Engine shot
View of the YQQ terminal building
Reflection
Central Mountain Air again C-FCMV B-1900D Third aircraft at the tarmac this afternoon
Three friendly F/As welcomed everyone on board and the different between flying Air Canada and Westjet is that the employees are definitely happy about their jobs and proud of their companies. They will go the extra mile to help you and the greeting is more sincere.
Few more cabin shots
We had the traditional Westjet seat with the adjustable headrest and personal television. There is a newer version of slimmer seat with sliding headrest on the Boeing 737-800, but no more personal television.
There was no push back here at YQQ, and the engines were started at the gate and then the plane followed the curve line and did an one eighty and taxied towards the runway.
We took off from R/W12 at 4:01pm and flight time was an hour and fifteen minutes with a cruising attitude of 39,000feet.
Beautiful scenery after takeoff
Too bad the weather was cloudy all the way Edmonton and only a few shots prior to our descent into Edmonton
Service began with the F/As selling headsets including a fancier noise-reduction version. Please note that Westjet doesn’t provide free headset but you can use your own headset. Buy On Board was not offered on this short flight, but alcoholic beverages were available. Beverage includes the usual complimentary non-alcoholic beverages and a cash bar. You can choose between a pack of Ranch flavored Crispers or brown sugar blueberry cookie, as snack.
Here is my choice today:
Personal TV
A Live TV powered by Bell was turned on after the safety demonstration, and you are sort of force to watch some commercials after takeoff. I guess it is reasonable to watch a 3 minutes ad considered the TV is free. The reception is much better on this flight than the Whitehorse to Vancouver flight too. I have no issues watching various shows. However I am saddened to learn that the new Boeing 737-800s will not have personal television and for US bound flights, Live TV will no longer work. Westjet will instead rent out tablets. My personal point of view is that Live TV is something special and the ability to watch live news and sports is a good selling point. Wifi will perhaps be a permanent feature in the future, but the current technology is still limited and reliable high speed wifi may still be decades away from possible. It won’t be a while till everyone can turn on their individual wifi devices and able to stream audio and video all at once. Live TV should remain a good selling point. I don’t even mind paying $5 to $15 depending on the length of flight. The weight is of course a concern for the airline, as well as the maintenance, but with the relatively high cost of traveling in Canada, these personal televisions are good to keep. I hope that Westjet will really think this though.
Approaching Edmonton
We landed on R/W02 at 8:16pm local time (Edmonton is an hour ahead of Vancouver) and parked at gate 54 seven minutes later.
Air Canada Boeing 767 C-GHOZ just arrived from Heathrow
Air Canada E190 heading to Vancouver
