I just came back from my Grandfather's funeral in Canada and we had flown Air Canada. He died last week and so my mum and I had to fly out to Canada for the funeral etc. We got the phonecall at about 5pm on sunday and so had to find a flight out to Toronto for the next day. British Airways quoted me a price of £2570 roughly EACH for a flexible return ticket.

I called up Air Canada and their London office was closed, but it transferred me automatically to their HQ in Canada where I spoke to a very helpful lady. Initially she quoted a price of about £2500, but when she found out that it was my grandfather's funeral she told me there was a bereavement rate that gave you a discount of 75% on any of the flights. I hope you are never in the position that you need to take advantage of this, but if you are, then bear Air Canada in mind.

I was about to book two of those tickets, but then she found a cheaper fare of about £600 for an open-ended return which my mum needed, and a fixed return for me of £300.

Considering that I was booking about 18 hours before we were due to fly out, I am extremely impressed with the results.

A big thank you to Air Canada who made a difficult time a lot easier.


As to the flights themselves, Air Canada have an older fleet than say Virgin Atlantic, so there aren't tv screens in the back of the seat headrests and the in-flight entertainment is thereby quite limited.
Food is adequate and the drinks are free as with most airlines. Punctuality has always been good, and staff are always ready to assist.