This Flight Stinks! Airbus A321LR Review: Air Transat Economy From London 

I recently flew on Jetblue from LGW to JFK on their a321. Trust me the size of the seat and amount of legroom is much more important than the size of the plane

Props to Air Transat for installing not one, but two, mid-cabin lavatories. Not enough A321 operators do that and with the A321 flying further and further going forward, the seat-to-toilet ratio needs to be closer to widebody figures.

Never seen BO so bad on a plane that it made someone vomit multiple times, the smell must’ve been horrific

You can't expect too much for about half the price of a full-service airline. It's a miracle they can offer this service at such a reasonable price. It wouldn't be my own first choice but if I needed to economise I'd accept it.

That BO must have been pretty horrific

The best part is that you also cover the airport experience also. Nice video. Keep up the good work.

Flew Air Transat last month from Dublin to Toronto - comfortable 321LR. Seven plus hours, but aircraft was roomy enough and good service (economy)🙂.

I was skeptical about transatlantic on a narrowbody but that cabin actually looks great! They've even added extra toilets in the middle of the cabin.

Flew on a Jetstar flight from Bangkok to Fukuoka some years ago on a service that no longer operates. The flight was more than five hours in an all economy plane. The seats were the normal Jetstar seats - hard and almost bearable for short hops but not suitable for long distances. Seat pitch was very tight and it was an uncomfortable trip.

The a321neo LR is really good. Especially for long range flights

My longest narrow body flight was on an A321 from JFK to SFO. About 6 hours if I remember correctly, so not exactly “long haul” imo, especially after flying 18 hours between JFK and HKG a few months ago. That was brutal in economy even though the A350 was otherwise very comfortable.

Nice review, I took Transat to Scotland this past summer and then flew back from London Gatwick to Toronto, however both of these were on their A330s, and really enjoyed those flights. I found the TS cabin quite comfortable for transatlantic, honestly I think I would be more reluctant to spend 7 hours in economy class on one of Air Canada's 777-300ER's as those seats are notoriously uncomfortable. Transat's catering needs an upgrade, I had the chicken on my flight and it was edible but not great (also very bland). I have flown on their A321LR on a relatively long domestic flight (just over 5 hours) from Toronto to Vancouver and found it to be comfortable (good IFE as well), for a transcontinental flight that long (or even a transatlantic flight) I would definitely fly with Transat again.

Air Transats A321neoLR's are VERY NICE !!!!!!!! The in-flight service is great and their prices are pretty good. I disagree completely on paying 20% more for better comfort . The comfort on their A321neoLR's is well worth it.

Flew on 757s with Continental and then United multiple times over the Atlantic and once to Hawaii. The small business class cabin felt so personalized and cozy. The crews were wonderful on every one of my long 757 flights, and the seats were very comfortable. I even booked my elderly aunt and her husband to Oslo on a United 757 in economy and they really enjoyed the flight. One thing I noticed is that the flight attendants went through the aisle with carts of food and drinks multiple times, then also brought water, coffee and orange juice out on large trays in between the cart service. They would also offer additional snacks if anyone was hungry in between their regular lunch and dinner flights. I thought United might have the extra-attentive service to keep everyone more comfortable and less aware of how crowded the plane was.

I have flown the A321 for 6 hour flight more times than i count... It just happen that my favorite destination is 6 hours away, and they fly A321. I don´t think its much of a problem. My favorite airline switched out there old A321CEO for A321NEO pretty much as soon as they was available. The reason was quite obvious to us the last time we flow with the A321CEO... There was a head wind, and we couldn´t made it to the destination, was forced to go down an refuel, that added quite a bit on the time. Its clear that with the CEO they was on the absolute edge of making the very popular route. With the A321NEO they not only can easily handle the route, also take a few more people, a bit more belly cargo, and the also added new destination that was out side the previews range. Flying 6 hours on a A321Neo is really not that bad. I flown with babies toddlers and school age children as well. Never a problem I have also flown 9½ hour on a 737-700... That.. was quite something else. Not very enjoyable. They landed and refueld to handle the longer route. Also Flown the same 6 hour route with a 767-300 as well as a 737 Max 8. Got to say, even if the 737 max and the A320neo is similar on paper, the A320 is way nicer to fly. I also flown the 757 for 9 hours, also a bit cramped but less people on the plane did help a bit. I would say that the A321LR is probobly a bit nicer. Everything around that.. i really have no problem flying 6+ hours in the A321... and i guess that 7½ wouldn´t bet that much worse. The problem is for the air crew. There rest area is horrible. Its sort of have been a flip over the last 20 years. It use to be that the charter /chair flights was the pessant flight, now its almost like the regular, specially the low fair one is. I really never very very rarely with ill mannered passengers.

