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Small Planet Airlines Discussion
DONT BELIEVE ALL YOU READ. I have to say after reading many reviews before travelling with small planet I was very cautious/scared. However; it is equally important to say what a load of old tosh those reviews were! Checking in was a breeze. Both my flights were on time, coming home we landed 35mins early!! Food service was excellent, the staff were amazingly friendly. It was my mates birthday when we flew out to Cyprus and he got to go in the cockpit and chat to the captain mid-flight as a treat!!!! Really impressed with the nice touch of boiled sweets before landing along with the friendly laid back nature of the staff! TOP AIRLINE!
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Hi, hoping to offer some relief for some! Just come back fr om Zante, flew from Gatwick on 4th and back yesterday (11th). I'm a really REALLY nervous flyer and all the stuff I'd been reading was sending me into a panic. We had a call a few days before leaving to say our flight time was an hour earlier, and when we checked in it was even earlier but to our relief now not on a Small planet plane. We flew out with TS (Czech) and basic but fine, no problems. Our Olympic rep was lovely. Way back a change to Enterair (Polish) and no delays. Again basic but it was on time! Bumpy ride home but can't blame that on the airline! Our rep said that they were supposed to be using Small Planet about 4 times a week from Zante but so far had only used them 4 times this season, desperately trying to cover flights wh ere SPA have let them down, rumours are they are going under. Might not be of help but just wanted to report that we were very lucky and all my worrying was for nothing.
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i have been reading these messages with some fear as in flying with them on the 22nd, have just phoned olympic holidays and panic over ! it seems they have "woken up" to small planet and are not using them, the carrier has changed but to stop any confusion they are keeping the small planet flight codes , BUT IT WILL NOT BE SMALL PLANET!, so hopefully all will be well
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Guest : Guest : This IS the first time we have booked a holiday with Olympic and only did because we believed they WERE a reputable and Greek Specialist company. We will NEVER book with them again. We always book with Thomson they ARE the professionals. I am in the same boat really wanted to visit parga so booked with Olympic because of the choice of accomodation. i have been reading these messages with some fear as in flying with them on the 22nd, have just phoned olympic holidays and panic over ! it seems they have "woken up" to small planet and are not using them, the carrier has changed but to stop any confusion they are keeping the small planet flight codes , BUT IT WILL NOT BE SMALL PLANET!, so hopefully all will be well
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Guest : This IS the first time we have booked a holiday with Olympic and only did because we believed they WERE a reputable and Greek Specialist company. We will NEVER book with them again. We always book with Thomson they ARE the professionals. I am in the same boat really wanted to visit parga so booked with Olympic because of the choice of accomodation.
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Flying to Kefalonia on 30th June, booked in 3:30 am only to be told there was going to be a 12 hour delay!!! Seems that they chose to redirect our plane to pick up passengers in France and takle to Poland. Then you see they are an Eastern European outfit.! After 14 hours wait a substitute plane arrived that was the most cramped plane I have ever been on. All in all they were a disaster and will never fly with them again. Also there seems something strange about the way they operate. You cannot get their flight stats up like other carriers. There website appears to be virus ridden. Be careful.
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This IS the first time we have booked a holiday with Olympic and only did because we believed they WERE a reputable and Greek Specialist company. We will NEVER book with them again. We always book with Thomson they ARE the professionals.
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Olympic are actually the ones to blame for all this - vote with your feet - book with a reputable tour operator in future who use reputable airlines!
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So have just checked Thomson flights to Skiathos departing B'ham on 19 July. Now £418.98 each. Travel Agents suggested the price might go down nearer to departure......it has in fact gone up since yesterday! I have spoken to B'Ham airport regarding SPA and they told me that they do land there - SOMETIMES - but that they come and go as they please - hence the massive delays when they do - they have no take off slots! Good luck to all who are checking in tomorrow morning! I will monitor with interest. Today's flight back from Zante (Zakynthos) doesn't even have an 'expected' time on B'Ham airport arrivals schedule!
