| Subject: RE: RE: overnight flight expectations -Reply |
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I can't say what Canada 3000 offers on flights west but I have flown them
to Europe 'once' and internally in Canada 'once'. I will never be able
to say I flew them three times. You only get two chances to prove yourself
and they never came close to delivering anything except a marginally cheaper
ticket. I was a broke backpacker at the time and this mattered.
My flights left anywhere from two and half to four hours late and not due to weather on any occassion. When checking in for the flight to Europe I requested a seat near the restrooms. The counter attendant seated my girlfriend and me in the last row of the 757. Well today I can tell you a 757 (or at least that one) does not have restrooms in the rear of the aircraft. Nor does it have rear row seats that recline even a centimetre. Later as we were supposedly flying eastward across the Atlantic I noticed an odd thing. The sun was rising behind us. Now either they were taking an alternate route from Halifax to London, one that included a view of Russia, or we were returning to Canada. I asked the flight attendant why we were returning to Canada. And she claimed that we were not. When I explained that to the best of my knowledge the sun was still rising in the east, she asked me to take my seat and tried to walk past me. I stood my ground and asked again, still quietly, why we were returning to Canada. I was somewhat concerned that there was a problem with the aircraft and didn't want to start a panic (me included). Again she claimed we were not heading west. So I repeated my question loud enough for the people in the surrounding rows to hear. This started a buzz and the flight attendant basically had no choice but to explain that we had an ill passenger and we must return to the nearest hospital. In this case Gander, Newfoundland. So she did, in fact, know all along that we were returning and almost caused a panic through her, or airline policy, stupidity. If anyone is tempted to fly Canada 3000 you should make quite sure the discount you are receiving is great enough to make you forget pathetic service on the ground, apathetic flight attendants in the air, and hours of your life wasted waiting for late flights. On the other hand I have recently been flying United from DC to London and I am very pleased with the service and the equipment. It is the first route I have been flying that consistantly uses the 777. I think it is a great aircraft with some wonderful touches. On the United flights you are able to listen in on the transmissions between the flight crew and air traffic controllers on the ground. At times it was difficult to understand but I enjoyed it. Jude (Alabama by way of Nova Scotia) |