Ended up on MyTravel Airlines as a result of booking through Canadian Affair from Toronto to London.
Checkin was not advertised ... had to march up and down the hall a couple times to find who was checking them in.
Checkin was straightforward and as a seasoned air traveller, it was as it should be, even if the agents weren't the friendliest people in the world.
Departure was delayed due to late arriving aircraft on the inbound flight from London.
Boarding was a disaster because in spite of boarding by rows, people just swarmed the boarding area.
The aircraft, an A330 was bright modern and clean. That's where the advantages ended. In the configuration chosen by MyTravel, it was 3 - 3 - 3 across ... that's 9 seats where most airlines use 2-4-2 i.e. 8 across. So, unless you are fortunate and sit beside two very skinny people, you are going to feel cramped sideways. On this flight, I had an average male sitting next to me who had his elbow in my side for over 4 hours of our 6.5 hour flight.
As if that's not bad enough, the seat pitch ... the distance between your seat and the one in front of you is only 30 inches. The minimum on most airlines is 31". The lack of even 1" makes a huge difference. If the person in front of you reclines, you have no choice but to recline. Seat backs MUST go up to eat and there's always the joker who refuses.
After 6.5 hours in such cramped conditions, you're feeling pretty miserable.
The toilets were amidships and downstairs. That was OK, although they were dirty and lacking toilet rolls. The seat configuration of 3-3-3 meant that at best you disturbed one person, and usually 2 to get out. And if you travelled as a couple, you were pretty much guaranteed to disturb a stranger.
The onboard staff were mostly kids ... 17-20 with little tolerance for people who were getting ratty by the end of the flight and little experience.
The food was tasty enough ... but not brilliant. Charging for things in pounds sterling on a flight *from* Canada was entertaining. They lacked change and had to do conversions to/from CDN $ on the fly and usually got it wrong.
They promised a hot breakfast 1.5 hours from London ... well, that never happened ... the cabin crew were far too busy selling stuff from the duty free etc catalogues and too darned slow in the process.
The promised "Lights out" period didn't happen until we were landing!!! So on an overnight flight, I don't think anyone got any sleep ... except maybe the one staff member who sat down in the toilet waiting area to ensure that it didn't get too rowdy down there! The only sleep I got was 20 minutes on the ground as we taxiied all around Pearson airport to get to the runway.
After making up some time somehow they lost it again even thought we didn't go into any holds around Gatwick. They definitely lost more when we arrived at a remote stand and they had no stairs operator to move the stairs to the plane, of which they had a choice of 3. BUT all the stairs waiting for us were the wrong kind. So they had to find more stairs. Over 40 minutes after landing we finally got off. One poor woman lost it and nearly got into fisticuffs with a steward! Thank goodness he held his cool. But the situation was certainly stressful.
Then of course, it took forever to get the baggage to the terminal. That's not a problem of MyTravel, but even so, it was the final insult to a horrible flight.
The last time I travelled under squashed conditions was a few years ago on Air Transat and swore I'd never do it again.
That puts 2 charter airlines on my "never travel on" list for transatlantic flights. Next test is the return on Thomas Cook's 757 to Ottawa! I've got my fingers crossed and thinking that it can't be worse than MyTravel.
A promising first review - If you feel you would like to add or expand on the details in the review at any time in the future you can do this by pressing the edit link in the centre at the top of your review as you read it.
Welcome to Ciao!. Fionaxx
bean372042 01.10.2006 20:58
Every time I fly with My Travel I swear I will not do it again. Off with them again soon, but not from choice! Jean X
The_Nursey 01.10.2006 19:53
Jeeeeeez that sounds a right nightmare! I've only ever traveled scheduled on trans altantic flights and having read this I intend to keep it that way!
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Oct 1st, 2006
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