WestJet's new web booking site

Old Mar 2, 2013, 4:08 am
  #1  
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WestJet's new web booking site

westjet.com now has a new web booking engine which includes fare bundles, multi city and other new features, go and check it out!

http://www.westjet.com/guest/en/flights/index.shtml
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 7:01 am
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So we now have an answer to what premium economy will cost. On a flight from YOW to YWG, a 90% premium will get you: 36" of pitch, an extra piece of checked luggage, free changes, and priority security. That's quite the hefty premium for what is still just an economy class seat with no meal service, and way more than I'd be willing to pay.

Guess it's 31" pitch in economy minus for me ... or 32" pitch on Air Canada. (Or 34" on the CRJ-705, which AC usually operates on the YOW-YWG route.)
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 7:42 am
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Originally Posted by StuMcIlwain
So we now have an answer to what premium economy will cost. On a flight from YOW to YWG, a 90% premium will get you: 36" of pitch, an extra piece of checked luggage, free changes, and priority security. That's quite the hefty premium for what is still just an economy class seat with no meal service, and way more than I'd be willing to pay.

Guess it's 31" pitch in economy minus for me ... or 32" pitch on Air Canada. (Or 34" on the CRJ-705, which AC usually operates on the YOW-YWG route.)
Wow. That's quite a premium. On UA for a similar type of flight length you're looking at somewhere between $30-35 and $50-60 for E+, depending on the seat chosen. You don't get extra services like on WS but basically the seat pitch will be the same.
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 8:14 am
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I priced out a few itins and basically the 90% premium is right on. Curiously, they are marketing the exit row access as through the 'Flex' fares as well, so you effectively have two different price points for some of the new Premium seats. That seems messy. For some of the itins I looked at, where the lowest fares were sold out anyhow, you now get more than you would have under the old system as you book into Flex or Premium, so that's a plus.

Overall, it seems like a mistake to bundle the fare classes together with the premium seats rather than to up sell the premium seats as an add-on. That way they'd have the option to load more high fares if demand is good without tying them to the number of premium seats available. I'm sure they'll make adjustments if sales don't go as planned. They'll know pretty quickly if no one buys the premium fares until the econ and flex are sold out that it isn't the product itself that is driving sales.
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 10:04 am
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On Monday, for YOW-YWG, the fully refundable fare on AC for YOW-YWG n/s is $843 on the 7:40am departure and $1,147 on the 5:25pm departure.

Westjet's fully refundable fare on it's 2:05pm n/s departure is $583.22, I get 2 bags and sit up front with extra legroom.

I pay my own way and if refundability / flexibility is important to me, saving $260, that costs me $433 in pre tax earnings, is MY bottom line.

Sitting in a lounge for an hour or two and collecting some points I rarely use is NOT worth $433 out of my pocket book!

Westjet's premium offering on one way YYZ-YUL is 22% more than the reg fare on Monday and still $225 less than Air Canada's equivalent fare. That saves me $448 in after tax dollars per round-trip!!! $448 BUCKS!

ONE YYZ-YUL round trip saves me enough money to fly from YYZ to FLL the weekend of April 18th and still have few bucks left over in my jeans!

There's no amount of "status points" or lounge access over a 1 hour flight from Toronto to Montreal that makes up for that amount of value that goes directly to MY bottom line, the ONLY bottom line that matters to me!

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Old Mar 2, 2013, 11:14 am
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Using the same example, the cheapest available fare for Monday between YOW and YWG is $436 on either airline. That will give me a 34" pitch seat on AC or a 31" pitch seat on WS. If I need flexibility, the change fee for that fare on either airline is $50.

Guess who is going to get my business.
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 12:08 pm
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 12:35 pm
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Originally Posted by dodgy
StuMcIlwain 1, HangTen 0
I guess it also depends on whether or not you want to get up at 5:30am or earlier for that 7:40am flight that's $436!

If you need to do a day or a portion of a day's business in Ottawa, that $1,147 fare kinda sucks, eh? I like the looks of $436 for WS's 2:05pm, pocket the $711 difference and use $455 of it for a weekend in South Florida in April and still have $256 left over for hotels!

I also wonder how long 34" pitch will remain on the CRJ700's when they aren't able to charge a premium for it?

I like the Warren Buffet approach to building wealth. The best place for MY after tax money is in MY jeans. If you fly on someone else's dime, you don't care anyway.

Handing all that cash, ($711!!!) over so I can sit in a lounge and have a "free" beer and have a seat with 3 inches more legroom for a couple of hours so I can feel important makes no sense to me at all but if it works for you, go for it!

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Old Mar 2, 2013, 1:25 pm
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 1:42 pm
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Originally Posted by StuMcIlwain
Using the same example, the cheapest available fare for Monday between YOW and YWG is $436 on either airline. That will give me a 34" pitch seat on AC or a 31" pitch seat on WS. If I need flexibility, the change fee for that fare on either airline is $50.

Guess who is going to get my business.
You'll be disappointed to learn that AC currently charges you $75 plus the fare difference if you make that change at the airport, and $150 plus the fare difference if you do it in advance. The fare difference, by the way, when you're talking an imminent departure versus a ticket sold weeks in advance, is often enormous. This is why people like me would sometimes pay the extra for Latitude fares that allowed flexibility, or a complete refund if it came right down to it.

Last year I flew +/- 67,000 miles on Air Canada. The year before, I flew +/- 82,000 miles with them. This year, I doubt I'll crack 20,000.

Last year I flew about 7,000 miles on WestJet. The year before, I didn't fly with them at all. This year, I'll probably do around 35,000 miles.

See a pattern here? WestJet is not only often less expensive than Air Canada, but consistently delivers better on-time performance. If they will offer me fully refundable, fully flexible fares for less than Air Canada will, guess who will get my business?
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 2:25 pm
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Originally Posted by StuMcIlwain
So we now have an answer to what premium economy will cost. On a flight from YOW to YWG, a 90% premium will get you: 36" of pitch, an extra piece of checked luggage, free changes, and priority security. That's quite the hefty premium for what is still just an economy class seat with no meal service, and way more than I'd be willing to pay.
Agree and I was really curious to see how WS would price the premium economy seats and this seems steep to me though YMMV.
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 6:23 pm
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Originally Posted by tcook052
Agree and I was really curious to see how WS would price the premium economy seats and this seems steep to me though YMMV.
Now you know why there are so few of them on each plane. :-)
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Old Mar 2, 2013, 8:14 pm
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I'll never buy one but I suppose if there are those that need a fully flex tkt for some reason it's a nice perk. Given the fare difference though, would it not invariably just make sense to buy cheap and pay the change fee?
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Old Mar 3, 2013, 8:29 am
  #14  
 
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need info on Westjet job

no where can I find the pay rates for a Westjet ambassador, the average hour/week ect.... could someone please inform me ?
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Old Mar 3, 2013, 10:58 am
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Do I see correctly that the price increase from Economy to Flex is pretty large on direct flights, but much smaller on itineraries that require a connection (when origin and destination are the same)?
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