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Guest : Guest : Emma : I am due to be travelling on Sunday 14th July at 9am with SPA to Zante. After reading up on them I am seriously concerned. I have called Olympic and they have advised me that the flight is still scheduled to leave at 9am - but can we believe anything that they tell us?! Dont believe one word. They are a joke airline, went to Cyprus on 29th june left 11 hrs late came back on the 6th July over 2hrs late. No explanation from either airline or Olympic. OK so I dont want to worry you but ive just gone into 'manage my booking' on line and its showing the flight leaving LGW at 05.50 and is going to KEFELONIA and returning to Zante!! Have just called Olympic who said they would call me back......getting more than a little concerned now as the guy on the phones was clearly avoiding telling me something!!............... Bit of an update - I just called Olympic and the guy told me that all of the Gatwick flights are using the same flight numbers but a different carrier. I asked who the carrier was and he said that they would know 1 or 2 days before... hopefully all will be ok...
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We are due to travel on Friday 19 June to Skiathos with SPA departing from Birmingham (or are we?). We discovered last Friday that all passengers for this flight were bussed to Manchester for a flight that might take off at 6.00pm. Check in at B'Ham was 9.30am for an 11.30am departure. When we discovered only a couple of days prior to this that we would be flying on Small Planet airlines we decided to check out just who they were! Well what a shock. The problems - massive delays on outward and return journeys are horrendous. We only booked the holiday on June 26 and the problems with the Skiathos flight was already happening then. Olympic holidays DID NOT disclose this to us then. So we returned to the Travel Agent to try and change our flight or even the holiday! No chance - Olympic wanted £369 each to change the flight to a Thomson one - which was more than the original booking cost per person. They would NOT change the destination for another holiday at all. If we decided to cancel we would only get £67 back. Now having the knowledge about these flights I have been tracking and checking flights for SPA. Firstly, they do NOT have a licence to fly from B'Ham and even today (Thursday) the Zante flight was still sitting on the ground at 10.45am when it should have left at 9.30am. So watch this space for tomorrow's flight to Skiathos - I will be monitoring with interest! Olympic holidays are NOT advising passengers of any changes until getting to the airport and so are relying on folk accepting what they get! The aircraft used are very old, cramped and at times dirty with broken arms and seats! But how can Olympic justify telling people whilst on holiday - 2 days before they are due to fly home that their flight will be delayed by 7 hours and then on the day another 2 hours - making 9 hours in all. So you loose a day's holiday at the beginning and the last day is utterly rubbish. This is heart attack material - and definitely not a holiday. Olympic holidays just do not go anyway to look after their customers and we will NEVER EVER book a holiday with them again - and we haven't even been yet.......and it remains to be seen whether we actually do!
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avoid Olympic using Small Planet like the plague ! Terrible delay of 11 hours going out and two hours late coming back. No apologies or explanations ! Neither company cares. Never never again
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Guest : Guest : Emma : I am due to be travelling on Sunday 14th July at 9am with SPA to Zante. After reading up on them I am seriously concerned. I have called Olympic and they have advised me that the flight is still scheduled to leave at 9am - but can we believe anything that they tell us?! Dont believe one word. They are a joke airline, went to Cyprus on 29th june left 11 hrs late came back on the 6th July over 2hrs late. No explanation from either airline or Olympic. OK so I dont want to worry you but ive just gone into 'manage my booking' on line and its showing the flight leaving LGW at 05.50 and is going to KEFELONIA and returning to Zante!! Have just called Olympic who said they would call me back......getting more than a little concerned now as the guy on the phones was clearly avoiding telling me something!!............. oh my god that sounds awful! I have just checked on the olympic website under 'my booking' and its still showing as 9am... this is scary...
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Guest : Emma : I am due to be travelling on Sunday 14th July at 9am with SPA to Zante. After reading up on them I am seriously concerned. I have called Olympic and they have advised me that the flight is still scheduled to leave at 9am - but can we believe anything that they tell us?! Dont believe one word. They are a joke airline, went to Cyprus on 29th june left 11 hrs late came back on the 6th July over 2hrs late. No explanation from either airline or Olympic. OK so I dont want to worry you but ive just gone into 'manage my booking' on line and its showing the flight leaving LGW at 05.50 and is going to KEFELONIA and returning to Zante!! Have just called Olympic who said they would call me back......getting more than a little concerned now as the guy on the phones was clearly avoiding telling me something!!
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Great news, I keep checking this too as we are booked on this flight, it was booked through Cosmos too not Olympic, fingers and everything else crossed for 8th August, although I'm not sure its worth all this worry beforehsnd! Guest : See the kos flight was / on time from Gatwick this morning.
