Flying to Canada

Vanquish-Storm · 31 Dec 2013 at 16:33

Hello I know there are a few well traveled fellows on here so I was hoping for a bit of help.

We are looking to Fly to Vancouver in June (any time in June) from Manchester. At the moment we have looked at Virgin they do a flight from Manchester to Heathrow onto Canada.

Would you suggest upgrading to premium is worth it for the long flight? I am over 6foot so would like more leg room! Would you take advantage of the lounge at Heathrow and is there a Virgin lounge in Vancouver for the flight back?

I have the Virgin flying club membership which I think gets me 7% off and more miles back so would Virgin even be the best option? Who else fly to Vancouver?

With Virgin they priced us up the flights (inc the Manc to London), 3 nights in a hotel and 14 days RV rental.

[TW]Fox · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:02

You do not get lounge access for Premium Economy tickets. I flew Virgin to Vancouver in September - the flight was fine and the service was excellent. The only bad thing was that they tend to use Airbus A340-300's on this route, they have 4 of them and 3 are fitted with rubbish In Flight Entertainment. The alternative is Air Canada who operate Boeing 777's with better IFE. Pricewise they are usually about the same though the benefit of Virgin is that you get the transfer to Heathrow included. The other good thing about Virgin is the return flight leaves at between 8pm and midnight depending on your day of travel, so you basically get a full day in Vancouver extra before you need to think about heading to the airport. I think the Air Canada flight is quite a lot earlier.

Virgin does not have a lounge in Vancouver, instead they use the Plaza Premium Lounge. I used this and it was fairly average, nothing to write home about. Vancouver Airport itself is stunning, the best I have ever visited.

You can pay £30 each way for extra legroom seats on the Virgin flight, these have a 34" seat pitch. I didn't bother, am 6 ft exactly, and found the standard seats fine. For £50 extra you can have an exit row seat with unlimited room but it can get a little cold there.

Vancouver is a real pain to get value for money on flights though. It's massively more expensive than any other North American destination (Except Alaska), I think my tickets were £200 each more expensive than flying even further to Los Angeles. Irritating.

Greg · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:05

Please don't fly Air Canada, they're no way near as good as Virgin, though my last Virgin experience leaves much to be desired!

Premium is well worth the extra if you can afford it. I've done the LHR to YVR plenty of times, the flight goes quite quickly, though good IFE is defiantly needed!

9 and a half hours goes pretty quickly when you've watched a fair few films!

Good luck!

semi-pro waster · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:06

It looks like you've got a choice in terms of carriers if you're flying from Heathrow if you look on Sky Scanner - Lufthansa, BA, Air Canada etc all fly from there although some may just be nominal differences. e.g. I've flown with Lufthansa but the service was operated by Air Canada, I think it is via Air Alliance or something whereby some carriers share routes.

I've flown Air Canada, Virgin and BMI for flights across the Atlantic and actually quite enjoyed Air Canada (their internal flights aren't quite so good). Virgin had the nicest/newest aeroplane at the time plus a nice little kit for the overnight flight but I was on the upper deck of the 747 and found it a bit cramped although not terrible (I'm 6'4"), Air Canada had the best in-flight entertainment and the seating wasn't too bad but the aircraft was a bit older, BMI was completely unmemorable so either it was fine in all regards or I was so tired I just failed to notice anything about it.

//edit I should point out that my Virgin flights were in fact to San Francisco rather than Vancouver but I don't know what difference that might make in terms of aircraft choice.

secretspy · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:08

Have you tried Canadian Affair? I only went through them when flying to Toronto a few years ago but they deal with Thomas Cook and a few other airlines.

We went premium economy £7 extra each way and was comfortable seating (we had the very first row so even better leg room

)

That was Thomas Cook but not sure which airline flies to Vancouver from Manchester.

Edit: just checked and they now only appear to be partnered with Air Transat, Virgin Atlantic and WestJet

[TW]Fox · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:11

semi-pro waster said:
It looks like you've got a choice in terms of carriers if you're flying from Heathrow - Lufthansa, BA, Air Canada etc all fly from there although some may just be nominal differences. e.g. I've flown with Lufthansa but the service was operated by Air Canada, I think it is via Air Alliance or something whereby some carriers share routes.

Actually you have almost no choice, only 3 carriers fly direct from Heathrow - Virgin, Air Canada and British Airways. Everyone else is code sharing.

Edit: Seems LH is Air Canada as pointed out below

This is part of the reason why it's quite an expensive route to fly.

//edit I should point out that my Virgin flights were in fact to San Francisco rather than Vancouver but I don't know what difference that might make in terms of aircraft choice.

Unfortunately it makes a huge difference, as mentioned in my first post Virgin operate A340-300's on this route. These are pretty much the oldest planes in the fleet - the newest is 15 years old - and 3 out of the 4 have old style IFE not on demand.

Greg · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:13

Sucks, but I'm sure Virgin will probably have the best deal as they're the newest to the route. They only started it last Ski season so may have the most competitive prices.

