They used to have affordable flights years ago, I believe.

Do they still have charter flights - during summer?

Yes Air Transat usually have charter flights during the summer.
Whats your interpretation of affordable
Virgin will stop flying to Vancouver on 11 October but are opening up new routes to the USA
Network changes | Virgin Atlantic

I personally have found Transat to be the cheapest. That's not to say the most comfortable but you get what you pay for. We are restricted a bit because they are the only airline (at present) that fly out of Gatwick.

Air Transat are as good as any of the others in Economy. New/updated planes last year with better seats and entertainment etc. They aren't always much cheaper any more though, but can be if you aren't fixed on dates.

KLM can be good value sometimes. With the pound rising against the Euro, some of the European carriers will have better prices again due to the exchange rate, but it does mean that you will have a 2-leg flight via Amsterdam (for KLM) or Frankfurt for Lufthansa etc...

As for Virgin, they only tried for one summer season. I guess with Delta in charge, routes like Vancouver got pulled.

We used Iceland Air and they were really great and were much cheaper than all the others we looked into.

Thanks all.

im flying this wednesday to the UK for a family wedding, $950 incl all taxes etc.
I used an site called Cheap O Air
I'm flying KLM from Edmonton to Manchester UK Via Amsterdam
Edmonton/Toronto/Amsterdam/Manchester

Cheap flights mean lower paid airline employees!

i looked across the broad spectrum using flight network, Transat, AC & BA and those not on any flightnetwork type website

The results were astounding

I checked three weeks ago to for a week late January 2015 YYZ - MAN & the cheapest was with icelandair at $724 return

picked the same dates YVR - Man & I think it was Delta airways cheapest at just over $1000

It can change daily, as can specific days of the week

And?

http://britishexpats.com/forum/maple...ntries-843982/

I too am flying to England this Wednesday but for $800 or so. Air Canada. Direct. When you fly and when you buy makes a big difference to airfare cost.

So is my old man. AC, direct. $915 but booked about 6 weeks ago. Toronto to Heathrow. My recent flights on BA were around 800. I don't do Air Transat, by the time you pay to reserve a seat, buy a blanket, extra train fares from Gatwick it isn't that different in price.

I suppose its the extra distance from Edmonton that ran up my ticket cost a little but i was impressed as thats a few hundred bucks cheaper than when i flew back six years ago so when that price popped up i booked it immediately.

As Bats has said, it's worth considering the extras that are a cost on top of the base fare. On Air Canada, you select your seats for free as soon as you purchase your tickets. On BA you select your seats when you check in, meaning if you want prime selection you have to be online right at the 24h mark when it opens to get your selection. On Air Transat it's a charge per passenger per direction, I *think* (going on memory) it's something like £10 for a standard seat, or £20 for a premium seat, both in economy. (Premium seats i think were further back where the configuration changes from 3-3-3 to 2-3-2, so the seats of 2 are premium, as well as exit rows and front rows.)

Iceland Air has been offering cheap flights. You stop over in Reykjavik, and I believe you can stay for up to 3 or 4 days without incurring an extra fee as it's just a stopover. It only increases the flight time by about an hour or so, since it's literally on the way.

We usually use kayak.com to search for flights as they search all the various other websites as well as the carriers, so you can work out if the same flight is being offered cheaper on eBookers or Major Travel or Expedia or whoever, as opposed to the carrier's website directly.