Would you fly Air Transat?

[minnie56]

We don't 'do' Air Transat but appreciate pricing is a factor.
When doing a cruise , I'd fly in a day early ..... to be sure.

 

[hdrolfe]

I think I read someone is looking to buy air transit, I think air canada? Since westjet is being bought by another carrier.

Wonder what we will have for choices when it's all said and done.

For a cruise, I would probably choose a carrier with more flights. Just in case.

 

[starvenger]

Onex isn't a carrier. So I'd expect it'll be business as usual for WestJet but there will be a different leadership team with their own ideas about the direction to take the airline.

And yes, it's Air Canada that's in negotiations to buy Transat.

 

[Littlelily]

And yes, it's Air Canada that's in negotiations to buy Transat.

Ugh, that’s probably bad news for me. My home country is Ireland and Air Transat would be a competitor for AC on that route. That would leave Aer Lingus and AC with more chances to take all my money in one trip!

 

[minnie56]

Ugh, that’s probably bad news for me. My home country is Ireland and Air Transat would be a competitor for AC on that route. That would leave Aer Lingus and AC with more chances to take all my money in one trip!

They're certainly eliminating the competition!

 

[TommyJK]

As was also mentioned by someone before, we've had our flight times/dates changed a couple of times after booking early with Transat.

In one case, when we booked there appeared to be 2 flights each day (leaving and returning) and we opted to go with the later flights (afternoon flights), but a few months after booking they eliminated the afternoon flights so they moved us to the earlier flights (6:30 am departure from YYZ, 10:30 am return from MCO)

In the most recent case, I booked flights for next years March break in mid-march of this year. I was surprised that they already had flights for sale so far in advance. But they were super cheap for march break ($425 per person). They were Thursday afternoon flights. A couple of weeks ago, they cancelled those flights and moved us to Friday's morning flights. Which are much more expensive, but we already paid the cheap prices and Friday to Friday flights means 1 less day the kids miss from school. But I did have to re-book our hotels (same price and there weren't any change fees).

So in general, I'm ok with Transat because of their much cheaper prices, but I go in knowing that they could adjust the flights on us like they've done twice now (especially when booking so early).

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Well I'm freshly back from an Air Transat trip.

We won't be using Air Transat again. My daughter has used them as the provider for her destination wedding in Mexico.

Many of us had booking troubles when trying to log in and reserve our seats 24 hrs in advance. My Bil's girlfirend...they couldn't even pull up any of her reservation. They had to spend 2+ hrs trying to get their seats selected. And many of the group leaving from Edmonton never got to sit together as by the time they were finally able to log in on the way home, most seats were taken and couples/families were split up. My sil, her husband and their daughter ( who is 12 ) were all split up for the 6 hr journey home.

When we got to the airport, they had chartered a Canadian North Plane for the Calgary group. Definitely NOT a comfy plane for a 6 hr trip. It was not made for longer haul flights. Thank goodness the trip down, the plane was not full so everyone was able to spread out.

The trip back...WOW...i'm still trying to decide on what to email them about that flight. We had another Canadian North plane...older and not even equipped with much technology...besides screens above the bulk heads...and they used DVD's to provide entertainment - and every disk they played...would NOT play the whole movie. My ear buds would not plug into the arm rest ( i have a pixel 3 ) so my son and I shared his. And if the connector wasn't sitting just right...the earphones would not work. Honestly, the movies they played were not ones I would have chosen to watch. I rode a grey hound bus 25 yrs ago that had better entertainment than this old plane did. This plane still had the ashtrays in the arm rests from when they allowed smoking on planes, just to give you an idea of how old the plane was.

The plane was full...and even tighter and cramped seats for a 6 hr flight. And the cabin crew...wow...RUDE RUDE RUDE!!!!!!!! Not patient with anyone, would often walk by knowing that people wanted things...and they were simply ignored. I'm still angry with how the flight went. They were very late arriving, taking off, and arriving back in Calgary.

