First of all, I’d better state the obvious here - I am not, nor do I know anyone related to either company…
I don’t know about you, but with my fairly frequent air travel within Canada, from east to west coast, I have learned to really appreciate a good airline and good service. It’s not that Air Canada’s is bad, it’s more of a global mindset, supported in both cases by the CEO. WestJet really does seem to function similar to those commercials they have out - genuinely caring about how their customers feel about their treatment from the airline and it’s employees.
I have had the opportunity to travel both airlines across Canada for business quite often. For connection reasons, sometimes my work has scheduled a non-stop flight on Air Canada due to there being no direct flights on WestJet. I would rather have a plane change in Toronto though now that I think about it. It seems that each time I fly with either one I am given one more “validation” of my feelings which led me to want to write this article. Anyway, here are my top 10 reasons why I prefer Westjet.
- I find that there is slightly more leg room in the WestJet planes for a given trip. Yes, I know it depends on the plane, but this is just my personal feeling.
- WestJet planes travelling across Canada have FREE in-seat live satellite TV. Yes - Live TV. You have to pay for a movie, but I always find enough interesting programs on continuously during my flight.
- Real headphone jacks!!! Why-o-why Air Canada must you saddle us poor passengers with the non-standard two prong plug that only exists on airlines? Hallelujah to WestJet for figuring out that for every user who has their own headphones, there is a user who will pay a buck or three for WestJet’s headphones even though they are not railroaded into it.
- Nicer, more friendly cabin crew. They are actually relaxed and not afraid to crack jokes and work with some light humor. The passengers always seem to collectively appreciate it.
- Nicer, more friendly gate workers. I am consistently surprised at how friendly they are to me.
- Nicer, more friendly ticketing agents. Once again, I don’t get the feeling like they feel like they are doing ME a favor when I have to speak to them.
- Airplane speaker volumes that aren’t painful on the ears.
- The cabin crew takes drink orders with a pen and paper and serves the drinks with a tray like in a restaurant. It’s nice because being 6′4″ tall, I don’t continually get my elbow crunched by that huge drink cart that the Air Canada crew pushes around when I have the aisle seat. This is usually followed by the look on the stewardess like -I- did something wrong…
- I have friends that have lost baggage while on a Westjet flight. Basically it was found and returned the next day. They actually received a $50 courtesy gift certificate for their troubles in the mail several days later. These same people have also lost bags on Air Canada and they had trouble even finding someone on the phone who could help them after they left the airport. (ie: calling baggage tracking was a nightmare)
- The staff have a reason to care as they own shares in the company. This makes sense as a model. Good going.
Please leave a comment if you agree or disagree with me. I am genuinely curious to see whether this is something that just I see, or do many people see these things? Hell - maybe there are people that feel the opposite about the two - I’d like to hear from you too!
until that next flight…
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