TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Airtransat to Toronto

Flew home yesterday at 1:15 St Maarten time. Easy peasy. I think we are first jet out Saturday. 10 minutes from checking bags & through security. We arrived at airport 11 a.m. we had option plus so separate baggage check counter but other line was short. Option plus gets you a priority tag on luggage & it's off jet first & you board earlier. Surprisingly our jet was not nearly full. Going down fuller. Flights great both ways. We had poutine & it was great. Who knew on an airplane. They are an airline out of Quebec. Loud speaker better than Toronto. We got to Toronto & the doors from the gate wouldn't open to allow us into airport so we waited in the gate tunnel for maintenance not too long. The camera check at security didn't like me I guess so no photo. They let me through. I told security I guess I broke the camera. He actually smiled. It gets crazy after 2 when lots more are departing including Air France.

Glad to hear you arrived home safely after a great vacation. Air Transat has been having a few problems lately. Nice things went well for you.

Just curious, Islandgem. What kind of problems? We're from the states, but Pearson International is just a 3-1/2 hour drive for us so we often fly out of Toronto. We've flown Air Canada before, and overall they are okay but we're considering Air Transat for a future flight to Europe this summer. Between AC, West Jet and Air Transat who do you prefer/recommend? Thanks in advance!

I know it was directed to Islandgem but as far as airplanes go IMO westjet is tops! We flew airtransat only because we prefer Saturday to Sunday & liked the times a lot better. Airtransat plane to st maarten the seats are crammed & jammed even in exit row. I'm also curious about what problems though with airtransat as we book April for next January.

Thanks, Jeepers for your input. Sounds like Air Transat is using a smaller jet when flying from Toronto to SXM. Either that or they simply jam more rows of seats into the plane's interior (which is common). Never flew West Jet, but they seem to have odd days for flying here and there. It appears you would have to build your schedule around when they fly to-and-from St. Martin. I'll definitely keep your recommendation in mind for the future. We're fortunate because we have our choice of five international airports within a 190 mile radius of where we live (and that's not counting Hamilton, Ontario). Next SXM trip in March we'll go from Buffalo to Atlanta to SXM, and take this same route back one week later.

Love WestJet, agree air transaat crowds the seats. We use to fly to sxm on jet blue from buffalo but love the direct flight on WestJet.

Air Transat has had a lot of safety issues, electrical problems and have stranded passengers at several different airports world wide. They also crowd the passengers too close together as has been stated. There are too many other Canadian airlines to choose from to give your money to Air Transat. Customer service is not their top priority.

Darn. We like the times but will rethink for next year. They are still having problems then. That explains when we landed in Toronto the tv screen said exterior temp 175 F & kept changing & not for the better. 😯

It is always your decision, but I think you are best to stick with Westjet.😊