We live in Toronto. Our only option for a direct flight to Athens is on Air Canada overnight flight on Rouge. We flew to Barcelona last year on an overnight Rouge flight and we will never do that again.
Just wondering what options others have taken to avoid a night flight to Athens. We don't mind flying to another city in the US or Europe in order to take a day flight. Your experiences would be most welcome. Thanks.
Personally, I don't see much of a difference between regular and Rouge service, but that's just my experience.
Alternatively, if you use a search engine like Google flights or (my preferred) Matrix ITA, you can narrow down a window of flight times you are willing to take. Both of these sites are robust systems for looking at options beyond our normal Air Canada or West Jet suppliers. You can also ask for flights from alternative airports within distance options. For a time people where heading to Rochester or Buffalo for cheaper flight deals. But you then need to price in your time and any gas, parking or lodging/food costs.
For clarification, neither of these sell flights, so you then go to the airline to book or if you are set on it, your favourite 3rd party seller.
We fly out of TO as well. Given the 6 hrs time difference & the 7-8 hrs flight, it’s always been overnight to Europe. Otherwise you’d be arriving in the middle of the night & I don’t think airports are open 24 hrs.
There is a day flight from Toronto to London on Air Canada, leaving in the morning. But you then need to spend the night in London.
Eastbound day flight options from North America to Europe are limited, and from Toronto you will almost certainly need at least one and possibly two nights of extra lodging to make it work.
The only European destination with day flights is London. You can fly there from Toronto (on AC), Boston (AA), New York (AA, BA, UA), Chicago (AA), or Washington (UA). That's it as far as I know.
The reason you'll need extra lodging is that given the timing of the flights, they will either leave too early for you to make it from Toronto the same morning, or they arrive in London too late for you to make an onward connection to Athens the same night. If the timing is unlucky you may end up having to spend both one extra night in your North American departure point and one extra night in London.
(As a sidenote, this is a hint of why eastbound transatlantic daytime flight options are limited -- connections are hard at either or both ends, which makes them harder economically for the airline.)
I agree you should check a couple of flight search engines. I don't see any direct flights, and I don't know when you're going, but I looked on Kayak with a couple of random dates and found one flight with Air Transat/Easy Jet. And a few code shares with BA/AA/ etc operated by BA out of TO. Connections were in London.
PS I don't blame you for not wanting a transatlantic flight on Rouge. I refuse to fly them for any flight over 3 hours (unless you can upgrade to premium)
When you say direct do you mean non-stop? You may be limited.
If you do a search on Google, Kayak, Matrix or Momodo you'll find several airlines that fly from Toronto to Athens with 1 stop at reasonable prices depending on when you are going. Unfortunately it looks like the majority of flights will be an over-nighter. Bear in mind Athens is 7 hours ahead of the east coast of the US/Canada so you'll more than likely will have to fly "over-night."
I fly from Boston via either JFK, Philly, Newark, or a stop in Paris, London, Munich and all of them were over-nighters. Even taking a early afternoon flight from Boston it's still an over-nighter due to the different time zones. However, I landed in Athens either mid-to-late morning or early afternoon Athens time giving me almost a full day to enjoy Athens.
Sometimes you have to bit the bullet when you fly to Europe from North America and accept an overnight flight.
Always book with an airlines rather than a third-party website.
You could go Premium Economy. MUCH better experience. OR fly during the DAY from Toronto to London, UK and fly from there to Athens. Air Canada has daytime flights to London. This would entail staying overnight in London upon arrival and then flying out to Athens the next day but you would avoid the overnight on the airplane.
The AC Rouge flight is actually quite convenient and gets you into Athens around 10 AM which gives you most of the day to make connections or to get into Central Athens. As already mentioned if you upgrade to Premium rouge ( I call it faux business class) you get good food and drink service plus a separate cabin right in the front of the aircraft. While the seats are not business class standard they are quite comfortable We have flown Rouge Premium economy twice and had good experience.
As noted above the majority of transatlantic flights are overnight. If you choose another airline it means you are going to have a stop somewhere in Europe then a wait for the connecting flight which will get you into Athens around 5 or 6 O'clock in the late afternoon so it costs you essentially a day compared to the Rouge flight.