Lufthansa will be via Air Canada as they're both part of the Star Alliance.

semi-pro waster · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:13

[TW]Fox;25575571 said:
Actually you have almost no choice, only 3 carriers fly direct from Heathrow - Virgin, Air Canada and British Airways. Everyone else is code sharing. Lufthansa will be the BA flight, Delta is Virgin, etc.

This is part of the reason why it's quite an expensive route to fly.

I was trying to edit that as I realised that it is more of an apparent choice than a real choice. When I last flew with Lufthansa it was a bit of a pain as due to the code sharing I couldn't check in early - perhaps an error in the system but I think I'd have chosen to book direct with Air Canada if I'd realised that before booking.

Vanquish-Storm · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:25

Fox did you just have economy on your flight to Canada with Virgin then? Don't think I could cope with a rubbish IFE. Is there any reason why the flights to Vancouver are more expensive. I might have a look at what other cities are around that area in Canada. I was hoping to get an Ice Hockey game in at some point so hopefully one of the Canadian teams are still in the play offs then!

The flight back from Vancouver is Midnight which as you say gets you an extra day which is a plus. We would have to book a hotel for that last day to store the bags as the RV has to be dropped off at 10am, but thats only £40 between 4 people.

I will have a look at the Air Canada and BA too to see what they offer too. Is there any way of seeing what plane they would use or is it too far away for it to be written down somewhere? I would prefer one of the new fitted 747 Virgin planes (or other carrier if they are newer)

[TW]Fox · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:31

Vanquish-Storm said:
Fox did you just have economy on your flight to Canada with Virgin then?

Yup.

Don't think I could cope with a rubbish IFE.

Its annoying, but you could just load a tablet up as backup. My flight back had the single 340-300 which had proper IFE.

Is there any reason why the flights to Vancouver are more expensive.

Lack of competition on the route I'd imagine.

I might have a look at what other cities are around that area in Canada.

There are none - Calgary is the closest and it's a 2 day drive from Vancouver and is served by fewer operators. The closest major city is actually Seattle, USA, but this is served direct only by BA so is generally even more expensive than Vancouver.

I will have a look at the Air Canada and BA too to see what they offer too. Is there any way of seeing what plane they would use or is it too far away for it to be written down somewhere? I would prefer one of the new fitted 747 Virgin planes (or other carrier if they are newer)

You can usually tell on the airlines website, they'll list the equipment type.

You will not get a refitted 747 with Virgin on this route. It is 99% of the time a 340-300 though on a few occasions its seen a 340-600 or a 330.

BA use 747-400's on this route but they are even older. The 'best' planes are Air Canada who use 777's.

Greg · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:38

www.seatguru.com

find out what flight number it is and type it into this website. They'll tell you what the seating arrangement the particular airline uses.

Rroff · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:38

Not done Vancouver from Manchester but I think they do it but I've mostly used KLM in the past and had a fairly decent experience - though atleast one of those was actually on a BA 747-400 as mentioned above which was hmm not really sure how to describe it but not the best of experiences. (Rest were all airbuses).

[TW]Fox · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:40

KLM do not fly from the UK to Vancouver, you'd need to change at Schipol (Not sure they fly to Vancouver from there either actually).

Rroff · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:42

Uh well I've done it so not sure who I was flying with then

[TW]Fox · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:43

I think it was BA

Rroff · 31 Dec 2013 at 17:44

Yeah atleast some of them were actually BA as per my post above - was awhile ago so can't remember exact details but it was all booked through KLM (and cheaper than BA).

EDIT: I might be getting it mixed up as I've flown in the other side to via amsterdam a few times also but I definitely seem to remember some of those flights being KLM branded planes/staff.

EDIT2: Ah figured it out now - I usually go Bristol->Amsterdam->Canada which are KLM planes.

Vanquish-Storm · 31 Dec 2013 at 18:59

Do Virgin have their planes listed with what system they have on the plane?

[TW]Fox · 31 Dec 2013 at 19:12

Vanquish-Storm said:
Do Virgin have their planes listed with what system they have on the plane?

It's on the website I think, but from memory, pretty much every plane has the Vera On Demand system which has on-demand movies etc.

3 of the A340-300's have Vera Reel, the crappy on-a-loop thing.

The newer planes - ie those 747-400's that have had a refit and the A330-300's, have Vera Touch, the latest touch-screen on demand system with bigger screens etc.

Vanquish-Storm · 31 Dec 2013 at 19:28

Thanks Fox and everyone else for their input. I will keep you updated one what we arrange

POB · 31 Dec 2013 at 19:46

[TW]Fox;25576328 said:
The newer planes - ie those 747-400's that have had a refit and the A330-300's, have Vera Touch, the latest touch-screen on demand system with bigger screens etc.

Gatwick / Manchester leisure fleet, which are the older planes were the refitted ones.

The newer Heathrow 747 have ones have not been upgraded. They have on demand but no touch screen, not as nice as the new JAM version.

Screens on the Heathrow fleet are a bit meh.