Calgary International Airport II

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

Well we can agree WS dominance is keeping others out, the positive is without WS YYC likely wouldn't have non-stops to places like AUS, DTW, FCO, BCN or EDI (Some of which aren't even served from YVR).

Not to mention CDG, and possible NRT, even though AC previously flew there.

I miss seeing more variety of carriers coming into YYC, but with WS being the dominant player, us Calgarians ultimately get great international destinations as WS traffic to international destinations also includes feed traffic from other spoke cities like YEG, YQR, etc.. Look at Ottawa, a city of similar size to Calgary, but no oversees routes at all.

[hehehe]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

I could be wrong, but I think the government has limited all new additions to the new NLU airport, which isn't ideal. I don't foresee Mexico City in our future for now.

Otherwise, what other possible winter destinations that they don't already serve could they add? RTB? CCC? SNU? I can't imagine there's enough to demand to warrant additional stuff in Florida outside of MCO / FLL, but what do I know.

Maybe we will only see increases to exisiting destinations like:

-Red eye ATL continuing
-JFK back to pre-pandemic 5-6x weekly
-LIR going daily during peak periods?
-Additional VRA / PHX / CUN / PVR
-Perhaps peak period daily OGG / HNL again?

Curious if SEA maintains mainline through the winter, or goes back to the Q. It's been holding up well on the double daily 737s.

If I had to guess I'd think typical frequency increases to the usual cities, red eye ATL, 6x weekly or daily JFK, peak daily OGG, 5-7x weekly SFO and maybe a new weekly flight to some random sun destination is what's most likely to happen?

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by hehehe

… maybe a new weekly flight to some random sun destination is what's most likely to happen?

Fiji perhaps? Or Tahiti? I know know, pipe dreams! I can’t see Alexis Von Whats-His-Name ever going for that!

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by jc_yyc_ca

Not to mention CDG, and possible NRT, even though AC previously flew there.

I miss seeing more variety of carriers coming into YYC, but with WS being the dominant player, us Calgarians ultimately get great international destinations as WS traffic to international destinations also includes feed traffic from other spoke cities like YEG, YQR, etc.. Look at Ottawa, a city of similar size to Calgary, but no oversees routes at all.

AF started CDG-YOW, year round, last week. But yes, they didn't have an overseas flight for over 3 years.

[YYCFlier]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

AF started CDG-YOW, year round, last week. But yes, they didn't have an overseas flight for over 3 years.

YOW is the same size as a city - but in airport pax numbers, they are not in the same universe. YYC was 18-19 million pax, close to YUL, than YOW, which was 5 million pax. This is due to geography and no major hub operation at YOW. It's apples and oranges. It's the same reason why YXU - which serves a catchment of easily 500,000 people, has virtually no service compared to YQR, a city more than half the size. YXU is 90 minutes away from YYZ, and YOW is very close to YUL.

[Tobuz]

Originally Posted by jc_yyc_ca

I miss seeing more variety of carriers coming into YYC, but with WS being the dominant player, us Calgarians ultimately get great international destinations as WS traffic to international destinations also includes feed traffic from other spoke cities like YEG, YQR, etc.

If only our dominant player could be “old WestJet” instead of “new WestJet”.

So much of the product has been cut and cheapened in recent months that they seem to aspire to become like Spirit or Frontier, not like AC or Delta. It sounds like the post-Swoop/post-Sunwing version of the “new” mainline WestJet is going to be even worse. Pre pandemic they were building up to be a really great carrier; now the whole experience just seems to be in free fall.

Love the non-stop destinations. Falling out of love with the airline.

[YYCFlier]

Originally Posted by Tobuz

If only our dominant player could be “old WestJet” instead of “new WestJet”.

Love the non-stop destinations. Falling out of love with the airline.

You will notice this correlates greatly to Alexis's appointment as CEO. I hope Onex will turf him sooner than later. I miss Ed Sims.

[YYCFlier]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

The problem is that their cabins are gross, horrendous customer service, and a non-existant/garbage FF program.

Sure we have an impressive list of destinations, but I no longer fly WS unless my life depends on it.

The best WestJet FF program is Delta Skymiles

[LO 044]

Originally Posted by YYCFlier

The best WestJet FF program is Delta Skymiles

And the best way of booking cheaper WestJet seats is to first check Delta.com/ca/en. We booked YEG-PHX through DL although operated by WS last spring. The savings were more substantial than I would have thought.

[Tobuz]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

The problem is that their cabins are gross, horrendous customer service, and a non-existant/garbage FF program.

Sure we have an impressive list of destinations, but I no longer fly WS unless my life depends on it.

I’ve never had an issue with their (current) cabins, and I actually like some components of their FF program (like WSD instead of points, and companion certificates).

It sounds like the upcoming cabins will probably be worse, though. Especially the Max10 with a horrendous passenger:lavatory ratio.

The service quality on the ground - once something that made WestJet really stand out from their competitors - is often pretty awful. When it’s not awful, it’s just … unremarkable.

My biggest frustration is how everything on board has recently been cut back so much. In every class of service, they’ve taken their offering from pretty good to … worse. Sometimes to the bare minimum, sometimes further. It’s “death by a thousand cuts” where they seem to keep pushing things downhill assuming customers won’t notice. (Wrong.) Their Premium and Business products have been hit the worse, but even Economy has taken steps backward.