I once landed at LGW with Easyjet a few years back but I had a very bad experience because of an issue with gates and terminals and there weren't any train services, as it was after Christmas, and I had to get a bus to London Victoria which was 2 hours late and then I had go on the tube to another station. After that I said to myself that I would never fly to or from Gatwick ever again

Kenya Airways does a 6 hr CPT-NBO flight with a fuel stop in VFA or LVI on a E190. Seats are quite comfy but over 6 hrs it gets quite pokey.

I was living in Vilnius for 6 years and only now found out that someone working for one of my favourite aviation yt channels apparently is living there as well.

My longest narrowbody was a 6.5-hour flight from SGN to NRT on Vietnam Airlines in an A321. It was an enjoyable day flight with maybe only 65% seats full. Good IFE, nice service, and yummy meals. It was not too hard on the body since I got the row to myself.

Airline employee here. Thanks for the review and comments.

Point to point long haul flights with narrow-body aircraft are probably the best options for many airlines.

I flew TAP Air Portugal from IAD to LIS in an A321LR. Overall not a bad experience, but a widebody is still preferable on such an overnight flight.

The longest narrowbody flight that i've flown 10 years ago i think is Indonesia AirAsia from Jakarta to Bangkok and vice versa and the flight time was at least 3 hours and 30 minutes

Flew MVD-PTY on Copa's 737-800 for over 7 hours. The flight was during the day so I couldn't sleep, which made the flight feel much longer. I think airlines MUST find a way to make the aisles wider, so passengers can pass around the service carts. I think that can be done on the A220.

I didn’t flow a serious long haul flight at narrowbody aircraft, the longest was between Cairo and Madina on MD-90 around 1:30 hours As long it’s full service airliner, good legroom,Entertainment system and Comfortable flight makes no problem for long haul flight at narrowbody aircrafts

A321 is pretty nice aircraft.

Almost 8 hours on a narrow body, I will try to avoid this unless they improve seat space. I flew a few years back on Transat wide body with 9 abreast. Horrible experience . Good review.

My longest flight on narrow-body aircraft was UUDD-UHMA, 8 hours 20 minutes on Ilyushin-62M back when Soviet Union was a thing

I am not against airlines monitoring the size of carry-on luggage. Some people go overboard with huge suitcases and full bags with edges

As long as i don't have to fly from LHR again i'm fine. That airport is my personal hell on earth. But that's just me i guess. Nice video, thanks.

Flew with AT last May on their wide bodied A330-200 series. was much more spacious to stretch your legs, especially suffering from deep vein thrombosis, having to take pain killers with paracetamol. walking with 2 gangways to stretch my legs from getting cramp..Much more comfortable & spacious on wide bodied aircraft. AT should update to A330 neo on long range journeys of 7/8 hours!

I'm sure gonna miss the A380's.

Isn't LGW-YUL around 8 hours? Where did the standby crew sit?

I enjoyed your review a lot.

I've always preferred Gatwick to Heathrow. Wooden cutlery: that would get me using the sick-bags too. Good review.

AA 757 from JFK-MAN and Thomas Cook 757 from MAN-YYZ. It was sad to lose Thomas Cook as the 757s they used on the transatlantic runs had business class seat pitch at economy prices, albeit at the expense of seat back IFE.

My flight ✈️ was in Icelandair 757-300.New York - Reykjavik Was great. Nothing to complain about.

I recently flew transcontinental from Newark to San Francisco on Alaska, airlines 737. It was a pretty good flight.

These routes to Canada used to be operated by the a310 and the 737-700. Sad to see them gone from my local airport

JetBlue a321 spotted at 5:33

My longest narrow body flight was only 2.5 hours so it was normal although i may be flying 3.5 hours to New Zealand next year on a narrow body for the flight back, but again, a standard length for a narrowbody . I never though transatlantic narrow body flights would be pleasant but this video made the experience look great, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But anyways another great review, I love all your flight reviews although this is one of my favourites. I can’t wait to see more in coming weeks.

