Has anyone tried both these airlines? Which one did you prefer? why? <BR>Thank you.

Both ... many times! I'd rather swim to Europe than take Air Transat again - consistently awful experience. Canada 3000 is somewhat better. The best of the Canadian charters is SkyService. The also offer the option (for about 100-150 each way) to get a "business class" seat upgrade (same service, just a larger seat & more leg-room). <BR> <BR>Regards

I Ger's right on - Air Transat is awful, Canada 3000 fine and Skyservice was great when we flew Toronto-Rome. At that time Skyservice was flying into Ciampino a charter airport (I believe it's ex-Military). It was great - small, quick to navigate and easy access to Tuscany.

I agree with above. Do most of my flying overseas out of Toronto. Canada 3000 and SkyService both fine. Have not tried Air Transat.....and won't..

A couple of years ago we booked Air Transat on the basis that it would save our family some £700 which we thought we would rather spend when we got to Canada. <BR>The plane arrived in Manchester where we were due to board and after hour after hour of delay during which no information was given we were told we were going to a hotel as the plane had "major mechanical failure ".That was enough to spook you! <BR>They told us we would be taking off at a particular time in the very early hours of the morning but we then overheard some of the ground staff saying that the cabin crew would be out of hours by then and so wouldn't be able to fly.In addition we couldn't get our baggage off the plane and had no washing gear or clean clothes. The time the plane was rescheduled to leave was about 24 hours after we'd first got up and it had been a sweltering hot day in Manchester(yes it does happen!) <BR>We went to the hotel which didn't have any a/c and was too hot at 11p.m.We read our insurance policy and found we were covered for cancellation where the flight was delayed 12 hours and it was already passed that. <BR>We decided to pull the plug on the holiday-and a lot of it was to do with the"major mechanical failure" comment. <BR>It didn't end there.The next day we rang the consolidator who had sold us flights several times before and they got us a flight the next day on Air Canada which was trouble free-a plug here for U.S.Airtours who we are still using. <BR>When we tried to claim on our insurance they wanted proof from Air Transat that we hadn't flown.They wanted our boarding cards but we'd had to hand them to retrieve our baggage-another story.Air Transat do not seem to have an office with live staff in the uk and so we had to fax to Montreal-they didn't reply.We tried ringing more than once but we had to leave a message which was never responded to.Eventually we persuaded the insurance co.by producing our baggage checks for our return Air Canada flight which were computer issued and timed and showed we were on the Air Canada flght at the same time as the Air Transat flight was returning to the U.K. without us! <BR>Air Canada had excellent coffee too!

What a horror story Frances - I'm surprised they are still in business. I know my family, when they fly Dublin-Toronto, will no longer consider Air Transat regardless of the cost savings. My mother-in-law, who's on a fixed income, always pays the little extra to fly Skyservice and my family have been universally satisfied and they flights have ALWAYS arrived on time. <BR> <BR>Another charter airline I forgot to mention that I dislike is Royal (I think they may now have been merged with Canada 3000?). Worst flight was a five hour delay in SHannon on the way back - they kept pushing back the departure time by 30 mins which is frustrating. We thought we were being clever by booking bulk-head seats behind the washroom .... GAWD, let's say they had a bit of a septic tank problem (or whatever the thing is called in the plane). Then, three hours into the flight, the pilot announced that due to unusually strong head-winds, we had to land in Gandor NFLD for more fuel. What a scam! The truth is that they could save a bundle on gas by taking the minimum on in Shannon and refueling at the first port of call in Canada. I shared this information with as many fellow passengers as I could and there was nearly a riot (I was lucky not to get kicked off at Gandor)! <BR> <BR>They kept us on the plane in sweltering August heat as they refueled (this has got to contravene saftely laws). We arrived home about 8 hours behind schedule. I found out later from friends that they had pulled the same stunt at least four times that summer. When we wrote a letter to complain, they did not even bother to respond. <BR> <BR>My husband took Royal for a four day golf trip with some buddies to Florida in the Spring. They were supposed to take off at 6 am and finally took off at about 1 am next morning on another airline - one and a half days of their trip was wasted. <BR> <BR>I guess the vote for charters goes to SkyService but Loida, do check out Air Canada before you decide. Scheduled services are far less likely to be delayed for a variety of reasons. Firstly, they definately have less maintenance issues (which is always a concern for me - why do the charters break down so often - are they reaqlly doing the maintenance they should?), secondly, they have maintenance arrangements set up at their destinations and parts on site (nothing angers me more than an announcement that a part has to be flown in from Montreal or Toronto), thirdly, they have partner airlines that can accomodate passengers in the event of very long delays and lastly, if your trip is to London, Paris, Frankfurt at least 25% of their passengers are likley to be business travelers that get off the plane and straight to a meeting (if an airline can't deliver the goods on on-time departure, they will quickly lose their most profitable clients to another airline. <BR> <BR>Regards .. Ger