Flying to UK?
 

Im sure that this may have been a subject discussed on here at some point before, however, I'd just like to share this with you all anyway.

For those of you who are planning to fly back to the UK at some point for whatever reason, I would strongly urge you to call the Glasgow office of Canadian Affair rather than booking online at canadianaffair.ca as the price difference and savings are amazing.
I have just been given a quote by the Glasgow office for 4 people (3 Adults, 1 child) flying from Vancouver - Manchester in May of $2606.00.......approximately $1100 cheaper than the price displayed online!!

I'm not quite sure why there seems to be such a huge difference, but there is and I guess thats all that matters when you have a tight budget.

Again, appologies if this is a topic discussed on here in the past but am so excited I just wanted to share!!


:-D

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Thanks for that info. I hope to go back to visit sometime this year:)

Re: Flying to UK?
 

You're welcome :)

Re: Flying to UK?
 

i just booked my tickets a min ago from vancouver to gatwick in march.

i think i've saved around $900 all in :thumbsup:

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Nice one!

:thumbup:

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Are there lots of Brits in Kamloops. I see alot on here. Im in kelowna. What part of UK are you visiting?

Re: Flying to UK?
 

We went back for a vacation this year booking through the UK office and yes saved a fortune paying with £'s instead :thumbup:

Re: Flying to UK?
 

there are a fair few.
were off to milton Keynes, not far from Dunstabuble

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Awwww......lovely jubbly. Do they still have the concrete cows. I love MK shopping centre.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Oh MK shopping center is just fab! Was there for Christmas shopping in 2009 wandering around with a large cup of hot mulled wine. However...the mini-ice skating rink they have outside is not a good idea after consuming a few too many of the said mulled wine.....hillarious consequences!!

I used to live in Kettering and so ventured down to MK every so often.....and apart from the roundabouts, it's a pretty good place.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

I'd fogotten abouts roundabouts. I miss Marks and Sparks crisps:D

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Annoyingly just seen an advert for Candianaffair.com - much cheaper than the flight we have next week! Hey ho ... starting from under £300 direct return from the UK ... obviously on limited flights - but booking early definitely seems to pay off!!

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Air Canada presently has an excellent seat sale from the UK.

Base fare is around $200 CDN return. Dates from 5th January to 7th April. 7 day advance purchase, Sat night stay.

Not available in reverse (another reason why I would always advise on starting travel in the UK, even when living in Canada....)

Re: Flying to UK?
 

$200 CND rtn?!

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Base fare, so before taxes and other surcharges. Also, of course, depending on days and availability.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Just had a look at their website and you can indeed get a good deal.....as long as you're traveling on a return trip from London Uk to Toronto during the seat sale. The cheapest I found was $568.14 (Inlcuding taxes).
Whilst this still sounds like a reasonable price.....you can still get it cheaper by calling Canadian Affair on the UK number.

Having never flown with Air Canada (other than internally within Canada) I can't vouch for the standard of their service, but I've flown quite a few times with Canadian Affair from Manchester to Calgary/Vancouver and have never had any problems at all.

I refer back to my initial post on this thread......by calling the Glasgow office of Canadian Affair, I got a quote for 4 people flying from Vancouver to Manchester in May for $2606 CDN.
For the same journey with Air Canada it would cost $5446 CDN!!

Their service would have to be far far superior to justify my fiance and I paying that differnce.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

I have flown with all the company's and yes whilst ca is more basic I can happily stomach it for the money saved - espesh when booked from the UK!

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Ive heard this a few times now...when you do this, do you have to give a UK address? and do you need a UK credit/debit card to pay with as the fare will be in GBP.

Do they mail or email your conformation?

I heard that id you a Canadian resident the UK office wont deal with you? that could be a load of rubbish tho.

Paul

Re: Flying to UK?
 

gave our canadaian address, paid with a canadian cc.
they email the itinery about a month before you fly

Re: Flying to UK?
 

I always pay with our Canadian visa card. I give my Canadian address. Those girls are on commission, they dont care where you live as long as they get the sale ;)

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Hi,

What is the telephone number of the office of Canadian Affairs in the UK, Please?

Re: Flying to UK?
 

011 44 20 76169184

Re: Flying to UK?
 

British Airways have a sale on until Jan 25th and are currently cheaper than Air Canada from Calgary.

One adult, one child mid-week return trip in mid-March was coming in at $1,884. Just another one to consider.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

I booked our June flights from Ottawa-London via their Glasgow office, paid in pounds on our Canadian Credit Card and it was a lot cheaper than paying via the CDN website....

