires are often terminal.
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Followed your instruction and googled "battery Explosion" Can't find anything that suggests there have been any "Terminal hold fires" as a consequence of battery explosions.

Do you have references to specific examples?
 
Tranona said:
Followed your instruction and googled "battery Explosion" Can't find anything that suggests there have been any "Terminal hold fires" as a consequence of battery explosions.

Do you have references to specific examples?
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The plane crash in Dubai that killed two American pilots may have been caused by its cargo of industrial lithium batteries, according to a report by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-...isk-linked-to-dubai-plane-crash#ixzz2B4QAGzfP
 
sailinglegend420 said:
The plane crash in Dubai that killed two American pilots may have been caused by its cargo of industrial lithium batteries, according to a report by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-...isk-linked-to-dubai-plane-crash#ixzz2B4QAGzfP
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Interesting - thanks for that. The original reference (which I see has now been removed by the poster) was in relation to batteries for a hand held drill - not in quite the same league as the ones that might have been related to the fire in this incident.
 
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