No more seat preview when booking?
Apr 8, 2016, 8:59 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2013
Programs: Yes, I belong.
Posts: 361
No more seat preview when booking?
Looks like WS has an updated website and the available seat preview is gone! Is this temporary while they make the updates or is this a new, permanent 'feature'? Available seating comes a close second after price when I make my flight purchases.
Apr 8, 2016, 9:17 pm
#2
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 3
I just noticed this as well and came to the forum to see if anyone else had commented on it.
I hate to sound dramatic, but if I can no longer view available seats before booking a flight then that will probably force me to go back to Air Canada as my primary airline. I'm 6'7 and the availability of aisle exit rows is far more important to me than departure time or cost.
Someone from WestJet, please tell us that this isn't the case. I've been happy to make you my exclusive airline for Canadian travel over the past year, but unfortunately that won't continue if I can't verify that an aisle exit row seat is available prior to booking.
I hate to sound dramatic, but if I can no longer view available seats before booking a flight then that will probably force me to go back to Air Canada as my primary airline. I'm 6'7 and the availability of aisle exit rows is far more important to me than departure time or cost.
Someone from WestJet, please tell us that this isn't the case. I've been happy to make you my exclusive airline for Canadian travel over the past year, but unfortunately that won't continue if I can't verify that an aisle exit row seat is available prior to booking.
Apr 8, 2016, 10:17 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2013
Programs: Yes, I belong.
Posts: 361
Apr 8, 2016, 10:52 pm
#5
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: YYC
Posts: 2,073
Did a dummy booking and seat selection is available after the personal details screen. So it is not one click preview like on the website, but the same info is there. Not the best if you're comparing seat availability on multiple flights. I should have been more clear on how I was going about it.
Apr 9, 2016, 2:00 am
#6
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: YVR
Programs: Erstwhile Accidental AC E35K
Posts: 2,915
I hate to sound dramatic, but if I can no longer view available seats before booking a flight then that will probably force me to go back to Air Canada as my primary airline. I'm 6'7 and the availability of aisle exit rows is far more important to me than departure time or cost.
Someone from WestJet, please tell us that this isn't the case. I've been happy to make you my exclusive airline for Canadian travel over the past year, but unfortunately that won't continue if I can't verify that an aisle exit row seat is available prior to booking.
Someone from WestJet, please tell us that this isn't the case. I've been happy to make you my exclusive airline for Canadian travel over the past year, but unfortunately that won't continue if I can't verify that an aisle exit row seat is available prior to booking.
Apr 9, 2016, 9:58 am
#7
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,444
As YYCCL3 says, seat selection is available after you enter your personal details. The price and flight selection components of the booking have been changed for some users to include the new low fare finder calendar (currently for a short period being offered in an A/B mode that has new and old website together, so not all users will see it). After flight selection and personal detail entry, seat selection is available as before.
Apr 9, 2016, 11:45 am
#8
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: YYC
Programs: AC Basic, UA MP Gold, Marriott Gold Elite, SPG Gold, Amex Platinum
Posts: 3,008
Aerobod, thank you for the clarification and further information. It is very helpful
For me at work.
I don't understand the logic of replacing seat preview with a low fare finder, especially as all WS tickets are one way (or has WS introduced return airfares?). It appears to me (admittedly armchair quarterbacking) that WS is catering to the low fare crowd over the high fare crowd.
Take the President of my company. He flew AC religiously for many years but recently switched some flights to WS, his Exec Admin and me got him comp'd to gold status. The EA books all the presidents travels, which are mostly short notice yyc-YYZ or yyc-Yvr about 10 times per annum. Available seat selection is a determining factor for WS vs AC. The EA does not have the time to select the round trip and enter personal details I order to see whether an aisle plus seat or exit row seat is available. As everyone knows the AC website allows for seat preview with single click from the flight selection page. For clarity the EA routinely has WS flight selection page on one screen and AC flight selection on the other. She has to provide the President with options that meet his requirements (minimum extra legroom aisle).
Perhaps Westjet or aerobod could answer the following questions:
- Do fare classes associated with WS Plus zero out when all WS plus seats are taken? More precisely, is it possible for WS Plus guest to be seated in regular economy?
- is there a possibility to get A second view into seat preview that does not involve booking engine? The UA iPhone app has seat preview in the flight status screen.
For me at work.
I don't understand the logic of replacing seat preview with a low fare finder, especially as all WS tickets are one way (or has WS introduced return airfares?). It appears to me (admittedly armchair quarterbacking) that WS is catering to the low fare crowd over the high fare crowd.
