Zoom Airlines

Air travel is a hellish experience but the airlines play only a limited part in this agony. A 737 is a 737 no matter who owns it and Zoom flys only 737s. Seats are cramped with little leg and elbow room. Comparing it to a bus is insulting to busses as they are far more comfortable. Of course customs and security is a pain and baggage handling at Pearson is atrocious (try to bring carry on bags only). So what does the airline have control over?

In the case of Zoom, cabin staff are friendly but interaction is minimal since they charge for everything and everything is really expensive so few people buy anything. They have standard delays like everybody else. At least they don't cancel your flights the morning of, like Sunwing. The aircraft is clean. Checking in was OK since they actually had adequate staff on hand which is often not the case. They did their part fairly well.

The big variable is price and Zoom was pretty good.

We flew to New York JFK Airport a couple of summers ago from London. The flight was fine and comfortable enough, but when we were supposed to land, we were told that the flight was delayed. Their updates as to the new arrival time were few and far between, and very vague. We finally landed close to 2 hours late and we had missed our connection. Zoom staff that we asked on departure from the plane told us to speak to someone after we'd gone through customs. We later realised they were fobbing us off in order to avoid having to deal with any of the problems because there were absolutely NO Zoom anywhere to be found in the whole airport. For an airport of this size, this was ridiculous. Their phone lines had an automated message telling us that they dealt with enquiries/complaints through e-mail. By this time it was late at night, we'd missed our flight to San Fran and therefore, a hotel room we'd paid for and a tour we'd booked for early the next morning. American Airlines were good enough to put us on standby for the earliest flight to San Fran the next morning. On speaking to other airport staff they advised us to get a hotel room and then have Zoom refund us since it was a mechanical fault with Zoom's plane rather than weather or something out of their control which caused the delay. The cheapest hotel room we could find was $400! We got our flight to San Fran and began e-mailing Zoom - they were absolutely useless. They seemed to believe they held no responsibility for the problems at all and showed no sympathy at us arriving to find no Zoom staff to speak to. Weeks of complaints got us nowhere, and we never got the money for the hotel room or our booked and paid for tour that we missed refunded.

Flight on time, staff attentive, excellent with children no problems with baggage. I found the whole experience very good, having flown with several different airlines I could not fault zoom.

It is with great delight I wave goodbye to this blight on the airline industry. Your chances of actually getting a decent flight (or leaving on the time scheduled, or leaving at all, or getting a refund for cancelled flights) varied greatly. So good riddance to bad rubbish.

It was the Best airline in the skies. It is sad to see it go!!! Good luck to all the Cabin Crew, Pilots, office staff, and Airport staff. You ALL did a great job!!!

I am currently stranded in Vancouver airport with my 2 pre-school children, our flight to Glasgow has been cancelled due to 'technical issues'. We have been completely abandoned by the airline - they have refused point blank to provide us with accomodation for the night, we have been told to make own arrangements, however with no money and no idea of the area we are stuck in the airport overnight. The customer service rep was poor and didn't seem to care. The next flight to Glasgow is in 4 days time and is apparantly full. Do not recommend flying with Zoom.

London - Calgary July 19.

Flight out was ok, other than a few minor niggles. Poor headphone connections, seat permanently in recline position (surely this is a safety issue), dirty and a huge wad of chewing gum in the seats ashtray.

Calgary - London Aug 9

Flight started off with a 2 hour delay, which then turned into a 5.5 hour delay by the time we depared. We were given a $10.00 voucher to use in one of the airport resturants which was fair. Once one the plane, my seats headphone socket did not work whatsoever and he seats dinner tray had one side broken.

Overall I would not fly with Zoom again, and would not reccomend them. Will pay the extra cash next time to fly with an airline that looks after its customers.

The service was initially ok, and the flight was as well. I was trying to call stewardess for 30 min, and when she finally arrived I waited for my blanket for another 15. However, there were just 4 of them, all busy. But I had the most negative experience with my luggage. They initially lost it somewhere, and no one informed me what happens next on the arrival. Then I had to queue for almost an hour to complete the forms at the airport, and was told they would call me back. For three days, no one called, and I had all suits for business meetings and all my cremes etc in the lost suitcase. When tried to call their customer service, I was always put on hold for 10 minutes, and then staff either the line cut off or said they have no information available. It was 2.5 months ago. Since then, they found the suitcase, and I have sent 6 letters to their customer service claiming compensation - and they didn't inform me that I am eligible for compensation to start with. The issue is still unresolved, and I am very very very stressed about it. Will never ever use the airline again. Very poor service.

I've flown back and forth between Glasgow and Canada several times with Zoom (the last time being this July/August alone with a 2 year old) and can't really complain about them. Sure, the seats in economy are tight and the food's not great, but honestly... you get what you pay for!

On the last flight we were delayed for 5 or so hours when returning to the UK but all staff were helpful and seemed to do their best giving us what information we had.

I expect to book with them again for my next visit over.

Flew Glasgow-Halifax 20th July with Zoom, returning 14th Aug 08. Arrived at check in to be told flight was delayed 4hrs, and that was an improvement because previous day's delay had been 12hrs. However, after a bad start things improved. Paid extra £30 per seat to get extra legroom on row 11 - emergency exit. Money well spent in both directions, couldn't see how 'Premium' seats - surcharge required- were that much better. Flight itself was comfortable, cabin crew helpful, food/drinks regular and fairly reasonable quality. No problems with luggage. Return journey to Glasgow left 20mins early and took only 4hrs 44mins after 6hrs on outward journey. To sum up, can see how airline has problems at times due to its small fleet/ personnel, but I would consider using it again as flights were comfortable and comparatively reasonably priced.