TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Westjet flights

Westjet cancelled Friday & today. It appears other locations with snow are just delayed. With them coming 5 days a week I wonder if they aren't full as well.
To us it just isn't worth $8000 for the 2 of us for a 41\2 hour flight. We pay for extra leg room & 1 glass of wine each $2000 return for 2. Swoop had the wine but we had to pay because it's a different aircraft even though we already pd for it. I hope they get their Sh**t together we book for next year!!

It's interesting that you chose to start a new thread, rather than reply to my last comment in the previous thread, but perhaps it's intent is to make this thread more generic about WestJet flights? I do absolutely agree that you should have received your wine, since they had wine on board, even if the aircraft is changed. It's still WestJet.

Weather is always a bigger issue at larger airports since they are more congested, Toronto being the largest in Canada, and we have had over 3 ft. of cumulative snow here over the last week and it's been snowing steadily since Friday morning. I still don't know if you were on the same return flight as me on the 4th, but I know that my downward flight on January 10th was full and it seemed that the return flight on February 4th was at least reasonably full, although the Swoop aircraft has a few more seats than the regular WestJet 737-800 Neo.

I don't know where you are getting a figure of $4,000 CAD pp return for Premium class, unless you are perhaps quoting Premium flex fares or doing a late booking? I have never paid that much in the last 3 years, but I tend to book 8 to 9 months out with "lowest" Premium fare. It just means I have to pay $100 plus any fare difference if I choose to change the flight.

In April last year, for my flight down this past January and my return this month, I paid a total of $2,144.26 CAD return for Premium. That's about double what you are paying pp for extra legroom economy with a glass of wine, but certainly not quadruple! I cut the cash cost almost in half to $1,244.26 CAD by applying $900 worth of Avion points.

I do agree they need to clean up their act. They have expanded their offerings this year (such as 5 flights per week to SXM) without sufficient aircraft. This has been exacerbated by the hail damage last year to some aircraft in Calgary and the failure by Boeing to deliver new 737 Max 8s on a timely basis, but then don't expand the routes! Their new CEO seems to want to revert them back to being a discount airline without the discount pricing! If that is what he wants to do, I will choose to fly with Air Canada or Air Transat, even if they aren't as convenient to SXM.

Yes I started a new thread to make generic. Yes we were on the Feb 4 th Swoop flight row 5. It was almost full as was January 5 th flight down. I got the price off their webpage that day. Avion points would certainly make a difference. The very tall WestJet pilot sitting beside me pd for extra legroom & didn't get it either. On the right hand side of plane there was no row 4 that couple were sent to row 13. WestJet pilot said regular WestJet plane 175 seats Swoop 189. We are also weighing options for next year January 4 . Flying just isn't fun.

That's a cool coincidence. I was in 2F, so just a couple rows in front of you if there was no row 4! Flying in Premium on WestJet, or Business or Signature Class on Air Canada, does put SOME of the fun back into flying, but definitely at a cost. For shorter flights, especially under 2 hours, I often just do extended comfort economy, as you did.

I did luck out by booking the right side of the aircraft. The first 3 rows on our side had 35" pitch. Those who paid for Premium seated on the left side of the aircraft were in economy seats with only the regular 29" or 30" of pitch. They got totally screwed by WestJet, IMO. The whole thing was a complete schmozzle!

Avion's flat rate chart will cover up to $450 per flight segment in any class. You can apply additional Avion points to pay all or part of the difference, but it usually takes a LOT more points, so I normally just pay cash. My cash outlay is often only a little more than the cost of a non-basic economy seat and the points essentially pay for the upgrade. Plus I get free checked bags, priority security, priority boarding, no seat fee, and free food and drinks. That helps offset some of the additional cost.

My late wife and I made a decision to build the cost into our travel plans about 10 years ago, when three flights in a row were sold out, so the middle seat ended up being occupied. Prior to that we would book a window and aisle seat about 3/4 of the way back in the aircraft. 90% of the time the middle seat was empty. That strategy worked well for a few years. Then they reduced the pitch further in economy and figured out algorithms to fill the flights up. We had had enough of cattle-car air travel.