RedBet

As someone who lived over 10 years in Montreal, I’m not aware that there exist a south shore airport 🤣

looking at its location I doubt many people who live on the island gonna choose it over YUL. Unless they can offer some underserved US destinations from there. But then I’m not sure those underserved destinations will be economically viable.

Altaflyer

Seemingly their western flights are quite often cancelled, in the last couple of days half the Calgary and Edmonton flights are cancelled! Also very significant delays. Why? Low loads or mechanicals with new planes. I am really hoping their Sun night to YEG goes!

respectable_man

The south shore market is really underserved, in part because of the 2x traffic mess that is required to travel from YUL to the south shore. You need to battle your way ex-YUL through Decarie and then battle your way through one of the bridges; the cost for a taxi may well be outrageous depending on the time of day. The catchment extends to Drummondville and the Eastern Townships including Sherbrooke and immediate area, so I don’t think their market is the island crowd.

PLeblond

Multiple factors.

There are 500,000 people living on the South Shore, as respectable_man identified, the St-Laurent/Dorval area is a clusterf*#k at any time of day one way or another, Sherbrooke is the largest metropolitan area in North America wthout regularly scheduled airline servie and their Airport in 20 in the wrong direction from the town. Bromont/Granby Industrial Park, Drummonville, etc.

Also, as a bonus. Downtown to YHU is a lot easier to get to than dowtown to YUL. Parking will be easier/cheaper, the airport will be easier to get through. There is a commuter train stop nearby and a dedicated shuttle from Metro Longueuil would make a lot of sense.

This is a no brainer

Altaflyer

Well, I made it only 75 minutes late. Flight was great...free meals for all (unexpected) and the wine was not as horrible as feared. One of Porter's staff told me the IRROPS are due to crew training (assuming it's delayed or they don't have staff) and mechanicals. Won't buy another tkt until there is some reliability in the network.....

respectable_man

Nevermind.

Carfield

My 6am flight from YYZ to YEG was cancelled next Saturday. BTW if you have flights to and from Edmonton next week, they are all reduced to one daily rotation. They will just run one daily flight 5:59pm YYZ to YEG, and then 3:40pm YEG to YYZ. The plane will sit in YEG for the morning.

I was automatically rebooked to the 3:40pm flight without my consent. I tried to change online but they showed me on the 3:40pm flight.
It was just a same day roundtrip and how could I make a 5:59pm YYZ-YEG flight when I do not arrive in Toronto till 9pm. Their emails were sent out at 9:30pm - after the call center was closed. When I tried to change online, they showed me "confirmed" on the 3:40pm flight. I will not be able to get a full refund without calling in.

Honestly Porter Airlines is unable to run this new schedule and the loading is really bad too.
But I will NOT RECOMMEND anyone from booking Porter Airlines unless they have a flexible schedule.
The E2 is nice but without a reliable schedule, how can one book a ticket on them?

Just a follow up after waking up at 6am to call Porter! The only saving grace is that there was no waiting time.
The agent was polite but tried to tell me that it was a schedule change, till I truly lost it and told him that the flight was cancelled and my new flight has a new flight number. Only at this case, he called his manager. Of course I got a full refund since the "schedule change" is 6:30am to 3:20pm. So you really need to get your facts right before calling them. This experience truly left a bitter taste in my mouth. Now I spent an extra $230USD for a last minute ticket on AC on the same route. Thankfully my upgrade was cleared but Porter Airlines' E195-E2 operation is definitely not ready for prime time. Just avoid it till they figure out their crew issue.

Sad!

Carfield

Bokehman

Looks like the issue is being reported by the media. The Globe published a story a few days ago but I’m unable to read due to the paywall. We have a flight to Calgary in August. Hopefully they get things sorted out. We specifically avoided AC so we didn’t have to go through this nonsense. There isn’t a single AC flight I’ve had in five years that didn’t have an equipment or itinerary change.

caroro

Does anyone know what happens if I have booked a refundable flight with travel credit (what Porter calls "reservation credit", that has an expiration date) and need to cancel that flight? I'm assuming I'll get back some travel (reservation?) credit, but would the expiration date be the same ?

Also, i see in my account a "reservation credit" and an "account credit" - anyone knows the difference? Does account credit have an expiration date as well ?
I couldn't find the answers on Porter's FAQ so far...

TravellingChris

I understand what Porter is trying to do. But the disadvantages of YUL in terms of location and ground transport will dissipate significantly when the REM opens.

TravellingChris

Now that Porter operates to major airports like YYZ and YVR, the airline will need to develop a much broader range of interline agreements. This wasn't an issue when Porter's main base was Billy Bishop, but now that it's trying to become something other than a regional carrier in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern U.S., it needs to make connections easier for travelers.

Interline or codeshare agreements with Air France, KLM, British Airways and probably American would be most welcome. For example, I could fly to/from my home airport on Porter and connect to BA's transatlantic service at YYZ. BA and AA would be great because both carriers no longer have codeshare agreements with WS.

Heffeh41

I asked PD about there code share agreement with B6. As of now in order to connect onto B6 in Boston, you need to fly through YTZ. Although my question wasn't directly answered, I got the hint that you will soon be able to connect from YOW as well now that they fly YOW-BOS.

respectable_man

Does anyone know when YOW-YQB is slated to start?

tedders

Currently looking at Porter Airlines for a YVR - YYZ round trip in late Aug. Pricing-wise, I've found that they're roughlly 100-150 bucks cheaper than a similarly booked AC flight.

I was curious about the experience with them, but couldn't find much recent ones here and turned to youtube.

Looking for people to chime in with their experience on this route, can PM me too so that this thread doesn't get bombarded unless people want more info.
Questions:
1. Anyone know if their Embraer E195-E2 are newly purchased, or a hand-me-down that they've bought from a different airline that they've refurbished? (YT reviews say they're new new)
2. And how full do flights get?

Update:
Googled Westjet on the YVR-YYZ and it's a 737 Max 8 and the smallest legroom is 31inch seat pitch with a 17 inch seat width
Porter's E195-E2 has their smallest legroom at 30inches seat pitch and an 18.3 inch seat width

Porter Reserve: 36" seat pitch
Porter Classic Stretch: 34" seat pitch
Porter Classic: 30" seat pitch
Source: https://www.flyporter.com/en/about-p...mbraer-e195-e2

AMflier

We're looking to fly Porter EWR>YTZ>YQB and return in late August. This would be on Dash-8's through YTZ. Has the expansion / addition of E2's affected their "Classic" operations?