What is First Choice Airways?

What is First Choice Airways? Can you rely on the services that its offers? Should it be your first choice as the name suggests, or should you simply avoid it? If you’re here to learn a thing or two about this company in the hope that the information obtained will help you decide whether to rely on it, then you’re in the right place. Read on to find out what its main features are!

Company: First Choice Airways What is First Choice Airways?

Website: https://www.firstchoice.co.uk/

Years in business: 21

Wide variety of aircraft: No

Overall rating: (3.8 / 5)

P.S.

See my #1 recommended private jet company on this page

First Choice Airways was a British Airline Charter whose main operations were based in Manchester. It was a subsidiary of the popular tour operator known as TUI travel. First Choice was merged with a company known as Thomsonfly back in 2008, to form TUI Airways, which is still operational.

This company was initially founded in 1987 and commenced its operations in the same year. It started delivering flight services with only 2 Boeing 757s, but it began increasing the number of aircraft right from 1988. By the time First Choice was being merged with Thompsonfly, it was capable of flying its customers to over 60 destinations globally from its 14 UK and Irish airports. This company was also popular for operating scheduled leisure flights to Cyprus, as well as Spain and Portugal.

Did they have a wide variety of aircraft?

As of May 2008, this company’s fleet comprised of Airbus and Boeing aircraft. This, in my view, is not what we’d term as a wide variety of aircraft. Good thing is that this company was an airline, which means there was no need to put together a fleet of varying types of aircraft (by size and flight range). At the time of the merger, here are the aircraft that this company had:

Airbus A320-200 – 5 aircraft
Airbus A321-200 – 3 aircraft
Boeing 757-200 – 14 aircraft
Boeing 767-300ER – 6 aircraft

In total, there were 28 aircraft, all with a capacity of more than 180 passengers.

Did they have a wide variety of pricing options for different budgets?

No. As an airline, you’d mainly expect fixed price rates for your flight. There are usually very few price variances when it comes to airline services, with most of the differences coming from some minor extras such as carrying heavier luggage. Generally, if you’ve traveled with any other airline, you have an idea of the pricing model you’d have expected with First Choice.

Did First Choice Airways offer Flight sharing services?

No. This company didn’t offer any flight-sharing services at the time it was operational. Flight sharing services usually involve one person chartering an entire aircraft, and then allowing other passengers to travel with him or her, so long as they can chip into the expenses of the flight by paying for their seat. Flight sharing services are a great money saver, more so when you’re on a budget and wouldn’t want to compromise on luxury.

Was First Choice Airways accepting Bitcoin Payments?

No. At the time it was merging its operations with Thomposonfly, Bitcoin was yet to begin use. This means that First Choice didn’t have the chance to make cryptos and acceptable payment methods. The resulting company, TUI Travel doesn’t also accept Bitcoin.

If you’re planning on taking a trip in the future (sooner or later), you can try out Bitcoin-accepting companies in this industry. Unknown to many, using cryptocurrencies offers customers anonymity, low transaction fees, zero taxes, and speedier transactions. Such are benefits you cannot afford to miss out on, more so in this age of complicated cybercrime attacks. Sparing a significant amount of money will also come in handy when you’re at your destination nation, where you can spend it on the things you like (or simply save or invest it).

P.S. See a full list of private jet companies that accept Bitcoin (and other cryptos) as payment on this page

Membership options?

This company didn’t have any membership program. In its capacity as an airline, this wouldn’t be very necessary, since membership programs work best for private air charter companies, which would want to build long-term relationships with their customers. With a well-structured flight-sharing program, customers end up getting massive discounts, but this only works when they are frequent travelers. If you weren’t a frequent traveler at the time First Choice Airways was operational, then you’d not have had any reason to worry about a membership program.

The quality of the support?

There are no reviews to reveal the nature of this company’s support staff (In terms of receiving calls and responding to emails), so it’s hard to give a rating without concrete evidence. That said, as you choose the company that you’ll rely on for your next flight, do not forget to analyze the quality of their support, since this can be a make or break in terms of your overall flight experience. You need to know that you can reach out to the support staff and get prompt responses.

In what countries were their service available?

As we already saw, this company’s aircraft served customers heading out to more than 60 destinations worldwide. Customers flying to Austria, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France Gambia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Portugal, Switzerland, UK, USA, and many other nations could at the time utilize First Choice Airways’ services.

First Choice Reviews (What their customers said)

Reading through customer reviews gives you an idea of what to expect from a company. If the company’s service delivery model is consumer-centric, then the ratings and reviews will reveal that. Negative feedback will often reveal the extent to which a company is failing to listen to its customers and to attend to their needs. Did First Choice Airways have any positive customer reviews praising its services or were they all negative?

Rating: [N/A] click here for details (opens in new window)

The only significant reviews I came across were the ones on Trip Advisor, in which customers were discussing the seating arrangement in First Choice Airways’ aircraft. Overall, there were no complaints about the support staff being rude. There are, however, a few instances in which customers express their dissatisfaction with the nature of service delivery. Anyway, knowing a lot about what this company did or did not do may not be very helpful, so the best we can do is to focus on finding a company that will offer reliable services in the future.

**You might, for instance, want to look at the company I have given the highest rating on this page

PROs & CONs

What were First Choice Airways’ strengths and weaknesses? Let’s highlight some of the outstanding ones:

Pros

Aircraft traveled to many destinations globally
Support staff were reliable

Cons

Bitcoin payments weren’t accepted
Didn’t have flight-sharing services
No membership program

Do You Own or Represent First Choice Airways?

If you are a representative, or associate of First Choice Airways and have found something that isn’t accurate in today’s review please, feel free to reach out to me and I will update the information on this post. You can do this by leaving your feedback in the comments section below or simply by sending me an e-mail to contact@goldretired.com.

Final words and verdict

Verdict: Legit!

Overall rating: (3.8 / 5)

First Choice Airways was a legit company that made it possible for most of its customers to mainly travel to their favorite tourist destinations around the world. Since we know that it merged with Thomsonfly to form TUI Airways, one can only either rely on what TUI has to offer, or even look for a better alternative as they head out to the next destination. Check out the recommended alternative below:

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Thank you for reading this review on what First Choice Airways is about. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you now know what happened to First Choice. Let me know if you have more questions about it in the comments section.

I wish you well,

Eric, Investor and Team Member at Gold Retired!