Originally Posted by
pokee
It's impossible to qualify their bait and switch strategy with cancelation percentages. For all we know, those 4% could be the the sales they're advertising. I don't disagree that it's difficult to conclude with any accuracy- I'm just going by the numerous reports of this tactic I've seen on this forum. And while AC may cancel twice as many flights, I've seen far less reports of them not getting you on a comparable flight. So no slimey feeling afterwards that you got played...
It is easy to correlate what they sell with what they fly. The schedules are published well in advance, with over 16,000 flights a month at the moment and about 2 million seats per month available I’m sure there is an illusion of “bait and switch” to a few people, but flights don’t just appear and disappear. 4% cancellation is still over 600 flights and about 90,000 seats dropped from inventory a month, but it is only a small amount of the total flown.
I’m inclined to trust real data from reputable airline industry sources, as opposed to people’s impressions from reading Internet forums and social media with absence of critical data analysis.
As an indication of completion rate before Covid, WestJet was typically in the 98 to 99% range, so the current 96% is starting to get back towards their past performance.