TONYMCROSS

Can anyone out there let me know what they think of the following airlines:
Meridian, Zoom or Air Canada.

I am flying out on holiday from the UK to Calgary for three weeks motorhome travelling with my family (there are 4 adults and 3 kids :scared: )We will be flying home to the UK from Vancouver. We aren't going out until July but I am trying to book flights now. Air Canada are the most expensive so far but I am sure you get what you pay for. Zoom are really cheap but they do fly at rubbish times and there is a stop on the return flight.

What I'm really trying to say is: Is it worth me saving a few quid to go with one of the budget airlines?

iaink

How tall are you?

Crispie

Loads of mixed experiences on this forum.
I found zoom much better than air canada but that was to Halifax when you can get flying times down to about 5 hours and is direct.
Most people check Canadian Affair first.
Prices vary across the dates but Can Affair usually are cheapest.
I'm 6ft and found zooms standard seating fine but don't ask what the plane was!
It was blue with wings OK!

JAJ

try http://www.airlinequality.com


Jeremy

Voyager970

Flying with Canadian Affair next July from Glasgow to Vancouver.
Two adults and three kids.
Found them cheaper than Zoom, and they also had more leg room

Zoom only give you 31 inches seat pitch
Canadian Affair is 35 inches which may not sound a lot more, but I am sure you ladies out there will agree that a few inches more does matter !!!!!!!!

I believe Canadian Affair is the budget airline of Air Canada

Eddie

ella69

I flew Air Canada on the 1st of Nov from Calgary to London Heathrow..with my two young children...Rubbish airline.on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give them 0. First and foremost, these tickets were booked in April and I specifically requested for bulk head seats. Did I get it NO!!!! i was sturck way at the back..They dont have childrens menu, no games no toys nothing. On my flight back I got bulk head seats, which were right behind the first class compartment, even with my two young children, they would not allow me to use the first class loos, so I had to take one child at a time to the loos at the back and Oh I had to wait for a flight attendant to be avaliable before I could go. You are not allowed to have more than two people in the loo The attendants are stroppy and annoying. I have been told BA has just introduced flights from Calgary to Heathrow via Chicago, but you will have to call BA up. I will not recommend Air Canada, However, you might have a better experience, so good luck

JAJ

One could always look at the BA website.

If flying to Canada via the US:

1. All family members must have a machine-readable passport to use the visa waiver in the US (children on parents passports is now a no-no).

2. You need to clear US Immigration on both trips. This is not a problem when departing Canada as there are US preclearance facilities in Canadian airports. However it can impose a significant delay when flying from the UK as you have to queue up on arrival in the US.

3. If staying in Canada more than 90 days, you will likely encounter a problem using the US visa waiver.

Jeremy

Posidrive

Canadian Affair is part of Thomas Cook airlines, or at least uses their planes from Gatwick

Posidrive

Canadian Affair don't use the new planes with the larger seat pitch for the Calgary route. I'm 5ft 9in and found the seat pitch in the standard cabin VERY VERY cramped. They do have a larger seat pich in the premier cabin though, for an extra £50 per person per leg of the journey. This also gets you free drinks plus an extra 10kg of luggage allowance

Rhodes

Is that just for the peak season though?

Posidrive

All year round according to the brochures

Iain Mc

[Pedant Mode On]

Canadian Affair are just a booking agency, they use all sorts of airlines. Over the years I've been with Thomas Cook, MyTravel, Air Transat and maybe some others through them.

[Pedant Mode Off]

They are generally the cheapest though. Although for our trip next March, after taxes, Zoom were cheaper.

Cheers, Iain

Rhodes

That's good to know. I hate their website - it's awful to navigate.

Velouria

ditto... and it can be a terribly slow site at times :/

we flew thomas cook through canadian affair from gatwick to ottawa in september of this year. sure - you get the 35 inch pitch, but the seat is *very* cramped width wise. we were lucky that the woman in our row switched seats allowing us to raise the arm rests and stretch out a bit. that was the first time i ever flew across the atlantic in such a small plane! two aisles with three seats apiece. but we got there in the end

Posidrive

The East coast flights have the more comfortable seating. I can only assume that they think that Albertan cowboys are usd to being saddle sore