TUI Airways 787 Dreamliner Review: Cheap PREMIUM SEATS to Tenerife!

Hello and welcome to another trip report and good morning from a very cold and

wintry Gatwick North Terminal here in Sussex. Today I'm flying with TUI on

their 787-9 Dreamliner all the way down to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. TUI is

an airline that many of you have told me to take and finally I'm getting around to doing it. I've flown with Jet2, I've flown with Thomas Cook and finally on the

big three charter airlines I'm flying with TUI. Really looking forward to this one. Enjoy the video

TUI operate a large base here from London Gatwick Airport. They're based out of the

North Terminal and occupy the check-in zones at C and D. Until a couple of years ago

the North Terminal was British Airways' home here at Gatwick, but now EasyJet is the main tenant

and the character of the terminal has changed somewhat. One thing that hasn't changed is the

good availability of decent lounges. I'm off to the Aspire lounge here in the North Terminal

accessible via my Priority Pass and not through the class of my ticket. I fly around 100 times a

year and quite often I'm on flights which don't have a lounge available, either because I haven't

paid for business class or the airline simply isn't in an alliance with a lounge that allows

me to enter. I find Priority Pass excellent value for money and I've long recommended it on this

channel. I've left a link for you to explore priority pass options in the description text

below. I really value airport lounges. For morning flights like this one, it means that I don't have

to pay for breakfast at the hotel the night before, and the other thing that it guarantees

is a charge on my phone and my cameras before I set out onto the flight. Just heading to the gate

now. Can't wait to check out TUI's Dreamliner down to Tenerife today. I'd actually forgotten

when I was in the lounge that I wasn't really supposed to have any breakfast in there because I wanted to review the food offering on board Tui's flight today but no matter I'll just order

something on board anyway. There's a very good reason why I've chosen this specific flight to

take down to Tenerife today. Normally Tui would operate a 757 or a 737 on this route but sometimes

when the low season on their long haul routes coincides with a high season in the autumn and

winter in the Canaries they operate a wide-body 787 Dreamliner. You can check if your flight is

being operated by a 787 Dreamliner on the TUI website. They make it abundantly clear when these wonderful aircraft

are operating on these routes with this gold star TUI service on short routes to places like the Canaries is economy class only so I had to purchase an economy class ticket The good news is is their premium cabin at the front of the aircraft is available for just a upgrade to sit in much larger seats and much greater comfort

You'll see just how good value this is later on in the review

This is actually my first time ever flying TUI and I was really impressed when I got on board

The premium cabin is laid out in a 2-3-2 configuration. Almost all of the seats are excellent

However, you will want to avoid row 7. There is no window in row 7

This is the aircraft that TUI like to send to places like Mexico and the Caribbean

And the legroom is more than adequate for this four hour flight down to Tenerife

There's also excellent seat pocket storage for all of my junk that I'm going to be requiring

later on in the journey. Just sat down, a really positive first impression of Toei's Dreamliner

I love this cabin, plenty of space, much more in fact than it looked on the photos when

I was researching this online. Lovely holiday spirit in the cabin in fact

I've got a free seat next to me. It's going to be a great fight, let's get this show on the road

After a brisk takeoff from a cold and wintry Gatwick Airport, we're soon on our way southbound

to the Canaries. As we chase rainbows over West Sussex, it's probably a good time to

take a look at the route down to Tenerife today We be flying 1 miles at 40 feet It take around four hours today Let take a quick look at the premium seats on this 787 Every seat comes with a power socket

which delivers a half-decent charge. There's also a remote control for the in-flight entertainment

and every seat comes with one of these foot rests. Personally I don't find foot rests comfortable

but it's there in case you need it. Tray tables in the premium cabin are stowed in the armrests

and can be easily deployed just like this. They're nice and sturdy too

The main advantage of the premium cabin is the width of the seats. This is a 232, seven across configuration

In the economy cabin seen here, there are nine seats across. That's a 333 configuration

That's pretty tight for a 787. Like all 787s, there's an electronic window dimming facility

This means that you don't have to have the sun streaming into your eyes if you want to look out of the window

and make sure the engine and wings are still there. Most aircraft flying to the Canaries do not have in-flight entertainment

so it's great to be on an aircraft that does have one. The selection was okay, and as you know, I like to watch stuff that I don't really have to engage my brain for

Therefore, I ended up watching The Big Bang Theory, which is deeply unfunny

I don't really get the appeal of this show. One other important feature of the IFE is that there is a USB charge point here

which is very useful if you've got more than one device to charge. Overall, I was very impressed with the simplicity and ambience of the premium cabin on TUI

The same went for their toilets, which were spotlessly clean at the start and end of the flight

This is basically the standard factory fitted toilet that comes with any Boeing 787 aircraft

Remember I said that all flights to the Canaries with TUI are economy class only

and this is no exception, you have to pay for all of your catering. Coffee and an orange juice came to just over £5, which is not the cheapest, but also not the most expensive that I've seen in the air

Fortunately for Tui, I'm not really much of a coffee snob. The coffee they gave me was branded Nescafe and was perfectly acceptable for an economy class product

None of my flight experience videos are complete without a look at some of the food on board

I ordered a penne arabiata. At just £6, I thought this was excellent value for a microwave meal at 40,000 feet

In my experience that's a pretty low price and therefore expectations have to

be low too. As it turns out the meal actually wasn't bad at all. The portion

size was good, the pasta was nice and moist and there was plenty of sauce to

go with it too Overall very good for six pounds I spent much of the rest of the flight having a nap which was quite easy in these premium seats they do recline further than the standard economy seats before landing I took a look at some of the

literature in the seat back pocket there's quite an attractive duty-free magazine personally I don't

buy stuff on board aircraft but it's pretty good to flick through if you're bored let me know if

you're the type of person that buys duty-free on board aircraft as well as the duty-free catalog

there's also an in-flight magazine where TUI basically talk about all of their holiday options

their destinations. There's also a nice feature here on Las Vegas. I'll be there later this year

Before too long, we're descending in towards Tenerife. As I'm on the right-hand side of the

aircraft, I get an excellent view of La Palma and La Gomera. I'll keep these scenes in for you to

enjoy in full. And so that concludes my flight between London and Tenerife South Airport

I paid £134 one way for this ticket, and that includes the £10 seat upgrade

Overall, I thought that was pretty good value, considering I only booked a few weeks in advance

Most people on this aircraft will have booked a holiday package for a week or two in the Canaries with TUI

and the flight is simply part of their package holiday. The conclusion of this flight means I've now tried Jet2, Thomas Cook and Tui, the three

biggest charter operators or holiday airlines in the UK. These airlines aren't traditionally

ones that I would have chosen had I not been running a YouTube channel to do airline reviews

and I was really pleasantly surprised with all of them. I'd love to hear of your experiences

if you've flown with Tui in the comments section below, but for now I'll sign off

and I'll see you next time with another flight review. We'll see you next time