Adam Smith

I booked a quick YYC-YVR return just to see how awful Flair actually is.

So, apparently Flair randomly assigns you seats at check-in if you don't pay for one in advance? Not seat selection opens up at check-in, not rush seating, but randomly assigned? I've never seen that before.

Also, I see nothing on their website about how you get seat assignments together for free if travelling with children, which is required under Canadian regulations. In fact, Flair deceptively suggests that paying for a seat is the only way to ensure you keep your family together (emphasis mine in the quote below).

They also don't advertise their seat pitch anywhere, or how much extra leg room you get for the seats that supposedly have extra leg room. For all I know, they're trying to charge $37, on a one-hour flight, for only 1/2" of extra pitch.

I couldn't book in Chrome, had to use Internet Explorer. Incognito didn't work either. The website timed out on me multiple times while trying to make my purchase, despite only being away for a brief period. There's no timer indicating how long you have to complete your purchase, and whether it's cumulative across the booking flow or only on any one page.

When I try to manage my booking, it just says "Something went wrong."

Thus far, not hard to see why 60% of TripAdvisor reviews for the airline are one star.

On Time Reports

I downloaded the app recently and was initially a little worried when I entered my booking reference and my trip could not be found in the app. Also there is no way to save your trip in the app so you have to enter in the booking reference every time.

The booking confirmation email is quite weird too... Like it doesn't even say how much you paid. You can only find a receipt when you manage your booking on the website.

There also doesn't appear to be a way in knowing whether you are flying on the NG or MAX on Flair's website when booking. Only after booking and in manage your booking on the website can you find the type of aircraft you are on.

I ran into the same "Something went wrong" problem when trying to manage my booking and I think that is because there is multiple "my trip" and "my booking" tabs. I have only been successful so far when clicking the "my booking" tab on the home page.

Adam Smith

Where's that? I thought I saw it a couple days ago, but not seeing it now?

On Time Reports

My bookings —> view itinerary

Adam Smith

Ah, got it. I was thinking I had just seen it on the main manage booking page, but yeah, you're right, that's where it is.

On Time Reports

This looks like an NTU frame from cancelled BOC Aviation order

https://737-max.blogspot.com/2019/06...tu-frames.html

It looks like there are 13 NTU frames that were supposed to go to BOC. Lucky number 13 is the same number of aircrafts that Flair ordered...

Adam Smith

Interesting. I wonder whether the pandemic has eased the backlog in seats/interiors and allowed Flair to customize or whether they're just stuck with whatever BOC's customer ordered.

Adam Smith

I'm already unimpressed with tomorrow's travel experience with Flair.

Got an OLCI reminder at T-24, so that's good. Did OLCI. Slightly clunky because lots of attempts to upsell, but not a big deal.

But from then on... Boy...

BP must be printed - no e-mail/mobile option. That's not good. I imagine if I don't print it at home, they'll charge me to do it at the airport. I can't remember the last time I ran in to that.

I have two flights (same day round trip). The website only let me check in for the first flight, which was fine, since it wasn't T-24 for the return. But when I tried to check in for the return a few hours later (within T-24; no OLCI e-mail for this one), it wouldn't let me. I thought maybe I could fix it through the My Booking section, but even though that's supposed to be available up to one hour before departure, it no longer allows me to pull up my booking.

Phone support was closed, because they only work 9-5 Eastern. I did get someone on the chat on the website (only took about 7 minutes), who said I'm actually checked in for both legs, of which I'm not really sure. I've been told that they will print me the BP for the second flight at the airport at no charge, and that there is a note on my PNR to that effect.

But colour me skeptical that it's going to go smoothly.

On Time Reports

Oh your lucky - I did not receive a email reminding me of checking in. The boarding pass can be displayed on your phone.

If you didn't buy a seat, I bet you randomly got assigned a seat at the front of the airplane? That's at least what happened on my flight... There were about 30 pax and about 25 were sitting in the first 5 rows with every seat taken. Then there were about 5 sitting in the back all scattered. Nevermind considering social distancing, but I was surprised no one asked to move to the back or was forced to move to the back to balance the weight of the aircraft... Very weird...

