Air Transat

[jlou]

Does anyone have any experience with this airline? Apparently, it is a charter service, and they seem to have a trip which is exactly what we would need for our Viva Italia trip (non-stop to Rome from Toronto, and non-stop from Venice to Toronto). Their price is about $350 less per person than the next lowest price. With 4, possibly 5 tickets to buy, it certainly is something to consider for us.

Drawbacks:
we live in the US, so would have to go through customs twice, once at the airport, and once at the border. We don't travel to Canada very often, so I'm not sure what the border crossing is like, are there sometimes very long lines? and is it easy or difficult?

I am unfamiliar with this airline, and searches that I've made on it for reviews have shown some pretty scary things, like being diverted to different continents, delays and such. I'm not sure it would be worth it.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[kjd469]

Not sure why you think you'd need to go through customs twice - the only time you will deal with customs is when you cross the border into Canada - depending on where you cross there can be line-ups but they usually move pretty quickly - the longest we've waited was 45 minutes, sometimes you can drive up with only a couple cars ahead of you. The process is fairly easy - just make sure you have the paperwork to back up what you are telling them, i.e. -itinerary, plane tickets, etc.

I've flown Air Transat several times and have never had any issues. It is no better or no worse than any other airline I've flown. You do have to pay a small fee to choose your seats ahead of time, but for a long flight I find it is worth the extra cost.

What you need to keep in mind when booking a charter flight, is that if the flight is cancelled for some reason, you will not have the option of switching to a code-share partner to get you there or home, so you would be at the mercy of Air Transat as to how and when they get you to your destination.

 

[mapsd]

What you need to keep in mind when booking a charter flight, is that if the flight is cancelled for some reason, you will not have the option of switching to a code-share partner to get you there or home, so you would be at the mercy of Air Transat as to how and when they get you to your destination.

We've had similar experience with a regional carrier.

They were the only direct flight to Orlando for us, and were cheaper. The only risk was that they only flew 3 days/week; a cancelled flight would have meant a shorter vacation for us.

 

[crashbb]

Not sure why you think you'd need to go through customs twice - the only time you will deal with customs is when you cross the border into Canada - depending on where you cross there can be line-ups but they usually move pretty quickly - the longest we've waited was 45 minutes, sometimes you can drive up with only a couple cars ahead of you. The process is fairly easy - just make sure you have the paperwork to back up what you are telling them, i.e. -itinerary, plane tickets, etc.

I assume the OP was including Italian customs. So, instead of just having Italian immigration/customs on the way there and US customs/immigration on the way back, they'd have Canadian and Italian on the way there and Canadian and US on the way back.


I've flown Air Transat but not over-seas and not for a few years. I have family members who have flown them quite often and never had a major problem.

The biggest potential problem is the one already brought up - no ability to inter-line and a limited number of flights if anything goes wrong.

 

[pxlbarrel]

I'm late coming to this discussion but I've flown Air Transat before and vowed never to fly them again after an incident a few years ago. We were scheduled to fly from Toronto to Las Vegas and the flight was delayed due to mechanical problems. Ok, that can happen with any airline....but what bothered us was the lack of information or wrong information they were telling the passengers as we waited and waited and waited. An hour became two hours which became 4 hours .... and they were telling us they were just waiting for the part to come. What they didn't tell us was they were getting another airplane from another city.

We discovered that instead of the new flight time of 4:00 pm (original time was 1 pm), it was now 9 pm and we found out because we looked at the departure board. The gate people weren't telling anybody this information. If we had known this, we would have gone home and come back (this was an option for many of us). When we finally got into the air, their compensation was free earphones and eye shades.

So we've never flown on them again .... their lack of customer service sealed that vow.

Now, I know others who have flown them since and some as recently as a few months ago ... to the UK and to Europe. They've had no problem and said it was a great flight. And up until our last fated trip with them, it was also not a problem. I am just a bit wary about our charters these days. If there is a problem with the plane, there aren't a lot of options for them to remedy the situation.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Air Transat is fine.
. . . founded by former QuebecAir employees about 1986
. . . one of Canada's biggest airlines
. . . still designated as "charter" airline *
. . . they have reciprocal pilot privileges with US pilots
2) They are a reputable deep-discount airline.
. . . solely new or newer Airbus planes
. . . smaller First-Class sections, with tighter First Class seats
. . . typical low/no-frills amenities

* Commercial airlines can be either Charter or Scheduled. Usually, startups
begin as a "charter" as there are fewer restrictions - not safety, just monetary.
Among other things, this allows a stricter refund/transfer policy for tickets.
Some of the biggest airlines are "charter" - eg, RyanAir, Air Transat, USA3000 -
regardless of whether they have scheduled flights.

 

[pxlbarrel]

They are like all other airlines ... they can be bad and they can be fine. When they weren't fine, with us, we they were horrible. When they were fine, they were OK. The horrible outweighed the ok.

Every airline will have their supporters and their detractors. I detract. I'm basing my opinion on the last time I flew with them and from what other friends have experienced, not corporate information.

1) Air Transat is fine.
. . . founded by former QuebecAir employees about 1986
. . . one of Canada's biggest airlines
. . . still designated as "charter" airline *
. . . they have reciprocal pilot privileges with US pilots
2) They are a reputable deep-discount airline.
. . . solely new or newer Airbus planes
. . . smaller First-Class sections, with tighter First Class seats
. . . typical low/no-frills amenities

* Commercial airlines can be either Charter or Scheduled. Usually, startups
begin as a "charter" as there are fewer restrictions - not safety, just monetary.
Among other things, this allows a stricter refund/transfer policy for tickets.
Some of the biggest airlines are "charter" - eg, RyanAir, Air Transat, USA3000 -
regardless of whether they have scheduled flights.

 

[jlou]

I haven't booked anything yet. I'm still waiting (hoping) for prices to drop. I plan to book something by the end of January, early February at the latest.

 

[BrdWlkBride2005]

my husband just flew Toronto to Orlando on Air Transat. No issues!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I will share our experience many, many years ago.

Dh and I flew Air Transat to Ireland. I am quite tall and have very long legs. The leg room was extremely cramped to say the least. It was incredibly uncomfortable. The leg room was much less that what you'd be accustomed to on a regular airliner. It felt like we were crammed in the plane like sardines.

Service was poor.

My seat felt like it wasn't bolted down properly and the seat belt wouldn't adjust to my small frame (funny how I remember these things). They wouldn't let me move even though the problems seemed like a safety issue

We got to the airport 3 hours early to line up to get seats in the emergency exit row as we were told we couldn't pre-book seats (this was 10 or so years ago). We were the first in line, so we thought, yeah, they are ours! But guess what? We were told they were taken. They couldn't explain how that was possible since we were the first in line

Personally I could not and will not fly a charter to Europe today. I need to be able to stretch my legs, eat a somewhat decent meal and get some sleep. Age & economics both play into this decision. I found Air Transat's attitude to be "so what, you get what you pay for".

Incidentally that was the last time I ever stepped foot on one of their planes.