Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Engine09

Wait, the new no frills ultra dog####, whatever they call it, has no option or way to pay for a carryon at all? Basically just purses or items you carry in your hands?

Well yeah, they don't hide that. If you could pay for carry on, they'd put the $ sign next to that. You have to read through a pop up reminding you what it doesn't have, click a confirmation box, or click a button to switch to Econo if you want it.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by btimbit

I often read here people say they would gladly pay a little more for an airline with better service, but you can already do that with the existing airlines by just buying a better ticket.

I mean, how much better service do you really get with paying a little more for a little bit better ticket?
I'd happily pay a little bit more if it gave value, but let's be honest, whether it's premium economy or economy, it's all still pretty ####ty service unless you're in first class. (And even then, you're still going to the same place as everyone else at the same time)

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Torture

I mean, how much better service do you really get with paying a little more for a little bit better ticket?
I'd happily pay a little bit more if it gave value, but let's be honest, whether it's premium economy or economy, it's all still pretty ####ty unless you're in first class.

Depends what you're looking for I guess. Most people seem to just lament free checked bags and a meal, and there are certainly options to still do that.

Originally Posted by Torture

(And even then, you're still going to the same place as everyone else at the same time)

True, but we already had that anyway with the amount of people that swore they'd gladly pay double to fly someone other than Flair. I see this as no different, if someone finds that business model so horrible, then they'd be willing to pay more for a better ticket

A few more shower thoughts on the subject I just had that I may as well share so people don't just think I'm some WestJet fanboy or something

-As much as I understand this new fare and think most of the reactions to it are just outrage culture, I do wish it was in addition to the old basic fare rather than replacing it
-I wish the price gap between ultrabasic and econo wasn't so large, and was a little more set it stone rather than being a $50 difference on some flights and a $400 difference on other flights
-Dynamic pricing in general can fata off. Really, the same route is twice as expensive to run Monday than it was on Wednesday? And the price can change several times in the two days I look at it? Get ####ed. I understand how supply and demand works but this is too much

As much as I doubt anything will happen, I am interested to see what happens with the Competition Bureau's new study into the airline industry. Part of me agrees with the WJ CEO that maybe we should have subsidized airports instead of the current user pay model. It would make newer airlines and competion for low fares more interesting, that's for sure

[topfiverecords]

And just as Westjet comes out with a random middle seat at the back of the plane fare, AirCanada counters with free wine, beer and premium snacks on their Canada/US economy this summer.

[FurnaceFace]

We’ve flown on a bunch of the euro low cost carriers recently. They have the base price, then extra fees to get a free carryon bag and first section boarding. They seem to have a number of different options/tiers and it’s a bit to wade through but it does mostly work. They are militant, and at some airports the people who check your boarding pass before security are even more so, about your carryon bag. If you have purchased the “premium” to get on first though, they don’t bat an eye at your bags. The difference between what Westjet is doing and the Euro carriers is the price for flights there goes from say 50€ to 100€ for first to board and a checked bag instead of the hundreds more it seems WJ is charging. Hard to compare Euro travel to Canada though given the population. The ultra basic fare email is hilariously bad though. I’m not sure first year marketing students would come up with wording so poor. WJ deserves all the backlash.

We even flew on crappy Ryanair recently and I think it’s getting close where I’d rank them above WJ. No seat pockets on Ryanair flights but they certainly have far superior food choices than WJ, and the price levels weren’t as wide.

As mentioned above they have changed the companion voucher costs. They also seem to be playing games with their fares. The companion voucher can be used if the base fair is high enough. That’s not the fair shown immediately mind you. Say your flight to Iceland shows as $800. Perfect, even after you take of taxes etc it should easily be over $400. Nope. When you click on the line item details, which you don’t see until the final step, the base fair is really $200 and then there is a line “ATC” which must stand for something like air travel cost, which is $400. I’m pretty sure they are playing games with their costs to make it so you can’t book econo seats using your companion voucher on popular flights. To use your voucher on the euro flights I looked at (Iceland, Paris, London) they all had low base fairs unless you booked premium econo which even with the discount was more than straight econo. The worst example was Paris I think. The base fare was $300ish and the ATC charge was $900.

Thanks for being dicks WJ, you’re making AC look good.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

WestJet announces SuperUltraBasic fare where customers just stay home and give them money

“Here at WestJet, we realise that Canadians hate flying with WestJet,” said a WestJet representative. “So why not avoid all the stress and exhaustion of dealing with us by sending us 100 bucks and then enjoying a nice, quiet evening at home?”

For an extra $60, WestJet will text a SuperUltraBasic ticket holder a picture of the arrival concourse at the Canadian airport of their choice. And, for an extra $85, a WestJet representative will come to your house, remove a beloved article of clothing, and ensure you never see it again.

