Flying to Canada

PCwiggum

Hi

I intend flying to Canada this summer either Calgary or Edmonton airports. Can anyone suggest the cheapest route - the best I found so far was with air canada (Dublin - toronto - calgary) which worked out at just over a grand during peak season.

Exit

http://www.flyzoom.com/ is how I'll be doing it later this year.

ToxicPaddy

Via London with British Airways is the way Ive gone
the last 2 times Ive flown with them and its worked out much cheaper that with Air
Canada.

There is also a company called Air Transat
who are a french canadian airline and cover most of North America from various
destinations in Canada. They fly from Dublin between May and October and might
be worth lookin into.

Tox

eth0_

Definitely look into Air Transat, they and Sky Services are always the cheapest way of getting from Ireland to Canada.

There are a few low fares airlines in Canada too, afaik Air Canada operate one.

K!LL!@N

I've flown with Air Canada, Air Transat and British Airways.
I have to say BA was definitely the best.
If you can get a cheap flight with them for the transatlantic part get it!
They've got a great selection of films, tv shows etc. you'll barely notice the time passing. They have lcd screens for each person. So you can watch what you like.
The food is also good and they come around quite often.
I'd definitely fly them again.
Leg room was decent, would have been nice to have an inch or two more but it was comfortable.

Air Canada are pretty decent too though the last time i flew transatlantic with them they didn't have a great inflight entertainment system. You're talking 1 film for everyone. So bring a book or something in case you don't like what they're showing.
Food was good and they come around often as well. I'd say on par with BA.

Air Transat used to be a kind of budget/charter flight, so i'll presume they still are.
Flight i got with them was cheap but not very flexible, just happened to fit my schedule. So i went with them.
Can't remember what the inflight entertainment was like, so it probably wasn't great.


Last time i went i took BA to Toronto and then i had booked an air canada flight to Halifax seperate.
I got really cheap tickets, $68 each way. Don't forget the taxes though.

If you're flexible with the times and don't mind hanging around pearson to catch a connecting flight it's a great option.
One thing though, be prepared going through immigration. They seem to have tightened things up a lot. If you've been to pearson before you'll know that they have the main immigration desks that everyone goes through. They don't take that long, and everyone coming off a flight has to go through them. Last time i was there i had to go through to another immigration section where they grilled me about my visit, again. This can take a fair amout of time if they don't have many staff on. Perhaps i was just unlucky at the first desk, as i'd never had to go through the second one before.

With regard to air canada, they have an e-ticket system. So you can buy your tickets online and then just give them your reference number when you get to the check-in desk, it's really handy.
They have a couple of different flights, Tango and Jazz, these are price differently.
They're like the budget flights of Air Canada.
I'm sure you'll find all the info on their site.

Killian

PCwiggum

Thanks a lot everyone.

rs

have a look at westjet for internal canadian flights

They are a pretty good low cost airline in canada and they fly from Toronto to Calagay and Alberta

http://www.westjet.com

gibbie

Cheap(er) options to look at are to fly via London or via NYC. Keep in mind that Air Canada only flies out of Dublin in the summer and no one else except Air Transat (a charter) flies Dublin-Toronto direct so you might be paying more simply because they're the only shop in town. As an example, I wanted to come over to Dublin from Toronto last summer. AC quoted me $2000 CDN dollars, which is ridiculous because I flew to Australia for $1700. However, if I wanted to fly to Birmingham, it would cost me $900 and I would be changing planes in Dublin. How does that work??? Oh yeah, because BA competes with AC for the Birmingham flights.

Another thing to consider if you are looking at flights via Heathrow or JFK, check to see what the difference in price is if you book the legs separately. When I checked Dublin-Toronto via London, I was quoted at $1200 CDN, but if I checked Heathrow to Toronto, it was only $800, and then a cheap flight from Dublin to Heathrow.

It's more legwork but it could save you tons of cash. From Toronto to Calgary, West Jet is probably cheapest for flights.