Air Transat or Air Canada to Hawaii- opinions?
 

Will likely be flying from Calgary to Honolulu, HI, February 2003. The only airline at the moment is Air Canada. We could take NorthWest through the U.S., but it is about the same price as Air Canada, more stops.<BR><BR>We heard that Air Transat may do a charter this winter from Calgary to Honolulu. I was looking at some of the other posts, about Air Transat, seemed negative. <BR><BR>I may be able to save anywhere from $300-$400, if I fly Air Transat. Air Canada is charging approx $1000. This is in Canadian money. <BR><BR>Any opinions?

If you'll be taking Air Transat, start practising now to put your knees up to your chin.

I don't get it. What is your problem Sheila? You are Canadian, right? So support Air Canada, take durn Air Canada flight. It's nothing wrong with AC. We use them often and they are not better or worse than many US carrier.<BR>US $650 for a flight to Hawaii in a high season that is very inexpensive.<BR>I never used Air Transat but heard some scary stories about flying with them and would not use them even if it was almost free flight. Well, maybe if they had specials Can $100 to Honolulu

I don't have a problem with AC. I have flown with them many times. I was looking at saving some money on a flight. If Air Transat, is that bad, then I will go with AC.

Shelia, I flew a AirTransat charter to Hawaii a few years ago. Our decision was based on economics as it was about $350 cheaper to fly on AirTransat vs. Air Canada. In hindsite I would have rather paid the extra cash to fly on a "non" charter airline.<BR><BR>The AirTransat flight left at a horrible time (7am) and they would not preassign seats (I think that now they do). This meant that in order for our family of four to get seats together we had to arrive at the ticket counter by 5am. The flight was delayed until 2pm which meant we missed our connecting flight in Honolulu and had to find our condo in Maui at night. Not a great introduction to AirTransat.<BR><BR>However, I do remember the food as adequate airline fare and they were on the ball for finding us an alternate connecting flight in Honolulu. The seats are packed in (although AC economy isn't much better these days). I understand that you can now book a "club class" and get more personal space. This might be an option if you are still considering them.

Hi there, for your info, Aloha, Air Canada, Air Pacific and Air Transat will all have flights from western Canada this winter. I know Air Transat wants to operate these flights with their L1011-500s. The seat pitch in economy is the same as Air Canada (32in). And for the price it's 300-400 $CAD cheaper. <BR>Have a nice trip.

If it is just 1 person and the flight price dif. was a total of 300-400, then go with AC. If you're talking a family of 4 for example then go with AT. I have had a bad exp. with AT-(7 hrs. late for take-off and we couldn't leave the airport because they wouldn't tell us when it was going to leave!! Arrived in Cuba at 4 a.m.-not pleasant in a cuban airport at that hr.).

I flew on AT to Mexico 2 years ago at a great price. On the return, they had mechanical problems and we were delayed in Mexico for 38 hours. That is not a typo! While they did provide accomodations, it was still very inconvenient. That's the risk you take when you fly a charter airline. They don't have many planes, so if one has problems they don't have another one to substitute.

If you can get a cheap connection to Vancouver, you should look into Aloha Airlines. They have daily flights to Honolulu. They're currently offering a sale at $399 USD, so if you keep an eye on their prices closer to your departure, it may be worth it. Air Pacific also has good prices, but their ground service and communication is not good (inflight service is good though).

You should be able to get even lower fares if you have some time to wait before booking the tickets.<BR><BR>For example, YYC-HNL is currently as low as CDN$596+taxes ($700 total) on Northwest (only one stop in SEA) and CDN$704+taxes (about $815 total) on Air Canada -- that's for travel MON-THU up to October 1.<BR><BR>There have been similar deals other times also...

Hey Jose! Air Transat IS a Canadian company with head offices in Montreal, just like Air Canada. Wake up, boy!

Try to avoid Air Transat. I have complained to head office twice now due to lack of leg room and the 'over weight luggage' scam. Firstly, I am 6'3" and have great difficulty sitting bolt upright for prolonged periods. I used to checkin for my flight 2-3 hours ahead of everyone else so I could get seats in the exit row or bulk head. That doesn't work anymore. Every tall person who has ever flown with them now takes advantage of their special offer....pay them $40 each way and you can reserve you seat. Idiots. In February my wife and I went to the Turks & Caicos islands for a well deserved snorkelling vacation. So..we took our gear with us..in our luggage. When we get to the checkin they tell us the combined luggage weight is 12kg over. They then charged us $5/kg. So like fools we paid it and got a receipt to show that we had done so. No one ever asked us to prove we had done so, in fact, what infuriated me more was that we talked with many people on our flight that were also over weight and were not charged. Sorry for the rant but it bugs me that we in Canada are stuck sometimes with such a poor service provider. It's too bad WestJet doesn't do charters.