I recently visited Toronto from the UK and flew with Air Transat. I'd never even heard of them prior to looking for flights but soon realised they'd earned a reputation as a sort of Canadian EasyJet. Having read the reviews of their economy class and their 'Club Class', I opted for a ticket for the latter.
I booked the ticket about 7 months in advance; a return economy ticket was about £450 which I thought was pretty decent for a crossing over the Atlantic, but the Club Class tickets were about £800 return. Having read the reviews saying that Club Class was worth the extra expense: an extra roomy seat, complimentary meals and drinks throughout the flight, an amenity kit and a private cabin with a maximum of 12 people sounded appealing.
Club Class comes with a generous luggage allowance of 2x 32kg per person, a designated check in area at the airport, and a nice surprise, fast track through security meaning that we were through within 5 minutes with no queueing.
We were booked in seats 2A and 2C, the last row within the cabin (yes, there are only 2 rows in a 2,2,2 configuration). The seats were definitely spacious with plenty of leg room. There was also a table folded away within the wide armrest, 2 USB charging points, a pocket in the front sea, an amenity kit with a blanket, eye mask, ear plugs, hand cream and a blow up pillow and a personalised touch screen TV with a fabulous selection of movies including a personal favourite Mamma Mia 2- I couldn't not watch it!
We were boarded first and on settling down in our seat were introduced to our cabin crew member that would be looking after us and offered a glass of sparkling wine, orange juice or water.
Take off was on time and smooth and we soon settled into the entertainment. About 30 minutes after take off, the bar service started- having felt a little bit tipsy on the sparkling wine (it's the cabin pressure!), I opted for an apple juice and we were also given some cheesy bites as a snack. At a similar time, the cabin crew came round to take our order for dinner. This was my only gripe with the service; my cousin and I were got to last in our little section and by then, they only had 2 meals left so we had to take what we were given despite them claiming to offer a choice- there was one meat dish and one vegetarian so had we both been vegetarians (luckily neither of us are) we'd have been out of luck. It felt as though the attitude of the cabin crew was 'tough luck'. On the return flight, we were one of the first visited by the crew so were offered more choice. Therefore, I think it's just a case of pot-luck as to the choice you're given.
However, once the food arrived it was really nice; we had a Greek salad to start, my cousin had a vegetarian aubergine, mozarella and tomato bake and I had an Ossu Buca. Both meals were really delicious and filling. Desert was a chocolate brownie which was scrumptious.
There was quite a bit of turbulence so the seatbelt signs had to keep being switched on. While it wasn't really an inconvenience or the crew's fault, it was a bit frustrating that we couldn't get up to stretch our legs very much- although it certainly was an interesting crossing.
The rest of the flight passed in a blur of films, naps and more snacks and drinks until we touched down in Toronto airport about half an hour early.
The return flight was similar, apart from taking off half an hour late but that's not too much of a delay. We were given breakfast about an hour before landing which was a croissant and fruit platter and was enough to refuel after a night's sleep.
Throughout both flights, I had a sneaky look in the 'economy class'. Prior to booking I'd read reviews saying the service and experience wasn't great and I can see why. The seats seemed awfully squashed together with very little leg room. While I can't comment on the service in economy, I found one of the air stewardesses very abrupt with one of the passengers. This could just be her manner, but I thought she could have been a little more friendly.
Overall, I was very impressed with Club Class and while it was an extra expense, if the price of the flight seemed good, I wouldn't hesitate to fly with Air Transat again.
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