Simply put...we will not be using them in the future. Not many of us flying ( and many of them are regular winter vacationing people ) will use them again, just to simply save a few dollars. I would rather spend the extra money to have a more comfortable flight where technology is a bit more advanced abd NOT charter the cheapest plane they can find. Where the company will try to address concerns you have when you need to call them about your flight, seats, upgrading, etc etc etc etc. No one out of 51 people in our group booking had a good thing to say about them.

 

[minnie56]

Well I'm freshly back from an Air Transat trip.

We won't be using Air Transat again. My daughter has used them as the provider for her destination wedding in Mexico.

Many of us had booking troubles when trying to log in and reserve our seats 24 hrs in advance. My Bil's girlfirend...they couldn't even pull up any of her reservation. They had to spend 2+ hrs trying to get their seats selected. And many of the group leaving from Edmonton never got to sit together as by the time they were finally able to log in on the way home, most seats were taken and couples/families were split up. My sil, her husband and their daughter ( who is 12 ) were all split up for the 6 hr journey home.

When we got to the airport, they had chartered a Canadian North Plane for the Calgary group. Definitely NOT a comfy plane for a 6 hr trip. It was not made for longer haul flights. Thank goodness the trip down, the plane was not full so everyone was able to spread out.

The trip back...WOW...i'm still trying to decide on what to email them about that flight. We had another Canadian North plane...older and not even equipped with much technology...besides screens above the bulk heads...and they used DVD's to provide entertainment - and every disk they played...would NOT play the whole movie. My ear buds would not plug into the arm rest ( i have a pixel 3 ) so my son and I shared his. And if the connector wasn't sitting just right...the earphones would not work. Honestly, the movies they played were not ones I would have chosen to watch. I rode a grey hound bus 25 yrs ago that had better entertainment than this old plane did. This plane still had the ashtrays in the arm rests from when they allowed smoking on planes, just to give you an idea of how old the plane was.

The plane was full...and even tighter and cramped seats for a 6 hr flight. And the cabin crew...wow...RUDE RUDE RUDE!!!!!!!! Not patient with anyone, would often walk by knowing that people wanted things...and they were simply ignored. I'm still angry with how the flight went. They were very late arriving, taking off, and arriving back in Calgary.

Simply put...we will not be using them in the future. Not many of us flying ( and many of them are regular winter vacationing people ) will use them again, just to simply save a few dollars. I would rather spend the extra money to have a more comfortable flight where technology is a bit more advanced abd NOT charter the cheapest plane they can find. Where the company will try to address concerns you have when you need to call them about your flight, seats, upgrading, etc etc etc etc. No one out of 51 people in our group booking had a good thing to say about them.

Sounds rather similar to our experience last February!
First they changed our flights maybe 5X ..then they subbed our southbound flight to FLL to a low cost - budget carrier from Czechoslovaki.

I checked them out , decided no way did I wish to fly with them.
I was told for $300 pp plus fare difference I could change to the day after ( um no! And who says that wouldn't also be switched?) but if I didn't show up for the southbound flight as I suggested I'd book my own one way and not with them, they would refare my northbound flight to a higher one way fare. So ... we used our flight to Florida.
The aircraft was a bucket of bolts , the flight attendants look like they slept in their 'uniforms' and were obnoxious and rude and the front end crew who I was assured were Canadian trained most certainly were not! You could not understand one word they said in their announcements due to their very heavy accents. It was my first air Transat experience and absolutely my last!

 

[quandrea]

Wow to these last two comments! I’ve noticed on their site that they sub contract planes/crews. Deal breaker for sure.

 

[youngdeb12]

Wow! Definitely would make me think twice about ever flying with Transat. Hopefully that changes once Air Canada takes them over.

 

[starvenger]

I can't say that I've had issues with Transat, but I've only flown with them twice. First time, no troubles going YYZ-LGW. Coming back was on Sept 14, 2001, so there were some understandable delays all around.

Second time was maybe in 2013, with the kids, again YYZ-LGW. No real issues there. But with transatlantic flights, they don't appear contract those out (makes sense, given their name is short for transatlantic), so clearly have more control over quality.

