Air Transat

[IainB]

We're thinking of heading off to Canada later in the year, and this lot seem to have some very competitive prices on flights to Toronto.

Always suspicious of something which appears too good to be true, so does anyone have any gen on this airline. Good, bad or indifferent will all be helpful.

We'll probably travel LHR to Toronto, seeing as no-one appears to do LTN.

[nibi786]

Ello!
Air transat is quite good - but things like check - in is sooooooo disorganised....be prepared for a 3 hour wait to check in ;) have you tried Zoom?

[ManofMan]

First of all Air Transat dont fly LHR-YTO, MAN or LGW i think are the two but might also fly from NCL.

Air Transat have been around for years, service on board is what you would expect from a bucket and spade.

The reason they are so cheap is they only fly half way back then shut down the engines and glide the rest of the way !!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

[Skipness One Echo]

If you meant YTO to be Toronto Peason then the code is YYZ and they did fly from Heathrow there last year.

[nclops]

Iain b

If your still in cumbria like your location shows then why not try newcastle. Weekly flight to toronto from may - october with air transat.

[clevlandHD]

Look at their website, airtransat.com, they fly just about everywhere in the UK.

[IainB]

I did suggest that, but She Who Must Be Obeyed put the kybosh on the idea as her parents are Herts based, and we'd all be travelling together.:rolleyes:

[ManofMan]

If you meant YTO to be Toronto Peason then the code is YYZ

Funny enough...no i was not sure which airport in YTO they flew into which is why I used the city code.

Thanks anyway

Mom

[Big Harvey]

My wife's Canadian, and only flies Air Transat if it's much, much cheaper than anyone else.

If price is your main issue, the following are good places to start:

www.canadianaffair.com (http://www.canadianaffair.com) (charter flights with Thomas Cook (recommended) and MyTravel. Also sometimes sells those dreaded Air Transat flights cheaper than booking direct with the airline).

or

www.flyzoom.com (http://www.flyzoom.com) (a no-frills airline who we've used a couple of times and found to be OK).

I did hear that Flyglobespan had started flights from the UK to a different airport in Toronto, and that they were really cheap, but the write-ups about that airline's longhaul operation are somewhat off-putting to say the least!

[hippotamus]

My parents always fly airtransat when coming to visit. They find them perfectly acceptable despite the fact my mother is not a good flyer. Usual comments about food not being up to much but then you could say that about most airlines.

One thing to be aware of , they are not always direct flights , last time going YYZ to BHX , the flight landed in exeter first and added about 3 hours on to the total journey time.

[VS-LHRCSA]

Just remember its 3-3-3 on their A330s and A310s. I know I couldn't handle that, not all the way to Canada.

[Married a Canadian]

Transat are fine....same as all the rest...some good days some bad. My sister just visited for xmas and her flights were on time, good service and food acceptable. I believe Transat do the odd flight to LHR with the Open skies deal in place now. Apart from that it is only BA or Air Canada direct from Heathrow. Otherwise if Heathrow is the only option then you can do United or American via somewhere.

As other posters have said...Transat sometimes do the VIA route...ie LGW YYZ via Glasgow or somewhere else. Double check.

All the charters Thomas Cook and My travel...all have the same problems as Transat... no better no worse.

Zoom lost my custom by changing schedules at a moments notice and screwing up onward travel connections. However others have had good flights with them and price is reasonable

Funny enough...no i was not sure which airport in YTO they flew into which is why I used the city code.

I would have been impressed if it were Toronto Buttonville YKZ or Toronto City centre YTZ!

Oh and Globespan fly into Hamilton which is about 60kms away. They have had afew probs this year...and the flights never seemed to arrive or depart at a constant time (and there were some seriously late flights!!!)

[goldeneye]

Air Transat are fine, flew with them a few years ago. for the summer coming there seatpitch is increased to 32 inches in economy.

Personally id fly with Thomas Cook if you can as they have 35" pitch.

