Have done two flights to Barbados for OV, each time from Manchester with Thomas Cook. One word sums up Thomas Cook flights. Appalling! Old aircraft, no leg room, broke trays, and seats that appear to have been worn down to the metal.

Ring Ocean Village direct. There are 2 reasons for this. First is TELL them how bad that airline was (Thomas Cook I suspect? or TC have put in a replacement airplane from GADAIR as one of theirs is out of commission) things will not get better unless one complains. SECOND - they can give you an idea which company are chartered for flights as these vary depending on whether you are going from Manchester or Gatwick. Also the time of the flight. This applies for Med cruises too. Tell your agent that you dont want to travel on this Air charter line again and see if you can be accomodated. To avoid TC one year (on another cruise line!)we flew into Manchester on Thompsons (good) and got a cheap flight from there to London. Well worth it. I am on a Thompsons flight (Gatwick) when on OV in Nov.

Enquire off an agent who's airline Ocean Village use. Most likely be Thomsonfly with B767s. The seating in economy is 2-3-2 which is always better than B757s which are 3-3.