written by ZionSutherland on 20/06/2017
Monarch want to charge me £35 for a standard 'no show' letter to give my travel insurance after I contracted food poisoning and was unable to go on holiday. The return airline... Ryanair was without charge as well as skypark,(airport parking), and the booked hotel. I contracted food poisoning 12 hours before the flight and was bed ridden for 5 days. Doctors confirmed campylobacter gastroenteritis but because I did not..... could not.... cancel prior to departure, a cancellation fee is still applicable.... £25! So... I could not show up for my holiday.... fever of over 110.... couldn't quite phone Monarch and cancel my flight.... then ask for a no show letter and was requested to pay a cancellation fee and cost of a generic letter. I don't want money from Monarch.... my insurance company will hopefully pay. Where are their morals and empathy for someone who legitimately was very ill and could not take their seats. Shame on this customer relations team: Never use Monarch again....
written by Sandra108 on 26/10/2016
Just come back from Benidorm couldn't fault anything on flight going. But coming back was a different story, our gate came up on the board we queud to geton plane down three flights of stair ,were we were left for 15 mins then the bus arrived took us to the plain, were we had to wait amnother 15 mins before they would let us off. It became apparent they was still cleaning the plane, when we went to board the plane no one told you what end to get pn the plane by seat no so everybody got on at wrong end when I got on I said why did no one tell people which end to get on she then got on the phone, saying tell them which end to get on I booked my holiday with Thompson, but my flight was with monarch, they gave me £11 refund for this. It wasn't enough
written by Kash324 on 15/10/2016
stayed in the all inclusive 4star Occidental hotel in Costa teguise, the hotel was comfortable,staff friendly, however the food was one star, the hotel was very noisy, children unsupervised and allowed to run through corridors knocking bedroom doors
written by Emery402 on 10/10/2016
we are a family of 7 ( 5 adults and 2 children)we always prebooked and pay for our seats to ensure we sit together. Our outward flight to Palma was fine we sat in the seats booked, NOT so lucky on the way home. We were allocated different seats, 3 in the booked seats 3 moved 3 rows back and to our horror one of the children had been seated across the isle inbetween two stargers.I queried this at the check - in desk and was advised our seats had been changed by Monarch so we could not sit in the seats we had pre booked and would need to contact them re the change. The most distressing thing about the re seating involved the lack of concern they had for children’s safety as they seated my grandson separate to other members of our family even though there are 5 adults he could have been with. With the cooperation of the other passengers we changed my grandson seat so he was sat with his brother and a very distressed mother. I emailed them for an explanation as to why our seats were changed and a child separated from the family. Their first reply took 2 week and was a standard business reply with no explanationI then emailed back as I was not happy with the reply and again asked for an explation.The second reply took 17days and still they had no explanation as to why the seats were changed as it was not their policy to separate family’s. I will never again travel on Monarch with children as I don't consider them a responsible airline
written by Mitchellpm185 on 12/04/2016
My daughter booked a holiday in Sorrento for her honeymoon in June. It was booked in January and paid two weeks ago Today she received a message from Monarch to say that the hotel was cancelled as it was overbooked We contacted the hotel in Sorrento to be told that Monarch were told in December that the hotel wasI full so why were Monarch still taking bookings and taking money My daughter has been offered another hotel which is nowhere near as good as the hotel she booked. She is devastated as this is her honeymoon and it has been ruined by this company Never again will we book a Monarch holiday
written by SueMora on 31/03/2016
Monarch holidays, decieve people on their site , you can't book in on line we waited 55 minutes in queue while flight only waited 5 minutes!! No staff nobody at resort , after 35 years traveling the the world I comfortably say they are the most incompetent least customer friendly company I have ever come across...., please trust me spend the extra rather than these amateurs ..., absolutely useless
written by Davenport318 on 19/03/2016
I booked a holiday by telephone with monarch on 1st masrch2016 and as yet have not received any paperwork (requested it by post only) have no confirmation that my holiday is booked have received atol by email which is no use as I cannot print without a printer
written by bert52 on 01/02/2016
Whenever there are problems with drunk or interference by passengers sitting behind you. The cabin crew blame the victims, trying to cause the victims to get more upset. Such as, if passengers continually bang the seat tables. The front passengers complain to cabin crew!! Who then talk to you as if it is your fault to complain!!! Then, you call Monarch customer services to complain, who deny any problems!!!