WestJet also announced that this has somehow made all of their other services more expensive.

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2024/06...ve-them-money/

[btimbit]

Sorry I can't be bothered to post the several links on mobile, but kinda missed amongst Westjet dominating the aviation headlines the last two days is Flair's CEO stepping down after their younger Australian sister airline goes belly up, and their parent company faces more legal trouble after their big swing and a miss in their bid to buy an English football club.

I know most people, especially on social media, can't wait to dance on Flair's grave, but I was always rooting for them. Really seems like the end has been inevitable for a few months now, with this just being the latest headline of their final death throes.

Shame, especially after Lynx

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Sorry I can't be bothered to post the several links on mobile, but kinda missed amongst Westjet dominating the aviation headlines the last two days is Flair's CEO stepping down after their younger Australian sister airline goes belly up, and their parent company faces more legal trouble after their big swing and a miss in their bid to buy an English football club.

I know most people, especially on social media, can't wait to dance on Flair's grave, but I was always rooting for them. Really seems like the end has been inevitable for a few months now, with this just being the latest headline of their final death throes.

Shame, especially after Lynx

Hopefully they pull through - I think having 3 choices keeps prices down considerably. Maybe of they fail Porter grows into a more full-size option...

[Lubicon]

Anyone have any experience with shipping things home from abroad? My son is currently in Europe for university. When he is finished he won't be coming home immediately but doesn't want to schlep all his stuff around with him in the meantime while he travels. It's not much, probably 1-2 suitcases worth of things. He likely won't be returning to where he currently is once he is finished so storing it and then bringing back with him isn't realistic.

Thoughts? FedEx/UPS? Ship as freight via the airlines? Are there companies that do this sort of thing? The post office is batting about 0.500 on getting things to us at the moment so I'm not sure I trust them

[GGG]

It’s funny in the gear grinder thread that carry on comes up from time to time and there is a group that is upset that rollers are allowed at all. This solves the problem. The problem was not charging for a scarce resource. Now they are.

Let the race to the bottom continue

[fotze2]

My kid is going to Orlando with my buddy and his family in July (westcrap). We got an email my kids flight was cancelled on the way back. Not my buddy’s flights though. I can book that flight but it’s like $2300 for the one leg.

They can’t just cancel someone because they want to charge more for the flight can they.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by fotze2

My kid is going to Orlando with my buddy and his family in July (westcrap). We got an email my kids flight was cancelled on the way back. Not my buddy’s flights though. I can book that flight but it’s like $2300 for the one leg.

They can’t just cancel someone because they want to charge more for the flight can they.

No they cannot do that. But they are reducing Orlando service to Hamilton July 1 so maybe that plays into it?

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/travel/new...d=BingNewsSerp

[btimbit]

WestJet AME's overwhelmingly reject ratification of the new tentative agreement

https://www.amfanational.org/?zone=/...&HomeID=923036

[Wormius]

Is the Ultrabasic fare for an international flight on Westjet much different than what they had before? I am debating WJ vs AC for a flight to CDG. I’d prefer to be comfortable, but if they still have charging ports and allow carry on, it doesn’t seem too awful.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is the Ultrabasic fare for an international flight on Westjet much different than what they had before? I am debating WJ vs AC for a flight to CDG. I’d prefer to be comfortable, but if they still have charging ports and allow carry on, it doesn’t seem too awful.

No changes to the seats themselves, but you can only carry-on an underseat item

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by btimbit

No changes to the seats themselves, but you can only carry-on an underseat item

What? There’s different levels of carry on?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What? There’s different levels of carry on?

There is now!

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What? There’s different levels of carry on?

Yeah, ultrabasic is essentially their ULCC fare. No overhead bin use, last to board, and if you don't pre-buy a seat you'll get a crappy middle seat at the back, easyjet style.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Yeah, ultrabasic is essentially their ULCC fare. No overhead bin use, last to board, and if you don't pre-buy a seat you'll get a crappy middle seat at the back, easyjet style.

Flight crew also gets to slap you if they feel like it.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is the Ultrabasic fare for an international flight on Westjet much different than what they had before? I am debating WJ vs AC for a flight to CDG. I’d prefer to be comfortable, but if they still have charging ports and allow carry on, it doesn’t seem too awful.

That'd be the former 'Basic' fare, which they deleted to replace with UltraBasic, aren't you glad to have 'more options?'

-As much as I understand this new fare and think most of the reactions to it are just outrage culture, I do wish it was in addition to the old basic fare rather than replacing it
-I wish the price gap between ultrabasic and econo wasn't so large, and was a little more set it stone rather than being a $50 difference on some flights and a $400 difference on other flights

These are the two that do it for me. For a typical flight this likely forces me to go up to 'econo' where I normally would have been fine with basic, but that no longer exists.