Westjet losing focus and customers?

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by oilboy2

Why not just put free wifi on all the planes and be done with it

Because Canada doesn't allow it yet. The company that does wifi for most airlines just got clearance to test in Canada starting in 2013.

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by getbak

Is that the "from the flightdeck" channel? .

Yeah, it's the only reason I keep United as my preferred airline in the system at work (for traveling the US). That and, really, is AA or Delta any better?

[Sport Psych]

Originally Posted by MRCboicgy

If AC or WJ were to add something like United's Channel 9, that would be epic.

I love that channel. You learn quickly that the air traffic controllers rule the roost and that pilots simply do whatever they're told by the ATCs.

That, and you get a chance to prepare in advance for hard banking turns or severe cutting of the engines on takeoff to comply with noise abatement rules (John Wayne Airport can go fata themselves for that).

[CedarMeter]

Who cares about inflight movies. I can't believe people bitch about that. My iPad has ten movies that keep me entertained. As long as U.S airways continue to have cheaper flights to Phoenix I'll continue to go with them. I like Westjet they're a Calgary based company but money talks and I'm going to go with the cheaper option. It's only a two and a half hour flight to Phoenix so it's no big deal.

[Bigtime]

I believe WestJet's load factor has continued to rise, so the OP's opinion that they are losing customers is really just opinion, and not fact.

Speaking of wifi, AC has a couple of A319's that have a system on board being tested, unfortunately for us in YYC they are only operating YYZ-LAX with them right now.

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by CedarMeter

I haven't flown Westjet in a while. I fly to Phoenix quite a bit but U.S airways is always 75 dollars cheaper than them. When you're paying for two that's a 150 dollars savings. We never check bags cause we have all our clothes at the condo. It works out well. They use to be cheaper back in the day but not lately.

Hey buddy

[JonDuke]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I believe WestJet's load factor has continued to rise, so the OP's opinion that they are losing customers is really just opinion, and not fact.

Their load factor does indeed continue to rise.

http://business.financialpost.com/20...porters-slips/

“We reported a record load factor each month this quarter which has translated to our highest ever quarterly load factor,” said Gregg Saretsky, WestJet chief executive, in a statement. “The record load factor exceeded our expectations this quarter and demand remains healthy as we begin the transition into our winter schedule.”

WestJet said its load factor for the third quarter hit 84.6%, up 4.5% year over year, after traffic improved nearly 8% and capacity grew 2% over the same period.

Also, all this talk about who's IFE is better makes me wonder what the heck people did on airplanes before there were TVs in the seat backs. Read books? Perhaps they even partook in a conversation with a total stranger next to them? Maybe even the kids knew how to stfu and entertain themselves instead of being babysat by electronics. Man...air travel 10+ years ago must have been atrocious.

[Bigtime]

Or they could look out the window and marvel at the fact that they are traveling hundreds of miles per hour thousands of feet above the ground. That view never gets old for me.

[Ryan Coke]

I'll make 2 points:
-inflight Entertainment is due for major change next year. I expect a wifi based service that has free content, and eventually pay for Internet. When we got liveTV it was cutting edge, and having a free content and a screen at every seat was bett than most for IFE (inflight entertainment). But it is true that it has fallen behind now and isn't as reliable as we would hope. WJ is working to improve it.

-extra charges--almost everyone at WJ would agree in the disdain for them. Unfortunately they have become a competitive reality, determined by the customer. We held off on many of those charges after everyone else had instituted them, and tried to market those as reasons to choose us over the competitor. But most people don't compare bag fees, or seat selection fees. They look at base fare and book based in that. So we would lose customers who would fly on someone else and then pay a bunch of ancillary fees. That kind if thing was studied and tracked, and I have seen many anecdotal examples of this.

For cedrameter who takes USAirways with 0 checked bags, then he can save a few bucks at times. But if you decide to check 1 bag, suddenly you have lost whatever savings you thought you had on the base fare.

So the ancillary fee thing became an issue of losing money and guests, versus adding them as well (usually lower than the competitors however) and sacrificing some of our philosophy. If more people had booked with us because of our lack of fees we would have kept it that way, but it was a losing battle.

