Maria_H

I have been told that the company "Canadian Affair" is part of the MyTravel group - does anyone know if this is true? Would you chance booking your 2 week holiday next June with them - and would it make any difference if the flights booked with them were Thomas Cook flights? If not, does anyone have any better suggestions from Manchester to Calgary, without paying a fortune?

Thanks in advance

Gavin

Try Zoom Airlines: www.flyzoom.com Their glossy brochure shows weekly service from Manchester to Calgary next summer. I have used them once (Toronto-Glasgow return) and will consider them again. The "premium economy" service is nice if you like a bit more leg room and some other little goodies.

AnselmAdorne

Maria, I looked at Canadian Affair's web site and they say that they have "a new allaince with MyTravel Airways and Thomas Cook Travel." (See www.canadianaffair.com and look under "About Us.&quot I'm not sure that an alliance means they are actually a part of MyTravel, which I gather is under some form of creditors protection. The MyTravel website doesn't show any affiliation with Canadian Affair, but it could be out of date.

I can't advise you about how secure your booking would be, but I do have a couple of ideas for you. You could post your question on the Fodors Airlines forum. There are a number of people there who seem quite knowledgeable about what's happening in the airline industry, although most of the discussion concerns travel to and from the US.

The other idea is to post your question on the "Air Canada Aeroplan" forum on FlyerTalk.com. (Go to the forums and look for Airline Programs; you'll see the link to the AC forum.) While that forum is supposedly dedicated to Air Canada issues, there are some extremely wise folk there who are very adept at finding best fares, regardless of the carrier.

There are certainly other options besides Canadian Affair and Thomas Cook. Gavin mentioned Zoom, and the large scheduled carriers such as Air Canada can be equally competitive through seat sales. The problem is that they tend to come up on short notice. If you want to book this far in advance, you may not get the best price.

One final word of advice: some of the charter carriers tend to pack alot of passengers into a very tiny space and some of them have more restirctions of the weight of both checked and carry-on luggage. You might try the airlinequality.com website for the views of other travellers.

Anselm

JanG

Canadian Affair are not part of My Travel group but just use their, and Thomas Cook planes for their charter flights. I have personally used the company three times and have been more than satisfied with both the service and their prices which on the research I did this year before a trip to the Maritimes were the cheapest around. I can understand you feelings re My Travel, the company does seem to be in a rocky situation if you believe what is in the newspapers. If you could get a Thomas Cook flight, and I notice both are available for that route I would take that option.

Chris_Erica

As Jan G says, they are not part of Thomas Cook or MyTravel. They are a travel agent. We have just booked through Canadian Affair for our Manchester-Calgary flights next June. I can safely say that after extensive searching, Canadian Affair offered the cheapest flights. We have booked premium both ways, and pre-booked our seats. Even with these extra payments, the total price works out cheaper than flying economy with any other airline.
The booking process (online) was very easy) and we received written conformation shortly after. As for the security of the booking, Canadian Affair are fully protected by ABTA and ATOL.
One other thing, if you're going to hire a car in Canada, I'd recommend NOT going through Canadian Affair for it- the companies they use gave us some of the most expensive quotes. We booked through http://www.wheelsabroad.com who are another agent for car rental firms. We booked online through them and our car is actually coming from Thrifty. Going through wheelsabroad gives you a cheaper price than going directly to Thrifty themlselves.

Where2Travel

Air Transat fly from Manchester to Calgary. You can book their flights at www.globespan.com.

I used them for a trip between the UK and Canada and decided to book exit row seats in advance, thus securing a bit more room. The seats did look pretty squashed together. There is an upgrade cabin with more room.

They are good if you want cheaper flights and are happy enough with fewer perks as a result.

Maria_H

Thanks for the replies. I decided to go for it and booked the premium seats each way for just over £500 each, return. I did find that they already had no more seats left for our original planned dates, travelling Friday to Friday, so we booked Sunday to Sunday instead. The actual flights are Thomas Cook ones, so we should be OK anyway. Now all we need to do is plan our itinerary and book car hire and accomodation. Will look at the suggested car hire site, thanks again.