Flying to Canada With Airlines I've Never Heard Of: Transat or WestJet

I'm looking to fly to Canada in the summer and have found direct flights (from Manchester) with Transat or, if I start my holiday with a night in Dublin (never a bad thing), WestJet.
I've never heard of them and will be doing my own research but wondering if anyone here has any experience of either?

Considerations:

• I live about 20 minutes from Manchester airport
• I despise Heathrow - If I don't fly direct I will go via almost anywhere else in the world in preference to that ****hole
• I tend to see the flights as part of the holiday and don't mind paying a bit more to improve the experience.

No experience, though I like to think that a new entrant to a market tries harder and discounts to gain market share. I'd be giving them a try - and spend the difference on extra leg room seats.

I flew with West Jet to Toronto in 2018 for work, the flights were booked and paid for by my Canadian hosts, as it was their preferred airline. It is a no thrills airline, well above Ryan Air/Easy Jet but with a focus on keeping their costs down. Service was good and I would use them again. If you do book, make sure you download their App beforehand, as all in flight entertainment is on your own device, via their app, rather than a screen in the back of the seat in front. Hope this helps.

Westjet were excellent and I'd definitely use again - the in-flight experience was the same as pretty much every other economy airline. Decent seats, good-enough space - and a lot cheaper than BA.

Edited to add - I flew to Vancouver in 2022

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Originally Posted by SteveDSSD

I flew with West Jet to Toronto in 2018 for work, the flights were booked and paid for by my Canadian hosts, as it was their preferred airline. It isa no thrills airline, well above Ryan Air/Easy Jet but with a focus on keeping their costs down. Service was good and I would use them again. If you do book, make sure you download their App beforehand, as all in flight entertainment is on your own device, via their app, rather than a screen in the back of the seat in front. Hope this helps.

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Probably a good thing!

I flew long haul Heathrow to Calgary a few years ago on Transat - very impressed .

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Originally Posted by SteveDSSD

I flew with West Jet to Toronto in 2018 for work, the flights were booked and paid for by my Canadian hosts, as it was their preferred airline. It is a no thrills airline, well above Ryan Air/Easy Jet but with a focus on keeping their costs down. Service was good and I would use them again. If you do book, make sure you download their App beforehand, as all in flight entertainment is on your own device, via their app, rather than a screen in the back of the seat in front. Hope this helps.

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Thanks, this is helpful. I'm all for a no thrills* airline and don't mind a no frills airline either. My one issue with 'no frills' is often the seat so was going to ask about that but it looks ok (below). I flew to Dublin and back on Saturday with Ryanair and had had enough of their seat 35 minutes into a 40 minute flight - there's no way I'd cross the Atlantic on a seat like that.

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Originally Posted by Longblackcoat

Westjet were excellent and I'd definitely use again - the in-flight experience was the same as pretty much every other economy airline. Decent seats, good-enough space - and a lot cheaper than BA.

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*'thrills' I've had while flying:

• proper unexpected turbulence mid-Atlantic - people/drinks/books hitting the ceiling before they landed back on those of us who'd stayed in our seats
• watching smoke belch out of an engine on Air Pacific's only 747 as it failed to take off from Fiji to LA - I wouldn't mind but the pilot taxied back to the start of the runway and appeared to be preparing for another attempt before enough passengers got out of their seats and said they'd rather not.
• coming into land at Bristol on a KLM bus with wings and hearing that the airport were using our flight as a training exercise so not to be alarmed that there was a layer of foam on the runway and we would be chased by fire tenders on landing - I later found out that it was not a planned training exercise (there was some concern that the nose wheel was not locked in place)

I flew Air Transat Manchester-Toronto years ago on a work trip. They are a holiday, mostly charter airline, so all economy and some premium economy seats. It was a no frills, but also no complaints flight, very similar to US domestic flights. Very tiring in those kinds of seats for 8 hours though.

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Originally Posted by SteveDSSD

I flew with West Jet to Toronto in 2018 for work, the flights were booked and paid for by my Canadian hosts, as it was their preferred airline. It is a no thrills airline, well above Ryan Air/Easy Jet but with a focus on keeping their costs down. Service was good and I would use them again. If you do book, make sure you download their App beforehand, as all in flight entertainment is on your own device, via their app, rather than a screen in the back of the seat in front. Hope this helps.

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The app is a clever idea, heaven help anyone who hadn’t read up on that app requirement pre-flight though, that would be a dull few hours.

https://skytraxratings.com/airlines/air-transat-rating

https://skytraxratings.com/airlines/...irlines-rating

Went using Transat in 2018 also into Vancouver and out of Toronto. Really good value - interested to see what they do now as seemed to drop a lot of routes

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Originally Posted by MakeColdplayHistory

I'm looking to fly to Canada in the summer and have found direct flights (from Manchester) with Transat or, if I start my holiday with a night in Dublin (never a bad thing), WestJet.
I've never heard of them and will be doing my own research but wondering if anyone here has any experience of either?

Considerations:

• I live about 20 minutes from Manchester airport
• I despise Heathrow - If I don't fly direct I will go via almost anywhere else in the world in preference to that ****hole
• I tend to see the flights as part of the holiday and don't mind paying a bit more to improve the experience.

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Go with someone with decent seats and leg room. A flight to Canada is a lot of hours in a no frills seat IMO.

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Originally Posted by Neil.C

Go with someone with decent seats and leg room. A flight to Canada is a lot of hours in a no frills seat IMO.

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100% agree with this. We ended up on a KLM flight back from Canada last year on an old plane - this was a very long, uncomfortable trip.

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Originally Posted by Neil.C

Go with someone with decent seats and leg room. A flight to Canada is a lot of hours in a no frills seat IMO.

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Agree entirely no way would I fly budget airline for that length of time.

We flew Transat from Manchester to Toronto in 2019. Absolutely no complaints. Yes it is a cheaper airline, but the legroom etc is much better than the likes of easyJet and RyanAir. 8 hours isn't exactly long haul unless you're traveling with a medical condition. I've flown economy BA, Virgin, Tui and the likes before and Transat are no better/worse.

P.S. You'll love Canada. We did a week in Toronto before travelling down to Buffalo and Manhattan. Can't wait to go back, which will probably be a road-trip from one end of Canada to the other.

We used WestJet for a flight home from Canada, no problems and would not hesitate to use them again.

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Originally Posted by j90rdn

P.S. You'll love Canada. We did a week in Toronto before travelling down to Buffalo and Manhattan. Can't wait to go back, which will probably be a road-trip from one end of Canada to the other.

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I’ll second this. A wonderful country, unfailingly lovely people.

I have flown Air Transat a few times and no complaints. I flew economy and expected an economy service and got a good economy service. I think complaints arise when passengers have high expectations of what is economy.

I recently booked for my mom to travel from Manchester to Toronto and no issues. My mom didn’t mention anything about the in flight entertainment but my previous experience was the usual screens in the headsets.

If you don’t actually need your hand luggage with you during the flight, the check in desk were happy to check in your hand luggage.

What was strange, that during the ticket purchase online, you can pay for blankets, drinks prior. No idea when charging for blankets became a thing.

From Manchester outbound flights are on a Wednesday and inbound leave Canada on Tuesday to arrive Manchester early Wednesday morning.

But I think there are more flights during the summer period.

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Originally Posted by Kingstepper

Probably a good thing!

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........... I'll get my coat!!!!