Mr Lee

Well - after reading nothing but praise for these guys over the last year or so, I have an alternative to offer.

We got back from Calgary on Saturday after a complete fiasco of a return trip.

We were due to fly back to Manchester last Friday with Thomas Cook, booked via Canadian Affair.

All was going well - we checked the flight time on the Calgary airport website just 4 hours before we were due to take off (7.45pm flight) and nothing had been changed, so off we headed and got dropped off at the airport. After traipsing up and down the check-in desks and not seeing a thing for Thomas Cook, nor was there anything on the information boards, we were getting a bit worried. After asking someone from Air Canada if they knew where the Thomas Cook desk was, we headed in the direction they pointed, only to find the My Travel check-ins...where we overheard some more people who were due to fly out on the Manchester flight saying that it had been cancelled!

A quick trip to the Canadian Affair desk produced a letter that explained that due to "operational difficulties" that flight to Manchester had been cancelled. We were left with two alternatives - stay in Calgary until the next My Travel flight to Manchester (which was on Sunday) or get on a My Travel flight to Glasgow (due to leave at 8.20pm) and bus it from Glasgow to Manchester.

Would Canadian Affair pay for our accommodation in Calgary for another two nights? Apparently yes - £100 per booking per night...
Well that would have been fun to arrange, Stampede weekend in Calgary...
Not to mention the repercussions from not turning up for work on Monday.

We were left with no real alternative than to get the Glasgow flight.

We finally got home at 6pm on the Saturday, 7 hours later than we should have been.

We were well pissed off - no notification at the airport of the flight being cancelled and pretty lame alternatives on offer. No upgrades, no offer of having full expenses paid, etc.

There were two messages from Canadian Affair on my home phone telling me to contact them - useful, eh?

As if that wasn't bad enough, I have found out since that the flight hadn't been cancelled. The Thomas Cook plane was flying from Vancouver via Calgary. It seems like Canadian Affair had decided not to stop off at Calgary and bump the passengers who were waiting there to go to Manchester onto the My Travel flight.

The woman at the Canadian Affair desk at Calgary said she "expects the same every Friday".

So - if you are flying Manchester - Calgary return this summer with Canadian Affair, expect problems...

Apart from that, we had a great time.

daisymoll

I have to say although I love the 35" planes, there do seem to be a lot of cancellations with Canadian Affair..... That sounds awful though.

louisbourg

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :scared:
we are flying with them from manchester to halifax next tuesday

i am crossing my fingers , although we have used them before and had the best service

i will let you know
sharon

Gray C

Manchester to Toronto this Sunday (17/07/05) and then Halifax to Manchester (2/08/05) with Canadian Affair. Again hoping that the flights leave as planned.

SirTainly

This is the normal route.

The plane actually is on the return trip from the Carribean.

dormy

we just got back from Halifax, flights both ways were fantastic, best service I have experienced on a plane, flights both left early, and flight time was shorter that expected. The new planes are very comfortable with loads of leg room. I have nothing but praise for this airline, i don't expect you'll have any problems

Mr Lee

Who was the airline?

My Travel was pretty basic service - drinks (tea/coffee/orange squash) only with meals unless you paid.
And the seats were pretty cramped.

Fortunately the planes were fairly empty so we had three seats to ourselves, but if full, I'd have hated it.

Biiiiink

Afaik only specified eastern routes operated by Thomas Cook have the extra seat pitch. Everything else (My Travel or Calgary/Vancouver) will be the usual squashed knees you'd expect on a charter.

Grah

Are you trying to say the plane was in Clagary but you didn't board? well the plane isn't the only operational part of getting on the plane you know.

Only being 7 hours late is pretty good considering stampeed weekend and increased security and plane schedules out due to weather (fog / hurricanes etc)

Did you give them a holiday contact number or just your home number? 2 messages is good appears they made every effort to contact you but unfortunately weren't able to.

upgrade on a charter plane ? Full expenses? your dreaming how much profit did your cheaper charter flight make. full expenses might be covered if you had paid 1st Class on a schedule flight but not on a charter.

Seems for the price you paid they did a good job, as for the departures you checked 4 hours before it appears you already found out it that the plane did depart on time so even that was right.

Don't cheap out on a charter if you expect 1st class schedule airline service.

Could be worst a friend was told due to halifax airport being fogged in he would have to drive 3 hours to moncton at his expense, once he got to toronto he waited 10 hours in the airport before a flight to Winnipeg. not airlines fault it was foggy and the transmitter was off due for maintenance. mind you he didn't feel to bad as he met a guy who had to wait 2 days in the airport as he was only on a connecting flight to Chile and missed it by 45 minutes.

