Which airlines from UK to canada offer the best in flight entertainment?

I am flying with Canadian affair, and I am not sure if there is any!:scared:

Pass me that copy of War and Peace!

The best one I found was 2 years ago with Continental airlines but it meant going via the US so that could cause problems. They had individual screens in the back of the headrests so you could choose to watch whatever you like. That was great for me as my two were 6 and 4 at the time so the movies that they tend to put on are too old for them. If I remember rightly, they even had 2 channels of kids cartoons and movies. Although I loved the flight and the attentdants were the best I had found, I shall not be flying via the US again!!

Thomas Cook Airlines (purchased via Canadian Affair) offers the best between London and Calgary/Vancouver You get personal TV screens with 10 channels even in cattle class. Not sure about their shorter haul routes.

Air Canada and Air Transat are possibly the worst on this particular route - both airlines are still living in the 80s (AC are getting a new A345 soon with TVs). However, if you enjoy powerless landings and the frill of near death - try Air Transat, I hear their pilots are great at gliding A330s.

I agree about Air Canada they were crap, we flew with them in Feb this year and the whole way to halifax (took 8 hours) we had no movie just adverts and friends. Didn't see any airline staff for over 3 hours. Anyone know what zoom are like?

As the A330 has a maximum glide range of 138 miles,

(To calculate the maximum glide range we simply use the equation:

Glide Range = H / yg

To maximize the equation we must use a minimum value for glide angle (y g) and a maximum value of altitude (H). So we set H to the flight ceiling and found y g with:

ygmin = 2 * sqroot(Cdo*k)

With H set to 40,000 ft and yg at 0.0547 radians the glide range equation yields:

Maximum glide range = 138 miles)

Then you need to hope they are not turning the engines off too soon!:scared:

Our inflight entertainment with Canadian Affair actually started before we got airborn. We were treated to a fuel spill post mortem which we could all see quite clearly from our perches. It was the bloke who kept repeatedly pointing at the mess that was most funny
Advice: Take that book!

Read this to find out how well Air Transat can glide an A330:
http://www.iasa.com.au/folders/image...velations.html

oh my god ive changed my mind about you coming for a barbie!!!!!lol

I flew Air Canada the last time I went to England and I found the service just fine. I didn't mind watching those central screens, but I guess I am not fussy. I read a book most of the time and coming back the plane wasn't full so we all got to put the arm rests up and sleep across the seats!

Flew recently with Zoom to Calgary and back. Going out had 3 films including Calender Girls and Big Fish and coming back 2 films including 50 First Dates. The flight back was overnight and the cabin crew shut down for about 2 hours letting everyone get some sleep. I would use Zoom again though the food was not brilliant.

It's good know that zoom is ok to fly with, we plan to use them when we finally get to move to halifax.
UKjo, good luck with the barbie, i think you have your work cut out with Liftman.!!

It's a balance really.

Air Canada has good leg room and comfy seats, but rubbish TV. Virgin (especially) and Continental, good entertainment, small seats. Not flown Canadian Affair, but given the price would expect very cramped seats and poor tv.

I'd value maximum space over entertainment anyday.

FYI, the following site gives a very useful lowdown on the aircraft seating and stuff used by each airline. It may help you choose your next seat with more luck next time:

http://www.seatguru.com/

hope it helps

Thought Thomas Cook's in flight entertainment (and the aircraft in general) was a cut above the other charters that Canadian Affair Use (Mytravel's system was pretty poor, when it was working). JMC used to be good (I think Thomas Cook took them over, so that explains that), Air Transat quite poor.

Never had a good experience with Air Canada and they seem to have the grumpiest Flight Attendants of any airline. It was a tragedy when they took over Canadian as the latter were brilliant.

Best carrier I ever flew with was Singapore Airlines, but then they don't do cheapie flights to Canada from the UK.

Cheers, Iain

JMC Air is just another brand from Thomas Cook (It stands for John Mason Cook - Thomas' son). JMC still exists, but not as an airline operation - the airline section was rebranded Thomas Cook Airlines, which is what you see today. Exactly the same planes and service, just a different livery.

Until BA comes to Calgary (should that ever happen), Thomas Cook will be one of the only carriers I use. I completely dislike Air Canada, and I wouldn't touch Air Transat unless it was an emergency (there would probably be a second emergency in the air too).

I'm not sure about Zoom yet, since I've not tried them.

We flew Zoom and they had two movies but I didn't watch either. They sold the headsets for $5.00 and I guess you keep them for your next flight....well I doubt I'll be going back. The food wasn't to bad, and they gave you a complimentary glass of wine with your meal but kept coming around filling it up till the bottles were empty. Take bottles of water with you as they only give out little glasses of water. Generally the flight was good for a nofrills job!