[MarkD]

Flew TS YYZ-DUB-SNN-YYZ in late 06 - you get what you pay for (i.e. less than the competition on both counts). The increase in seatpitch is badly needed, and their web booking is a little flaky although at least you can now see Club availability... sometimes.

I've heard reasonably good feedback on Zoom but haven't flown them personally. After last season I'm staying away from flyGlobespan from YHM - if I have to hike to Hamilton the thing better be on-time :p

[Donkey497]

Used to fly Transat regularly EDI - YYZ before Globespan started using their "own" planes transatlantic.

Transat were perfectly OK, I actually rated their service better than BA's when I first started using them. Then again, that was when BA were really poor, but they were fine. Much of their operation is on holiday charter work, so they are well used to hordes of holiday makers piling on to their planes. They did at one time have some timekeeping issues related to the age of their fleet, but they have a relative young (All Airbus If I recall correctly) fleet now & seem to be back on track.

My only bad experience on Transat was with a severely Quebecois steward.

Touching on the subject of Globespan, the publicity that they have received this year is really not deserved. Having flown Globespan to Hamilton last year at the time when things went bad, I have only praise for their customer service. I was kept fully informed, on a daily basis, of what was happening, not only sa regards my own return flight, but the other flights ahead of me as well, as far as contingency plans might impact my own flight. Having said that, as advised by Globespan's Customer Service the recovery plan they put into place worked as planned and my return flight left on time.

Having been in a similar situation before, I can appreciate that the folks on the flight which had the engine fire forcing the return to YHM and requiring a replacement engine be fitted before the plane could start clearing the passenger backlog would not be happy. However, in such situations, you have to play the hand you are dealt, and they were dealt the worst possible hand, but with very limited resources at a remote base managed to get personnel and replacement parts to the aircraft and get back on schedule within three or four days.

Globespan's real issue appears to be that they had expanded and purchased long range aircraft in the anticipation of using a third party to cover some (transatlantic) routes for some years and as a result had secured long term leases for their long range aircraft, however the deal with their anticipated partner fell through and as a result they had to contract in third party aircraft to fill their routes. It's a basic fact that you never have the same control over someone else's gear that you do over your own & this year it bit Globespan big time.

To be perfectly honest, I would have no problem in booking on either Transat or Globespan for my summer holiday this year again. However, neither are flying on the right day of the week, so I'll probably end up flying Delta via JFK as they fly both ways at a civilised hour of the day.

However, as usual, if something goes wrong, you can be sure that the bad news will be shouted the loudest and the good news will barely break cover.

[Big Harvey]

Donkey497, I was interested to read your post about FlyGlobespan's problems, and I wish them all the best in sorting them out.

However, I don't think I'll be tempted to start using them until such a time as the reviews they get from customers on longhaul flights start improving from those posted here:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/flygspan.htm :eek:

[Donkey497]

Funnily enough, after I made a post on that very forum, I noticed a few comments in other sections of PPRuNe that they appear to be selective in the posts that are eventually listed.

Strangely enough, the posts that people were complaining weren't appearing on that forum seemed to be generally in praise of FlyGlobespan or only mildy critical of their performance.

What I found even stranger was that my post on their forum was also generally giving credit where credit was certainly due to FlyGlobespan and surprise, surprise it has yet to appear.

As they say in Private Eye "Shome Coincidence Shurely?" As a result, I'm a little unimpressed by airlinequality's own performance, it seems to be a little selective in the way it presents what should be an impartial collection of passenger opinion, and as a result appears to have its own agenda.

Before anyone gets on their high horse to have a go at me for being in the pay of FlyGlobespan, let me assure everyone that I do not work in the aviation industry at all, but for an American based Multi-National Company, based in their main Scottish plant near EDI & in the past year I have flown on Delta airlines alone enough to go from zero to platinum class Skyteam membership. [That's to say nothing of flights with Etihad, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Continental, KLM, EasyJet, RyanAir, BMI & Norwegian.] And no, I don't have shares in them either..........