Canada Jane

My colleague at work flew out to Vancouver on Friday with Canadian Affair (Thomas Cook). They had booked flights in and out of either Gatwick or Heathrow (can't remember which). However a week before they were due to fly they got an email saying that their outward flight had been changed to leave from Stanstead. Their return flight was (so far anyway) unchanged.

This has meant that they have had to change all their travel plans as they can no longer drive to the airport and leave the car there as they will returning to a completely different airport.

I was thinking of using Canadian Affair for our next trip, but not sure now. Although hopefully, our next trip will be one way - so not so worrysome.

We have flown with both Air Canada and Zoom and have had no problems with either.

regards
Jane

andy_sheila

we flew canadian affair in may, from manchester to halifax. our flight was on time, and there was plenty of legroom, especially as it was half empty. the only problem we had was that I'd booked a seperate seat for my 18 month old, and was told that I could have her car seat on the plane. unfortuantely, the put her seat in the hold, so I ended up having her on my lap for most of the flight! also, in the brochure, they say that families with young children board first, but we had to wait. apart from the mix up with the seats, it was a brill flight

ABL25

Works both ways though. We live in Essex and have been told that we have to fly out of Stansted on the 29th July instead of Gatwick .......... Perfect!!.

Also we had originally paid for the Premium service, but due to the plane coming from Manchester, all Premium seats are full. So we got our money back, managed to keep the 30Kg luggage allowance and have a one way upgrade the next time we fly with them. Considering that the only reason we upgraded was to get the extra luggage allowance, we are now £158 better off!!. So it isn't all bad.
Alex

SunnySussex

More on the Gatwick - Vancouver flight.

We were called by C.A. on Sunday afternoon to tell us that our flight had been changed from Gatwick to Stansted. They said that they had some fiasco with running the direct flight on Fridays from Gatwick (can't remember exactly what the problem was).
Anyway, they said they would bus us up from Gatwick to Stansted in the morning (only a 2 hour bus ride in rush hour with 4 little kids, just what I would want before a 9 hour flight).
We had a Hotel and Parking arranged at Gatwick and when I checked for availability at Stansted Airports, all the Family rooms are gone.
Anyway, I asked C.A. to put up some money to pay for 2 rooms but they refused. They seemed to think because Gatwick had given them the problem that they were blameless and at least they had offered another London Airport (it just happens to be on the wrong side of London!!!).

They did offer us to swap to a Thu or Sat flight from Gatwick but they were via Calgary which added an extra 3 hours onto the flying time. We would have then had all the hassle of changing car hire and Hotels the other end.
We were stuffed either way.

Great huh.

stainedglasslady

We have just flown Canadian Affair from Gatwick to Vancouver, a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time to fly with them, thought we would give them a try. We paid for an upgrade, take a tip, get on the plane as early as you can as they are known for double booking (especially upgrades). Lots of confusion with people sitting in each others seats, even though they had paid for upgrades. They were told by Cabin Crew to contact the office direct via email whilst on holiday as they could not do anything about it, then proceeded to find them other seats in economy. Several customers disputed this as they were going to be on holiday and had no way of using the Internet, but this got them nowhere.

The return flight was an absolute disaster. Nearly missed it as we couldn't find check-in in Vancouver airport as it was in the domestic lounge and not international. Loads of double bookings once again and lots of angry customers, our seats were double booked on the return flight. There was a very bad damp stain on the seat belt, and I didn't notice it until it was too late. Strange sort of skets over the seats which needed wiping down, cleaned the table myself and loads of crumbs and malteser like chocolates down the sides of the seat cushions. Stopped off at Edmonton (for two hours) until the Captain announced that the luggage had been loaded incorrectly at Vancouver, so we had two choices i) either to off load all the luggage and start again or ii) everyone in the middle cabin to go toward the back of the plane for take off. I giggled to myself thinking this was all a joke and the captain had a strange sense of humour 11 hours later arriving in Gatwick with a 5 hour drive home after waiting at the carousel for 1.5 hours for our luggage.

I think I am going to give Air Canada a try next time, taking the upgrade into account it works out roughly the same price. Anyone tried Air Canada lately ?

dingbat

Don't touch Air Canada...industrial action in the offing once again. :scared: Stick to BA - at least you know what you are going to get.