Air Transat?
 

Does anyone have any experience/opinions of Air Transat? A search retrieves a lot of posts mentioning it but I can't find anything that's clearly a report or opinion -- if there's a thread on this in the archives please point me to it. Thanks.

Have you considered looking at airlinequality.com?

I'm flying Air Transat to Toronto in a few weeks but I doubt you can wait that long for a trip report.

This thread answered most of my questions.

Thanks, I'll look at both those.

Scopace for Motion Sickness
 

AirTransat is a great airline, if you like:

1) no pre-reserved seats, unless you pay extra
2) food that looks like food, but tastes like...crap
3) seat pitch measured in millimeters instead of inches
4) boarding gate matrons who confiscated any carry-on bags larger than a wallet
5) maniacal, disorganized check-in, boarding, deplaning and baggage claim process - 'is that a sticker on my boarding pass with my seat number?'

long story short, I have flown this carrier enough to know - stay away. I could barely stand 3 hrs on them between FLL and YYZ for $50 each way. I can't imagine an overseas flight. Scary.

In fact in the air, transatlantic flights are pretty much the same as any other airline (in economy of course). I flew YVR to LGW last year and will be doing the same this year - the saving of $500 was too much for me to pass up. But I wish that they would sort on the check-in process - can't they just hire an extra person or two so that it doesn't take quite soooo long

I'm not sure how many other airlines offer 16"wide/29"pitch seats in economy...maybe Emirates?

Even the worst North American carriers are at least 31" of pitch with 17" of width.

>1) no pre-reserved seats, unless you pay extra

Just like an AC domestic flight.

>2) food that looks like food, but tastes like...crap

No food on most AC flights

>3) seat pitch measured in millimeters instead of inches

On my last flight on AC, from LAS to YVR I literally had nowhere to put my legs. I agree Transat's seat pitch is terrible, but so is ACs.

>4) boarding gate matrons who confiscated
>any carry-on bags larger than a wallet

Thank god. I am sick of people putting steamer trunks in the overhead bin, leaving no room for those of us who have just brought a 'carry on' and have 'carried' it 'on.'

>5) maniacal, disorganized check-in,
>boarding, deplaning and baggage claim process
>- 'is that a sticker on my boarding pass with my seat number?'

Never experienced this.

Bottom line? They're pretty bad, but not a lot worse than their competition (and if you upgrade to "Club Class" they're orders-of-magnitude better!)

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

Is Air Transat quite strict re: cabin baggage dimensions? Measuring at gate based on visual inspection by boarding staff? (I am not expecting to be significantly over, but I'm curious).