dannyg1001

I just got an urgent email from Canadian Affair regarding my flight on December 27th from Calgary to Manchester. i tried phoning them but no answer, they did not state what the problem is!

Has anyone had one of these emails before? Do you think the flights been cancelled or something from experience?

Lisa_W

Hi

We got one of these a couple of weeks ago. We were due to fly on 17th December Calgary to Manchester with Monarch. When my husband got through to them on the phone, the "major change to the flight" which they mentioned in the email was that they had cancelled it! They have put us on an Air Transat flight going the day before our original flight date - which means my husband has had to take an extra day off work.

He asked about our return flight on 3rd January which is still meant to be with Monarch and the girl said that "as far as they were aware" that one would be OK. But who knows? I would not be surprised if we got another email about that one too!

Good luck on getting yours sorted out.

AlexInBC

Being as it's a busy holiday time, this isn't by any means conclusive (i.e. it could just be fully booked up) but if you try to book for that route and date on the Canadian Affair website, it doesn't show that flight at all - only the previous and following Weds

dannyg1001

I called the montreal office... you guessed it! flight cancelled. Thhey are offering me a flight on December 24th... GREAT

This severely disrupts Christmas for me in both countries now.

Lisa, did they make you pay any extra for the other flight, because if they do thats totally not fair.

Im not going to freak out just yet because Canadian Affair have been brilliant in the many times I've flown with them.

Lisa_W

Sorry to hear about your flight but I wasn't surprised - I guessed as soon as I saw the title of your thread. That is a pain though about them changing it to Christmas Eve. At least ours does not disrupt us too much.

No we don't have to pay anything extra. We thought that maybe they had put on the Air Transat flight specially (don't Air Transat own Canadian Affair?) because Monarch cancelled the other one. Our original flight on 17th was the first direct one from Calgary to Manchester of the winter season, so this new one must have been put on to replace it.

They were very good in sorting it out for us, so hopefully they will do the same for you (and hopefully all our return flights will not get changed too!)

AlexInBC

TBH, if the inconvenience isn't too much, you're far better off with the change as our Monarch flight was absolutely dire the one (and definitely ONLY) time we flew with them!

(See post #5 in: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=502201 for why.)

raine66

My inlaws were due to arrive in Toronto on 24th December with Canadian Affair, when they tried to reserve their seats on line they discovered the flight had been cancelled and they are now flying out on the 23rd.

Maybe the same thing applies here.

Should have read all the posts, looks like you have your answer.

dannyg1001

Thanks for the replies, I'm glad that it sounds like they are not going to charge me extra... I wonder if they'll pay for a hotel in Calgary for me on the 23rd?

Lisa_W

Just got a call this morning from Canadian Affair asking us to ring them back urgently regarding our flights.

OH just called them and the return flight on 3rd January has been cancelled by Monarch.

The alternatives are: fly back on 1st or 7th January from Manchester to Toronto then on to Calgary, or fly back on 6th January from Manchester to Gatwick then to Calgary. So basically no direct flight from Manchester now.

We are stuck what to do. OH isn't keen on the 6th or 7th because it means him taking even more time off work and neither of us are keen on the 1st because we will no doubt have to set off so early that New Year's Eve -which we had already booked away with friends - will have to be cancelled as we won't get back in time.

So I am pretty hacked off. So Danny and anyone else hoping to get to Manchester over Christmas - beware, you may also be getting phone calls soon.

marclouis

In May 2008 we flew out to Fredericton with Canadian Affair, we were really happy to take up the offer of uprades on our seats to Club (or whatever they call it) for £50 each for the four of us, I'd already prebooked seats with extra leg room. Anyway, a week before the flights, they called and said that we could no longer have the upgraded seats and we were split up and didnt get the extra leg room we had booked before the upgrade, and being six foot, was none too happy. I think Canadian Affair are pretty good most of the time. but that could have been handeld better.

dannyg1001

My return flight is with air transat so im not worried about that, but my re-arranged flight is still with Monarch. I am a bit worried. The lady assured me that this flight was more or less full and wont be cancelled, but im not convinced.

They did apologise however for ruining my Christmas plans, but I thought they might offer a partial refund or something... oh well.

sinope

When we flew back from Calgary to Gatwick in October we met another couple whose flight back with Air Transat had been cancelled and who had had to extend their holiday by four days and come back on the Thomas Cook flight we were on. The explanation given was that if the planes can't be filled up that flight will be cancelled.

Ramsey

The Monarch flight is a charter.... probably by Inghams for it's ski market.

Given the current economic climate, and that there's probably going to be less demand for Canadian Ski holidays by brits this season (especially from "smaller" airports like manchester), Inghams have probably dropped any flights that aren't nearly full and off-load their passengers to other airlines.

Then of course, anyone else who'd booked a seat on that flight is left in the hands of their Agent (but then it's about time they actually did some work )

So it's not the Airlines' fault if the flight is cancelled!

Hopefully Canadian Affair look after you though.

It's a pain, but that's charter flights for you!

dannyg1001

Hi,

There are no problems with Monarch, they are just re-scheduling some routes and dates. Your flights are fine.

Kind Regards
Heather McCard
Canadian Affair

Lisa_W

OH has cleared it with work, so we are now coming back on 6th via Gatwick. So what was a two and a half week holiday originally is now a three week one!!