So now, there's a couple questions...
To me, they can take this either way...they can either become part of an alliance a legacy type carrier with true business class, multiple long haul destinations etc.
However, based on the announcement of their ULCC division or whatever u wanna call it, I'd suggest they're going the other way. They're gonna try to be Scoot or Nok Air, whatever. They'll cram this thing with as many seats as possible, the "J" will be basically what it is on the garbage 767s now. The long haul routes will be mainly the touristy ones...LGW, ORY, FCO/VCE, and the like.
I'm not sure the barriers to entry to joining some of these alliances, but I know most of the time they want to have some synchronicity across the different airlines. How much of a drop down does a CX J passenger see when they arrive in Vancouver and then jump on an aircraft to YUL? I certainly wouldn't wanna be a customer of a full service airline then connecting on to an LCC.
The 767s were a joke to begin with, but my guess is they wanted to jump right into the long haul and couldn't get the 787s fast enough and didn't wanna go with any kind of airbus either.
As someone who's worked closely with WS for years, I just don't see this as some game changer for them. I don't see this as a huge transformation. Sure the 787 opens new possibilities, but they could've flown to Japan from Vancouver with the 767 and haven't. Where are they gonna fly in South America? YVR-GRU? Doubtful. YVR-LIM? Doesn't make much sense. So to me it's only Asia and Europe, I think Asia is already fairly well served, think what you might of these mainland Chinese carriers or HK Airways, but they've beaten WS to the punch as being the secondary carriers to the legacy guys.
What I DO see this as...is a huge shot at Air Transat. WS can and will compete with them on these european routes. Currently WS can only compete with them on the LGW route, but now fuhgettaboutit. They can take all their feed traffic and send them overseas on these birds which while they may be a bit uncomfortable and with less service, will still be a better option than transat. They'll fly daily to multiple spots, 3x weekly to others, meanwhile TS doesn't offer that and doesn't offer the connecting service. Wanna fly to CDG from YVR? Hope you like flying on a Tuesday (for example). Now I know TS has that built in package advantage that some people like...but I think the advantages WS has will trump that.
Your move Transat.