Couldn’t tell the difference between air Transat narrow body and air Canada wide body in terms of seat comfort.

The longest flight on a narrow body I had was on Copa Airlines from IAD Washington D.C to PTY panama city panama not Panama city Florida.

I once flown in a narrow body flight From Kigali (''Rwanda) to Johannesburg (South Africa) very pleasant flight attentive. the aircraft was very clean, food was quite good as well. On a negative side, the entertaInment was lacking and the cabin was generally cool. but other than that, well done Air Rwanda!

Do westjet 787 from Calgary to London

I have flown once transatlantic on a narrow body - Boening 737 - Minneapolis to Gatwick with a refuel stop in Gander (Newfoundland). The fact that the flight was not full (it was about 65-70 capacity) so the overhead compartment shortage was not an issue. I fly transatlantic a lot and I completely appreciate the advantages of a twinbody and would never hesitate to pay the extra for that. I take connecting flights in Europe to other European desitinations and those are always on narrow bodies and I absolutely hate them. I will avoid a narrow body any chance I get (actually, I flew on a Embraer 175 last year and that was easily my most pleasant narrow body experience to date).

Body door was an issue on my last AirTransat flight. I won’t use them again.

5.5 hours on Alaska 737’s out to the Hawaiian islands is quite nice!

Back to the 60s 707s, DC8s VC10s all narrowbody 3+3 economy seating no complaints in those days, however if someone had a severe body odour pdobkem Im sure they would have been kicked off the flight before closing up the doors

Air Transat is usually really good at ensuring that only those who'se section has been called board. I've seen them send people back to their seats because it was not their time to board.

Zagreb - Doha Qatar A. Narrow body About 5 h. Very, very comfortable flight.

This is the first time I've ever seen anyone else talk about the weird passport check from guys in suits on Canadian airlines - I had the same at Edinburgh on AC Rouge 8 years ago and no one seemed to know what I was talking about.

I flew YUL-AMS-YUL 2 weeks ago in Air Transat's A321LR. Personally I found the seats great for during the day as they appear to have good lumbar support, but I found it impossible to sleep in them. The staff was absolutely great, but the food was simply not good. Considering it was 60% cheaper than any other airline on that route at that time I found it overall a great deal, but Air Transat will definitely remain my last choice. That being said, I do see great potential for the A321LR and A321XLR for transatlantic point-to-point routes (food and seats are still the airline's choice) and I would love to try the TAP version one day.

I recently flew on JetBlue's JFK - LHR -JFK on their A321N LR. It was excellent! Well worth the extra cost.

Wow! Even cathay didn’t come through with water on a 16 hour flight. Air Canada never does so this comes as no surprise

9.5 hours on SAS from Copenhagen to Dulles…

4-5 hours seems ok. However, I can't imagine myself flying on 6-9h flights.. and sadly I see those planes a lot on Recife - Lisbon route by TAP Portugal... The worst thing is even if I buy ticket for A330-900 you never know if because of some changes they won't change the aircraft... Imagine issues with toilet... not to mention just having more space for a walk, etc. However, my wife flew it on this route and she said it was fine.

Narrow body planes need to be kept for short haul flights - the quality of air travel is going down year by year just so companies save money. Ridiculous

Was back in 1978 and was a clunker like that we going backwards can't believe they not using the A33o-200 to over night flits to Europe 😮😮😮

I took Air Transat A321 Neo twice. First time in 2019 between YUL and LIS and the second time between YUL and AMS last october. During these 3 years, Transat lost a lot of quality in his service. Food was OK in 2019 and horrible this year. Price is good, but if you have a better alternative, take it. And this is specific to Transat. I had 2 transatlantic flight with TAP A321 betwwen YUL and LIS in 2021 and 2022 and it was a very good experience. A lot better than Transat.

Shower before going to the airport

book flights to save money then blow £44 on a lounge SMH

That Biz class seats look like ZIM.

I flew from Cologne to Dubai via Istanbul on an A321 neo from Pegasus and it was a nightmare. No legroom, minuscule windows and endless lines for people wanting to go to the bathrooms… a very « cramped » atmosphere. No way I would want to fly again on a narrow body on long distances.

There should be hygiene standards to fly. The amount of people who travel in planes without bathing or using deodorants is shaming.

