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Monarch Airlines Review: Family Friendly Airline Review

We flew with Monarch for the first time to Crete from Birmingham Airport, a  relatively short flight time of around 4 hours.

Check-in

Check-in at Birmingham Airport was very quick and the staff were friendly and welcoming. We were amazed at how hassle free and quick the whole process was. Definitely one of the fastest I’ve experienced. We checked in online like the majority of people, so we only had to drop-off the bags. Check-in from Crete was a lot more hectic, with long queues.

 

Boarding

Boarding was also smooth, although it did mean stairs to the plane. ( This is often the case for the budget airlines). However, we were grateful for the extra leg room seats we were given by Monarch. These seats obviously have more space and booking them meant we were all sat together and had free access to the online check-in 28 days before our departure. We were also fortunate that on our outbound sector, there were several seats free, meaning my active toddler had a bit of space to roam without disturbing anybody. However, our inbound sector was quite a frustrating experience as boarding gates were moved with no announcement- when everyone was already queueing to board. An email  was sent telling us of the short delay, but because I had run out of wifi, I did not receive this until we had landed back into the UK.

The aircraft was lovely and clean and we had lovely staff on both sectors who organised our children’s’ flight log books to be signed by the flight deck.

The loo’s were also clean, including the changing table.

My two had had plenty to eat before we boarded our lunchtime flight, meaning I indulged! ( One drink is free with the extra legroom seats)

 

There was obviously much excitement about being in a plane again but they were settled down and were very cosy in their Travel Snugs. We found the empty space where a TV screen could be placed very useful for putting the girls Kindle and my husbands iPhone in for easy viewing.

Overview

We really enjoyed our flight with Monarch. The flight times worked well for us, and the convenience of flying out of Birmingham helped too. The cabin was clean, the food on board was varied and the extra leg-room much appreciated. I think if you are worried about sitting together then having a bit of extra space like this as a bonus really helps too. The small issues at Crete are I think more down to airport staff rather than Monarch staff; my best advice is to always plan for this with extra snacks and things to amuse the kids if queuing for a while!

 

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