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I have just found out my son and 8 of his mates are flying with this airline to Zante from B,ham. Should have taken off at 9.30am but just rang my son at 10.45 and he is on the plane and its still on the ground. He's been on the plane for nearly 2 hours just sitting there and the crew keep coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why they cannot take off!.....The holiday was booked through Thomas Cook using Olympic.
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Small planet airlines are the worst airline I have ever flown with. Outbound flight was delayed by 4hrs. No communication at all. Flight dirty, small and unhealthily hot. When we got on, a couple found it so bad they wanted to leave and we were delayed by another hour whilst their bags were unloaded. The cabin crew did not keep us informed and were very unhelpful. Inbound flight we have just discovered has been delayed by 5.5hrs as Small planet airlines planes are so terrible they appear to break down every single flight the attempt. We are now being picked up at 2am instead of 10pm from our hotel when check out is midday. No apology from Olympic Holidays for chartering such a terrible company for their flights. Check Twitter this happens all the time. Atrocious. Not only that but we booked a travelodge which we now won't get home in time to use, how funny we booked it so we could sleep, we look forward to 48hr sleep deprivation. If the already delayed, excuse me I mean "re-scheduled" flight home is delayed any further which I'm sure it will be, we will miss our trains home. This is a lot of extra money we are having to spend because this airline is so poor. Customer service from airline AND Olympic soo bad that even though our hotel has been amazing (because it's nothing to do with them) I will never book a holiday with Olympic holidays again. And I will warn everyone else not to. Theodoros Fiona hotel is amazing but if they want repeat custom from me and I guess a lot of others Id advise Theo to sack Olympic holidays as his representative company. One full day of holiday ruined at the start and now two full days ruined at the end. Wow. Foot Note as I read below they serve paninis etc and alcohol and duty free, out plane served nothing but fizzy drinks which were large bottles of cheap style coke that you were then poured a plastic beaker of.
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The flight to perveza-greece, from Manchester today left 20mins late. Does anyone have any info on flights from Manchester, are they using small planet or another carrier, have booked with Olympic. Thanks
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READ TRIP ADVISOR- FACEBOOK. IF ONLY OLYMPIC AND FACEBOOK BOTHERED TO LISTEN - SOCIAL MEDIA WILL FINALLY BE THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN BASED ON THESE REVIEWS? MONEYSAVING EXPERT PROVIDES TIPS ON CLAIMING FOR DELAYS - IGNORE CAA IT WILL TAKE TOO LONG GO DIRECT TO SMALL CLAIMS
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Please do not use Olympic again you will not know who your flight is with until tickets arrive and even then Olympic will change it. They use the likes of Small Planet, Sky Wings, Strategic, in fact ANY Unsafe Cheap Rubbish because they Do Not Give a monkeys about You. Do not blame the airlines blame Olympic for taking your money under false pretences. My heart goes out to you I know what it's like to work my arse off all year to afford a holiday and I to booked with Olympic for years until Sky Wings X Never Again.
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We were supposed to fly with SPA to Las Palmas from Gatwick. Upon arriving at Gatwick we were told we had a 2 and a half hour delay but were not given a reason for this. Flight finally left about 3 hours late and was with Privilege Airlines (a spanish company). On our return from Las Palmas we had just over an hour delay but were not told about the delay at all. This flight was with SPA and once on board the flight was pleasant. I would not travel with SPA again or a company I know uses them, as I don't think it is worth the worry beforehand.
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just got back from Santorini after a great week. I was a little concerned about flying with Small lanet due to the reviews that I had read beforehand. I must say that I was very pleased with the flight, bothing out bound and inbound. The planes left of time and landed on time both ways.. It was a very pleasant experience. Id fly with them again.
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We are due to be flying with Small Planet from Gatwick on Friday 12 JUly to Corfu at 18:20. I've literally just had Olympic Holidays on the phone stating the flight time has now changed to depart Gatwick at 23:50. Why do they keep doing this?! Small Planet & Olympic are both at fault. Olympic clearly knew from Small PLanet's performance last summer that they are an unreliable airline, yet they still chose to lease aircraft from them this summer. Olympic be warned - you WILL lose so many customers as a result of this.
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I'm flying on the 17th july to Larnaca from Manchester. I was just wondering if anyone has had problems with SPA when flying from Manchester?
