Air Canada
 

Is there a UK version of the website i.e. .co.uk or do you just need to telephone AC direct as it doesnt seem to appear when typed in.

Anyone any experience / recommendations booking flights to Canada from the UK ?

Basically, we are travelling from London UK to Toronto then 10 days later Toronto to Fredericton NB then 10 days later Fredericton NB to London UK, so not as straight forward booking the flights online anyway.

Recommendations of ways to proceed would be welcome.

Re: Air Canada
 

If you go to aircanada.com, there is a drop down box (in the book a flight bit) that lets you pick your country of residence, The system also lets you do multi-leg bookings. It may be cheaper to go through an agent, though.

PS: I reckon there will be another leg in your trip. I don't think any airline flies from Fredericton to London. You'll probably need to pass through Montreal or Halifax.

Re: Air Canada
 

Yes I realise that....amazingly its actually quicker on the way back !!

Wonders of modern technology ;)

Re: Air Canada
 

It's almost always quicker on the way back. Tailwind assisted.

Re: Air Canada
 

We are doing something similar to you. We booked with Canadian Affair, Manchester to Toronto (9days) and then we are taking an internal flight with Canjet from Toronto to Halifax for a further seven days. We then fly back to Manchester from Halifax N.S with Canadian Affair. It was very simple and straight forward to book online.

Have you considered using either Canadian Affair or Zoom as I suspect they will be cheaper than Air Canada?

Re: Air Canada
 

I've flown AC from Toronto to London and, during the SARS outbreak, from Montreal to London, very many times. I've found that it's usually cheaper to book a code shared ticket on British Midland (the ticket says BMI but the operator is AC). You could also try booking on Lufthansa, or any other Star Alliance partner, that doesn't fly to Canada.

Re: Air Canada
 

Am I being dim, or is there a slight problem with that suggestion?

Re: Air Canada
 

It got me too !!

Re: Air Canada
 

Personally I think Air Canada are dreadful, and I would rather chop my leg off than fly with them.

The food is terrible, entertainment is lousy and the attendents are incredibly unhelpful.

I'm flying back to the UK this weekend by Canadian Affair - cheaper and better than Air Canada IMO.

As to Lufthansa et al, they also code share with Air Canada, which means that you can book a flight to Canada through them, which will end up being an Air Canada flight anyway.

One thing I have found over here, is that flights booked directly from airlines tend to be cheaper than through travel agents or Travelocity et al. You also tend to get a much better choice of flight times...

HTH

Sarah

Re: Air Canada
 

Star Alliance is a marketing tie in between airlines, they each sell tickets on the partner carriers so, if an airline doesn't go to a destination and wants to sell you a ticket there, they sell you a partner airline's ticket. I bought Delta tickets, for example, from Sydney to Cairns, but Delta doesn't go there, the ticket said Delta, the plane said Quantas. I think all airlines are now in such trading blocks and they don't necessarily share price information so a ticket on AC from Montreal to Heathrow could be sold at one price with a BMI label and another with a Lufthansa label.

I first discovered this in a negative fashion, btw, I paid more to avoid AC only to find myself code shared back to them.

Re: Air Canada
 

I'm inclined to agree. An AC flight I took from Vancouver to London some years back was a farce from start to finish.

It didn't appear to have dawned on them that hundreds of people would probably be turning up to board a 747 at roughly the same time. It takes a while when you've only got two check-in desks open. The queue stretched into the adjoining terminal, even when the plane started boarding.

My seat wouldn't stay up, the inflight entertainment system broke down, they ran out of meals and even managed to produce a pot of combined tea/coffee. The guy next to me had his delivered straight into his lap. The cabin crew lost it completely. They were arguing with each other before we crossed the Rockies.

Most of the passengers were tourists going home. Their last impression of Canada was not a good one.

I was working at the CHC at the time. First day back at work, I sent a blistering fax to the AC manager at Heathrow (on CHC letterhead). The phone was ringing by the time I got back to my office. Talk about grovelling!

Re: Air Canada
 

Well, I have flown Air Canada and West jet and I can honestly say that I found NO problems with Air Canada. The food was fine - although I admit I am not fussy. The movies were fine, although I didn't watch them all. The Air Canada people were as helpful as the Westjet ones.

I booked my latest flights through expedia.ca. I booked one ticket for me and one with a different credit card for my son and his fiancee. When I had finished I discovered that we were assigned seats that were not together. So I phoned expedia who gave me a toll free number for Air Canada. The woman at Air Canada was super friendly and super helpful and she went through all the flights and got us sitting together.

I would recommend Expedia - you can use expedia.uk as well. If you mess up they help you fix things. My sister and her daughter use them all the time. I believe you save the $60 per ticket that a travel agent charges for booking the same tickets.

Re: Air Canada
 

I've never found BMI cheaper but amazingly Lufthansa and every single time. The stops in Frankfurt are pretty smooth, compared with a change at LHR anyway.

Lufthansa do fly with their own planes to Canada, to Toronto and Vancouver definitely, don't know about other places. I had to select codeshare flights carefully to avoid them, Mr B has a bee in his bonnet about their crews. If you want to spot the codeshare flights from the genuine article, codeshares tend to have 4 digit flight numbers as opposed to only 3.

As for contacting Air Canada, there isn't a .co.uk website but there is a local 0845 number for them (which I can't find). It's rubbish, they shut at about 6pm every evening and don't open on Sundays at all iirc. Marvellous service for an international airline, huh?!

Re: Air Canada
 

Same here. No problems whatsoever.

As for the complaint about checking in, it was the smoothest I've ever had. The automated check-in system where you print off your own boarding cards and just go up and check the bags in.

Agreed about the website though. They need to sort that out.

Excellent for flying with infants, supplied a basinette.

Re: Air Canada
 

I think AC are so bad that I give the free tickets from Aeroplan to my ex.