Monarch Avis 

Monarch continue to provide a value for money flight but like all the budget lines space suffers for someone like myself at over 6ft tall. it is impossible to get comfortable and the "extra-legroom" premium is overpriced. So our flight back from Lanzarote at 3hrs 40 mins was bearable - just!

We have yet to travel with Monarch - our email today said "Welcome Back" and we don't fly away for another four days let alone come back! We've had three changes to our flight dates and times so far so the actual flight will be interesting.

I realise that the automated email was prompted by our original flight dates but I think that could have been updated by Monarch - saves them looking a little silly.

I hope to be able to leave a far more favourable review when do actually return from our holiday - as no doubt we shall receive yet another "Welcome Back" email then!

For low cost travel when the kids are in School its adequate, when we arrived in Luton the desk staff were friendly and we made our way through security to the plane in plenty of time. Tried the food on board on the way out and became very jealous of an old girl who had brought a Pret a Manger sandwich on, the Monarch toasties were awful.
Make sure you weigh your luggage and have your booking in sheet printed though, as that can cost you more than the flight if you are not careful.
But if you avoid the food and are not expecting too much you wont be disappointed the staff are better than easyjet and ryan air in my experience.

I've just come off the phone to Monarch where they dealt with my request swiftly and I was impressed by their friendly customer service. Okay I had to pay to change my flight and had to wait a little while on the phone but these are all to be expected in the world of travel. I was most impressed also by the time taken to respond to my email request (only a day). Well done Monarch!

My friend booked a flight for us both and later I realised he had use my shortened name and not my full name which is on my passport. I read in to the matter and most companies would charge anything between £25 and £200 just to change the name. I e-mailed Monarch and got a swift reply back letting me know my name has been changed and there will be no problems.

Outrageous price £100 just to change a name on a ticket, would be better for them to charge a sensible price as on that principle i will not cancel my flight to allow them to get another lot of money for flight

Major delays (both inbound and outbound), dirty plane with appalling toilets.

On the return flight I was given a broken seat, that would not recline. All I received in compensation was a glass of orange juice.

Additionally, Monarch didn't meet their EU requirements of providing customers with food and drink when the delay exceeded 3 hours. In an attempt to save money they offered a drink (a small bottle of water) OR food (if you can call it that).

I will avoid Monarch at all costs and do my best to avoid package holidays that use them.

Whilst paying for a flight for my dad to return to Spain, this seemed to be the cheapest one way deal but turned out to be anything but the cheapest.

It let me book his flight and had to pay a credit card surcharge which is the norm for these types of companies. The problem was that he just wanted a cheap flight and did not care where he sat so did not want to pay extra to chose where to sit (as you normally do with other airlines).

We were able to book a flight and the money was deducted but then we found that booking a flight does not automatically allocate a seat and you have to ACTUALLY PAY MORE afterwards to sit down.

As you have no option but to pay for a seat, surely it should be impossible to book a flight without booking a seat. Had we known that you have got to chose a seat and pay extra, we could have either looked elsewhere or paid for it at the time of the original booking.

Instead, because the reservation had already been paid for, a second payment had to be made for the cheapest seat and a second card surcharge was applied for the flight to be taken.

Therefore they ripped us off for £7 or so extra for the credit card surcharge which is a fixed amount by allowing a flight to be booked seperately.

We fly to Spain frequently and still find Monarch to be the best airline. Recently my son had an accident and was confined to a wheelchair for several months. From check in to arrival at the destination airport the staff were excellent - very friendly and helpful throughout. As well as the great service, their pricing is always very competitive.

We booked flights from Luton to Tenerife with Monarch. The cost for 5 adults (after adding all the taxes which get added to the basic price) was £239.48 each. Then there was a charge of £44.43 for paying by credit card. Then you have to pay £17.99 EACH WAY for each bag you want to go in the hold. The website says you are allowed 5k each for hand-luggage, which is barely enough for a laptop + case - although in fact at both airports our hand luggage was not weighed. If you want to check in on-line so you can reserve your seats it costs (I think) £8.99 per person EACH WAY. You also have to pay (around £8 I think) if you want a meal during the flight. And of course you can pay for extra leg-room.

After all these extras you may well think that this is not such a budget airline after all. And the stress of worrying about having hand-luggage weighed can be considerable.

The check-in at both ends was painless.

The plane itself is of course very basic, and leg-room is a joke - I'm just over 5ft tall and even I found it a squash. Interestingly, if you look at the overhead lights, you can see that they do not match up with the seats - it's obvious that the original seats have been removed and extra rows put in.

On board they will charge you for everything. You even have to pay if you want a blanket!

As I was paying for 5 seats, it was worth choosing a budget airline, but if it was just the two of us, I would prefer to pay a bit more for a bit more comfort and less stress.