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Thanks for the that, I can't seem to find this information on the gatwick webpage though, is there anyway you could copy a link to where you found it? Thanks! Guest : The call sign for small planet is LLC I can find them going from Gatwick @10am on the 17th from the south terminal rather than the normal North. C : Is anyone flying to Rhodes from BHX on 17th July at 10am? Can't seem to find any record ANYWHERE of this flight actually existing? I'm getting worried!
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1.5 hours delay from Verona to bournermouth, Sunday 7th.reason was the plane was fog bound in jersey.normal airlines have back up as jersey is well known for for fog and has no automatic landing system.one passenger said they have experience experience this three times. therefore avoid as they do not have enough recources and I want ensure I have a good holiday
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Don't get me started about olympic ad small planet! Me and my partner flew out fr om gatwick to larnaca on Sunday 30th june after an 18 hour delay which we didn't find out about until we checked in at gatwick. No info was given as to why there was a delay. So we lost a day of our holiday there, then when we landed the olympic rep was trying to squeeze us in a cab with another couple that had no room for our cases, he wanted us to put our suitcase on our lap, I point blank refused and the rep just walked away. luckily the cab driver called for a second car and then a minibus turned up which we had all to ourselves. My step son and a friend joined us a week later after a 9 hour delay (this time they rang and gave 24 hours notice) So they also missed a day and arrived at 2am. The flights back were no better, my step son and friend had a further 7 hour dealy and we were split fr om them and sent to paphos airport with a ten hour delay! On the way out we flew on a faroe islands plane which was clean enough but the staff were hard to understand and we got a soggy toasted sandwich to eat. On our return we were put on an easyjet flight wh ere I had an argument on check in when they told me my cabin sized bag bought just 2 weeks before was now too big to go in the cabin as they had changed their rules on tuesday of that week! I told them that I hadn't booked with them, I had booked with olympic and had paid for extra baggage and that they had allowed my acceptable bag on the way out so they were getting it on the way back, luckily the check in girl got fed up and just gestured me to carry on through, the olympic rep again ran away and hid! My step son and his friend flew on a very tiny unmarked plain white aircraft wh ere they were given a tiny snack box to eat. I will never be booking with olympic ever again or flying with small planet. I'd rather drive!
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I think it's going from Gatwick not BHX C : Is anyone flying to Rhodes from BHX on 17th July at 10am? Can't seem to find any record ANYWHERE of this flight actually existing? I'm getting worried!
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Emma : I am due to be travelling on Sunday 14th July at 9am with SPA to Zante. After reading up on them I am seriously concerned. I have called Olympic and they have advised me that the flight is still scheduled to leave at 9am - but can we believe anything that they tell us?! Dont believe one word. They are a joke airline, went to Cyprus on 29th june left 11 hrs late came back on the 6th July over 2hrs late. No explanation from either airline or Olympic.
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The call sign for small planet is LLC I can find them going from Gatwick @10am on the 17th from the south terminal rather than the normal North. C : Is anyone flying to Rhodes from BHX on 17th July at 10am? Can't seem to find any record ANYWHERE of this flight actually existing? I'm getting worried!
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Have just returned from a holiday to Lake Garda with Newmarket travel. The holiday was fantastic in terms of location and hotel. However the flight over was disappointing in that they did not offer refreshments nor food free of charge. The flight over only offered drinks and alcohol and Pringles at an exorbitant charge. The flight home was cancelled but we were only told when we were on our way to the airport. Thanks to Newmarket we were put up in Verona Airport hotel and were provided with meals and breakfast. On checking on line it appears delays are the normal for this airline. We travelled the following morning and are not impressed with this airline which is very second rate. We hope that Newmarket don't use them next year.
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Is anyone flying to Rhodes from BHX on 17th July at 10am? Can't seem to find any record ANYWHERE of this flight actually existing? I'm getting worried!
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Our flight was on 30th June and involved a 13 3/4 hour delay to kefalonia. When we asked what the delay was we were told they didn't know and it wasn't their problem as they are just ticket agents etc. We tried to find out again and were told it was "operational reasons"???? I am trying to email the customer services email and am getting no where . I can claim from our insurance company but am told we could get some compensation from the Airline as it was such a long delay ??? Does anybody have any other info? The plane that arrived to take us was a joke to say the least. I worked for an airline for over 7 years and have never been on anything do dilapidated or unsafe looking.im not even sure they had enough crew operating for safety etc! In this day and age information is key to keeping pax informed as to wha'ts gone wrong and when things will happen .We had no info from anybody or any kind of written apology.Im fairly sure this delay was known about the night before .We had to check in our bags before we were told any of the delay info I wonder why ????
