flown to male many times since the 80's on charter and it was the only quickish way to get there but 757's or tristars (then dc10's if they didnt go tech) were awfully cramped lol!
i understand MON has improved slightly the seat pitch on the A330 but if yer unlucky enough to get the A300 then its pretty poor (A300 will tech stop)
FCA and TOM, yes 33inches in the back, but TOM a/c are 2-4-2 whereas FCA are 2-3-2 config...what will happen in the merge?
the flts are non stop and the food/ife/crew vary depending what side of the bed they all got out of that day!! however overall FCA is ok...
but have heard too many horror stories lately about the way one is treated now on charter airlines so i tend to avoid, which is a shame as britannia and air2000/caledonian were fantastic,
the crews are often good but also often too inept at realising passengers are actually going on holiday and brusque announcements and cabin service and pay pay pay for this and that on a long haul flight is not for me sorry...
(the crew DO work for a holiday airline and it would be nice to expect to find a jolly crew!)
nb, this is my personal opinion of charter these days and that of many reports i have read, so please dont think i am harsh on crews here as many are great espesh with some of the nightmare passengers they have to deal with too.
good cabin service comes from the TOP so i cannot fathom why things are so inconsisent now.
(i am ex airline btw since 1972 !)
(the best charters i have been on in last few years have been GB airways medium haul but alas EZY have swallowed them up grrrrrr!)
EK etihad sri lankan qatar all offer the scheduled product via a stop (UL does offer non stop MLE too)
have heard that etihad is v good and qatar too...
i enjoyed sri lankan very much when i flew on them
you can of course get provincial UK connections on EK
if you can get good scheduled timings with a good fare then i think scheduled is the way to go but as other posters rightly pointed out its not always possible to connect with seaplanes etc....