I had originally looked at Air Canada and with CDN affair we can both fly for the same price Air Canada would have charged for 1 person.

If only Air canada would realise that if they reduced prices instead of being greedy, more people would fly more often!!!

Re: Flying to UK?
 

I couldn't agree more! And the same goes for BA too. I've travelled a lot from the UK to the States over the last 20 years or so, and nearly always flew with them, but now they are also just too expensive.

I have never had any probs with CDN Affair, and the meals they serve are always pretty good too so they would always be my first choice.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Thanks everyone, I will certainly be giving that a try the next trip I plan, so you can obviosuly look online first - to see what flights are on offer then give them a call and see what they offer it for.

Although I did got back in October and got a good deal online then - $630 Toronto - Manchester, Birmingham - Toronto, that will be tough to beat I think

Worth a try tho!

Cheers

Paul

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Yeah definitely Paul, have a look at the prices online and then call the UK number.....I can almost guarantee they will give you a better price than you see online!

Re: Flying to UK?
 

There is a world of difference between a simple charter operation and one that operates a hub and spoke model especially within a global interlined network (e.g. Star Alliance). They serve very different purposes and markets.

Also the advantage of a scheduled airline with lots of planes in lots of places really shows up in IROPS.

Air Canada's load factor transatlantic is usually around 85%, hitting 90% or better in the summer. Plenty of people are flying with them and often.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

If you book a flight from Seattle it is always cheaper than if you book from Vancouver, just a thought for anyone flying from this end of the continent.

Course you can expect to have your baggage lost (thought it also mostly always turns up again a day or so later), thankfully not happened to me though my bags came on the flight before my flight without telling me once! Not funny waiting by yourself at midnight and no one tells you until you asked, grrrr.

Anyway, I tend to fly from Canada out of choice moreso now as I don't get any baggage issues this way. And most friends I know of have all lost their bags for a day or so (friends from the States, as well as in Canada). My parents lost theirs for a day too flying to Canada from New York last year, ruined their first night here. Thankfully they did get it back the next day as they were informed they likely would.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Seattle gets my votes. You tend to save if only because of the ridiculous taxes that Vancouver adds on. BA gets my vote too and last time I flew from Seattle with them I got a choice of 2 flights compared with one from Vancouver. Even with the additional travel and parking costs it worked out something like $1500 cheaper for 4 of us compared with going locally. Then had to clear customs twice but no issues there.

Re: Flying to UK?
 

I concur on the cutting out extra tax charges for flying from Seattle, I think I saved over $100 for flying from there down to Denver when I went skiing with a likeminded ski group down at Steamboat the first year I was here, still friends and in touch with their main organizer who is half German 'great guy' and every year I get invites down there, but I told them not for now I can't but I will at some point in the future :)

Re: Flying to UK?
 

The trick is to only have to travel to Seattle once by car or bus, when you first start a trip.

Book:

SEA-YVR-LHR-YVR (stopover)

Book the final YVR-SEA segment for a later date. This can either be when you are next looking at flying to LHR, so on that trip you would do:

YVR-SEA-YVR-LHR-YVR (stop) and so on. This means you never actually stop in Seattle nor do you have to get there again as you always have a YVR-SEA segment available for use.

Another option is to put the final segment of that trip and the first segment of the next on a weekend somewhere between the two trips to LHR. You can then have a 'free' weekend in SEA.

I am doing something like this with LGA. I fly LHR-YYZ in August. Stopover in YYZ until October. Then fly YYZ-LGA-YYZ on a weekend in October. Stopover again in YYZ until I fly to LHR in November.

Always think of yourself as travelling. There is never really a destination :)

Re: Flying to UK?
 

Got this in the e-mail today and may be worth checking out if flying in Feb or May:

http://www.travelzoo.com/ca/flights/...um=email_top20

Re: Flying to UK?
 

I actually had a good experience driving there, better than Vancouver airport in that I stayed at an inexpensive motel about 5 mins away from the airport car parking, and in the morning it all went smoothly, dropped car off, got on shuttle bus, and got on flight.

When I flew back to UK 2 yrs ago for a visit, could I book car parking at the airport in advance? No such luck, nightmare, I had to get a friend to give me a lift as there was also no train service direct from the VCH airport as there is now.

Seattle was not such a far drive either, about 3 hrs max, and not a bad drive.