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Guest : Emma : In addition to my comment below - the flight doesnt even appear on the Gatwick Airport website Charter Flight timetable?! Now I am really worried!!! Our flight never showed up on any website, flight radar, gatwick, flight24 etc........... Ok thanks - Will keep my fingers crossed!
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Emma : In addition to my comment below - the flight doesnt even appear on the Gatwick Airport website Charter Flight timetable?! Now I am really worried!!! Our flight never showed up on any website, flight radar, gatwick, flight24 etc.
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In addition to my comment below - the flight doesnt even appear on the Gatwick Airport website Charter Flight timetable?! Now I am really worried!!!
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I am due to be travelling on Sunday 14th July at 9am with SPA to Zante. After reading up on them I am seriously concerned. I have called Olympic and they have advised me that the flight is still scheduled to leave at 9am - but can we believe anything that they tell us?!
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The plane never turned up at Gatwick so flew with a replacement airline to Greek Islands then on the return they never turned up again and was delayed 14hrs without any explanation. Another airline arrived the next day, with passengers from Gatwick ( who I guess were not very happy after also being delayed 14hrs). The plane that arrived was too small for all the passengers so some were left behind until the next day! The return flight was so 'cramped' (think the other airline had put an extra two rows of seats in to squeeze more passengers in). The plane was a little grubby and no apology for the delay! Now Small Planet Ailrines don't reply to emails regarding the complaint and neither do Olympic Holidays , the tour operator.who promised us all a letter to confirm the delay to obtain compensation - RATING - A BIG FAT ZERO!
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we flew on SPA fr om gatwick to gran canaria on the 30th june, 3.5 hours late departing and NOT on a SPA plane, the plane was MIA and a new (thats a joke) plane from lithuania was drafted in to take us, It was an old 757-200, a bit dirty and the crew uniforms were out of the 70's but they were polite and we got a free bacon roll and a drink! coming back sunday the 7th july was delayed by at least an hour, we had a SPA plane and a SPA crew member on our bus to the plane and we bombarded him with questions and he just rolled his eyes when we asked him why it was late on every flight and told us he had missed a party due to being 6 hours late the prev day. We actually thought we were lucky on the way out as the check in girl told us the prev flight check in was at 6am that morning and they were not leaving until 6.50 pm so nearly 13 hours delay, i don't know wh ere it was going to, And she then told us that they were lucky as the previous day they had an 18 hour delay! When we landed at gatwick on sunday we were bussed (and i have NEVER been on a bus at gatwick) that took ages to get us to the terminal. The staff didn't seem very interested in doing the safety announcement and were a little offish but all in i think we were lucky with the minor delays we had but i would not recommend flying with this airline and i will not ever again.
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Grand cru have two wet leases for their "fleet" of two 737-300s, ly-fly and ly-bgc. One is 25.3 yrs old, can't see the other at the moment. They will just use the flight code of spa.
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Just flew gatwick-kos and return journey with small planets instead of our original monarch flights. A320 looked quite smart. not too much leg room. both flights left on time and catering was fine on board.
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Tried calling olympic to speak to the customer service manager but never there tosspeak to same old excuse she is busy....like the same excuse I heard last year.
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anyone flying from birmingham to rhodes on the 31 july after reading all these comments very concerned .
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Guest : going to kos in august with monarch but found out we are flying with small planet not happy has anybody thanks.y been this year if so could you tell me was it on time and safe Guest : going to kos in august with monarch but found out we are flying with small planet not happy has anybody thanks.y been this year if so could you tell me was it on time and safe Just back from Kos using small planet. Got on plane on time at Gatwick and started to taxi to runway when captain found a fault with plane.Had to taxi back to stand and wait for an engineer to arrive.Sat on plane for 2 hours until fault was fixed, then found out the fuel was emptied out whilst fault was being fixed.Had to wait extra 30mins to re-fuel so going out was sat on plane for 2 1/2 hours without being offered a drink to buy. Coming back from Kos checked in baggage and found out our small planet plane had just left Gatwick so had a 3 hour delay that end. Overall a great holiday but airline didn't cover themselves in glory
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