Air Canada vs WestJet

[buckbart]

We are just about ready to book our flights to hawaii but I am torn between the two carriers. We have always flown Westjet b/c the flight times have always been good and the flights are always cheaper. This time around though, Air Canada has pulled through offering much better flying times and the same in price for the exact same dates. The kids would also get to fly in a BIG plane with 7 seats across. My only hesitation is all the negative reviews that Air Canada is getting- heck they even have a site dedicated to all the bad experiences. I know this debate can go back and forth - but has ANYONE had a good experience with them recently and would recommend flying with them?

*a common theme with the bad experiences is people missing their connecting flights (especially out of Toronto). We have a few hours in between each and are connecting in Vancouver so we are not as worried about that as we are the customer service.

Any input?

 

[C&B Young]

We've flown AC to WDW 4 times now. Apart from the recent labour issues (which didn't end up happening), we've always had good experiences flying AC. We always chose them in the past for your same reasons - better price than WJ, and better flying times. Although their new bag fees make them less of a lower-priced option for future Disney trips.

 

[chimo2u]

I used to enjoy AC, but now with the new baggage fee AC adds on, I think I am a "past" AC customer....I am looking for tickets to Orlando from Edmonton with good flight schedule for next October, and funny enough, WJ is looking like the winner in the schedule dept.... AC has very little to choose from for timings that will get us to Orlando early on arrival day, with a afternoon departure on our last day while still arriving back home at a decent hour (prior to 10 Pm).....
Add in the $25 each way/pp baggage fees, and that is another $150.00 I have to add onto my ticket price
For that reason, I am beginning to think WJ is looking much better. I like WJ service, planes (newer) and entertainment. I think AC customer service has declined.
Good luck on finding great deals and good connections for your upcoming Hawaii trip! it sure is a load off once flights are all settled, chosen and paid for

 

[Celidh]

I personally like Westjet better. I like their staff, they just seem friendlier. I like the service much better whereas we found AC almost to the point of being rude.

That said, on our trip to WDW in September we flew to Orlando on AC and back on WJ. The one thing I did like about the AC plane I was on was that it had a place to plug in a usb port and a plug for charging etc. This way it wasn't an issue for my kids saving the batteries on their hand held devices to make sure they last the whole trip.

In my opinion, service wins out. I'm sure if AC has the ports in the backs of the seats, Westjet may soon follow.

 

[buckbart]

Ouch! I never even looked into the luggage thing until you mentioned it. That $25 luggage fee can add up pretty quickly travelling with 2 children. We normally take their booster seats too, without having to pay extra for checked baggage. sigh ... more fuel to make the decision even harder.

My biggest concern is the jet lag and whether our arrival time on the plane would make any difference. The Westjet flight is 16hr and departs from Wpg at 7am arriving in Hawaii at 10:30pm. On Air Canada flight is 11hr45, departs from WPG at 10:30 arriving at 6:15pm hawaii time. Layover time is approximately the same for both flights.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

WJ gets my vote for friendliness and 1st bag free policy.

AC gets my vote for scheduling. AC seems to have better connection/arrival times.

Both are about the same price wise from my location.

 

[Disney Daniel]

This thread may help you out.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2807222

 

[minnie56]

Air Canada by a long shot! You couldn't pay ME to sit in WJ seats on a long Hawaii flight! Not a chance...

For all the complaining about AC..I honestly have never had an issue. Never.

 

[buckbart]

Air Canada by a long shot! You couldn't pay ME to sit in WJ seats on a long Hawaii flight! Not a chance...

For all the complaining about AC..I honestly have never had an issue. Never.

Does that mean that sleeping in the reclined seats on our return overnight flight with AC would be more comfortable too? That just might be the key factor in this decision.

 

[minnie56]

Yes, I would certainly say so!

Don't get me wrong..I like WJ. But even with the baggage fee-I much prefer AC. WJ seats are getting smaller all the time it seems and NO it's not my bottom!

 

[buckbart]

This thread may help you out.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2807222

Thank you for the link - it helps alot.

 

[ccudmore]

I posted about WestJet vs. AC earlier this week... Just 10 days ago we returned from a trip to Hawaii and flew on WJ from Ottawa -> Vancouver -> Maui. Each leg was about 6 hours long.

A couple issues we had. First off the WJ seats are incredibly uncomfortable. They say they're the same size as AC seats but they seem a lot smaller and are not as well padded. My butt is still sore from sitting there for so long. On the return over-night flight I didn't sleep much if at all. Partly because of the seat discomfort, but partly because of the 12 babies on the flight.

When they made the pre-boarding announcement for families with small children to board early more than half the plane boarded. It was full of small kids.

I've flown internationally on AC extensively but this was my first experience on WJ for anything longer than just a couple hours. I don't think I'd do it again.

