Quote:
Originally Posted by lubicon
Logical due to relatively few airframes in the fleet yet and qualified crew to fly them. This is a good way accelerate the training process. And not a bad business decision either (for business travelers).
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There is a fairly large market of YYC based frequent flyers that want to try the new WestJet lie-flat product but not spend the 4-5k for a roundtrip to LGW/DUB/CDG. However a for $700 one can try the new premium product to/from YYZ.
Doing YYC-YYZ turns beyond the first 90 days doesn't help with pilot training. However, flight attendant service training is hugely important for WS move into Premium market.
The biggest in-flight service lesson learned from the 763 introduction was how different the guests/passengers were from any other route or city launch. It was a painful first year of operations for FAs serving WestJet Plus on the 763. Initial thoughts that FA's could treat the service standard like an very long mainline run were quickly dashed. The standard FA response to most issues is to point out the flight is a short 2-4 hours flying time. This doesn't work for 9 hour TransAt overnight trip.
It takes 5 days of basic training to get through the safety aspects. Most international premium service airlines put their FA's through one month of service training. The new FA is then closely watched for the first 3-6 months after that and they have 15+ other FAs to ask questions. Comparatively WestJet FAs are all brand new, so it drinking from the fire hose until they find their own path to service excellence.
It seems like a small thing, but appropriately plating the food is something brand new for WestJet. Appropriate food service delivery was not well handled in the past on TransAt runs to/from LGW.
Example: normal standards are pre food drink with wine primarily offered to each J class customer. Plate the food in the galley and assemble the full tray. Deliver the trays no more than 2 at a time. Ask each person if they want a refill of the wine. Wash, rinse repeat for each 2 customers.
The WestJet way is to hand out all the food followed by the drink cart. This means the first customer to get their food must wait 10-20 minutes until the last person has food in order to get wine with their meal. This ruins the customer experience the passenger has paid $5k for the privilege.
Running 3.75 hour runs YYC-YYZ lets the FAs interact with this new type of customers with very different expectations.
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