Originally posted by wee-haggis
Its like the old saying sys:
"You only get what you pay for".
AT is by far the cheapest Canuck airline around (right now) and to be honest ,in the 18 or 20 times that I have used them,they really are'nt that bad.
Sure , AC is better...but its also twice as much!
I would'nt base an opinion of an airline simply on the fact that they don't supply free headphones
...
I agree ... I should have clarified however that our unforgettable experience with Air Transat was not a result of paying
for headphones (we also have a few headphones leftover from previous charter airline trips) ... AT presented some unique situations that were more than acceptable. It's just that this is the experience
we had and is just a reflection of our opinion.
AT was the airline booked by Carnival for our portion of the trip from Calgary to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our seat assignments were in the front of the plane ... no problem ... however ... the first several rows of the plane had
fixed armrests between the seats ... not a big deal except that my wife's medical condition necessitated an armrest that could lift up so she could have more room to move. The attendants were presented with the dilemma but their attitude was basically
"tough cookies!" . So imagine a flight to San Juan with my DW in
pain ... and she was not the only passenger that had complaints with those particular seats ... if
I found the seats to be quite narrow ... imagine the hardship of the other passengers on that flight who had the misfortune of being assigned to those rows ... what they experienced just because they did not meet a particular societal group's obsession of a perfect size 8 ( ... or whatever it is supposed to be!)
Fine ... we would rectify the situation on the return flight after the cruise. But wait ... there is a slight delay in departure. Not out of the ordinary. A
few hours and a few excuses
later ...
- ... plane has not arrived
- ... wait, it is here but waiting for re-fuelling
- ... waiting to be cleaned
- ... waiting for clearance
... still no word when we will actually board. However a bit later the truth comes out and word quickly spreads ... "Sorry, we have no flight crew for the flight back ... but we are waiting for the crew that recently arrived to complete the legally required amount of time for a layover before we can use them to fly everyone back home!" Imagine a departure lounge full of tired, hungry passengers who have been fed a line of "..." and realizing that the plane has been there all that time. At least six hours later ... we can finally board the plane ... this time, our seating arrangements are met.
It may have been an off-day for AT ... but compared to our flights on other airlines such as Air Canada and (the
departure of ) Canadian Airlines, Delta, Northwest, American Airlines, West Jet, British Airways, Continental and so on, the absolute "....." treatment of passengers by AT was inexcusable. Complaints were laid upon our return home and that was the last we heard of it.
On
this occassion, AT certainly did not meet this popular adage ...
"The customer is No. 1". Like others, we certainly look for the best deals. We agree with wee-haggis that
"You only get what you pay for." We will though go the extra mile (and $$) for certain things. Suffice to say, we have yet to fly on AT again.