Is Westjet pretty much the same as AC nowadays?

AC vs WS? For an apples-to-apples comparison, here’s a summary of North American narrow-body service on both airlines. (i.e. excluding wide-bodies, excluding regional turbo-props)


FLIGHTS AND NETWORK:

AC:
- Most flights require you to go through one of three hubs (YYZ, YUL, YVR) although point-to-point service to/from other domestic airports remains.
- Schedule and network within Canada/U.S. remains pretty consistent year round. Sun and leisure routes change in summer and winter scheds.
- Can get you from anywhere in Canada to anywhere in the world with pretty seamless Star Alliance connectivity

WS:
- Many destinations require a YYC connection -- their one-and-only remaining hub
- Not requiring a YYC connection: Point-to-point flights within western Canada. Point-to-point flights between western and eastern Canada. Seasonal point-to-point flights between many non-YYC Canadian airports and narrowbody sun/leisure destinations.
- For U.S. destinations, they feed into Delta hubs from some other cities in western Canada.
- Very limited service of any kind east of Ontario – mostly limited trans-con to YYC.
- Schedule and network seems to be much more variable than AC, e.g. U.S. destinations and frequencies go up and down much more by season than AC.
- Connectivity outside of Canada/U.S. tends to be limited and clunky. It’s all based on code-shares and interlines … not seamless, not always easy. Highly seasonal.

SELF-SERVE TECH:
AC: Really pretty good now. Easy check-in. Good UX. Everything you might want to know is presented nicely during both the booking process and while you're travelling. Decent self-serve options during IRROPS.
WS: Not the worst, but not the best. The UX is OK, but feels dated and can be frustrating. No seat map til after you buy? No ability to filter options when looking to purchase? Why does web check-in require me to type in my locator number, even when I'm signed in? Why can't it remember my personal info like passport and KTN from my profile? And IRROPS -- well, no self-serve functionality. Instead, wait for an email from WestJet or try phoning the call center.

AIRPORT EXPERIENCE:

Check-in, at the gate, CSAs: Pretty much the same. WS used to excel here, but they’ve now outsourced most stations to third-party contractors (wearing WS uniforms) providing basic check-in and boarding functions – taking away any WestJet advantage. (Top-top-tier AC fliers have access to a Concierge airport experience that WestJet does not offer.)

Lounges:
AC MLLs: Really nice lounges, located at every major airport in Canada.
WS Elevation: Only a single lounge at YYC domestic, but it’s hands-down the best lounge in Canada. Lounges in other cities are third-party contract lounges … ranging from good (Aspire YYC transborder) to meh (YVR domestic) to a third-rate dump (YYZ domestic).

THE ECONOMY CABIN:

Y cabin seat options:
AC = a well-defined and consistent “preferred” seat product at the front of the Y cabin, offering outstanding seat pitch
WS = some rows at the front of Y are designated as “preferred” and cost more to select, although not as much additional legroom and the offering is inconsistent across aircraft types. The offering is fuzzy, and unlike AC it’s not really treated as a distict, defined product. It’s still unclear to me if those preferred seats always include extra pitch, or if they're sometimes just front-ish-of-cabin seats.

Back of Y: identical on both airlines ... except for AC flights operated on "Rouge" aircraft which have abysmal, awful, knee-crushing seat pitch in Y.

Entertainment
AC = seat-back TVs
WS = no seat-back TVs, streaming to personal device only

Buy-on-board food
AC = a really good and extensive Air Canada Bistro buy-on-board menu with hot options, meals, and fresh food. “Chef-curated” bistro boxes available for pre-order.
WS = a limited and pretty basic buy-on-board menu; extremely limited hot options. No pre-order option. Not unheard of that they run out of some items. Better to buy food in the terminal and bring it with you.

Beverages
AC = The standard free selection. For sale: the usual alcohols, basic wines, premium wines (from Business cabin), Molson Canadian, Coors Light, Heineken. i.e. slightly more on offer for drinks than WestJet
WS = The standard free selection. For sale: the usual alcohols, basic wines, Molson Canadian, Coors Light

THE FRONT CABIN:

Airport experience: Pretty much identical. Priority check-in, priority security, priority boarding, priority baggage. Except…

Lounge access included:
AC = Yes.
WS = No. Access only available if you have WS status or Priority Pass.

Seating:
A tie. Standard 2x2 North American J style seats in a separate cabin. More rows on AC, however, allowing for better access to upgrades for premium-level customers.

On-board service:
AC = full experience with hot meal on all flights over 2.0 hours
WS = full experience with hot meal on most (but not all) flights over 2.5 hours. On some flights over 2.5 hours, they arbitrarily cut out the meal service and replace it with a cardboard box containing a few packaged snack items.

FREQUENT FLIER PROGRAM

AC: Aeroplan is greatly improved from what it used to be in the bad old days. Typical status levels and benefits to most FF programs. Status recognition across Star Alliance. Earn points and status qualifying on multiple airlines. Use points on multiple airlines. Good ability to upgrade to premium cabins. It’s a points program with all of the associated frustration with reward levels and reward inventories – which, IMHO, is a bad thing. (YMMV)

WS: Typical status levels and benefits to most FF programs. Status recognition on one other airline (Delta) only. Earn points (i.e. WSD) on other airlines – but they don’t qualify for status earning -- which is a big disadvantage that I find really frustrating. Limited ability to upgrade to premium cabins. It’s a dollars program which allow you to choose any seat, any flight, and apply $ credit to it – which I personally love. Ability to earn companion vouchers (far better than the credit card version of companion vouchers) is a huge benefit -- they're great.