We want to book our airfare to UK with Zoom leaving end of September but returning end of May 2009. Their May dates for next year are not out yet but they have a good fare of $129.00 (plus taxes) for Sept 25th as opposed to $179.00 and $149.00 for dates either side of that.

We are wondering whether to book the $129.00 one way and next May book a single back to Toronto not knowing what the fare will be. Usually it is better to be book a return ticket but we can't do that until their dates are out and we may lose out on this good fare.

Any thoughts on the matter? Thanks.

When I was booking flights (either Zoom or CanadianAffair) for regular visits to Canada before actually moving here I kept 'experimenting' and entering different dates to look for any pattern.

I found that the closer I got to a particular date, the price came down but then too close (and it wasn't always the same 'close' if you see what I mean) and it went back up again.

Try putting June/July/Aug dates in, make a note of the fares quoted and then do it again every week and make comparisons. You might find there is an 'optimum' booking time in relation to the actual flight. It served me well.

May always seemed to be an absolute bargain month.

As for it being a better deal to get a return, that doesn't seem to apply when you go through the process as fares are quoted as one-ways aren't they?

Edited to add: That's interesting. I just went through CanadianAffair's process and the quoted 'one way' fare was much cheaper if booked as part of a return. I'm sure they didn't do that when I was using them before.

However, the September fares on Zoom remained the same whether booked as a one way or return.

... not sure if this would be any help, but maybe check out Globespan's options?

Best of luck!

Globespan will actually let you pre-book excess baggage too - at an astonishingly cheap rate!

Globespan gave me and my family the worst flight experience of our lives! Last year in June - Stranded at Heathrow before we even set off and this was nothing to do with Air Traffic control or the CAA - they simply did not have the crew available for the flight. After waiting more than 7 hours we were eventually allowed onboard, only to be told in pigeon English, by an all Italian crew that clearly didn't give a cr*p as they were stitched by their rostering dept to stand in a short notice (we all know that's how last minute staffing is done!) that we would be re-routed through glasgow to pick up more passangers. It was quite clear to everyone onboard that this was Globespan's attempt to recover revenue for underbooking two flights by combining the unfortunate victims into one profit making flight!

Anyway to cut this down to less than 500 pages - we got to Scotland and there was a further delay of more than 3 hrs while a dozen or so very stroppy people dripped about the fact they'd already been waiting longer than they should have (1 hr, bless 'em!). So, if that wasn't bad enough there was nearly an arrest when I had to inform the cabin crew that if the guy sat next to my daughter during this fracass didn't calm down and remove himself from my seat I'd be taking him down to the ground and tying him up with shoe laces while the cavalry was arriving (I'd been attending to another of my kids who had gotten worried about the obvious tensions onboard at the time).

Needless to say we took off and got airborne only to be ignored by the cabin crew for daring to ask for coffee, water for the kids and something to eat as we were all hungry because of the delay etc. Once we got to Vancouver we were stuck on the ground while the cabin crew got their personal SH1t together to ensure most of them could disembark, leaving us with a skeleton crew trying to calm down the same stroppy people from earlier.

A fiasco from start to finish - Globespan couldn't even be bothered to offer any compensation or pay for a hotel for any of us to recharge after the disaster. I couldn't face any more involvement with 'GlobSpin' so didn't pursue the matter further. Karma will get 'em for me! None of us slept a wink onboard and I had a 6 hr drive after spending 3hrs trying to get a rental van as mine had been rebooked to someone else as I hadn't turned up anywhere near my alloted pickup time!

I have flown in some pretty scary (military) situations and with some dubious 3rd world arilines and over central america at times on aircraft that looked like they shouldn't be in service, but I had NEVER experienced customer service that bad - sorry did I say bad? I meant non-existant.

Globespan might be someone's perfect choice, but I would rather stick needles in my eyes than fly with "GlobSpin again.

Signed "Happy from Kelowna BC"

Regards and good luck to all trying to get a good deal across the pond in any direction.

BN

Flippin 'eck ... that's terrible!!!

My family chose them at the last minute when they came over to see us last summer, fortunately they had no issues at all from their experience.

We had drama with Zoom, although the flight was trouble free (with more leg room that we expected from all the rumours previously picked up on) .... the issues came when we tried to report a tare on one of our cases. We went to Kiosk A, asked to go to Kiosk B, nobody took responsibility at Kiosk B, so asked us to go to Kiosk C, Kiosk C asked why we were send to them, directing us back to Kiosk A .... you get the picture!

After 20 mins, we said "to heck with this!!!" (or the more favourable alternative) .... once settled, tried to call from the UK side, were told to call from the Canadian side, called from the Canadian side, who then blamed the UK side, saying it should have been sorted on that end, bla bla bla! ..... see a pattern here?

I think these days, when it comes to choosing your carrier .... "wing it!!"

UGH!! I'm a bit scared of Globespan now!

Our best experiences have always been with Thomas Cook.

I'm 5'10" and the hubby is 6'4"... legroom is top priority with us!

All Zoom's tickets are quoted for the one-way, so it doesn't matter. They mention it on the website as a plus.

... apart from our "after flight" drama back in 2004, we would certainly look at Zoom for future flights.

When I was looking to book our one way flights Zoom were considerably cheaper when booking a return ticket,There was a $100.00 difference on the fare when we priced the one way and the return.....

Exactly what I was going to say I was looking to fly into Paris but out of London on 2 singles but it was much more expensive than a return to either one.

It does appear different things happen at different times. Using that date quoted above - 25 September I think - Zoom quotes the same one way price whether asking for a one way or a return.

Whereas CanadianAffair quotes around $300 asking for a one way only, but that one way fare then halves if asking for a return.

The last return flights I bought were cheaper as a one way ticket out with CanadianAffair and a one way back with Zoom than any other combination at that time.

Thanks guys for replies. BristolUK we checked Canadian Affair and they are somewhat dearer - we also checked Zoom fares for May and June this year to see what they are, pretty good, but next year with fuel prices guess they'll be more.

We think we'll stick with Zoom, but if we do single tickets you have to pay in sterling coming back and we'd rather pay in Cnd. dollars - at the same time doing a single both ways gives us flexibility of whether to return May or mid June. May 09 dates still have not come out yet.

Decisions, decisions whether to book the $129.00 and accept one pays more on the return single or wait for 09 dates to come out and maybe lose the $129.00 deal.

This gets weirder by the minute.

I just did a search Toronto-Gatwick 25/9 and back on 30/11.

$129 plus taxes in both directions.

But Gatwick to Toronto ONLY on 30/11 and the fare was $63.

So the return would actually cost MORE than it would to buy two one-ways for these dates and maybe others too.

Just an observation (I am in Calgary and not sure if this applies to fares from TO or not) but for the past 2 years Canadian Affair have had some seriously cheap fares in May I heard of one person paying 8.50GBP to fly out to Calgary and only $40 back (taxes extra of course) We were also sent the news letter this year and could fly back for $124 including tax one way to the UK. May seems to be a quiet time, but you have to have the nerves to wait until a couple of weeks before you want to depart to get the real cheap deals it seems. If you book in advance the fares aint so cheap
HTH