[YYCFlier]

Originally Posted by Tobuz

I’ve never had an issue with their (current) cabins, and I actually like some components of their FF program (like WSD instead of points, and companion certificates).

The companion certificate is a feature of a co-branded credit card, which, besides the certificate (which is the only reason to hold the card), is laughable in earn and in "status lift".

WSD are garbage precisely because you cannot get good value from them. They are WORSE than cash-back because if you use them, you don't get status spend credit - you're better off using a plain cash back card! I can pay 12,500 SkyMiles and fly from YYJ to YYT on an economy fare that might be easily $800 one way (or, the YYC-CUN I got for 17,000 miles - ~1800 WSD!) Try doing that on WSD. WSD is great for people who need a very simple program but that doesn't make it a good program - if you use it, you're missing out.

[Tobuz]

Originally Posted by YYCFlier

The companion certificate is a feature of a co-branded credit card, which, besides the certificate (which is the only reason to hold the card), is laughable in earn and in "status lift".

That’s not what I was referring to. WS Rewards status Companion Certificates - different than the credit card ones - are given as milestone awards starting at $4k spend, and then at every $2k after that. (Unlike the credit card version, there’s no price associated with these ones. No $119/$399 cost to use these ones. You only pay the taxes, fees, ATC.)

I’ve been Platinum for a few years, and I typically earn 3 of these annually. My wife is also Platinum and gets these too. Great benefit that’s been awesome for us and our family — allowing us to leverage work travel for some fantastic trips at a fraction of what they’d otherwise cost when combined with WSD.

YMMV.

Best rewards program in the world? Absolutely not. But not awful.

My issue with WestJet is how the service in the ground and the onboard product are spiralling downwards. For customers in the airport or onboard a plane, the WestJet experience is getting worse. I’d initially given them a pass assuming it was all temporary due to rebounding from pandemic challenges, but it’s clear that all of the service downgrades are intentional decisions and here to stay.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Tobuz

That’s not what I was referring to. WS Rewards status Companion Certificates - different than the credit card ones - are given as milestone awards starting at $4k spend, and then at every $2k after that. (Unlike the credit card version, there’s no price associated with these ones. No $119/$399 cost to use these ones. You only pay the taxes, fees, ATC.)

I’ve been Platinum for a few years, and I typically earn 3 of these annually. My wife is also Platinum and gets these too. Great benefit that’s been awesome for us and our family — allowing us to leverage work travel for some fantastic trips at a fraction of what they’d otherwise cost when combined with WSD.

YMMV.

Best rewards program in the world? Absolutely not. But not awful.

My issue with WestJet is how the service in the ground and the onboard product are spiralling downwards. For customers in the airport or onboard a plane, the WestJet experience is getting worse. I’d initially given them a pass assuming it was all temporary due to rebounding from pandemic challenges, but it’s clear that all of the service downgrades are intentional decisions and here to stay.

If you are based in Calgary, its a solid program if you travel for work.
Air Canada has a better program, but if you are travelling for work out of Calgary they are substantially worse to get you where you need to go unless you want to connect in Toronto/Vancouver - even for Canadian cities.

[hehehe]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

WestJet from Paris is minutes late, so now they have a 30 min wait for a gate because our overbuilt terminal already doesn't have enough gates.

Yikes..didn't arrive till after 5pm? This is what billions of dollars was spent on? It hasn't even been 10 years lol

[casper]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

Yeah Paris has horrible OTP, it's on-time less than 50% of the time including being late for the last 9 days in a row. There is zero slack in the gating on Sundays assuming everything is on time, but WS Europe operation is so bad that it makes scheduling difficult. What's often happening is that one of the 787 heading to Europe will break or be deemed AOG a few hours before departure, around 5 pm or so. They have an extra frame in place to swap, but their ground crew is undermanned and takes far too long to reposition that aircraft on to a gate.

So I'd say the blame goes partly to our gating situation, and partly to WS incompetence.

Does Calgary have the infrastructure to load/unload passengers at a remote stand?

Using a remote stand is not idea, but that is what Vancouver built out just before COVID to deal with cases like this. Very common in Europe.

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by casper

Does Calgary have the infrastructure to load/unload passengers at a remote stand?

Using a remote stand is not idea, but that is what Vancouver built out just before COVID to deal with cases like this. Very common in Europe.

I’ve never seen such a set up in YYC. It would certainly help!

[hollywoodcory]

Simple Flying implies that Lynx is interested in starting YYC-TPA at some point
https://simpleflying.com/canada-lynx-air-tampa-flights/

Lynx Air's eventual goal is to offer 66 total services to Tampa, connecting the city to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver.

I mean, unless WS announces it next week, they would be the only ones flying this route. which is an advantage I guess. 66 total weekly flights seems kind of nuts though?

On the subject of Florida, but interesting to see if WS responds to Lynx adding MCO by adding an afternoon departure as well.

[Tobuz]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

Simple Flying implies that Lynx is interested in starting YYC-TPA at some point
https://simpleflying.com/canada-lynx-air-tampa-flights/

I mean, unless WS announces it next week....

Is there a WS schedule release coming next week? (Their final winter schedule?)

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by Tobuz

Is there a WS schedule release coming next week? (Their final winter schedule?)

That’s what is expected, yes.

[hehehe]

Wouldn't be surprised to see TPA added by WS first. I don't know why Lynx is doubling down on the USA when it doesn't seem to be doing very well.