The previous comments though... yikes! I think I'd be traumatized from flying if I got put on one of those outsourced charters.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Well I'm freshly back from an Air Transat trip.

We won't be using Air Transat again. My daughter has used them as the provider for her destination wedding in Mexico.

Many of us had booking troubles when trying to log in and reserve our seats 24 hrs in advance. My Bil's girlfirend...they couldn't even pull up any of her reservation. They had to spend 2+ hrs trying to get their seats selected. And many of the group leaving from Edmonton never got to sit together as by the time they were finally able to log in on the way home, most seats were taken and couples/families were split up. My sil, her husband and their daughter ( who is 12 ) were all split up for the 6 hr journey home.

When we got to the airport, they had chartered a Canadian North Plane for the Calgary group. Definitely NOT a comfy plane for a 6 hr trip. It was not made for longer haul flights. Thank goodness the trip down, the plane was not full so everyone was able to spread out.

The trip back...WOW...i'm still trying to decide on what to email them about that flight. We had another Canadian North plane...older and not even equipped with much technology...besides screens above the bulk heads...and they used DVD's to provide entertainment - and every disk they played...would NOT play the whole movie. My ear buds would not plug into the arm rest ( i have a pixel 3 ) so my son and I shared his. And if the connector wasn't sitting just right...the earphones would not work. Honestly, the movies they played were not ones I would have chosen to watch. I rode a grey hound bus 25 yrs ago that had better entertainment than this old plane did. This plane still had the ashtrays in the arm rests from when they allowed smoking on planes, just to give you an idea of how old the plane was.

The plane was full...and even tighter and cramped seats for a 6 hr flight. And the cabin crew...wow...RUDE RUDE RUDE!!!!!!!! Not patient with anyone, would often walk by knowing that people wanted things...and they were simply ignored. I'm still angry with how the flight went. They were very late arriving, taking off, and arriving back in Calgary.

Simply put...we will not be using them in the future. Not many of us flying ( and many of them are regular winter vacationing people ) will use them again, just to simply save a few dollars. I would rather spend the extra money to have a more comfortable flight where technology is a bit more advanced abd NOT charter the cheapest plane they can find. Where the company will try to address concerns you have when you need to call them about your flight, seats, upgrading, etc etc etc etc. No one out of 51 people in our group booking had a good thing to say about them.

Aww MAN, this SUCKS!! I know you've been working your butt off to make this trip perfect for your daughter and to have this bookend the trip is just nasty. I certainly hope you contact the travel agency you worked with so they are aware of all the hassles you dealt with -- they should be made aware of the fact that you won't use AT again. Just so many things wrong with that entire trip, I hope the actual resort was better than the flights!!

I'm wondering if you had any indication before you left of which type of plane they would be using for your flights? When we booked our upcoming trip to Mexico I chose the dates based on the flights since i wanted to make sure it had the 2 X 2 configuration on the flight down and the actual club class on the way home. If we show up at the airport and discover they've subbed out the plane for a different one I will be a tad twitched. We actually booked our seats for both flights yesterday, I don't like taking my chances at the 24 hr mark.

 

[Sue M]

You made a good decision. No way would I fly them pre cruise. I won’t fly Frontier again either. They only have 1 flight a day, and my flight got canceled. I wasn’t ok with giving up a day of vacation and cancelled flights, got refunded and booked on another airline.
My friend works with Holland America here during the Alaska Cruise season and she has horror stories about missed cruises, missing luggage, etc when airlines are delayed, cancelled, loose luggage etc.

 

[Sue M]

Well I'm freshly back from an Air Transat trip.

We won't be using Air Transat again. My daughter has used them as the provider for her destination wedding in Mexico.

Many of us had booking troubles when trying to log in and reserve our seats 24 hrs in advance. My Bil's girlfirend...they couldn't even pull up any of her reservation. They had to spend 2+ hrs trying to get their seats selected. And many of the group leaving from Edmonton never got to sit together as by the time they were finally able to log in on the way home, most seats were taken and couples/families were split up. My sil, her husband and their daughter ( who is 12 ) were all split up for the 6 hr journey home.

