Anyone flying on Westjet in March?

[Torontogal]

We are travelling in March - getting real excited!
I would love to know your thoughts on Westjet. I heard great things about them but I am alittle nervous flying with my 3 year old. Thinking of bringing car seat on flight so that he stays strapped in - otherwise he might think he can roam the aisles. Are meals included? What do they offer for children? Any movies?
Thanks so much!

 

[KerriMc]

Hello We too are flying WestJet in March ... but it is for the first time, so I don't have any real answers to your questions (sorry!)!! But I have read really positive comments on here and that helped me make the decision to fly with them. Plus the travel agent I booked through had just flown on them too and he was VERY impressed with their service!

We are travelling with our almost 5 yr old dd and our 2.5yr old dd, as well as my parents. So I too am worrying a bit about the youngest, because I am not going to be bringing along her carseat (we did last year). She will just kick the seat in front of her and I won't be able to pull down the tray for her to play on. We have flown the last two years, and both girls have been so good. I was actually very surprised. They are so fascinated with everything that is going on they really don't have a lot of time to worry about getting down. Plus with all of the getting ready and then the serving of the drinks, handing out earphones and newspapers, etc ... and then you go through all of the collections ... they can't get out in the aisle to go anywhere I just brought along a lot of stickers (their favourite) and colouring books (colour wonder by crayola is great), plus some treats they don't get often, like a sucker or something and that keeps them interested for that in between time. We are there before we know it!

I did read that some flights have tvs in the back of each seat ... maybe this will happen Teletoon would go over well with us for a temporary diversion!

My biggest worry is about getting seated together for the flight. We had real issues with A/C last year. We booked a United Flight that was run by A/C, so their systems can't cross over to request seats ... a big screw up, so we ended up in the emergency rows, which of course children can't sit in, so we had to get people to switch and the ladies at the A/C desk were very rude about it. Finally she practically threw the tickets at my mom and dad and oldest dd and told them they'd have to talk to the stewardess. Well she was really nice and had a row switch with them immediately. We had problems on the way home too ... so I am hesitant again to use them.

I've heard a lot of good things about West Jet, so I am hoping we will have a good experience too

Good luck

Kerri

 

[crazypom]

We love Westjet and it is our first choice when we travel (if possible). Have used them countless times. Just returned from a California trip from BC and service and flight were great. We have 4 kids 10 thru 3 and they were completely entertained by their own personal tv!! I actually packed a portable DVD with a few new movies and we didn't even bring it out! They offer pretzel/cookie snacks and drinks which was fine for the kids, my husband did buy a roast beef sub which he said was quite good. We are going to Florida in May and I was completely bummed out when I tried to book Westjet last week and they were SOLD OUT (granted we are a party of 7)!! Don't really offer anything special for kids but I always pack a bag of goodies so doen't really matter.
Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[crazypom]

sorry, forgot to add we did not bring our car seats on plane. The seatbelts seemed to hold them in just fine and have used just that since kids have been 2yrs. We had ALOT of turbulence out of Palm Springs a few weeks ago and they stayed in their seats just fine. My number one tip when flying with little kids - do the potty break when the seatbelt sign is off even if it hasn't been that long!!!!!!! That really saved me as the sign was on and the flight was bumpy for a large portion!!

 

[ado121]

hi there!

we love westjet. fly with them all the time. my girls are almost 1 and almost 3 and have been flying since both were about 6 months old. westjet is great with kids.babies.

unless you are renting a car and can save the $$, leave the carseats at home. we do. actually we check them as luggage and put them in the rentals so we don't have to pay the daily rental fees.


amy

 

[DianaNS]

We flew WEstjet last March and then again in July(we liked them so much) as compared to Air Canada. We have limited possibilities out of halifax so a new option is great. There are no meals you get a drink(soda or coffee water) and a package of trail mix and/or a cookie(in a package)
The best thing for the kids is the individual TV each person has in front of them. For 1.00 each you can purchase a headset that you can reuse on future trips and each person gets to watch satellite TV the choices were great!!!!!!!!!! Enjpy

 

[Scratch42]

Flying with WestJet ~ just be prepared to not have the TV fully functional on your trip back! IE ~ have something prepared for the flight home to keep them occupied!

