cheeky_monkey

Used to fly Air Transat but dont seem to fly to Calgary all year round anymore...im never flying Air Canada again..not because of the airline but T2 at Heathrow is an absolute disaster..the check in procedure is total chaos.

Im just going to Fly BA from T5 much more civilised

Atlantic Xpat

Really? I love T2 - Open, Airy, Shiny, New. Only downside is that AC flies from the B gates & thats a long walk/escalator/travelator from security. Check in procedure is kiosk and bag drop. How does that differ from other airports? Genuinely interested as I have status with AC and go straight to the priority checkin/bag drop.

It's a world of difference from Gatwick - where WJ fly to. Crowded and tacky.

cheeky_monkey

Yep T2 has this stupid all airlines check in system..when i went there in January it was total chaos it took me the best part of 3 hours just to check in..even the people who worked there were not impressed with it..they gave me the wrong boarding pass i had to tell the check in girl i had a connecting flight and she got that wrong..only when i went to pay for an extra bag elsewhere in T2 did the lady there give me the right boarding passes for my connecting flight etc..never again.

Zoe Bell

air canada seem to thrive at stupid check in systems with no consistency between airports either. T1 at Pearson is a mess, Victoria wasn't much better either on my last flight

Aviator

I will go AC, or BA. I do find BA more comfortable as a passenger though.

Vulcanoid

I had absolutely no problems flying AC from Heathrow (well. Apart from leaving my phone at check-in, and everyone was wonderful in de-registering me from security, getting me back there, finding it). Once waiting, airport was much nicer than Gatwick (my usual go-to due to cheaper AT/WJ/Icelandair flights - somehow that particular combination AC worked out best) too.

Would only fly BA if they and Ryanair were the only people going to my destination.

jennellapea

I go with whoever is cheapest.

Last year it was BA. Time before that was Air Canada & Virgin Little Red and before that was Air Transat.

I seem to go back when there isn't a direct flight to Manchester so it usually involves connecting at Heathrow. For some reason when flying in from Vancouver the plane lands at a different terminal to other BA flights, that was a nightmare on the way back. Due to delays, having to switch terminals & going through security again, I almost missed the flight back to Vancouver even though I was supposed to have a 3 hour layover.

bats

Just back using Air Transat flights. Awful, awful, awful. Hideously uncomfortable seats. Food was a heated up sub, same menu served for both meals. Very few liquids provided s make sure you take water and food on with you. My gluten free food was inedible. They have "mood" lighting which means just as you are falling asleep the light colours change and so you wake. There are only ceiling mounted tv screens. No choice of movie and no subtitles available.
The staff are friendly and helpful but don't really have much opportunity to help.
I'll never willingly fly with them again

Allie73

This depends on the plane. The last time we flew to London, the flight over had the overhead screens but we had individual screens on the flight home. The overhead screens suck when you've been flying with individual screens for years. It was like going back in time.

DeanN

After a 10 hour delay flying London Gatwick -> Toronto in December (five hours of which involved sitting on the plane at the gate while they fixed something), for the 'inconvenience' of which all passengers received the generous gift of a £5 snack voucher, it's safe to say I won't be flying Air Transat again.

not2old

Based on that one bad experience?

It was probably a one-off that could also also have occurred with BA, AC, AA, West Jet, Lufthansa or any other airline

Always try go the direct flight at the lowest cost fare

DeanN

Obviously some things are out of an airline's control but the way the staff on the plane handled this was particularly bad (minimal information given out and often incorrect wrong – "we'll be pushing back in five minutes" ahead of another two-hour delay, refusal to switch on entertainment system, etc.). Also I had to stay at a hotel near Pearson airport as the car rental desk had closed for the night when we landed at 1am; I inquired about compensation for that cost from AT but they were having none of it.

GermanytoCanada

You should look into the EU flight delay compensation. We were delayed for 5 hours on AC from LHR to YYZ and got €600 each in compensation (more than the cost of the return flights!). Easy to do - we used one of the online templates (e.g. on moneysavinhexpert) as a starting point.

DeanN

Thanks for that tip. I did look into it shortly after and the information I found seemed to suggest that the flight delay compensation only applied if the airline was based in an EU country, which Air Transat are not. But if you were able to get compensation for a delay with Air Canada flight then I might have been misinformed previously. Will look into it again.

Stinkypup

The outlaws got compensated handsomely after a long delay last year- Manchester to YVR courtesy of Air Transat