We went for their "East Europe Dhamaka" packaged tour last week. Booking, visa assistance, and other official paperwork went through smoothly, thanks to the team at the Viman Nagar office of Thomas Cook. The trip went well for us. But, apart from that, here are some important observations:
1. The package stated 6N/7N duration but in reality, we got only 5 complete days of tour. The first day we arrived at Vienna was at around 6:30 pm, and we were made to wait for over 3 hours for the other group members to arrive, only then the coach would start. We were not informed clearly about the 3+hrs wait time at the airport, otherwise, we could have taken a cab ourselves and checked into the hotel, to maximize the tour time for us. Instead, we were made to check-in at around 11:30pm, and were given packed veg meals (when we had clearly opted for non-veg). The last day of the tour did not have any activity as well, and we were made to waste the entire first half in the hotel, only to check-out and catch an afternoon flight (at 3 pm from Prague).
2. At the time of booking, we were told that middle-eastern airlines are provided for travel. But in reality, we were made to travel via Air India (with horrible service and food - something that will go into separate review for Air India), take the flight via Delhi, even though our hub was via Mumbai (traveling an extra leg). Apparently, this issue happened due to increased air fares because of Jet Airways' withdrawal. The same reason was cited for the airlines chosen for return journey - the great Ukraine International Airlines - which is globally infamous for extorting passengers of extra money even for issuing boarding passes (as much as 15€)! The service and food are the worst kind of nightmare that one can imagine. I had to tolerate a super-high intensity reading light coming from my fellow passenger's seat for the entire duration of 8 hrs, simply because the flight crew wouldn't help turn it off. Upon requesting multiple times, they rudely stomped off instead of responding to our calls. I was aware of their pathetic service, and so had informed Thomas Cook in advance about this, but they reiterated that we are on a "budget" tour, which brings me to my next point. However, on our return journey, we saw a huge group from Kesari traveling Emirates, and their package was of the same "budget category".
3. It is perhaps the worst when one is made to realise that they cannot afford something and so should be happy with whatever they are getting. This is exactly the same feeling which we went through since the beginning of the trip. During the tour, we were constantly reminded in different situations that we are on a "dhamaka" and budgeted tour, so the choice of hotels and restaurants were as per our package standards. We really took offence to this but did not say this to our tour manager as we didn't want to mess things up. We really felt that we got what we could afford and we couldn't get a better experience in the money we paid to our travel partner.
3. It is known globally now that almost entire Europe is facing heat wave this summer and this was also known to Thomas Cook. The first hotel we stayed in Vienna was reasonably good, as it was an Ibis property. But the next day we were told that we should not have similar expectations from the next two hotels as we were on a "budgeted tour" and we got Ibis in Vienna due to sheer good luck. (By then, we had started hating the word "budget" and "dhamaka"). We spent sleepless nights in the hotel in Budapest due to mosquitoes, noisy cars, and no air for ventilation. By the time we reached Prague, we were so worn out that the weather God blessed us with a pleasant weather, and the hotel with a table fan.
4. The coach we were given was indeed nice and cool, something that we looked forward to travel in each morning, only to escape the claustrophobic conditions in the hotel.
Overall, Thomas Cook should revise the itinerary to make optimum utilisation of the travelers' time. Also, the word "budget" should be used sensibly.
Thanks!