How does this recent experience on TUI's updated 767 compare to my previous experience - on this exact aircraft - from several years ago?
Flight number: BY2246
Route: Manchester - Fuerteventura
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300, G-OBYF
Date: 23rd August 2022
Times: 1425 - 1850
Seat: 34H
As part of my first post-covid holiday, I was fortunate to be able to travel onboard TUI's Boeing 767 down to the Canary Island hotspot of Fuerteventura. Operated by the 24-year old G-OBYF, read along to find out about my experience.
I'll be covering the following:
Onboard service and crew
Check in & the airport
As part of their Manchester operation, TUI has several widebody aircraft based there - that being their 767 fleet, in addition to a portion of their 787 Dreamliner fleet. During the peak summer months, it's commonplace to see these aircraft operating shorter European flights - such as BY2246 to Fuerteventura. Flying a widebody should almost always lead to a greater level of comfort than booking a flight on a single aisle aircraft.
We checked-in at the airport, offered for free to TUI passengers. There was minimal queueing - we had one or two people in front of us, but certainly no delay to checking in. The Swissport agent - Swissport being the company which TUI contracts to handle its ground operations at Manchester - was friendly enough, checking us in and sending us on our way within a few minutes. All in all, a pretty unremarkable and standard experience (not necessarily a negative!)
TUI operates out of Manchester's Terminal 2. This terminal has recently undergone an huge expansion - adding an all new security area as well as a new half to the check in hall, the majority of departure gates and the passenger lounge area post security. This is a much needed improvement to the airport, as you will know if you have travelled through Manchester. It hugely improves the passenger experience of what is one of the worst airports in Europe, and this also means that TUI passengers will have one of the best passenger experiences of any when departing from Manchester. Though - a quick side note - TUIs check-in desks are still currently located in the old, unrenovated, section of the terminal.
The terminal itself was really busy. There was a wide range of shops to browse through and eat at, though there were big queues for them all. There was a lot of seating, but this was pretty much all taken. Again, however, there's a great variety of shops and restaurants to chose from - including Pret, Archies, a taco restaurant and WHSmith from what I can remember. So you won't be lacking choice.
Boarding & the aircraft
Boarding was completed as you would expect; priority passengers (such as people with mobility issues) were loaded first, followed by a general free for all of everybody else when it came to general boarding. Nonetheless, the boarding process took around half an hour from start to finish - so rather lengthy, but was still completed without any hiccups (how fast can you be expected to load 300+ pax?)
Now, for the first important thing to note. The 767 was designed for a 7-abrest seating layout - that is 7 seats per row, in a 2-3-2 configuration. TUI is one of only a very small handful of airlines worldwide who have been brave enough to configure their 767s with an extra seat per row; making for an 8-abreast layout of 2-4-2. And the sacrifice to both seat and aisle width shows; it makes for TUI having one of the least comfortable 767s in the sky. Probably not something Boeing would want me to say. And having also flown on TUI's 757 and 787, I can say that the 767 is indeed the least comfortable of them all. However, I must add that personally I didn't find this to be an issue and for the kind of flights that the TUI fleet operate - typically no more than 4hours - its perfectly adequate. We won't mention the 6h 15m hop these do down to Cape Verde.
The seats themselves looked new and modern, and it was clear that they had been recently refitted. They consisted of a navy blue leather covering, with an adjustable headrest and USB port in the back (no more seatback IFE screens for us), and on the whole looked smart. One of the better economy seat offerings from UK airlines, I would say, despite the narrow width. Below is an image taken shortly after boarding (just take a look at how narrow those aisles are!).
Punctuality & Communication
Arguably the most important measure of a flight is its punctuality, and in this case it was poor. We got airborne at 17:11, just under three hours behind schedule. Where you may decide to lay the blame for this is complicated, though. Whilst it is *techincally* the fault of Swissport - the ground handling agent TUI contracts at Manchester - who cut back on staff heavily during covid (therefore leaving a severely understaffed baggage handling operation), TUI is the company who chose to use them despite knowing this, and also the company who scheduled many flights knowing that they were destined to suffer from delays (I mean, having their entire long haul operation from Manchester depart within an hour of eachother must have raised some eyebrows?).
