freebird airlines anyone?

[sunlover]

I had been looking at thomas cooks flights for a while but they had been quite expensive for the dates that we wanted to go. They now appear to have added more flights (cheaper) with Freebird which I gather is a turkish airline and was wondering had anyone travelled with them before and what was the verdict - also as we had been bitten by the aegeann collapse how secure would they be (I know obviously that no-one is really secure at the moment but just in comparison)

[JT]

Are you asking is Thomas Cook safe ? and if so your guess is as good as mine and the next persons

Freebird is a Turkish airline and classed probably as a no frills and used to be used by goldtrail before they went under

I have used them a long time ago a few times and barring one rubbish dilapidated plane the rest were ok

[sunlover]

thanks JT thats grand

[deeve]

ive booked with thomas cook and their flights are now atol protected ,they give you an atol certificate at the time of booking so you are safe

[silverbeard21]

Freebird Airlines began operations on 5th April 2000. Headquarters are in Istanbul. It has a fleet of 15 aircraft of which 8 are leased to other operators. The remaining 7 aircraft operated directly by Freebird are 5 Airbus A320 & 2 Airbus A321. The average age of the fleet is estimated to be 8.3 years.
Reports suggest this is a stable operator.

[sunlover]

cheers for that silverbeard - thomas cook is my only option so with that I guess its a case of you pay your money you take your chances as I would have done anyway but just wanted some feedback on freebird -sounds a bit like aegeann and it seems like the best I will do pricewise

[JT]

I think people are getting confused here

Thomas Cook are a travel agency

Aegean where the same as in an agency that sold seats on flights

Thomas Cook are using Freebird airline planes

Aegean used Onur airline planes and Onur are very much still in operation and were never in difficulties

[Sami]

I've flown with Freebird before and they were fine. I would use them again if TC are offering them then I would imagine I'll be on one next year.

[feefee1970]

so you can book an ounr air flight via cook ? i dont mind onur air but big Erik wont fly with them and there extra leg rom charges are expensive
or can you book onur direct ?

[JT]

You can book a Thomas Cook flight that is chartered from Freebird or maybe Onur but you cannot book a Onur operated scheduled flight through Thomas Cook

[dragon]

Just be aware that if you have an Onur Air flight booked through Thomas Cook, they will have no more dealings with you once the booking is done. We had flights booked last year and when we tried to make arrangements for wheelchairs at the airport they just told us to ring Onur Air direct. There's no point doing this unless you are fluent in Turkish as I couldn't get to speak to anyone who understood English. I even had a man, who, when I asked could I speak to someone who spoke english, he replied 'probably' and then put another woman on the line who couldn't speak english

In the end, after speaking to loads of people, a woman picked up the words Dalaman airport so I just settled for the airport's telephone number even though I didn't need it and just got off the line, as it was pointless. They don't seem to answer emails. I phoned Consumer Direct to see what the situation was as I thought I had a contract with TC. Apparently not, there is a get out clause where they are acting as 'agents' and therefore don't have to do anything.

Never had a problem when dealing with Aegean. As Freebird is a Turkish airline, I wonder if they have any staff that are fluent in english? If they do then there's no problem but otherwise it would be the repeat of my nightmare with Onur Air.