When we got to the airport, they had chartered a Canadian North Plane for the Calgary group. Definitely NOT a comfy plane for a 6 hr trip. It was not made for longer haul flights. Thank goodness the trip down, the plane was not full so everyone was able to spread out.

The trip back...WOW...i'm still trying to decide on what to email them about that flight. We had another Canadian North plane...older and not even equipped with much technology...besides screens above the bulk heads...and they used DVD's to provide entertainment - and every disk they played...would NOT play the whole movie. My ear buds would not plug into the arm rest ( i have a pixel 3 ) so my son and I shared his. And if the connector wasn't sitting just right...the earphones would not work. Honestly, the movies they played were not ones I would have chosen to watch. I rode a grey hound bus 25 yrs ago that had better entertainment than this old plane did. This plane still had the ashtrays in the arm rests from when they allowed smoking on planes, just to give you an idea of how old the plane was.

The plane was full...and even tighter and cramped seats for a 6 hr flight. And the cabin crew...wow...RUDE RUDE RUDE!!!!!!!! Not patient with anyone, would often walk by knowing that people wanted things...and they were simply ignored. I'm still angry with how the flight went. They were very late arriving, taking off, and arriving back in Calgary.

Simply put...we will not be using them in the future. Not many of us flying ( and many of them are regular winter vacationing people ) will use them again, just to simply save a few dollars. I would rather spend the extra money to have a more comfortable flight where technology is a bit more advanced abd NOT charter the cheapest plane they can find. Where the company will try to address concerns you have when you need to call them about your flight, seats, upgrading, etc etc etc etc. No one out of 51 people in our group booking had a good thing to say about them.

Wow! That’s awful. Yeah, I’d be writing them a letter. And I’d post on their FB page too! My husband has flown them and refuses to ever fly with them again. Old old planes. Very uncomfortable. He thought the last on rattled so much it would fall apart.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

I'm wondering if you had any indication before you left of which type of plane they would be using for your flights?

We did not know until we were emailed our itinerary from the travel agent at about 30 days out. We knew it was going to be a Canadian North plane...but which one...we did not know. I know that the son in law's mom and her husband had upgraded their seats, to get pre select their seats, and have more leg room...but with the bulk heads...they ended up changing seats on the way down because the plane was NOT full. As soon as they knew about the seats, they must have changed their seats for the trip home, as they had better seats on the way home.

I actually feel bad for the travel agent. I know that several people will be calling to talk to her about the airtransat experience. My one bil was very angry...that Airtransat ended up having him sit between his dad and dad's wife lol The bil is 37...and his girlfriend was elsewhere on the plane lol. There were lots of " little things" that wentt wrong with us as a group, that soured it for many of us travelling.

The resort was beautiful...but there was a very nasty " bug " that was going around, and many of the group ( I think 15 of 49 people ) got very sick and went to the onsite dr. Even the Groom on the day of the wedding, was taken to the DR for a shot to help with the bug he had. So I'm hoping that the resort gets a handle on it soon. And those who did get sick, were seasoned travellers and have been to Mexico before. Thankfully...our household did not get hit...but the groom, both my parents, sister, sil and fil all got sick either down there or on the way home. And few members of the groom's side of the family as well. But the wedding was beautiful, weather was fantastic, and drinks and food were plenty!!!!

 

[FayeW]

We've flown AT 3 times now for all-inclusive trips South. We are very happy with them. We have a $500 credit with them that we have to use by Feb 23rd, and there is an excellent chance that we will use it to fly to MCO. Great prices out of Montreal. It's about an hour and a half for us to get to YUL, but Transat doesn't fly to MCO from Ottawa. We have also recently booked a group trip for next March, again on Transat. We are going to Samana, DR. Transat has an amazing Winter Early Booking Promo out right now. Lots of inclusions, free upgrades, etc.