I was pleased to get a chance to try WS gold status through status match this year. For my flying patterns WS has at least one great route for me. Unfortunately there are some policy limitations with WS that, for my needs, make them uncompetitive with AC:
- No flexibility within 24 hrs: I need flexibility with my flight bookings, WS has policies in place that don't allow free cancellation (refund) within 24 hrs of departure. In my opinion they shouldn't charge full service airline fares (just paid $499 for a one way YEG-YYJ) without providing full service airline features, like flexibility. Because of this, I basically won't book WS until I'm on my way to the airport. This leads to my next issue
- Upgrades processed automatically 24 hours prior to departure. Given the lack of flexibility of WS fares, I don't usually book 24 hours in advance, that means I don't get upgraded. So now I just buy premium every time (this makes the value of my status close to zero).
- No flight passes. Since I book last minute one of the tools I use to control costs is the use of flight pass products from AC. Note that even the flex passes allow free cancellation within 24 hrs. But the last minute fares on WS are substantially higher than the cost of using latitude pass on AC, which affords the ultimate in flexibility. Because of this I usually am paying about 50% more per flight if I fly WS using my last minute booking strategy.
For these reasons I am sticking with AC for almost all my flights and place very minimal value on WS status. After my gold status match I thought I could make them a secondary carrier and program, but after trying it out, I can't. Obviously there are other issues which prevent them from being my primary carrier (limited routes and frequencies, not many aircraft with lie flats, no concierge). So Im glad to see WS growing, and see them adding international routes, real business class etc, but unfortunately the program doesn't do much for my needs as a last minute western Canada based business traveler.