Take the President of my company. He flew AC religiously for many years but recently switched some flights to WS, his Exec Admin and me got him comp'd to gold status. The EA books all the presidents travels, which are mostly short notice yyc-YYZ or yyc-Yvr about 10 times per annum. Available seat selection is a determining factor for WS vs AC. The EA does not have the time to select the round trip and enter personal details I order to see whether an aisle plus seat or exit row seat is available. As everyone knows the AC website allows for seat preview with single click from the flight selection page. For clarity the EA routinely has WS flight selection page on one screen and AC flight selection on the other. She has to provide the President with options that meet his requirements (minimum extra legroom aisle).
Perhaps Westjet or aerobod could answer the following questions:
- Do fare classes associated with WS Plus zero out when all WS plus seats are taken? More precisely, is it possible for WS Plus guest to be seated in regular economy?
- is there a possibility to get A second view into seat preview that does not involve booking engine? The UA iPhone app has seat preview in the flight status screen.
Apr 9, 2016, 3:32 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2013
Programs: Yes, I belong.
Posts: 361
As YYCCL3 says, seat selection is available after you enter your personal details. The price and flight selection components of the booking have been changed for some users to include the new low fare finder calendar (currently for a short period being offered in an A/B mode that has new and old website together, so not all users will see it). After flight selection and personal detail entry, seat selection is available as before.
I would much rather see the seat preview prior to entering my info each time to look at every flight combo; this seems cumbersome.
Apr 9, 2016, 8:22 pm
#11
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,444
A few of the goals of the new design and booking flow:
- much better search performance for a given O&D
- price transparency over a given month, getting away from the slow tab view for fare comparisons
- move the flight search capability closer to the user (edge cloud usage)
One side effect of these goals is that a lot more fare data comes down a lot faster from a cached environment, but we still have to query Sabre for a given availability on a seat map. This would cause major performance issues if each fare displayed also had the data pulled down for seat availability, until a fare is chosen in the booking. There are business orientated enhancements in the works this year, too.
- much better search performance for a given O&D
- price transparency over a given month, getting away from the slow tab view for fare comparisons
- move the flight search capability closer to the user (edge cloud usage)
One side effect of these goals is that a lot more fare data comes down a lot faster from a cached environment, but we still have to query Sabre for a given availability on a seat map. This would cause major performance issues if each fare displayed also had the data pulled down for seat availability, until a fare is chosen in the booking. There are business orientated enhancements in the works this year, too.
Apr 9, 2016, 8:40 pm
#12
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,444
This year will see a lot of booking channel changes, the current major change is migrating the Datalex TDP B2C channel to SabreSonic Web v12.
Apr 9, 2016, 9:33 pm
#13
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: GVA (Greater Vancouver Area)
Programs: DREAD Gold; UA 1.035MM; Bonvoy Au-197; PCC Elite+; CCC Elite+; MSC C-12; CWC Au-197; WoH Dis
Posts: 52,133
Apr 9, 2016, 9:58 pm
#14
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,444
There are circumstances due to tax rules and the way airport charges are applied where return tickets can be more than two one-way tickets. The base fare components will be the same in both cases.
Apr 9, 2016, 10:48 pm
#15
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 3
A few of the goals of the new design and booking flow:
- much better search performance for a given O&D
- price transparency over a given month, getting away from the slow tab view for fare comparisons
- move the flight search capability closer to the user (edge cloud usage)
One side effect of these goals is that a lot more fare data comes down a lot faster from a cached environment, but we still have to query Sabre for a given availability on a seat map. This would cause major performance issues if each fare displayed also had the data pulled down for seat availability, until a fare is chosen in the booking. There are business orientated enhancements in the works this year, too.
- much better search performance for a given O&D
- price transparency over a given month, getting away from the slow tab view for fare comparisons
- move the flight search capability closer to the user (edge cloud usage)
One side effect of these goals is that a lot more fare data comes down a lot faster from a cached environment, but we still have to query Sabre for a given availability on a seat map. This would cause major performance issues if each fare displayed also had the data pulled down for seat availability, until a fare is chosen in the booking. There are business orientated enhancements in the works this year, too.
Just to clarify, are you confirming that once the upgrade is complete, the new system will only allow us to view the seatmap after entering our personal details?
Personally when I'm booking a flight, I load the route and day I'm planning to fly, view the seat maps, then choose whichever one has the seat I'm looking for and is closest to my preferred departure time. I then tell my office's travel desk the flight and seat numbers I would like to reserve and they handle it from there. Sometimes when I'm booking a multi-city trip I will base the dates and route around seat availability, which involves looking at quite a few different seat maps. For as much as I fly with WestJet, I never actually enter my personal information on the website.