The one and only time we flew WestJet this happened to us. Made for a longer flight because we were not prepared for NO Entertainment!

Other than that, the flight was OK!

janet

 

[surfer_ed]

We are flying WestJet March 10 and 21 TO to MCO with DD 15 months. DW flys with them all the time but I prefer AC or flying out of BUF.

 

[kikif]

We flew WestJet last March and were very concerned about being seated together. We arrived at the airport 2 1/2 hours early to make sure we would get seats together. The women at the counter told us that the night before they go through the list of passengers and assign seats to anyone in larger parties. (I think she said more than 3 flying on the same itinerary) So you should be OK..you could also call Westjet beforehand and let them know how many are travelling together if they weren't all booked at the same time. They can link the reservations in their computer system. We are doing this for a trip to Calgary in February..my solo trip has turned into a trip for 8.(long story)..when I talked to someone at Westjet they said to call ahead and all the reservations will be linked in their system.. Hope this helps! PS. We loved Westjet on our trip to Florida..the tv's are great!!

 

[DCA_MillionaireFreak]

Oh boy.... My fave!!! WestJet is my niche. (See my e-mail...) :-D. Anyway, WestJet is great. I've had no problems with dealing with them, and nor has anyone I know. You probably will get the LiveTV equipped 737-800s or 700s. At MCO WestJet doesn't use its own counter but shares with British Airways. Your a family, so seating shouldn't be a problem. I'll e-mail this person I know at WestJet with your post. Movies are free if you can remember to bring your own headphones.

 

[DCA_MillionaireFreak]

Here you go, a answer from WJ.

At this time WestJet does not serve meals on our regular flights. We do
serve complimentary beverages and snacks. Furthermore, we also offer a
Buy on Board food service on 70% of our scheduled flights that are
longer than two hours and 20 minutes in length. With this program we
offer salads, sandwiches, wraps and other types of snacks.

That said, I cannot promise that the Buy on Board food service will be
available on your friend's flight. She is however, more than welcome to
bring food along with her.

Guests are able to bring a car seat onboard a WestJet flight, provided
it is certified to Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (CMVSS) 213.1.

We currently have most of our Boeing 737-700 aircraft equipped with Live
Satellite TV. We expect that our guests will be able to enjoy 24
channels of live satellite programming on most of our airline's
state-of-the-art Next-Generation Boeing 737 aircraft within the next few
months.

It is possible that your friend's flight may have the Live TV available.
However, we are unable to advise you if she is going to be on an
aircraft that does have the Live TV's installed. The reason for this is
because unpredictable things such as; weather and unscheduled aircraft
servicing could cause us to switch aircrafts at the last minute and we
believe very strongly in not over promising and under delivering things
to our guests.

Thank you again for your inquiry. If she has any further questions, I
encourage her to contact us directly at 1-888-693-7853 and any of our
agents will be more than happy to assist her.

Kind regards,

Jenn R.
Customer Care Service Specialist
WestJet

 

[pxlbarrel]

A few things to be wary of and this from our flights that we took in December (hard to believe it's almost 1 month!)

- on the way down to Orlando, they ran out of sandwiches by the time they got to our row (row 24) so don't count on having sandwiches ($5 sandwiches!)

- we didn't have tv's on the way down or the way up

- we arrived early at the airport (3 hours early!) and both times we got stuck near the rear of the plane (if they assign seats the night before...that explains why...)

- make sure your carry-on doesn't go over their carry-on weight (this happened with me on their flight from New York to Toronto) - if they weigh it and it's over, they'll insist you check it

- boarding seemed to be a bit disorganized - people with children and who needed assistance to board, boarded first and then there seemed to be a free-for-all and everybody started boarding at once...no calling of rows (and by the way...if you need assitance to board because you have a gazillion kids, then you ought to be the last to leave...we had one family delay the entire back portion of the plane because they needed help with the kids.)

That all said, it was a very nice airline. The crew are very friendly.

But then...I have no problems with Air Canada either. I like 'em both. (Though West Jet's cancellation policy is much more reasonable).