 

[buckbart]

Thanks for sharing your experience - what you wrote sounds like the words of that someone might have been on the same train ride as us 3 years ago for 12 hours (mostly overnight). My son screamed the majority of the way there - poor passengers. Upon arrival I immediately called the airlines to book a flight home with him, but they told me without birth certificate, it wasn't possible. After a horrible vacation, with my gravol in hand, we unwillingly boarded the train home and they told us that they had a private car for us to ride in.

we are a family travelling with a 5 & 8 yr old and although they definetely wouldn't be crying on flight - we would be pre-boarding. Comfort just might win out this time.

 

[Momtoemma]

Have flown to Maui several times (from Toronto) You are much much better off arriving around 630pm than 10pm. That way head to where you are going, have a bite to eat and off to bed- slee through and you should be ready to go the next morning- IMHO

 

[Shelebeen]

Ouch! I never even looked into the luggage thing until you mentioned it. That $25 luggage fee can add up pretty quickly travelling with 2 children. We normally take their booster seats too, without having to pay extra for checked baggage. sigh ... more fuel to make the decision even harder.

My biggest concern is the jet lag and whether our arrival time on the plane would make any difference. The Westjet flight is 16hr and departs from Wpg at 7am arriving in Hawaii at 10:30pm. On Air Canada flight is 11hr45, departs from WPG at 10:30 arriving at 6:15pm hawaii time. Layover time is approximately the same for both flights.

Doing the Calgary to Maui flight lots in the past, I vote for whatever flight gets you there earliest. There is a 3-4 hour time change from Calgary (not sure if there is an extra hour to WPG) and 6:15 is like 10:30 pm Calgary time.. late especially after flying a good chunk fo the day... so the 10:30 flight is like arriving after midnight, then having to get luggage, the rental car, finding the resort, etc...

 

[SmilingGrump]

I much prefer WJ to AC, but that earlier arrival time with the AC flight is very attractive. If pricing were equal or close enough to be comfortable with, I'd pick AC just like Shelebeen. Baggage service at Honolulu is usually very fast, but you should still plan on 1 to 1-1/2 hours before you get to Aulani after your plane lands and a 8pm room arrival is much nicer then a midnight one.

AC service is, in my experience of dozens and dozens of flights, worse then WJ but ison average, still better then one of the American airlines (except Southwest or the pre-merger Continental). And poor service doesn't matter if you're able to sleep part of the trip, unless you're by the galley and the flight attendants spend the entire flight fighting with each other ... YAY! US Air

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Personally my first choice would be WestJet because we like that they give you the option of paying extra for a specifc seat and not waiting until you check-in online and getting it then, so it's something we don't mind paying for in advance. Besides that when flying them from Toronto we have had much shorter lines then Air Canada.

The last time my family and I flew Air Canada we had a major problem with them regarding our seats. We used my Dad's Aeroplan points to fly from Toronto - Orlando and from Tampa - Toronto. Well for the YYZ - MCO flight it turns out we didn't have any confirmed seats, only had them for the TPA - YYZ flight, so the ticket agent said we had to go standby on the 10:15 AM flight and if we didn't make it we would then be given 3 seats on their night flight at 8:55 PM, so we would be stuck all day at Pearson. Basically we had agreed to go standby because they were out of Economy seats on Aeroplan points, however their website never said that and if it did we would have flown with WestJet. Now we were lucky that we got 3 seats in Business Class along with the other standby passengers since no one purchased those seats in advance, however that was an experience we never want to go through again.

 

[minnie56]

Oh Aeroplan and Air Canada would have heard from me bigtime on that one!
Aeroplan seats are supposed to be untouchable! I booked an Aeroplan flight the other day and it didn't offer me seat assignment.I called them right away and told them I would like my seat now please! They obliged with no ifs ands or buts.

I never wait till the airport to have my seat assigned

 

[yxe dad]

Personally my first choice would be WestJet because we like that they give you the option of paying extra for a specifc seat and not waiting until you check-in online and getting it then, so it's something we don't mind paying for in advance.

You can also pay for advance seat selection with Air Canada.

I travel by air about 10-12 times a year and have never had a problem reserving a seat in advance on an Air Canada flight either with cash or aeroplan points. My suggestion would be that next time your dad books flights with aeroplan, if the option to pick seats in unavailable, check online the following day or call and get seat selection.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I travel by air about 10-12 times a year and have never had a problem reserving a seat in advance on an Air Canada flight either with cash or aeroplan points. My suggestion would be that next time your dad books flights with aeroplan, if the option to pick seats in unavailable, check online the following day or call and get seat selection.

But if seats are not available on the Aeroplan website then that specifc flight shouldn't even come up as being available, because that's exactly what happened when we made the reservation. I like to think of it as reserving a WDW Resort through a room only discount. When the resort has sold all the rooms on that discount then it will come up as being sold out, so that never happened on the Aeroplan website. This was also not the first time we reserved Aeroplan seats online and those previous times seats were available both on our departing flight out of Toronto and return flight back home.