Flights to Toronto for £169 return

tvtalkshowshigh

it's worth noting that while Hamilton isn't too far from Vancouver, it's about the same distance in the other direction across the boarder into the USA to Buffalo, from where you can fly with jetblue.com who are a fantastic airline! they've somehow managed to master good customer service AND keep the price low...

odds-n-sods

Ummm... did you mean that Hamilton isn't too far from Toronto? :-)

willowbrooke

Just felt the need to add an 'experience' note to this thread - took family to Canada last year. Flew to Toronto from Birmingham with AIR INDIA - we were delayed by about 16hrs on the way out and couldn't believe it was going to be 24hrs on the way back - we were swopped to KLM and, even going via Amsterdam, passed the Toronto bound AI flight on the tarmac back at Birmingham! Moral? check the Air India arrivals and departures on the net at both Birmingham and Toronto to get a feel for the service - my guess is that they only have 2 aircraft that fly the route (Delhi - Birmingham - Toronto) and any slight hitch just throws any schedule out the window. Having got that off my chest don't be put off Canada and spend a little time in Toronto too. We did the wilderness camping bit in Algonquin Park ( no swings, just moooose) - highly recomended.

whitemouse75

i flew air india last year bhx to toronto, excellent it was too. so it just goes to show that reading others opinions shouldnt influence your choice.

atomic_elk

A warning about this following my experience last April on the Toronto - Niagara - New York route.

Martin suggests going by rail into the US. Be warned that Amtrak time keeping makes our trains look fab! Before we went I checked the time keeping of the train we intended catching on the Amtrak website. It always seemed to be late and on one occasion it was late by NINE HOURS. This would give a midnight arrival in New York instead of the timetabled 3 pm. As we were travelling straight on to my sister in Connecticut this would have caused all sorts of problems besides the unappealing prospect of arriving in New York at midnight looking like grockles (as we say in Devon).

Instead, having "done" Niagara we crossed the border at Rainbow Bridge and flew US Air from Buffalo (approx 30 minute taxi journey).

We did the Toronto - Niagara leg by Coach Canada - no problems.

squawk

Can;t comment on Globespan, but I can't believe somebody is recommending Air Transat! I regularly do the Canada run and I've tried most the possibilities (Zoom, Air Transat, BA, Air Canada, etc) and Air Transat are definitely the worst.

Example: the last I flew with them: nearly 2 hours to check in at Gatwick. Despite an absurdly long queue, half the check-in staff left bang on the hour to even further delay check-in!!! I was in Canada for a relatively short 10 days, yet during that time they emailed (no phone call or any other effort to contact me) to say the return flight had been moved back 12hours. It was only by chance I picked up the email. And this meant I had to take an extra day off work. Any apology or explanation? No chance.

The other trick you get lulled into is buying flight that stops on the way. Eg Calgary if you're going to Vancouver. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS. Yes, you're going save £20 but it's going to add 4 hours to your journey time.

In summary, my rule is - unless you want to p1ss your life away or you can save over £100 don't fly charter - you'll only end up kicking yourself. The best deal I recommend is getting the BMI credit card (20,000miles), doing your usual spend on it to get up to 25000miles and then you get a flight to Canada for a £140 +tax - availability is pretty good too, I've done it twice, including once at xmas when the equivalent flight was £700+

loulabelle44_2

whitemouse75 wrote: »

i flew air india last year bhx to toronto, excellent it was too. so it just goes to show that reading others opinions shouldnt influence your choice.

Totally agree. People only review hotels/airlines when they've had a bad experience.

I went to NY with Air India last year. I was really worried about it after I read a few reviews. But they were £70 cheaper than the nearest competitor.

I needn't have worried. Yes, we picked up a 3hr delay in each direction, some of which was spent sat on the plane with no information, but the service was pretty OK. It was worth the £140 saving.

I read some poor reviews of a motel in Santa Monica. We got there and couldn't believe how nice it was.

I know I'm going a bit OT here, but let's all write reviews of travel, whatever our experience...

peugeot_2

Thanks for this have booked with Zoom so I let you know what happens, Has any body any experience of Zoom..Thanks

atomic_elk

Well I actually flew Zoom for the Gatwick - Toronto leg last April (see post above).

On the plus side they were about £1k cheaper than anyone else for a family of 4. Flight on time going out, 1 hour late leaving coming back. Cabin crew pleasant, food OK.

Only slight minus - the plane was an older model and didn't have seat back screens etc. However in flight movies were shown throughout.

For what we were saving I thought the whole thing was fine. I'd go with them again.

nullogik

The two cheapest to consider are Canadian Affair and Zoom Airlines that actually fly into Pearson-Toronto.

If you fly Canadian Affair, try and get a Thomas Cook aircraft as they offer a lot of leg room in economy. The MyTravel aircraft are like battery-hen farms and are extremely uncomfortable with little legroom making those under 6ft even feel cramped. I haven't used their Air Transat aircraft but I suspect they're pretty cramped too.

Zoom and Canadian Affair offer pretty much the same fairs, and in most cases theres only about 50p difference in it. I booked Easter tickets to Toronto at a cost of £250 return from Gatwick at X'mas. This is the first time I've tried Zoom, so I can't comment on legroom, food and queues.

I would definitly recommend these two over GlobeSpan since they actually fly into Toronto-Pearson.