written by 118Kirk on 07/12/2015
I would just like to let everyone know that Monarch airlines has a policy for mistakes made with bookings. "Our policy is that you can make a change to your booking within 24 hours of making the booking, we will waive administration fees, but any fare difference will apply" You will not find this statement anywhere on their website and you have to CALL them within the 24 hour period to get this policy. I hope this helps someone!
written by Websterbt300 on 29/10/2015
We had booked a return flight from Funchal, Madeira. The weather was terrible and the incoming flight couldn't land, so our flight was cancelled and we were shipped to a hotel for the night. None of this was Monarch's fault, of course. However they gave us absolutely no information about the cancellation until - five hours after the planned departure time - they told us to board a bus to the hotel. Non existent communication and appalling customer service. Other airlines affected seem to deal with it in a much more customer-friendly manner I.e. They told their passengers what was happening.
written by Kerrielouiselee on 25/09/2015
Early hours this morning, 2 friends and I flew back from ibiza with Monarch. As we sat down we noticed a DRUNK couple sat behind us which baffled us. After 40/45 minutes of being on the flight, the woman started getting aggressive and trying to attack us and when the flight attendant came over, he did nothing about this, in fact the blame was put onto us. Not only that, but because I tried to get away from the woman by leaning forward, the man sat in front decided to verbally attack us in which that flight attendant again failed to do anything about it! So for the whole journey home, my friends and I were nervous wrecks and the flight attendant even had the cheek to ask if we had enjoyed our flight (sarcastically). WORD OF ADVICE - DO NOT FLY WITH MONARCH. It is the most vile, disgusting airline!!!!!!
written by lukebot on 10/09/2015
I recently used Monarch airlines to fly me to Turkey and return 24th July 2015 for 7 days (Bodrum) and took the opportunity to book a hire vehicle through them, while mistakes and issues happen it is about how they are dealt with when things go wrong that measures a company in this day and age. I had major problems with the car supplied through them, naively it is only when it goes wrong everybody washes there hands of responsibility. Monarch sub contracted the car hire out to Cartrawler and they in turn sub contracted the hire out to Sixt Car Rental in Turkey, out of seven days the car was unusable for 3 of those days, as it broke down repeatedly, I was promised a replacement car that never happened etc etc Monarch have failed to come back to me and resolve this after numerous promises, it is almost impossible to speak to any body who can deal with the issue and results in promises of Monarch curtomer service promising to get back to you but never do. I would suggest that you do not use Monarch, because if anything goes wrong and it does from time to time, you will never get any help from Monarch customer services.
written by McPherson54 on 25/06/2015
Charged extra for seats put me in touch with a car hire company who ripped me off
written by marcb2001 on 21/06/2015
Monarch Airlines ZB 7504 / ZB 7505 was a great flight! We where really impressed of the service of Monarch and we landed early! The Crewe of Monarch had given us lots of fun and we all enjoyed it. There was nothing that I didn't like about it and everything was brilliant. We weren't so sure about it because we have never flown with Monarch before but it was the best experience of our lives. We flew on the 4th of July 2015 and now we're going again on the 3rd July 2015 from Manchester at 2.25pm on ZB568. We would've liked to know what it was like before we made our purchase but it was AMAZING. We didn't know about it but it's worth it. We would've like to know more about the service of Monarch before we had made our purchase and also if the take off's and landing's weren't late hopefully early and there where!!!
