Flying to Canada

[TW]Fox;25656887 said:
You did until you started pulling nasty lowfare airline tricks like charging for seat selection :(

:p
Click to expand...

Well yes I can see how that's frustrating, but sadly it's how everyone does it now. Both BA and Air Canada charge to prebook seats more then 24hrs in advance.
 
Might be a bit late now but flights to Canada from Dublin are super cheap I was getting quoted £370 at one stage for a return flight from Dublin to Montreal with a connection in NY.

I think they have went up recently to just over £400 but if you time it right you can get a great deal. It does mean you will need to get to Dublin first though!
 
Blinkz said:
Well yes I can see how that's frustrating, but sadly it's how everyone does it now. Both BA and Air Canada charge to prebook seats more then 24hrs in advance.
Click to expand...

Air Canada do not charge on international flights - BA do (But it's simply one of a list of reasons I don't fly BA unless they are significantly cheaper as a result).

I'm happy to pay extra to pick a seat on a 1 hour £29.99 Easyjet flight to Paris.

I'm very much unhappy about paying extra to pick a seat on a 10 hour £800 Virgin flight to Vancouver.

Sorry Virgin but as a matter of principle they've probably lost my custom for this years trip at least :( They've effectively increased the price of every flight by £50 per person as I'd never not want a seat selected in advance. It's such a shame because I really like them, it's just left a bitter taste :p

But anyway, didn't realise you now flew for Virgin, congratulations, thats a pretty good career move isn't it, moving to long haul?
 
Last edited:
Well the majority of airlines charge, and sadly it's the way things have gone. Mainly due to fuel prices forcing airlines to find revenue wherever they can find it.

I would also say that in my opinion it is less important where you sit on a longhaul flight. The seats all have better leg room then on a cramped short haul flight and all seats have access to the IFE.

Longhaul flights are more expensive because of the substantially high costs involved.

And the OP doesn't live in NI! :p
 
Yeah, charging to choose seats seems to be a European thing. I'm playing with Cathy Pacific and Air New Zealand in November/December and I've already chosen our seats for free!
 
asim18 said:
My favourite IFE moment was when I stumbled upon the live camera channels.
Click to expand...
Agreed!

There was something special about seeing the curvature of the Earth from a camera mounted on the tail of the A380 flying at 40,000ft.

Watching it land on the nose-mounted camera was cool too.
Only seen it on the A380 though.
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
Would I get discount off the quoted price for being in the Virgin flying club?
Click to expand...

It's free to join so absolutely zero. It's not a discount club, though can use already accrued miles for discounts on the fare. I used 4000 miles to get £80 each off our flights to Vancouver for example.
 
[TW]Fox;25659918 said:
It's free to join so absolutely zero. It's not a discount club, though can use already accrued miles for discounts on the fare. I used 4000 miles to get £80 each off our flights to Vancouver for example.
Click to expand...

It is just I had a read through somewhere that said up to 7% discount... is this just one of those "benefits" that is not an actual benefit.

I don't have many miles saved up so might be worth just keeping hold of them, I could do with the Virgin air miles credit card or something! :p
 
ok after much reading i think we cam up with a plan
leaving end of September
flying from Dublin to Vancouver via Toronto
first part of the flight is with air canada rouge (Dublin-Toronto) second part is with air canada (Toronto-Vancouver)

coming home first week in october

anyone got any suggestion on this route/air lines

i normally just book the flights myself but the other half asked is there any advantages to using a travel agent to book the flights, as i dint know i thought i would ask here. is their any advantages to using a travel agent to book these flights.

the plan is stay in Vancouver for 3-4 days
hire a car
got to Victoria for a 1-2 days
then head east towards banff stopping off in the wine area for a day
spend a day doing the banff- jasper
spend a 1-2 days round jasper

we been told to go bear watching as it good at that time of the year so have set aside 2-3 for that, haven't picked a company to do it with yet.

that it for now
 
Did a similar route in September and it was incredible. The route across to Banff itself was just awesome.

We didn't do Victoria as we opted to include the USA too, some great sights just south of the border. Glacier national park in Montana was incredible. Didn't need a bear watching tour as they just wondered out in front of the car in Glacier park!

We rented from Seattle instead, was half the price for decent car. Took a one way rental from Vancouver down to Seattle and the car selection seemed poor unless you just wanted a Camry or something.

Probably the best road trip I have done.
 
We are going Heathrow to Calgary, 1 night hotel stay, RV hire. Drive to Vancouver various stops on the way then 3 night hotel stay in Vancouver.

Air Canada flight, all booked for June :)
 
OP you seem to be making a huge meal out of an incredibly simple process... Go onto skyscanner.com or kayak.com, plug in the dates you are interested (both also allow you to search round that date for cheaper deals) and book the first reasonable option... Currently the cheapest flight from Dublin for the end of September-October is one changing at heathrow, with BA on the way out and Air Canada on the way back. That's £430.

All airlines are much of a muchness in economy (in the last year I've flown Swiss, Lufthansa, BA (several times), Qatar and a few small regional airlines).Air Canada are fine too. There may be slight variations in IFE but not enough to really pay more. BA are a good airline, no worse than Qatar IME (who are a 5* airline). If you want to sit with a travel companion and somehow can't do that when you check in the night before just ask at the desk and they can usually swap your seats so you can sit next to the people you are travelling with. No need to pay to sit places!

If you want to fly premium you can look for prices on the websites as well. I guess it's worth going to a travel agent if you want but with the proliferation of online search tools (ita matrix is another one) there really is no need. They usually end up either more expensive or at best the same price... I gave up on them a while ago.

Edit: meant for Btone not the OP, I thought he was the OP...
 
Last edited:
Adding to that advice...

If there are several airline options at similar prices then have a look at seatguru.com and plug in the flight numbers provided by skyscanner. That'll tell you the seat pitch and any other benefits of flying with whichever airline (like plugs for charging).

And for stopovers try and get one between 2-3 hours. Any less and it might be a bit of a rush getting from plane to plane, any more and it can feel like an eternity stuck in an airport.
 
One comment regarding bear watching, we nearly did it the first time we went to Canada. Saw the price and it was $$$ so had second thoughts. Each time we've been to Whistler we've ended up seeing bears on the road up there, and underneath us on the mountain when going up the lifts. Bear watching for free!

Don't really get why so few people fly BA. From Heathrow to Vancouver we've had both their old and new fitted planes and both have been fine. At Heathrow they've got T5 obviously, and at Vancouver they've got separate Business & First lounges. Don't know if they've got anything for Premium Economy at Vancouver.
Agree with what the others said about Vancouver Airport, it's the best I've seen.

If you haven't chosen a Vancouver hotel yet, I'd give English Bay a look. We've stayed in the Sylvia Hotel a couple of times.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom