Westjet is terrible.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by getbak

Yes, I'm serious. I've rarely had a problem with the in-flight entertainment system on Air Canada, a reset required once or twice, and I don't recall ever having it not function at all. I fly almost exclusively on the E-190s to Ottawa and back, so it might be different on different planes.

I flew to Cancun last year on an old 767 (it still had ashtrays in the arm rest), and that was a pretty bad experience. The E-190s are great, though.


Also, I'm incredibly petty, so it doesn't take much for me to stop giving a company my business.

Well you and I fly different AC planes then. My last flight last week was 2.5 hours long and that thing reset 6-8 times during the flight. Some of them wouldn't reboot and an exhausted attendant just said to complaining passengers "look this happens alot, sorry, there's nothing we can do".

I think what people don't realize is that when customers pushed airlines to be all kinds of forms of discount airlines services like coke zero, on demand entertainment etc need to be cut. If the public demanded a full service airline with the perfect pitch when you recline and all the legspace you want, people would pay for it. But they don't.

Airlines don't exactly attract top management talent and it shows, through a long list of brutal decisions and executions of programs (aeroplan must be the worst executed loyalty program i have ever seen) however customers in aggregate (ie not any individual) talk out of both sides of their mouths. They want tons of service but don't want to pay anything for it.

maybe not you in particular, but like i said earlier this thread jumped the shark with TV and coke complaints.

[FlamesAddiction]

Most airlines suck and it seems like WestJet sparked a competition in this country to see who can offer the least. Unfortunately, the prices stopped reflecting that with both national airlines.

I do find it funny that people come out to defend WestJet so hard. Most of the time when someone says Air Canada sucks, nobody really feels the need to defend them, but WestJet has some sort of cult following or something.

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Well you and I fly different AC planes then. My last flight last week was 2.5 hours long and that thing reset 6-8 times during the flight. Some of them wouldn't reboot and an exhausted attendant just said to complaining passengers "look this happens alot, sorry, there's nothing we can do".

Reboot my TV all you want, I still can watch Django Unchained for free on AC, while West Jet lets me stare at a flight map because they lost their feed. It's not like you have to restart from the beginning.

I will now only fly West Jet for flights within 1 hour or less (aka the Vancouver limit), when the price is right. After my personal experiences, and reading what the backers of WestJet have to say on here, it's laughable. They have become a terrible excuse for an airline.

Their biggest pro? They don't code share with United. Pretty crappy reason to fly with them.

"WestJet - Fly with us because you won't end up on United".

What a crap airline, and this is from someone who used to be pro westjet because they were Calgary based and went around calling Air Canada - Air Communist, so I don't have a whole lot of love for them either, but given my options, go AC!

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Most airlines suck and it seems like WestJet sparked a competition in this country to see who can offer the least. Unfortunately, the prices stopped reflecting that with both national airlines.

I do find it funny that people come out to defend WestJet so hard. Most of the time when someone says Air Canada sucks, nobody really feels the need to defend them, but WestJet has some sort of cult following or something.

I will give them this, they have provided competition to AC, however, even with the collapse of Canadian airlines, I believe someone else would have easily come around if they didn't and prevailed.

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Well you and I fly different AC planes then. My last flight last week was 2.5 hours long and that thing reset 6-8 times during the flight. Some of them wouldn't reboot and an exhausted attendant just said to complaining passengers "look this happens alot, sorry, there's nothing we can do".....

...maybe not you in particular, but like i said earlier this thread jumped the shark with TV and coke complaints.

Wow, really?

AC sucks because the TV's never work!

You guys are saying WestJet sucks because you don't like their TV's? You don't know the true value of the airline industry.

I actually giggled this morning because of this - thank you.

[Bigtime]

Guys it could have been worse, what if WestJet never existed and we ended up with JetsGo sticking around?

I just got chills all over.

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Guys it could have been worse, what if WestJet never existed and we ended up with JetsGo sticking around?

I just got chills all over.

Or a Delta/United Expansion into the Canadian Market... ew

[TorqueDog]

I want KLM to enter the Canadian market.

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I want KLM to enter the Canadian market.

They already are. You will never see a foreign carrier service domestic routes with the federal protection that is in place.

Calgary - Amsterdam has been in operation for quite a while.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Well you and I fly different AC planes then.

There's more than one so that's likely.

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

My last flight last week was 2.5 hours long and that thing reset 6-8 times during the flight.

I've never been on an AC flight that has had any resets on the entertainment, my anecdote can beat up your anecdote?

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

I think what people don't realize is that when customers pushed airlines to be all kinds of forms of discount airlines services like coke zero, on demand entertainment etc need to be cut.

This doesn't make sense, customers aren't the ones in the board rooms deciding what an airline does with its fleet. The other airlines and what they do are what pressure airlines to make those decisions. Customers choose the airline that offers the best value for that customer, if airlines want a bigger slice of the customer base they have to ensure they offer an equal or better value proposition to the customer. Different things are important to different people (price, space, entertainment, rewards, service, schedule, etc), and the more things are equal the smaller the difference that will make a customer choose one airline over another.

Price is one of the biggest factors, so they have to price close to each other, and as a result have to walk a narrow line between cutting as much as they can so they can break even or turn a profit and still offering enough to out compete the other guys.

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

If the public demanded a full service airline with the perfect pitch when you recline and all the legspace you want, people would pay for it. But they don't.

And if an airline offered a full plane business class service and seating for the same price no one would fly another airline if they could help it.

Again it's a fine line to walk between being competitive and trying to make some money, but I agree in that for the most part most customers won't pay more.

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

maybe not you in particular, but like i said earlier this thread jumped the shark with TV and coke complaints.

Again, airlines are competing for customers, and the difference between them is so narrow that the things that can make someone choose between one or another do approach the level of trivial.

If I'm flying somewhere, and the flights are the same price, the times are the same, the service is the same, what is the problem with choosing AC because I can watch a new movie rather than TV? Or choosing WJ because I can get a Spolumbo's sandwich. I don't know why that's "complaining", that's choosing the better value proposition among almost identical choices.

[Plett25]

A foreign carrier in the Canadian market probably wouldn't have cheaper prices than Westjet and Air Canada. Westjet's profit is only 5-6-7% of revenue, so the reasons that Canadian airfares are more expensive than the US/Europe isn't due to price gouging.

Canada has long flight lengths, high labour costs, high fuel costs, high landing fees and AIF's priced into a ticket. I guess you could say that air travel in Canada is unsubsidized by our government(s) Any foreign carrier would have to pay all those same fees/taxes as Westjet and Air Canada and would end up charging very similar prices.

[Plett25]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

maybe not you in particular, but like i said earlier this thread jumped the shark with TV and coke complaints.

Flying with kids from Alberta to the Maritimes is much easier with Air Canada's entertainment system. It probably doesn't just make the flight easier for me and easier on my kids, but also for the other passengers who don't have to sit close to fidgety, bored kids.

[Max Cow Disease]

Originally Posted by NBC

As a former commercial pilot, I would have agreed if the comment had read, pilots are glorified bus drivers.

The way some European discount airlines (RyanAir) operate, long-haul bus travel is becoming more attractive!

This one always kind of piques my interest. In what sense (at the risk of partially derailing the thread)?

[NBC]

It's the basic nature of the job which is far from glamorous. You show up for work, do a few checks, sort out a bit of paperwork and then transport passengers from one location to the next. And the pay at most levels of aviation, outside of major carriers and cargo companies is not very good.

[Bill Bumface]

I root for WestJet, any successful company based out of Calgary is good for all of us, especially one that isn't in the energy industry. Have a diverse industry base is a good thing. I do feel reading this thread about the new equipment this is the point in time we will all look back to when WestJet starts to falter a bit and we look back and remember how they used to be great and wonder what happened.

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by NBC

It's the basic nature of the job which is far from glamorous. You show up for work, do a few checks, sort out a bit of paperwork and then transport passengers from one location to the next. And the pay at most levels of aviation, outside of major carriers and cargo companies is not very good.

Countless hours of boredom, with a few minutes of sheer terror just to keep things interesting. Quite similar to a bus driver.

[NBC]

Oh the boredom, how I don't miss those days.

[Max Cow Disease]

I guess it's one of those things; depends on how loose one's definitions are. Relatively large amount of training required, the sheer number of things that can potentially go wrong at any given time whilst hurtling through the air, etc. It's simply that the use of the word "glorified" seems to cheapen the public's perception of piloting as an inherently more involved and dangerous vocation than bus driving, simply because of the baseline similarities in the two jobs (the transporting of people?). It's not entirely unlike arguing that police officers are glorified security guards or mall cops, if you ask me. I mean, yeah, I guess they are, but...

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by Max Cow Disease

I guess it's one of those things; depends on how loose one's definitions are. Relatively large amount of training required, the sheer number of things that can potentially go wrong at any given time whilst hurtling through the air, etc. It's simply that the use of the word "glorified" seems to cheapen the public's perception of piloting as an inherently more involved and dangerous vocation than bus driving, simply because of the baseline similarities in the two jobs (the transporting of people?). It's not entirely unlike arguing that police officers are glorified security guards or mall cops, if you ask me. I mean, yeah, I guess they are, but...

I would argue that the bus drivers job is statistically more dangerous. The risk of accident is higher. The risk posed by the passengers is also higher on the bus, with less security involved, and the bus driver not being protected by a cockpit door.

Anyways, enough of the derail, back to the Westjet love.

[billybob123]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I want KLM to enter the Canadian market.

Have you flown KLM within Europe?