Also did not really get a good understanding of how boarding works. They first called families, people needing extra time, etc. then they just called everyone... Perhaps because of low loads? But didn't see a boarding zone of my boarding pass.

Supposedly your personal item is only to be 7kg but did not see a scale anywhere.

Since now that all 3 airplanes are flying regularly, I did some dummy bookings and it seems like the loads are all very very light...

Adam Smith

Thanks, I see now that it says that in the check-in confirmation e-mail with the BP attached. Odd, because the website didn't mention anything about that, it said only to print the BP.

And did you actually use your phone? Because that same e-mail says "manage your trip in the mobile app", which you definitely can't do, since the app is only for IFE

I got assigned 13C, which is towards the front of the "standard" seats. The extra leg room and "front" seats look pretty much empty (as well as the seats in the back), while the seats in the middle are pretty heavily occupied.

If the plane is as empty as it looks like it's going to be (only ~1/3 of seats occupied on the seat map at the moment), I fully intend to move myself to a less occupied area. If they take issue with it, they can send me back (or forward, as the case may be), but better to beg forgiveness than ask permission

W&B is generally not an issue on 738s though, even with light loads. I don't ever remember W&B moves on my flights on anything larger than an E90.

My BP doesn't have a zone. Maybe they do it old school, by row?

Adam Smith

Quick summary of today's trip:

Had to wait in line for a while to get the second BP printed. As someone who usually flies (a) in business/first class and/or (b) with an airline with which he has status, I did not enjoy that

Everyone at the counter was friendly, but took her a few minutes to figure out what was going on. Once she did, she got it printed fine.

The flight was much more full than I had expected, based on the seat map late last night. Most middle seats were empty, but a bunch weren't (usually families flying together). I'd say probably 60-70% LF or so. I wonder, did all those people who got the expensive "front" and "extra room" seats just check in later and get them for free? Because other than rows 1-2 or so, the front half the plane was all available to select after midnight last night but was >60% full on the plane.

I took a backpack and loaded it up with a bunch of newspapers/magazines I had sitting around. Likely well over 7 kg, just to see what might happen, but the only thing they seemed focused on was size.

Coming back, probably more like 50% full. I never saw the seat map for that one, so have no comments to offer there (could have looked it up last night but didn't think of that, I guess).

Cabin crew were pleasant, but other than pre-departure and post-landing walkthroughs, they seemed to spend the whole time in the galleys. No WiFi on the plane (C-FFLA), so perhaps with no app on which to order drinks or whatever, they don't do any service?

I maximized lounge time before both flights. Last to board on the outbound, close to it (if not last again) on the return, so no clarity on how they do boarding.

Leg room was poor, but I've had worse. The seats have a weird bucket-like design to them towards the bottom, which makes it not all that comfortable to twist yourself one way or the other to take advantage of leg room in a an empty middle seat - trying to keep you pointed straight ahead, it seems.

Overall, fine for a short YYC-YVR for me, but I wouldn't want to be stuck on one of those planes for 4 hours. Then again, I would generally also avoid flying AC, WS, or the US3 in Y on a 4-hour route.

On Time Reports

Hmm for boarding I thought a seat would be assigned to you automatically at T-24, independent of when you checked in. Apparently there is no service right now due to covid.

Also this gave me a good laugh between WS and F8 regarding last minute fares... start watching at the 39:08 mark for 20 seconds.

Adam Smith

Based on this experience, I'd guess it's at check-in rather than at T-24. Unless an awful lot of people bought tickets this morning, which seems implausible.

Adam Smith

I was clearing out some screenshots from my phone today and realized I didn't post this gem of a glitch from my little YVR trip a couple weeks ago...

On Time Reports

There are so many flaws with the website. For example, the non-stop YMM-YYZ flight takes 6 hours apparently