To fly with KLM or Air Canada?

OkayWhatever

Booking flights on Thursday,return to Toronto. Air Canada is €505 with a stopover in Heathrow both ways or KLM is €525 with a stopover In Amsterdam. KLM flight is an hour and a bit shorter than Air Canada but time or the price difference isn't really an issue,considering its an hour and €20!

I'm just wondering if there'd be much difference between the 2 airlines. Would 1 be better than the other? Or are they pretty much the same? Any advantages to either?

I'm just trying to find the best option so would appreciate some help.

Thanks a mill!

OkayWhatever

Or British Airways?

Mair10

Having flown to both Canada and Australia with KLM I would have to recommend them. Also having experienced both Heathrow & Amsterdam as stop overs, I would take Amsterdam any day! Heathrow is a nightmare, especially if you have to switch terminals!! Don't know what Air Canada are like from Heathrow but I have heard some of their flights don't have individual screens (i.e. you bring your own earphones and watch on a shared screen in the middle of the aisle). KLM has a great selection of on board entertainment on your own screen. Good luck!

Millem

Mair10 wrote: »

Having flown to both Canada and Australia with KLM I would have to recommend them. Also having experienced both Heathrow & Amsterdam as stop overs, I would take Amsterdam any day! Heathrow is a nightmare, especially if you have to switch terminals!! Don't know what Air Canada are like from Heathrow but I have heard some of their flights don't have individual screens (i.e. you bring your own earphones and watch on a shared screen in the middle of the aisle). KLM has a great selection of on board entertainment on your own screen. Good luck!

I have flown klm, air Canada and air transit. Air transit don't have individual screens and you have to pay for everything eg ear phones, blankets etc. most air Canada planes have their own individual screens however I was unlucky to be on one of their old ones with only a screen in the middle which was broken at the time! You dont have to pay for anything on board. Klm are brilliant I stopped over in Amsterdam and it was a very short stop over literally didn't need to move terminals or anything. Klm are part of a group (can't remember the name), I booked everything with klm but had aer lingus plane to Amsterdam, then klm plane, on return had air France to Paris and city jet to dublin.

wendydoll

Millem-do you mind if i ask how long your stopover in AMS was?

I'm looking at flights to Vancouver and the stopover length is 1 hour and 15 min and I'm just worried its a bit short in case the flight from Dublin gets delayed

Millem

wendydoll wrote: »

Millem-do you mind if i ask how long your stopover in AMS was?

I'm looking at flights to Vancouver and the stopover length is 1 hour and 15 min and I'm just worried its a bit short in case the flight from Dublin gets delayed

My stop over was so short, I reckon the same as yours. In fact on the way back they held back the plane leaving Toronto as there were passengers coming from connecting planes. I wasn't worried I just guessed they would hold plane for me in ams. Check to see if there is another flight after as if you did get really delayed they could put you on that flight worst case scenario! That happened on my flight with air Canada last year.

NewsMeQuick

Anyone else flown with these airlines? I'll add BA to the mix. The prices are about the same, give or take about €20.

If customer service is taken out of the equation, I'm leaning towards BA. They have the latest flight which suits me because I never sleep well the night before and I know how ridiculous it is to travel long-distance with no sleep. It's unbearable. :eek:

Kev_2012

I flew to Toronto with KLM last year. The plane was a 747 jumbo jet. Went with a friend and we flew to Amsterdam from Dublin and Amsterdam to Toronto. On the way over we got the emergency exit seats so had about 6 feet of legroom and on the way back we had 4 seats between s in the middle. The food is decent and the air cabin crew were very good. I would choose them again in a heartbeat.

Flying to Vancouver this year, I flew Virign Atlantic and my friends flew Air Canada. They said the flight to toronto from london was ok but the internal flight was crap. I found the virgin planes to be very cramped and the food wasn't great. When I fly home I'm definitely gonna try KLM again.

Trust me, it's worth it for the extra 20 bucks!!!

Celly Smunt

KLM and amsterdam.

Forget Heathrow.

Scruffy19

I flew out on KLM, cant remember much about the flight as I slept the whole way but my friend who is 6ft 4, couldn't get a seat beside a emergency exit, so he was a bit squashed lol

We needed to change or flights for going home at xmas and they arranged everything through twitter (which was very handy). Would recommend anybody to use them!

Amirani

I did this route with KLM last time I was in Toronto. Schipol is so much better than Heathrow for connections, I'd take it every time.

Lenmeister

I flew Air Canada in 2009 and it was a nightmare. They misplaced my bags and they ended up getting to Vancouver at different dates miles apart. My main luggage bag I got over a week after I arrived. I had to buy clothes, toiletries etc because of that. They wouldn't even reimburse me, bunch of tossers. My snowboard bag I got 3 days later, was an absolute joke.

I'd never recommend them after all the crap I had to deal with.

dermabrasion

Flying back and forth over the last 12 yrs I have settled in to using Air Canuckoflot. They are however, a bit hit and miss, but because I was going back and forth so often, I found a routine that worked, and going through the US or Europe just added more variation that complicated things more often than not, especially in winter.
Flying from Ottawa or Toronto, I have found that the LHR bound planes tend to be well equipped. The crews can be either very helpful or the total opposite: a bag of grouchy #@*%
For direct flights ion Dublin in summer Air Canada use the oldest planes. These are the worst planes in their fleet that they use to fly drunk Canadians to the Caribbean during the winter, and they are moved to places like Dublin in the summer.
Over all, while I have had awful experiences with Air Canada, I tend to default to them when looking for tickets.

EI-DOR

I flew with BA to Baltimore from LHR last summer on one of their older 767s. Never again. Far to cramped, food was crap, the landing was brutal for such a cracking day. Surprised they didn't blow a Tyre. On the return flight to LHR it was the same story. The heat inside the cabin was ridiculous. I had to say to the CC about the heat along with a few other passengers, sweat was running of me. It made the first 2 or 3 hours of the flight unbearable until it cooled down a bit. I was never so glad to get of that dam plane in London.

I'm planning on Canada myself when I manage to get the IEC Visa. Have been looking at Aerlingus but not sure who I will go with. Might suss out KLM!

el diablo

Air Canada are a terrible airline. Old aircraft and poor customer service/food
/entertainment. KLM would be the better choice.

ciaran67

Millem wrote: »

Air transit don't have individual screens

Yes they do. They basically have tablets on the back of the seats.

KLM for me over the rest. And like other have said, Heathrow is a mare.

NewsMeQuick

I see that the Aer Lingus prices have gone up. I've been checking return flights because they're cheaper than single. Well those prices just shot up - the return flight during the summer did it.

BA and KLM are now cheaper, still around €617-23.