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.

Re: Air Canada
 

I'm very happy for you.

Re: Air Canada
 

Recent trips to Calgary have been with Air Canada and Canadian Affair (Thomas Cook Airlines). Each have had good and bad points. All comments refer to traveling pleb class.

Air Canada
- Check in was quick and easy although we did arrive 3 hours before takeoff each time. Biggest pain was delays caused by snobbish Brits who bought economy tickets creating a fuss when they weren't offered a free upgrade to the comfy end of the plane.
- Relaxed attitude to baggage allowances.
- Plenty of leg room, although I'm only 5ft10.
- Food was bland and uninspiring. I don't expect much of airline food but this was particulary bad each way. Did get proper ice cream though :)
- Free drinks
- No seat back screens for movies, etc. Perhaps it's me but the films that they show are always somewhat depressing. Nothing really for kids to watch.

Canadian Affair
- Check in was also surprisingly quick and easy
- People in front of me at the check-in made to feel like criminals for having 1 kg in excess of baggage allowance.
- Unbelievably cramped. I couldn't sit with my legs straight.
- Food was better than Air Canada. Perhaps not saying much.
- You pay for drinks and they are expensive.
- Seat back screens with quite good selection of moves. Plenty for kids to watch

Re: Air Canada
 

Were you doing that before she left you?

Re: Air Canada
 

It's be enough wouldn't it, "that bastard made me fly with the wizened crones".

But not that ex, the original one, the one to whom I'm still married.

Re: Air Canada
 

And that's just the stewards.....

"In preparation for takeoff, please ensure that your seltbelts are fastened, you seat is in the upright position, you've filed your tax return, offered up your firstborn for sacrifice and your table is put away. If you haven't already been for a slash, you're buggered. We may, at some point during the flight, if we feel like it, feed some of you. Or we may not. Now just shut the f**k up for the next 6 hours and leave us to work out the plans for our next strike. Remember, at Air Canada we're not happy until you're not happy."

Your love life is labrythine! Just as well you're a programmer. It must take a Cray supercomputer just to keep track of their names.

Re: Air Canada
 

Well I'm sure its not all bad

I fly enough Air Canada to have a Aeroplan Gold card just on mileage

Granted British Airways and few other are better, but I can be very honest when I say that there are many airlines much worse than Air Canada…

I’ve never had a bad flight.. nor bad service.. or too long a wait..

Re: Air Canada
 

excellent post!!! better than the slagging off previously written.
So Air Canada is not the greatest... we've used them, haven't had the best treatment but will probably use them again as the overall service was ok-good.
We booked our flights through expedia, and had not reserved our seating... so even though we arrived early, and told the rep at the boarding desk, he said that the flight was full but he'll see what he would do. We are still waiting when there's about 10 people left to board, when he asks me over to say he was unable to do anything... "cheers"! wouldn't be so bad if it was just myself and the wife, but with a two year old, we would have liked to be together... my seat was about 25 seats ahead on the other aisle.
However, having gotten onboard, we had a nice chat with some people so i could sit closer.
But actually on board, the flight was pretty good. Stewardesses helped us and provided entertainment for our child, food not the greatest but ok... films poor relative to other flights i've taken (mostly to asia, using SQ and MAS), but flight highly uneventful which is good for us.

So in my humble opinion, Air Canada is a decent enough airline, have some sketchy people they should remove from having any relations with the customers, but that's like others, perhaps maybe more so but still...

Re: Air Canada
 

I don't like AC (even though my sister-in-law works for them), I have flown Worldways, Nationair (on one flight to Hamilton ON with Nationair I flew DC8 and it took 12 hours to arrive (actual flying time :scared: )), Canada3000, Wardair, Canadian and BA. I really liked flying Canadian and Wardair but as they are no longer around it is BA all the way for me, you really get what you pay for (but money is always a factor).

Re: Air Canada
 

Thanks for all the replies.

We will be booking our flights in August for flight July 2006.

Is booking early the way to go ?

Re: Air Canada
 

i agree 100% i will only fly with British air ways. I've flown with ac 3 times never again. and they are cheaper then AC which is always good :D

Re: Air Canada
 

We've flown Air Canada and with Canadian Affair and there was more leg room on the Canadian Affair Flights......service was very good too. Constant stream of drinks and food and the flight seemed to take no time at all (it was actually around 6.5 hours from gatwick to Halifax)

maybe we were just lucky but there was no waiting around at check in and only a short wait in departures at gatwick before boarding.....(flights are on a Thursday)

Re: Air Canada
 

Sounds like you must have been in the permium cabin altough I think that East coast flights use more spacious seating plans than those to the West coast.

Free drinks are definitely only in the premium cabin for West coast routes. :beer:

Re: Air Canada
 

I should have mentioned that the free drinks were only coffee, tea or water!!!! :)

Nope- we were just in standard cabin...I think there is only one class on the Thomas Cook airlines for Canadian Affair and last year they took out seats to increase legroom and comfort for passengers....so even my lanky hubby at 6ft 5in had room in front of his knees!!!! hehe

Re: Air Canada
 

Having flown AC from LHR to Vancouver, I can honestly say we never had any problems. The only thing that did get us slightly was the prices AC charge. Take a look at their (AC) prices, then look here> http://www.flyzoom.com/ and see the difference! We didnt know about them when we went, unfortunately.