Air Transat

Returned from Cancun to Saskatoon on Flight TS 765 on January 3 2014. Flight was supposed to leave at 1620 and arrive at 2140. Flight was listed as being 50 minutes late when we checked in. Boarded about 1700. Was informed that there was a problem with one of the washrooms and that they were waiting for a truck to come. Then told tank was frozen and could not be unfrozen and the plane had only two working washrooms. Was told that flights under 4 hours could fly with 2 working washrooms but flights longer than 4 hours required 3 working washrooms. Had 2 working washrooms in the back and one in the front so there was 3 washrooms. Guess the one for the first class passengers is not to be used by economy passengers even in the event of unusual conditions so it doesn't count. The flight to Saskatoon was to take 5 hours. Transat then told us we were going to fly to Toronto (less than 4 hours) change crews then fly to Saskatoon. Left Cancun at 2030. Arrived in Toronto at 2400 and changed flight crews. Arrived Saskatoon at 0430. After arriving in Saskatoon was told that no gate was available. Had to wait another 90 minutes for a gate. Deplaned just after 0600. Now been on plane for over 12 hours. Waited 45 minutes for luggage then told equipment to unload luggage was broken. Plane would be taken to Regina luggage unloaded then delivered back to Saskatoon. Forms had to be filled out to get luggage delivered to our home. No Transat reps around. Total gong show! Passengers now becoming very vocal. Canada Immigration officials were the most helpful. Finally left airport at 0800. Luggage is to be delivered before 2400 this evening.

Travelled from London Gatwick to Toronto on 31st December 2013. As I'm moving to St. John's Newfoundland I needed the cheapest way of getting to that outpost with a large luggage allowance and the Air Transat Club Class seemed to provide that for me in terms of getting to Toronto before using another airline onwards. In the main it was excellent. The food on planes is usually of low standard but my Turkey Cacciatore was delicious the light snack meat platter before landing was equally tasty and the other little treats cookies fudge sweets champagne wine port and baileys. Inflight entertainment was fine maybe not as wide ranging as Air Canada but decent nonetheless watched a couple of interesting documentaries in between my constant scoffing. Staff were very friendly the slight downer were the seats not as comfortable some Club Class. But not the price of any Club Class aside so I have no complaints. A very good airline!

Manzanillo (Mexico) to Calgary (Canada) flight TS3521 on Dec 22 2013. Wanted to complain on the way passenger boarding was handled by Air Transat staff at Manzanillo airport which resulted in many young kids being separated from their parents. There was one general queue with four counters serving passengers. Then staff announced that there was a separate queue line for passengers with young kids. We and many other families moved to this queue thinking it would be faster. The problem was that the generic queue was serviced by three counters but there was only one counter serving the family queue! Moreover the only person serving the family queue had one arm in a plaster cast and was able to type in with one arm only. As a result the general queue with three counters available to them moved much faster and were all done by the time many families in the other queue were still waiting in the line. The general queue passengers got all the adjacent seats and by the time the families were allowed to reach the check-in counter the only seats left were single ones dispersed all over the cabin! Many young kids (including ours) got seats separate from their parents. When I pleaded with the counter person to find at least two adjacent seats for my youngest to be able to sit with the mom the reply was that there was nothing available and we should ask the passengers on the plane to volunteer and give us their seats. On the plane the stewardesses were able to help some (but not all) of the families by negotiating with the other passenger to swap seats. I think the above was result of a poor administration of the boarding at the airport. Had the airport staff allowed all the families with young kids to check in first before the rest of the passengers this could have been avoided.

Flight Dec/14/13 - Dec/21/13. Toronto On - Varadero Cuba. The planes were Airbus 310 with updated interiors mood lighting (very nice). No individual TV screens. Not a big issue for us! The food was good for an airline. The crew were pleasant and efficient. No problems at all. They handled our last 30 minutes of the return flight very well (plane landed in the midst of the ice storm) Scary! ( Not the airlines fault). Bravo to the cockpit and crew. We would definitely fly with Air Transat again.

Returned from Punta Cana yesterday. Plane itself was fine. Updated with nice lighting etc. Movies and shows/entertainment is all pretty outdated. Flight was smooth. Food there and back was not good. My biggest concern is the flight staff. Very inconsistent (some rows get wet towels before meals some don't etc). The speed with which their service is delivered is poor. My side had food drink wet wipe while my daughters side had none of those things. The food eventually was delivered about 10 minutes later. Another concern is that the attendants are quite a bit older and put respectfully not in great shape to be pushing a cart up and down narrow aisles. The airport at Punta Cana was ridiculous - there were at least 6 huge planes leaving within about 30 minutes of each other. It took over 3 hours from the arrival time to drop off luggage and get through screening and security with thousands of other travellers. Surely this could be controlled with better logistics.

My wife suffers with COPD so we paid the premium for club class bad idea the seating arrangements had changed since our last trip and they were uncomfortable. My headrest was continually being pushed down as it did not lock in place by people coming by to use the washroom. The food was not the greatest and my wife was becoming agitated with her discomfort. I would not pay the premium again! I am surprised by lack of concern. After three previous return flights to Britain that had been so good.

I tried to fly Air Transat on the 28th November from London to Vancouver (I emphasize the word try). When I checked in for my Option Plus booking I was informed that they couldn't find my booking. After consulting with a supervisor they found my booking and then casually informed me that the flight was 9 hours delayed. The ground crew were incredibly unsympathetic (I was travelling for urgent business reasons) and couldn't be bothered to stop taking phone calls and chatting despite having a distraught passenger right in front of them. I asked for a full refund which I have yet to receive and ran to catch a British Airways flight at Heathrow. My advice avoid Transat if you care about customer service and are at all serious about actually getting to where you plan to go.

My husband and I recently flew from LGW (London Gatwick) to YYZ (Toronto Pearson) in economy class. The flight left on time at 9.35am UTC and arrived at 12.45pm EST in Toronto. The flight was about 8 hours and ten minutes long. Everything was very smooth with just a few minutes of mild turbulence as we were landing. The movies were ok - a lot of international film festival movies. We were lucky to fly on one of the updated planes with the modern entertainment units on each seat. I have flown Air Transat overseas several times and I find the eastbound journey is usually the older planes as most people sleep during the overnight flight. The eastbound journey is with the updated planes as most people are away for the midday flight. The food is pretty awful but what can you expect for economy rates? My husband did get food poisoning when we were flying to Europe so from now on we only eat their vegetarian meals if at all possible. Constant queue for toilets but what can you expect with over 300 people on a plane? Overall they were enjoyable flights and we would fly with them again. Excellent value for your money.

Flew from Gatwick to Vancouver. Paid for a seat and got about 3/4 because the person in the middle was so large. Food horrible. Of course the crew started at the front of the plane and because there was some turbulence they had to stop serving for 10 minutes and return to the back galley so when they continued and got to the rear it was also cold.

Crew were amazing planes nice and clean roomy seats and flights were on time. Food excellent staff truly there for the passengers!. Every one smiles asking for water is not a crime as it is on some airlines.