Air Canada
 

With minimum research, so far, it appears that flights from the US to London cost about 1/2 on Air Canada as they do on US airlines or British Air. Is this possible. Has anyone flown Air Canada to London lately? Am I missing something in the fine print?
Thanks for any info.
Joy in Colorado

I didn't fly to London, but I flew Air Canada (business class) from Boston to Hong Kong and the price was $3000 less compared to Cathay and other airlines. Absolutely great service. Nothing wrong at all.

I flew Air Canada ORD-CDG last year because it was siginficantly cheaper that anyone else.

The only big problem was that my luggage didn't make my connecting flight in Toronto, but it showed up the following day.

On my return, I came through Montreal and we were late arriving, so missed my noon connection. As I was waiting in line to rebook, the gentleman ahead of me ranted away at the ticket agent over the missed the connection and demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor told him that he was booked on their next available flight which was at 8 pm and took him aside to finish their conversation.

When I got the counter, the agent was going to rebook me on the 8 pm flight when I asked if she could bump me to something earlier on UA. Just then, the supervisor reappeared and the agent pointed to her screen and asked if she could put me on that flight. The supervisor said sure and gave me my boarding pass, but said I'd have to hurry to the United counter as the flight was leaving in less than an hour. So, I'm sure I'd give their performance a higher rating than the passenger ahead of me. :)

It likely won't be a concern, but do bear in mind that Air Canada is having severe financial difficulties and is likely to soon file for bankruptcy. Most likely, it would be a reorganization-type bankruptcy and they will continue flying, but you never know.

My friend just flew them this past weekend (Munich to NYC via Montreal/Toronto) and said the service was quite good. He thought it was better than Lufthansa, which I have a hard time believing. I guess you get a little jaded after flying American and United...

I have flown with Air Canada for the most part when I have gone to London and the flight and service is good. I have friends and family that fly charters to Europe because they claim it is cheaper BUT whenever I have waited and checked frequently, I manage to find a decent price with AC and on par with the a charter.
There was only one time I think I did not fly to England with Air Canada, I flew with KLM, which was also good but it was not direct.
All in all quite good, BUT having said that we do have to be concerned about the financial difficulties as someone mentioned and hopefully if that happened they would not leave us high and dry somewhere as some other airlines have.

Air Canada might restructure some day (it has done it in the past) but it's highly unlikely that would fold up and disappear, like a smaller carrier would. Although it has competition on a number of routes, it's the only carrier to a number of places in Canada and I just don't see the government letting it fail and fold.

I'm assuming that you're based in the US, and therefore are looking at a flight originating in the US, connecting in Canada in a major city (e.g. Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver) and continuing on to London. I'm not sure whether you're available to fly direct from a city near to you in the US, or whether you'd have to take two flights from your origin in the US to get to London (e.g. your town - US hub - London). If my assumption is correct, one reason you might be seeing a cheaper fare is because it's more of a hassle to fly "your town - Canadian hub - London" than it is to fly "your town - US hub - London", Air Canada knows it, and is trying to attract your business by pricing its tickets more cheaply than the comparably US-US-London fare. The hassle is that you will have to clear customs/immigration in Canada on your way to London (and pick up your bags and then re-check them), and then clear US customs/immigration at the Canadian airport on your way back to the US. Generally, this isn't a problem, but it can slow you down and there is a slightly greater risk of missed connections.

That said, Air Canada provides a very good product in both Economy class and Executive First. I've flown it a lot (although not in the past two years), and I think it is at least as good as any American carrier I've flown in terms of cabin comfort, reliability, service etc. I also prefer Air Canada economy to British Airways economy (although I prefer BA World Traveller Plus to Air Canada economy, and prefer BA Club World to Air Canada Executive First).

We flew Air Canada last May on a direct flight from Edmonton to London Heathrow. We were flying first which is now called business with the flat beds. It was a direct flight (now they only have one direct flight per day). You can subscribe to Air Canada's website and receive a weekly update on all their fares (Thursday is when new fare specials come out). Airfares have come down since last year.
We are flying to Paris this summer but have to connect (no more direct flights) either through Toronto or Montreal --this is due to the fact that the airline has dropped a number of flights because of the economy. We just made sure that we had several hours between flights in case of delay in connections. Singapore Air did this as well on flights out of Vancouver--you now have to fly through San Fran or LA to get to Singapore.
Yes Air Canada is having financial problems right now (who isn't) but there is nothing in our news to say that they are closing up shop. There are only 2 major airlines in Canada and the other one doesn't even fly to Europe.

I heard they offer free wine in economy class on International flights.

Free booze, Wally - at least it was last October when the boyfriend and I flew to & from LHR. I drank wine, he had beers, and they were free.