labern116

We are flying from Calgary to Vancouver on 7/15 for a 1 way ticket. Wondering which airline is better, on time, no luggage loss, comfort, etc. Either Air Canada or Westjet? Both around the same price but air canada wants to charge $17 extra if we want to have pre-assigned seats before hand. Which should we go with? Or are their other airline carriers that you recommend between these 2 cities?

starfish1

Westjet gets my vote. It's a short flight but I find they offer better overall service. You can just do a web check-in 24 hours prior to your flight to choose your seats.

Cruiseryyc

West Jet gets my vote everytime over Air Canada.

TracyB

For such a short flight, it doesn't even really matter!! However it appears WestJuet is the better of the 2!!

ltt

i like to support west jet

laverendrye

I fly both Air Canada and Westjet regularly, and I don't find much difference in the service between the two. You can choose between live satellite TV on WJ and seat-back entertainment centres on AC. On domestic flights you'll pay for your meals. On the whole, they're both fine and certainly better than coach class on any US airline I've flown in recent years.

My choice is usually made on the basis of price and schedule, not service. Air Canada has a more complicated price structure for add-on fees for increased services or flexibility. If advanced seat selection is important to you then perhaps the charge for pre-assigned seats is worth it. With both AC and WJ however, you can check in 24 hours before the flight and choose your seats then. I just returned from Calgary this week on WJ and was able to get an emergency row seat while checking in on-line (as I did on my outbound flight).

There's really very little to choose between the two on a short flight like this one.

SusanInToronto

I flew between Toronto & Montreal for several months while working in Montreal. If I could, I'd fly Westjet - generally better service, more pleasant and more comfortable.

ShelliDawn

I fly WestJet when there's a choice. It's a Calgary based company so I feel like I'm supporting the home team. Although there's usually nothing wrong with the service I receive from Air Canada, WestJet has a more relaxed/fun corporate culture that I enjoy.

Also, WestJet doesn't have different classes of seats, so usually when I check in (24 hours in advance, online) I can get a seat quite close to the front of the plane. This is nice because I am not a good flyer and find that the farther back my seat is, the worse I feel.

Pippy1

That's so typical of AC - charging for pre-assigned seats. They also like to rip you off on the "food" that they sell. If you want your luggage to go to Toronto, fly AC. If you want to be bumped off the flight even when you're at the gate on time, fly AC. If you want to be berated by the staff because they are having a rough day, fly AC. IF you want to listen to how rough a day the employees have had, fly AC. Their company motto is "We're not happy 'til you're not happy." They seem to go out of their way to make travelling an unpleasant experience and it seems that every employee hates their job. We recently flew to Europe with AC and the service was dreadful (and that's being generous). Do yourselves a favour and fly with WestJet. The jokes that the flight attendants tell are really bad, but they will make you smile. WEstJet employees seem to appreciate the business and will go the extra mile to make the trip as pleasant as possible. The flights are on time, if not arriving early. We wish they flew to Europe.

PS. We don't work for Westjet but we do travel a lot (but not on AC anymore)

laverendrye

I always find interesting the bashing that Air Canada seems to take. I'm sure that much of it is based on bad experiences that people have had on that airline, but over the years I've had bad experiences with pretty well every airline I've ever flown, West Jet included. Some of them have been the airline's fault, others not.

As I said in an earlier post, I fly frquently on both Air Canada and Westjet, and I haven't noticed much difference in their service on domestic flights. (I have not flown WJ outside of Canada). Westjet has a younger and more casual staff, but in the end, their service levels don't differ much from Air Canada.

Take, for example Pippy 1's point that AC charges for pre-assigned seats. So?? You can't get pre-assigned seats with WJ, only at check-in, as with AC. If you want to choose your seats when you buy a ticket, then maybe it's worth something for you to do so. If you want to take your chances at check-in (up to 24 hours before) then AC and WJ offer identical service.

How about the comment that AC "likes to rip you off on the food that they sell"? Well, on my WJ flight earlier this week, I sure didn't notice any free food, other than cookies and pretzels. If you wanted anything more, you paid for it at prices equivalent to the selections on AC. Whether or not it's a rip-off depends perhaps on how hungry you are.

I suppose it's mostly a matter of perception. In 45 years, AC has never sent my bags to Toronto unless I've been heading there, and I've never been bumped at the gate. However, I'd never claim that this doesn't happen--perhaps Pippy 1 has been unfortunate enough to have experienced this as a regular occurrence, and that could certainly colour one's judgement.

I'm sure some of you may have heard how Westjet lost track of a 5 year old girl travelling alone last December

http://tinyurl.com/2a5kvj

An unfortunate incident, but I don't think that it was typical and I wouldn't judge the airline on the basis of it.

I think that AC sometimes suffers from its legacy of being a government owned airline, when its service was at times pretty bad. (Perhaps some people think it's still government-owned and are taking out their dislike of the government on AC). I think that it also suffered for a while from its forced merger in 1999 with Canadian Airlines when there was considerable bitterness between the merged staffs. However in the past 5 or 6 years, it has improved considerably.

I have no friends or relatives at either airline, but am simply expressing my views as someone who has flown on many airlines all over the world for more than four decades.