Air Transat Cancelled us!

A friend and I were all booked for our yearly winter vacation to Punta Cana from Halifax, N.S. Canada. This week we were informed that Air Transat had cancelled the flights out of Halifax in January so now we are looking at rebooking at a greater cost since we have to do a connecting flight which will probably add another $400. per person unto our vacation budget. It's strange that they can cancel the trip with out any compensation but if we had cancelled we would have to pay a penalty. In fact we received nothing from Air Transat - the information of the cancelled flights came from our Travel Agent who now has to scramble to help us find another vacation trip. Air Transat has blown it for me and if at all possible we will be doing business elsewhere. How can we ever book with them again without wondering if they;ll pull the plug at the last minute again!

Air Transat SUCKS, I concur

The Winter of last year I booked Club Class on AT to Santo Domingo to arrive Saturday night at 8 p.m. DR time.

After changing the departure time FOUR times, I left at 11 p.m. vs. 3 p.m. and arrived via an unannounced stop in Punta Cana (from 3-4 a.m.), in Las Americas airport at 6 a.m.

There was one immigration guy there, luckily I was out like a shot before the other 349 people hit this poor chap. Fortunately I had a driver waiting there ( though I called him the 4 times to rearrange the arrival times) since the total taxi count at 6 a.m. was, nil.

I decided then and there (despite the comfy club seats) that arriving 10 hours late for an allegedly 4 1/2 flight was beyound reason and have not used them since nor will I again.I fly AA via Miami regardless of cost and frankly with the AAdvantage points and the reliability generally it is not that much more since every few trips you have enough miles to start getting discounted trips.

FWIW, nobody else (C 3000 e.g.) is going in January either though AT goes on Feb 1, 2002.

When you travel by "cheap" air charters you need to know that cancellation is a real possibility.They have few aircraft,sometimes only one.The planes and flight crew don,t belong to ,or work for the "Charter" Company.The maintenance is done by service contracts.Trip insurance ,although expensive,is not $400.Sorry to hear of your problem,but it is very common. Tom

Re: Air Transat SUCKS, I concur

When you say no one else is going in January, is this just from Halifax? What about Toronto?

When all you have are charter airlines going to the DR from Canada you don't have much choice! Although AA is an option the price is considerably more and there are no direct flights. My last experience with a connecting flight resulted in lost luggage that was returned a week later. So unfortunately I'd rather be delayed for a few hrs than have no clothes for a week.

With all the Canadians on the north coast ,and Air Canada can,t get a route,unreal. Best of luck I used to fly charters too! I moved here so I didn,t have to "commute! tommy

To Find Charters Canada to DR Go To..

The best site that has all the charters , vs. the charters' own site is :

www.belairtravel.com

...and go to the tab for "Reservations" "Air Only" "Charters" since you are looking for the flight shcedules. The best part is that if you put in invalid dates it wil show you the next closest dates, so you don't have to know Friday, Sat., Sun. departures per se.

Per your question I looked up Punta Cana from Toronto as well, in January and they have flights the 4,5,6 th. Both AT and C3000.

Re: To Find Charters Canada to DR Go To..

Ottawa has two flights every Tuesday for the DR in January and February

Re: Air Transat SUCKS, I concur

Me too! I had confirmed advance seat selection $20 roundtrip with Skyservice to La Romana and seats were double booked, they gave me a $100 non expiring voucher for next trip off cost with Sunquest, no that is a class organization, AT should look at how they do business. $60 ahead, I'll use Sunquest and Skyservice and forget AT forever. check out www.sunquest.ca

Re: Air Transat SUCKS, I concur

That's good to hear cause we are now booking with Sunquest out of Toronto for the Riu Merengue. Just wish they'd start to fly out of Halifax too.

Re: Air Transat (response to Thomas Robert)

Just a note: My many flights with Air Transat have been without incident. With regard to only one acft. Air Transat has 23, and cancellations I believe is not a normal occurence, however, if there are no bookings, how can the airline make a profit. Lets face it - all the airlines have cut back ,rescheduled, and whatever since 9/11.

We are currently booked to leave on Nov 8 for Punta Cana - Air Transat (from Vancouver). They have - so far - delayed our flight by 1 day. Keeping my fingers tightly crossed, hopefully we will be leaving on time!
They couldn't give me much of an explanation for the 1 day delay - other than since 9/11 there have been ALOT of changes made. I sorta got the impression it was due to poor sales.

We went to Paris, France 2 years ago on AT and although our flight was delayed 5 hrs returning (someone hit the plane with the baggage cart, causing a dent, thus grounding the plane) - AT staff were all very friendly and accommodating despite the delay and hassles.

Personally I don't think AT is to blame - blame it on terrorist acts and the domino affect it's having on so many people/industries.

Blame 9/11 No! Charter is NOT Scheduled Quality

You are an entire DAY delayed? Well, since it is nearly 2 months since the NYC event this is unlikely the reason. Simply put they use capacity controls and leave when full and will consolidate tours etc., until they get there. Do not be surprised if they stop elsewhere like PP or SDQ on the way there or back.

I flew AA to Santo Domingo on the 6th of October ( 3 weeks after the NYC disater). The flight(s) left on time, connected on time and arrived on time despite the edge of TStorm Iris hitting the edge of the island at the time. They were down after the entire flight embargoes for about a week and even then had at least one set of flights from Toronto to SDQ. By the 25th all flights are restored.

You cannot blame the 9/11 on delays any longer. You get what you pay for and....

I also note that for the NY Eve season that both AT and C3000 are effectively, within a few $ as expensive from Toronto as AA which really negates the need to put up with the tomfoolery of entire days delays.

HI:
Can you tell me how I can get cheap tickets to Toronto or Buffalo from SD (or any other airport in Rep.Dom.? possibly last minute flights, to fill up seats that are going empty?

The charter companies say they can?t help me with flights originating in Rep.Dom.

Any help appreciated.
K.