As I have got older (matured?) I have found that my airline requirements have changed - and the main change is that price isn't king - I simply don't want to do those Thomas Cook flight times anymore. I can hardly remember any occasion in the last 10 years when I didn't arrive at Dalaman at 3am, or indeed find myself sitting in the World's grimmest terminal at 2am waiting for a flight that will get me into Glasgow at 4-30am so I can be on the road, without sleep for 36 hours by half five. By half six I should be firmly embedded in a motorway bridge.
The last Thomas Cook flight back from Dalaman I had I checked in early so was overjoyed to not only get the back row (so no recline past 2") but also the aisle seat which must be 30% narrower than every other seat. I am not slender and I couldn't even sit without the recline button being reclined by my thigh - although thankfully it was only 2". Should giving a big person the smallest seat on the plane not be enough fun for Thomas Cook and friends, any slight possibility of sleep prior to having to drive from the airport at 6am across Scotland was removed by the fact that the back row is also immediately in front of the staff area at the back, where for four hours solid, half the crew loudly slagged off the other half at the front, and talked non-stop in full volume for the entire flight and without any significant pause, about absolute garbage and how their kids were doing at school. One of them said they were told at a recent parents evening that their kid was a bit over chatty apparently. Obviously I did ponder who they may have got that from.
