jefnvk

Pretty much what the title says. Looking at either taking Air Transat or WOW Airlines to Paris with a bike this summer, WOW from Detroit or Air Transat from Toronto. I know what to expect from WOW, anyone flown Air Transat and can give a review? They look rather reasonable, $30CAD each way per bike, and provide a bag at checkin which makes the return trip easier.

spinnaker

A friend took WOW to Iceland last year. He had no complaints. Then again he isn't awfully picky. If it saves him a buck then he is all for it.

I on the other hand tend to avoid budget airlines. I even avoid Southwest anymore. I will be flying to Portland this year on Delta and paying for the Comfort Class (the way coach used to be ) . I am at a place in my life where I can afford it so I figure why not? Funny my friend can more easily afford it than me but he is still cheap.

jefnvk

Oh, I took WOW last year as well. I really have no complaints, they are low cost but other than paying like $5 a beer, got me and a bike and a bag to Iceland for about $515 round trip

Just though about trying Air Transat. Taking a bike to Europe on WOW runs more than taking one to Iceland which makes the prices more comparable, while the drive to Toronto sucks, but they run a bit nicer schedule for me.

spinnaker

Do they have any agreements with other airlines? In other words what happens if your flight is canceled or there is a lengthy delay? Will they place you on another company's flight?

That is something to consider. One problem touring is a tight schedule. If you have a day or two extra to pad onto the front of your trip then it still sucks if you get a cancellation but not a big deal if you end up getting there within your time frame.

jefnvk

AFAIK, neither do, but Air Transat runs a more regular schedule (every day v. every other day). That was indeed one of my concerns.

Bumping up to a "real" airline pushes me up another $500 each, so I'm willing to risk a day or so delay. Plus it is July, so weather shouldn't be a serious concern, and anything operational on the airlines side requires them to put me on a competitors flight.

spinnaker

And if everything works, you get the bonus of a day to just chill out once you get there. I wish I had taken that on my trips to Italy. It takes about a day just to get your head straight.

So what happens on either airline if your flight is canceled? I would imagine the next flight is already full with the regular passengers. Plus they have a whole plane to accommodate. Do they add a flight?

jefnvk

Honestly? No clue. As it would likely be operational related, I suspect we all just fly on whatever competitors can accommodate us, but I've got little clue. Again though, with a base price $500 higher (and then tacking on the cost of $150-200 per bike each way instead of $20-50) it is probably a risk I'm willing to take.

Now I have found an airline called called Prima Air Scandanavia, that I'm not so sure I'm willing to chance....

djb

Air transat is a well established airline here in Quebec. I've flown with them a number of times, not with bikes however, but friends have.
Personally I'm not keen on the bag thing, but my friends had no issues. Luck or bad luck imo, depends on baggage handlers and their disposition that day imo.

Transat does tend to have tight seat spacing, I'm a skinny little bugger and was almost cramped.

gauvins

Never bothered flying WoW. Basic price looks good but when you add the various necessary fees, they are no longer that competitive (bike is 85 euros each way)

Air Transat is a good charter operator. Bicycle fees are negligible.

jefnvk

Yeah, very friendly bike policies too, including free plastic bags at checkin. That is most of what drew me to them.

hockey

We fly with our bikes on Air Transat regularly. We love that they fly into smaller airports and have many direct flights. We have witnessed cyclists rolling on full tandems, water bottles and all. Recommended.

gerryl

I've flown with Air Transat several times, every time with my bike. I have absolutely no complaints. No one gets flustered when you show up with your bike, it's appears to be all pretty routine. In the summer of 2016 when returning from Nice there were at least 10 other cyclist on the flight, there appeared to be no issue whatsoever with the number of bikes they were willing to accept.
Also your bike does NOT count as your one free piece of luggage, I pack all my panniers in a large duffel bag and use that as my one free piece of checked luggage. I'm almost at the point where my touring destinations are in large part influenced by Air Transat's destinations, for example this summer I'm off the Prague with them.

djb

jeff, I have no idea if yoiu can find this info out about their seat spacing, but about 4 years ago, I flew with Air Transat to France to go to the Lemans 24 Hr race with an old friend. We are about polar opposites of body types, same height ish, but I weigh 135 and my friend probably twice that. Even being the slim guy that I am, the space between my two hips and the fold down seat divider thingees was very little, and my friend kinda sqwershed himself in.
Not the end of the world for 7 hours, especially with reasonable prices and being bike friendly, but I wanted to at least explain my comment earlier about seat spacing.
Clearly a First World Problem, but just a heads up.

jefnvk

Thanks for the input, thinking I'm going to give Air Transat a go!

Looked it up on SeatGuru, looks like the same size as WOW more or less, which I had no complaints about last year. I'm not the lightest, but I'm fairly compact, seat room on a plane really has never been much of an issue. It is one place my 29" inseam is actually wonderful for

canamdad

Used Airtransat twice - MTL to Venice, MTL to Toulouse. I travel with a coupled bike so bike box is within max dimensions and weight as the allowance for free first bag. They always want to know what's in that luggage in MTL because they suspect that it's a bike and they want to charge me for it. So I have to say something like oh, lots of things inside. Now I just say that I used the same luggage before and never a problem and they relent and send me to oversize baggage X-ray. Never a problem coming back at European airports. Other than that little hassle, it's a good airline and goes lots of places where I want to go in Europe. Would be my first choice if I was actually checking in a bike in an oversize bike box as it's pretty cheap if you have to pay.

djb

Can't resist this

And their pilots are good glider pilots, a Canadian tradition

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236