Flying TUI from the UK to Barbados is a great alternative to the likes of BA and Virgin.

In 1997 my wife and I went out to  Asia. We thought we were going for a two or three year stint.  We stayed for nearly 20 years. In 2014 my wife was posted back to the UK.  She moved in January 2014 and the kids and I moved in July 2014.  The UK is now our home.

One of the joys of being in the UK was that London is only 8 hrs flying time to Bridgetown, compared to 24 hrs flying time from Hong Kong! 

Between 2014 and 2022 while my parents were alive I used to travel out to Barbados for a week every 3 months.  My airline of choice was Virgin Atlantic flying in their extra legroom economy seats – what they now term Economy Delight.  Initially from LGW and latterly from LHR.

For our most recent trip to Barbados on 16^th February 2025 we travelled TUI.  Like Virgin in their extra legroom seats.  

TUI fly the Boeing Dreamliner to Barbados.  They have Premier class at the front of the aircraft to row 11, extra legroom economy from row 12 to 15  and economy from row 16 to row 46.

Our TUI aircraft had a load factor of nearly 100%. Speaking to the crew they told me there was just  just one spare seat.  They told me the capacity was 345 passengers.

The average age of passengers must have been in the late 60s to mid 70s.  Nearly all were heading to Barbados to join two cruises.  There were a handful of kids with parents who were accompanying grandparents.

We had big red tags on our luggage that said STAY.  Most of the other passengers had yellow or orange  coloured tags on their luggage that said CRUISE.

Our extra legroom seats were leather and comfy.  And in the back of the headrest of the seat in front was the usual entertainment of games, new movies and classic movies.  (As this is a charter that starts at LGW passenger need to keep their disposable headphones.)

There were complimentary drinks.  The food was all the same, a chicken vegetables and mash potato main.  No complaints on the food front.  No complaints on the attentive TUI cabin crew.

All in all, we were really impressed with TUI.  What’s more, the price of our extra leg room seats was significantly cheaper than the VS Economy Delight extra legroom equivalent.

Back in 1990 I did an MBA.  I remember well the work BA was  doing at the time dragging itself out of a rut as a disastrous loss-making state enterprise to being a world class profitable airline.  Apart from the change programs, like the well documented BA “putting people first”  initiatives, one of the things BA was also focusing on was doing innovative work on seat yield management, using their vast data  archive of seat booking patterns that was being digitised to provide reference data.

Colin Marshall the then BA CEO described an airline seat as:

“the ultimate [perishable] consumer good… and that once the aircraft had taken off the airline lost any opportunity to be able to monetise that seat”.

Colin Marshall – BA CEO

Back in the late 1980s BA started employing yield analysts and modelling sales activity and pricing models based on booking time prior to take-off time and formulating automated yield management protocols. 

I remember well those lectures on the yield management levers combined with marginal cost pricing.  And some of the hard learnt lessons BA shared of offloading premium priced tickets to secondary discount sellers and making sure those with discounted seat passengers  were not sitting next to people with full price tickets… to reduce customer complaints…. And, some of the discount pattens from 72 hours to 2 hours prior to take off… For instance just before take-off the price would revert back to full-price as anyone really wanting to fly last minute would more than likely be prepared to pay the full-price, however, based on availability if you booked 4 days before take-off you might have got a sweet, sweet deal!

Today airline seat yield management is even more sophisticated linking in frequent flier programs, automated weather forecast and AI modelling etc.  An upgrade is now linked to your value to the airline.  Gone are the days you could rock-up well dressed and get an upgrade!

We booked our seats from London to Barbados about 6 weeks prior to travelling – so a bit last minute.  Given the price reduction we got, TUI must have been applying some form of marginal cost pricing to fill the unallocated capacity of their Boeing Dreamliner.

When we landed in Barbados, those staying and those cruising were processed differently. 

Those staying on Barbados exited first.  Of the 344 passengers maybe 50 were non-cruisers like ourselves.

Given the pricing I thought we cannot go too wrong.  TUI have a newish fleet and a great safety record. I was totally impressed with TUI. 

Would I fly with TUI again.  Definitely.  

[It would appear that TUI cheap flights are only bookable from the UK to Barbados return – seats appear to be very limited. For our next trip to Barbados at the end of December 2025 with the kids we tried to book with TUI – unfortunately there was no availability, so we are back flying Virgin.]

Some background on TUI.

TUI is a German, multinational travel and tourism company. TUI stands for Touristik Union International. Their logo cleverly combines the letters T, U & I, to create a winking, smiley face.

TUI Airways Limited is the British charter airline arm of the TUI Airline group formed of what used to be Air2000, First Choice and Thompson Holidays.  

The airline is the fourth-largest UK airline by total passengers carried, after EasyJet, British Airways and Jet2.com. It is also the world’s tenth-largest airline by number of route pairings served. 

TUI operate from the UK to Barbados mainly during the winter season feeding their and partner cruise companies. They fly from London Gatwick and Manchester.