[Ryan Coke]

Also cowperson, while there are certain seats you can pay to pre select (emergency exit row for example), otherwise everyone can check in online 24 hours prior and still select your seat. No fee for that. Perhaps that wasn't made clear to you and it should have been.

[Bigtime]

Thanks for the info Ryan, I'm pretty sure the tablet IFE thing is just a stop-gap measure on the 738's that are being delivered without the in-flight tv systems right now. The whole wifi thing is dependant on Transport Canada approving it, so hopefully both WS and AC will have systems coming online soon in all of their fleet.

[normtwofinger]

I still find WJ is far superior in customer service when compared to the major US airlines. I'm forced to fly American or United when returning to Calgary from CR, and these two make you feel like you are not wanted as a customer.

[Ryan Coke]

As usual, your are exactly right bigtime

The rental tablet thing is a temporary thing on the airplanes with no IFE installed. I suppose they may keep it as an option, but it is not the final solution to the inflight entertainment.

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Or they could look out the window and marvel at the fact that they are traveling hundreds of miles per hour thousands of feet above the ground. That view never gets old for me.

Well, now we know that Bigtime is actually Louis C.K.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by JonDuke

Their load factor does indeed continue to rise.

http://business.financialpost.com/20...porters-slips/


Also, all this talk about who's IFE is better makes me wonder what the heck people did on airplanes before there were TVs in the seat backs. Read books? Perhaps they even partook in a conversation with a total stranger next to them? Maybe even the kids knew how to stfu and entertain themselves instead of being babysat by electronics. Man...air travel 10+ years ago must have been atrocious.

I flew air Malaysia 10 years ago and the IFE was great. In seat, lots of movies and TV. They also loaded it with games, SNES I believe, with the remote doubling as a controller. You could also challenge anyone else on the plane to a bunch of games like chess or connect four or just chat across the plane.

Prior to that children were entertained with the free mini airplane toys and the cockpit tours. This one time I got to fly the plane, they said I was a natural. I was going to land it but my mom wanted to get back to her seat.

[Bigtime]

It is such a shame (a damn shame) that cockpit tours are gone, it was always the highlight of my trip as a child (heck and even into my teens!).

I always loved planes, but I think it was that first trip to a cockpit that really cemented in my mind that I had to learn how to fly someday (and no the captain did not ask if I had ever been to a Turkish prison ).

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

I'll make 2 points:
We held off on many of those charges after everyone else had instituted them, and tried to market those as reasons to choose us over the competitor. But most people don't compare bag fees, or seat selection fees.

Puhhhlease...your seat assignment gets written into the reservation/aircraft loading database no matter what. Whether its written at the time of purchasing the ticket or when WJ assigns you a seat is irrelevant to the cost of that database entry.

Leveraging basic IT infrastructure that already exists to service the customer is nickel and dimming no matter how you look at it. It costs nothing to let the passenger select the seat.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

It is such a shame (a damn shame) that cockpit tours are gone, it was always the highlight of my trip as a child (heck and even into my teens!).

Yup, I'll never forget the times I got to see the cockpit while flying. One of the coolest things to see. I guess the only way the next generations will be able to see the same thing would be through demos of some sort.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Puhhhlease...your seat assignment gets written into the reservation/aircraft loading database no matter what. Whether its written at the time of purchasing the ticket or when WJ assigns you a seat is irrelevant to the cost of that database entry.

Leveraging basic IT infrastructure that already exists to service the customer is nickel and dimming no matter how you look at it. It costs nothing to let the passenger select the seat.

So it's pure profit. That's kind of the point.

As for the cockpit tours, it was my favourite part too. When I was in junior high I got to fly jump seat on a Dash 8. One of the best experiences of my life. I never did pursue being a pilot (still would like my license someday) but would jump at the chance to work in the industry.

[Wormius]

I am a little slow here on why Westjet had to start charging for services because other airlines did in order to stay competitive. Westjet was always cheaper that AC. Even if AC started charging for everything extra to lower their base price, WJ was still cheaper. Unless my memory is fading badly, or I might still be thinking in pre-911 costs.