[Maritime Q-Scout]

I'm an Air Canada fan, they are my preferred airline, to the point I don't generally even check WestJet's prices.

My reasoning:

Flying out of YQY, the schedule for Air Canada is far better. Air Canada's winter schedule has 4 flights to YHZ per day, compared to one for WestJet; Air Canada also has a daily flight to YYZ. The summer schedule, WestJet does add another flight to Halifax, and a flight to Toronto; but Air Canada adds a second Toronto flight.

So schedule is one benefit.

IRROPS

Living on the East Coast, if there's a flight issue the ability to correct is far easier for Air Canada. When I had my WestJet flight to Calgary cancelled a few years ago on my way to Las Vegas, I had to fly to St. John's as it was the only flight left that day, spend the night in Newfoundland, then connect in Toronto. If I was on Air Canada, there were at least 12 other flights going west, which would have allowed me to avoid the storm.

Fleet variance. As an avgeek I like to fly on different planes. Air Canada allows me to do that. With WestJet I'm either on a 737 or Q400. Granted there are several variances of the 737, but it's not the same as getting on a 767, then E75, or Q400, or 321 or 787 or whatever.

Customer Service. While it seems most have different experiences, I've had more poor experiences with WestJet customer service and not really any on Air Canada. IRROPS with Air Canada has been fantastic, but WestJet horrible.

I also had an Encore flight time jump around, where it was delayed, delayed, delayed, back to original departure time (after I ordered in the restaurant). That was really annoying.

IFE is better on Air Canada, even if you're like me and don't really watch the movies, the interactive map makes the flight more enjoyable.

I like the odd ability to upgrade, I've had very low level status on Air Canada a few times, and the ability to use eUps to get business class is nice.

That said, the upgrade to Plus from YHZ to YYZ is far cheaper than purchasing the upgrade at check-in with Air Canada, but despite the flight being 2 hours, there is no food service.


All that said, a lot of my analysis is from the perspective of someone living next to a regional airport on the East Coast. Living in Calgary, I'd imagine WestJet would have the best ability to solve IRROPS, and have a better ability to fix customer service issues.

I will admit, I've had good WestJet customer service, and I do prefer the Q400 from YHZ to YQY rather than a Dash 8-100 or -300.

That's my experience, but with any airline some have great experiences (my United experience was fantastic, above and beyond) and others will hate it.