written by PMWaterford on 15/05/2015
Certainly worth the little extra you pay compared to the budget airlines.
written by on 12/04/2015
As I intend to be a frequent flier to Gib/ Malaga, I tried to join Vantage club, I received a notice from Monarch giving me a query number. Two weeks later, I have not had a response.this leads me to conclude that their customer service is very poor/ abysmal or, they do not want frequent flyers to join their Vantage club.
written by on 09/04/2015
I'm a person with reduce mobility and I love to travel so I fly frequently. When I book a flight I ask for the special assistance wheelchair in cabin because I can't walk and I always do the check in online because I'm not a self-reliant person, meaning that I can't wear the oxygen mask in case of an emergency, so my carer has to seat next to me to give me a hand (due to the small space between seats, I can't even lean to eat or put on my ear plugs). And I found out that with Monarch airline you need to pay for your seat in order to check in online. Because I refuse to do so (I strongly believe that pay to check in online in my case would be discrimination, as they specifically ask me to bring a carer, else they can refuse to take me on board) so I contact the customer service and they say they have this strict policy because there are people that abuse the system, that sometimes they say they can't walk and then they stand up (I was not going to explain to them that there are a lot of different disabilities with reduce mobility including the ones that can stand up but not keeping the balance to walk or, in my case, not able to raise there arms up, etc.). Anyway, they say they will do it free of charge if I send a document from the doctor saying I need a special seat. As you know, I'm not carrying on a document like that with me every time I want to fly (again, that would be discrimination) so I offered my document with the percentage of disability and the type and they said it was not enough. I had to call twice and complain about being discriminated. So finally one of them talked to the supervisor and said they would do an exception and for future flights with them (I doubt it) they will need a document from my doctor with specific conditions so they can keep it in their database. After all that, when we arrived to the airport all the passengers received a letter with their apologies explaining that we would fly with another company (Privilege) as apparently their airplane had some issues and was not able to fly. NEVER AGAIN!!
written by markinsuffolk on 25/03/2015
Contacted Monarch twice now using their online contact system (no phone numbers advertised on the website). Never replied to either messages so absolute waste of time and useless company. Dread to think what they will be like when we fly with them!
written by Rylie474 on 18/02/2015
Didn't like Monarch at all. Legroom far too small, even though I'm under six foot. It felt like they are trying to be a budget carrier but charge scheduled airline rates.
written by Smith1985 on 08/01/2015
Booked flights months ago to Hurghada,checked in online 60 days before flight .Took less than 3 minutes to drop off hold baggage 02/12/2014 for flight ZB770 Hurghada. Priority boarding meant just that.Long leg seats worth every penny. As we are both Scuba Divers Monarch honoured the Free 5kgs extra hold baggage allowance each. Aircraft departed on time arrived early in a Hurghada .Flight Crew kept us informed of route and. Cabin Crew were friendly and nothing seemed too much trouble. On 30/12/2014 ZB771 Hurghada /Gatwick, Cabin and Flight Crew also first class. Only moan,booked hotel pre flight and had breakfast. Booked lounge and had breakfast food again as nothing else on offer. In my day pax meals were based on next meal at destination,so we were expecting lunch half way on flight,but had the worst breakfast ever shortly after departure..Meal on return flight was almost as bad,in our opinion pre booked meals are a no no. The snack menus in our opinion were far superior. How ever ,that is the only moan we had ,everything else was First Class. Well done Monarch.we are looking forward to our next.Hurghada flight (minus pre booked meals)
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As rated by our community of reviewers
Delayed's Comment
Written on: 29/10/2015
Normal situation for Monarch I'm afraid .... they are good when things are running well however when there is a problem such as yours they have not got the resources to cope. Well known and documented fact that their crew and head office staff (in general) are on the ball however their customer services and post flight divisions are the worst in the industry ~ they even have a Facebook Complaints page which has daily posts such as yours!