Airplane Thread

[Eff-1]

Anyone flown Westjet dreamliner business class before? We are booked next week and I'm looking forward to trying a new cabin out. I've only ever flown the 737s.

And yes Hondaracer, we are bringing our 2 year old

[roastpuff]

It looks like a bog standard reverse herringbone. Solid bones on the product. Only problem is that if you're traveling with someone the layout makes it hard to converse/pass baby around etc.

[Eff-1]

The seats are identical to what's on AC, from what I've read. The main difference being there's a privacy screen between the two middle seats that can be lowered, something AC doesn't allow. During a flight, we toss our kid over the wall like a football so in theory this should be easier with the ability to lower the screen.

[Hondaracer]

They are the typical diamond club seats that most N/A carriers use in their Dreamliner I think.

We flew it on one leg to Ireland, it’s fine and serves its purpose as a lie flat seat, the long-haul service though with WJ was abysmal however. That was in 2019 with the Dreamliner we were on being only a few months old. However, with it being WJ I wouldn’t expect they’ve improved much.

Just flew AC to Toronto and back on 2 different 20 year old retrofit A320’s. Duck I will -never- fly WJ domestically again. AC is just such a step up which is hard to stomach, but everything about AC is superior imo. And I’m not willing to roll the dice hoping I get a new Max-8 with WJ as opposed to their terrible again fleet

[Eff-1]

To each their own. A lot of people swear by AC, including most of my colleagues, but I have to admit I switched from AC to WJ about 5 years ago and never looked back.

- The 737s board and deplane way faster than AC's high density aircraft. Nothing worse than boarding zone 4 and you're stuck in row 60 on a 777 coming back from Toronto on a Friday afternoon.

- My success rate on LMUs is way higher on WJ than AC, and way cheaper

- WJ status is far easier to achieve than any kind of AP status.

- Exit row seats get zone 1 boarding

- AC makes you pay for flex to earn AP (which some employers don't want to do)

Downsides to WJ:

- Schedule between YYZ and YVR isn't as good as AC

- With the Swoop aircraft joining the mainline fleet, there's now a decent risk of ending up on an "economy only" flight, which is not great if you like flying in a premium class. It's like when booking on AC only to get "rouged" due to a tail swap.

- Business and premium class doesn't offer quite as much as AC in terms of service.


In terms of fleet, excluding the Swoop aircraft, there's no difference now really between the 737-7s, or 8s on WJ. The seating/service is more or less the same regardless if you're on a 737-7 or brand new Max 8.

[Hondaracer]

Every one of their 737-800’s I’ve flown on has been those old ass leather seats that are totally worn in and hella uncomfortable, I find myself shifting every few minutes. I think it’s arguing over same shit different pile type thing but I’ve had terrible experiences with WJ including them telling me “plane travel is much like riding a bus in that we can’t control our passengers” which was the last straw for me.

On an unrelated note, the retrofit A320 we flew from YVR to YYZ actually had a retrofitted tail and belly camera, which was a surprising option to add to a 20 year old plane

[Eff-1]

I'd also agree that retrofitting the a320 by removing those ancient TV screens where the touchscreen never works is a good thing.

[underscore]

I find AC is slightly nicer when I'm on the plane, but for everything before and after the actual flight they're a pain in the ass. How nice the plane is doesn't count for much when they cancel your flight and rebook you on a different one that has connections your bags can't make.