Originally Posted by
SWBKCB
Didn't Maleth get the work because P&O weren't happy with TUI last winter (use of third party leases etc) - you get what you pay for?
I recall there were problems with Tui last winter - short-notice substititions mostly using Wamos IIRC are I think what you're referring to - but it seems to be that for reasons discussed further up the thread, P&O found themselves short of quite a bit of the capacity needed to get full ship-loads to and from the Carribean this winter, and Maleth-Aero were contracted late-in-the-day to help address the shortfall. Whether P&O will ever divulge to loyal Customers such as ourselves (this was our 9th cruise with them) what has really gone on that led to this sitution - I'm not holding my breath!
Based on the 2 weekends that we travelled (18/11 and 02/12, when 5 Tui 787's flew to BGI and back on both the Fridays and Saturdays) and from looking at flights over subsequent weekends, Tui's performance at least from a on-time perspective seems to have been mostly ok. Service on both of our flights was professional and friendly, food was decent (easily up to scheduled long-haul economy standard) and the IFE worked!