Canada Trip part 1: On Discount Airlines
Jun. 8th, 2004 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulroYay for jetlag. Yesterday I was just a bit tired. Today I feel like I was hit by a truck. Heat & humidity not helping.
Anyway, starting with the cheap charter airline experience.
We flew to Halifax on Thomas Cook airline booked via Canadian Affair. This was an outstandingly good cheap flight (£89 + tax per seat). Seats are big and far apart, they provide a bottle of water on each seat, nor did we go hungry - a big meal and decent-sized snack were also provided. I had zero expectations and was thus very pleasantly surprised. We will be doing this again.
Our internal flight was on Westjet, the first of what is now Canada's many discount airlines. This was also unexpectedly a roomy-seat affair, complete with wacky staff at check-in and on the plane (I was unaware that they advertise this feature). Also ridiculously cheap (a total of CDN $110 per seat). Not much in the way of food, but they not only tell you that beforehand, they also encourage you to bring your own. Their use of Terminal 2 at Pearson Airport in Toronto is also helpful - there's nobody there so it's easy to find your ride.
So far, so good.
Now that I've had more experience with cheap airlines than last time, I have to confirm that MyTravel are the worst airline I've ever flown (quite possibly worse than Air Canada). I persist in travelling with them because Canadian Affair do so such good deals. I'm not talking about saving a couple of pounds, but in excess of £100 per person. Now that they also deal with Thomas Cook for equally good prices, I may be able to get around this. (I always book with Canadian Affair because of the excellent way they bailed us out when Canada 3000 died.) Although MyTravel blew less badly than the last time, it was still a less than pleasant flight. To be fair, it's not entirely the airline that make for such bad flights, but it seems like every arsehole in the world (both Canadian and British) feels the need to use this airline. Which is not helped by the cramped seat situation (which until now I had taken for granted to cheap airlines). On the up side, I did get a window seat so I got to see lots of Labrador, and for once we took off and landed on time.
We narrowly avoided the excess luggage charges this time, both suitcases weighing in somewhere between 19 kg and the 20 kg limit. Not bad considering the house we were staying in had no scales! Having said that, they now at least have an official cashier who issues receipts and takes credit cards for dealing with excess baggage, rather than the cash which went into the Pearson employees' pockets last time. We also avoided dehydration because we brought our own water. Which Jason couldn't get to, because the idiots in front of him kept their seats reclined all the way for the entire trip, including takeoff and landing. He managed to flag down flight attendants (because there were some in his section of the plane - back where I was sitting, that would have been impossible) and extract some free water.
I even failed to have any bad experiences at Pearson airport this time round, which is also unprecedented. Thus I convinced myself that I'd probably have to fight with Immigration at 6:00 am on my return, which as outlined in my last entry, also didn't happen.
Everything on this entire trip went incredibly smoothly. Which was great, but being the eternal pessimist, I've been waiting for something bad to happen every time something goes well.
Anyway, starting with the cheap charter airline experience.
We flew to Halifax on Thomas Cook airline booked via Canadian Affair. This was an outstandingly good cheap flight (£89 + tax per seat). Seats are big and far apart, they provide a bottle of water on each seat, nor did we go hungry - a big meal and decent-sized snack were also provided. I had zero expectations and was thus very pleasantly surprised. We will be doing this again.
Our internal flight was on Westjet, the first of what is now Canada's many discount airlines. This was also unexpectedly a roomy-seat affair, complete with wacky staff at check-in and on the plane (I was unaware that they advertise this feature). Also ridiculously cheap (a total of CDN $110 per seat). Not much in the way of food, but they not only tell you that beforehand, they also encourage you to bring your own. Their use of Terminal 2 at Pearson Airport in Toronto is also helpful - there's nobody there so it's easy to find your ride.
So far, so good.
Now that I've had more experience with cheap airlines than last time, I have to confirm that MyTravel are the worst airline I've ever flown (quite possibly worse than Air Canada). I persist in travelling with them because Canadian Affair do so such good deals. I'm not talking about saving a couple of pounds, but in excess of £100 per person. Now that they also deal with Thomas Cook for equally good prices, I may be able to get around this. (I always book with Canadian Affair because of the excellent way they bailed us out when Canada 3000 died.) Although MyTravel blew less badly than the last time, it was still a less than pleasant flight. To be fair, it's not entirely the airline that make for such bad flights, but it seems like every arsehole in the world (both Canadian and British) feels the need to use this airline. Which is not helped by the cramped seat situation (which until now I had taken for granted to cheap airlines). On the up side, I did get a window seat so I got to see lots of Labrador, and for once we took off and landed on time.
We narrowly avoided the excess luggage charges this time, both suitcases weighing in somewhere between 19 kg and the 20 kg limit. Not bad considering the house we were staying in had no scales! Having said that, they now at least have an official cashier who issues receipts and takes credit cards for dealing with excess baggage, rather than the cash which went into the Pearson employees' pockets last time. We also avoided dehydration because we brought our own water. Which Jason couldn't get to, because the idiots in front of him kept their seats reclined all the way for the entire trip, including takeoff and landing. He managed to flag down flight attendants (because there were some in his section of the plane - back where I was sitting, that would have been impossible) and extract some free water.
I even failed to have any bad experiences at Pearson airport this time round, which is also unprecedented. Thus I convinced myself that I'd probably have to fight with Immigration at 6:00 am on my return, which as outlined in my last entry, also didn't happen.
Everything on this entire trip went incredibly smoothly. Which was great, but being the eternal pessimist, I've been waiting for something bad to happen every time something goes well.
