Air Canada or Air France to Paris?
 

I posted this on both the Europe and lounge boards and someone gave me the bright idea to post it here. Here's the question:

I have only two choices for a direct flight from Toronto to Paris -- Air France and Air Canada. Prices are similar and we travel economy (alas).

Pros? Cons? Which would you choose?

Hi there..you might have already decided, but I thought I would post my two Canadian cents worth. I can't speak for Air France, but I always try to avoid our national airline Air Canada..unfortunately, I can't as it is our sole national airline for international flights...it just seems to pale in comparison, in our experiences mind you, to other airlines we have flown in terms of comfort, customer service, and an ability to arrive/depart on time.
cheers,
CC

I have exactly the opposite view to CaptCanuck. While some of Air Canada's domestic services leave something to be desired, from a basic comfort perspective (e.g. seat pitch, width), I think AC is better than a number of other airlines, including Air France.

Also, do you collect Aeroplan miles? If so, AC is the better choice.

How far ahead are you booking? Another alternative is Zoom. The flight stops in Montreal on the way, but you could book yourself into their premium economy-type product, probably for about the same price as economy on Air Canada or Air France. But the cheap flights sell out quickly and they don't fly every day. Also, I think Air Transat runs some Toronto-Paris flights, but only in the summer.

For what it's worth, I'm relatively loyal to BA (and have Gold status, which makes the experience more pleasant). We splurge and fly Premium Economy on the Toronto-London leg, economy from London-Paris. (We make this trip a lot because live in Paris but our family is in Canada.) Ordinarily, we don't look on the connection as a pain - instead, we often take the opportunity to stop over in London in one direction or the other. But don't consider doing this in the next month - BA crew are threatening to strike and the strike is imminent unless a miracle happens.

Hi Kate, hi Cap

I've thought about Zoom but I'm a little nervous about it. I hear they cancel flights a lot. I used to be an Aeroplan member but found it difficult to use and quite limited. I think they've recently made changes to it but I changed cards a few years ago and can fly with any airline on the plan I'm on.

A friend of ours loves BA and he travels for business all over the world, someplace almost every week, so frequently in fact, that he gets a free first-class companion ticket! I'd be very inclined to trust his judgment and I'd love to go on BA but they don't have a direct flight and that's really important to us. Maybe I'll give it a second look though, and see if there's an easy connection.

We're traveling mid-May but I'd like to book soon. It breaks my heart that Air France is having a great sale that ends just before we go!

Generally the responses I've gotten to my question seem to balance each other off -- there are AC fans and there are AF fans. I want my SO to look at the plane types (he knows quite a lot about this) and if he has a preference, we'll go with that. Otherwise, we may go with AF just because I've never flown with them before.

Thanks for you help and advice!

Air Canada's economy is head and shoulders above BA, particularly on A330's and A340's. I'd even choose AC's old workhorse 767's over the very cramped space in BA 747 economy. It's all about the seat pitch. AC wins.

Well, as it turned out AF won. It was strictly a matter of flights available. We were doing this on points. AF had a direct flight both ways; AC stopped in Zurich on the flight over. I would have save a few points by taking the Zurich trip but SO wanted to get to Paris as smoothly as possible so we opted for AF.

Thanks for your help though.

I think you made a good trade to avoid the stop. I've flown AF economy out of CDG and found it decent. Happy Contrails!

I'm sure I'm late to the discussion but based on my experience I would not fly Air France again. Service is so-so on the plane but what really got me is when I arrived in Paris last time only one of my two bags made it. I didn't get my other bag for EIGHT DAYS - I know things happen and bags get misplaced but their lack of service and concern after the fact extremely disappointing.

My experience with Air France happened before I started doing reviews of airlines on my site - http://bombasticlife.com but now that I think of it I will be adding it there under "things" (I write about Bombastice People, Places and Things)

bombasticlife, I'm sorry for your bad experience with Air France. I can feel your pain regarding delayed luggage, this has happened to me on 7 different occasions. If my bag does arrive when I do, I consider it a pleasant surprise. :-)

hdm, I am interested in your opinion of AF, as I have booked an award ticket to Cairo on AF.

We had no problems with our AF flight (except for the fact that the woman in line in front of us got bumped up to Business and I was jealous). Flights took off on time, service was good, even the food was better than I expected. And our bags got there when we did. I'd have no problem flying AF again.

Cairo! How exotic!

Some of the best airline food I've had was on AF. Doesn't quite make up for the poor service, but it helps.

Bloom

Is the wine free?

(wally will know) :-D