A321 Neo LR the killer of 787-800 😅 Airbus guys did an amazing 🤩 job

Wish more airlines would add USB-C as this is supposed to be the main connecter we'll all be using

What did the BO smell like?

People with poor hygiene should not be allowed on the plane. Once I stuck next to a stinky fella from Washington to London. Was not a pleasant experience. Based on your video, I will not choose Air Transat in the future for long haul flights. Just imagine, you end up sitting right by the loo.... dreadful. I rather pay more but fly on a widebody for long journeys.

The A321 is no Boeing 757 Its not designed for long haul the cruising speed is slower M .78 as opposed to M. 80 for the 757 and the engines are considerably less powerful which makes a difference when going into headwinds the journey takes longer . Boeing missed out ,There should have been a genuine 757 replacement

HKT-DEL A320neo.

845 minutes same airline at a window seat wasn't bad the cabin cure were great but another flight the put the cabin temp up to.the 30 s it was horrible

It is Air Transat. Next time fly Air Canada for comfort and better food. You get what you pay for, as with what kind of fellow passengers. I know it is a test for the A321neo LR. But for 6+ hours I would pay a bit more and get business on Air Transat.

I've had the the good fortune of flying the nicest A321NEO interior available (China Airlines, which is actually Taiwanese). Id much rather fly on that A321 for any flight over Air Canadas 777, or 787 which are notoriously cramped.

Well, I've been saying this and being bashed for years. Why on earth would you jam yourself into an airframe that's suited only for a 4 hour stint AT MOST!! It would be ok without a 30" misery pitch and "slim-line" seats. I would pay the extra to fly comfortably any day of the week.

I've had extremely uncomfortable longhaul flights in widebody 777 / 767. Horrible. Been in many A330 air transat flights. Not too bad. I'm flying air transat YUL to puerto vallarta in february. Its this airplaine. Will see how it goes. Too bad its not an A350. That's the one I haven't flown in yet.

Don't wear cologne because a pleasant flight might just become a nightmare

Those musty pissy passengers. Omg lol gawd damn

I wouldn’t even agree that the 757-200 would be a good plane to use on transatlantic routes whereas this A321LR is a bit smaller 😂

5 hours on an easyjet A320

Think i will stay with the tried and tested wide body full-service airline rather than be squashed for 8 hours on a 321. You only get what you pay for.

newark to dublin on United... uhhh... tolerable, but barely

5:39

This is why I am NOT a fan of this new concept of putting narrow bodies on long haul flights. Narrow bodies should and always be capped at 4hrs. With that being said, I've traveled on an Air Canada A321on a 4hr flight from Jamaica - Toronto and I HATED it!!!!

Since this a Canadian carrier,it means a higher fare automatically due to very high taxes and fees on tickets. 2nd,I've lived through the narrow body for hours and hours era of flying ala DC8 and the 707. and they had FAR more leg room and pitch than the narrows of today.I have no use to be crammed into a glorified sardine can. So, the next trip I make overseas to Europe with not be with any carrier that operates narrow body aircraft to Europe. When I can fly on a 747,777, with other carriers WHY would anyone travel in little tin can?

Sounds comparable to a frontier or spirit airlines flight. Especially with those stinky passengers and tasteless bland food. But hey $350 across the world. What can I expect 😂

Considering where they are based i'm shocked they are even that accomodating. they really are just a charter airline.

I luv clogging toilets on single aisles

I think that saying that this is a Vancouver flight is a bit off. IMHO, the flight from Montreal to Vancouver is an addition with Air TransAt just adding the leg as an afterthought. I agree it is a much to long flight in a narrowbody. Not even sure I would take it, I would prefer Air Canada or West Jet if they still fly a B787 from London.

not worth

9:17-9:32 ☠️☠️☠️☠️

“This flight stinks”? Click-bait, surprised you’d title it this.

Ads, ads more ads and yet another ad!

Tip: ALL Air Transat flights are TRASH. They have 3-3-3 a330s 🤮

I don’t listen to reviews

Is not Airbus A321LR how stinks, it is your bad Review.

this is a terribly narrated review.

Don't order the vegetarian option and complain later. You did it to yourself.

I would avoid this airline at all costs

Economy class review ? Booooring. Who cares , it’s all the same. Tiny seats… bla bla bla.