The co-pilot was the staff member who gave us information regarding the delay and, to be fair, he kept passengers updated when he received new information as to how long the baggage handlers might be, didn't shy away from the fact it would be a lengthy delay and was willing to take any questions from passengers. So Kudos to him.
On an important side note, if you take a look at TUIs main holiday competitor - Jet2 - their operation has fared much better. Why? Because Jet2 employ their own ground staff and baggage agents directly, rather than using a third party to do this for them. It gives them a much greater ability to hire the appropriate number of staff.
Between January and April 2022, 77.8% of Jet2 flights left Manchester on time. Compare that to 34.8% for TUI over the same time period, and needn't more be said.
Onboard comfort and amenities
I was seated in 34H, a seat designated as 'extra space' (just extra legroom to normal people) by TUI. The seat itself was comfortable enough for a 4 hour flight, though any longer and it's possible I could've struggled. The adjustable headrest was actually a really nice feature to have, and this is one of my favourite things about British Airways' short haul fleet, which also features these (at least on their older aircraft). As this was an extra legroom seat, legroom was more than adequate - and plenty for the 4 hour hop. On an unrelated note, the sunset was absolutely stunning!
Normal economy seat pitch is a meagre 29 inches, standard for low cost airlines, and seat width is 17 inches - a good inch less than on other 767 operators. Tight. In terms of amenities, there was the seatback pocket TUI magazine, as well as the USB outlet location within the seat area (though I didn't manage to locate my own). Other than that, and the gorgeous view outside, there was nothing - the IFE screens that once featured on their 767s are now a sight forgotten since the refurbishment.
Service & Crew
Onboard service was, again, a standard low-cost operation; nothing was complimentary, and all was to purchase. There was pretty much everything you could want; drinks, snacks and a small selection of hot food at a price that was slightly on the expensive side, but not unreasonable (£3 for a cup of tea etc).
Unfortunately, perhaps the best way to describe the crew was mediocre. I dislike making poor remarks about crew, however, they really were mediocre at best - not smiley, not visible for most of the flight and when I asked them a question mid-flight about the best way to walk through to the other aisle, it was clear that they would have rather been left alone. I almost felt like an inconvenience. This is something that I very rarely come across.
In addition to this, when we returned a week later, the aircraft arrived into Manchester late (unsurprisingly) at around 01:15, with us eventually deboarding around 02:00 due to - in the captains words - "aviation in 2022". Apparently they were struggling to get busses to get us over to the terminal. The captain repeatedly said they were going to get us off "at some point this morning", and he'd be grateful if we didn't let this experience put us off TUI and booked with them again next year, in order to keep him in a job. Very reassuring!
Cleanliness
The cabin was very clean when we boarded, seatbelts were crossed on seats and seatback pockets full. Less desirable were the toilets (it seems they must have been missed out of the renovation) and we'll leave it there.
Arrival
Pre-arrival into Fuerteventura, the crew requested that due to the late running of the aircraft, passengers organise the contents of their own seatback pockets - displaying the safety card at front, followed by the magazine behind and then the cafe menu, and that we take our own rubbish with us off the aircraft in order to minimise further delays. I do understand this, however I also believe it is not the passengers job to do this and part of me wonders, thinking back to my previous comments, if this was another example of the crew being sub-par. But I digress.
We landed into the darkness of Fuerteventura at 21:05, 2 hours and 15 minutes behind schedule. Deboarding was done in an organised manor. I was with a passenger who required a wheelchair and the wheelchair met us at the aircraft door in Fuertevenura, after leaving it at the aircraft door in Manchester. It's definitely something that went right on this specific flight, as I've also had many poor wheelchair experiences (including on TUI).
Booking process & Costs
I leave this section until the end as I like to leave you to form your own view on what you think is a reasonable price. We booked the flight on tui.co.uk, with the cost of return flights to Fuerteventura being £533; including £71 for extra space seats and £50 for 20kg checked luggage. It means this flight was equivalent to ~£267 for a one-way trip. The TUI website itslef is user-friendly and it was simple to manage the booking and manage additional services, such as seat selection. Slightly annoyingly, however, the cost of these flights more than halved the day after we booked, but I could never hold this against TUI! Would I say the price was worth it? To be honest, I'm not sure. Probably not. But also maybe. What do you think?
Final thoughts & Overall rating
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