SFO777

If the route is so "lucrative", why would UA be dropping it? Just saying.

arf04

I don't think UA ever said that the YQR and the YXE routes were not profitable, just that they could use the aircraft on more profitable routes. I`m guessing that they forecasted a drop in oil-related traffic when they decided to get rid of the routes (a very sudden move). There were a lot of oil field workers on those flights.

Who knows if they were lucrative? For sure the flights were at capacity or close to most of the time. Westjet is very unlikely to pick up these routes, however. Maybe AA will come in, or DL will finally bring in the Salt Lake City route that has been rumoured for a very long time.

traacs

The flights to YXE to DEN and return were always full when I flew this route. I had heard that the planes used by SkyWest were not economical for this route. However if West Jet flew this it would open up a lot of connections with US partners. DL would of course be welcome as well with connections out of Salt Lake City.

winnipegrev

With what aircraft? If UA isn't successful with 2x E145s (total 100 seats) connecting people from YXE through a pretty major hub, I doubt WS has any chance of making it work with no feed on either end.

CloudsBelow

A GF I had in Grade 9 never said she was not longer interested in dating me, She just stopped taking my calls and actively looked for someone new
I do. I know airlines don't drop lucrative flights.
Cross your fingers ... but don't hold your breath
Losing service/options is not fun for the frequent flyer

HangTen

From Jan 1 through Aug 31 2014, YXE-DEN had an 82% l/f.
YQR-YQR was 79.5%

PhotoJim

I fixed the error.

How do these compare?

Bear in mind that these were pre-suspension of YQR-ORD and YXE-ORD so presumably load factors would have increased slightly.

AC MMSE

I second and third the points made here for my $0.02. I'm unbelievably busy flying weekly mostly on international flights. For the first time I started to actually pay attention to the noise online about being a frequent flyer--because when I noticed the changes at AC I was beside myself after having blindly flown 150-300K miles per year with them for a number of years, they don't seem to want my business anymore. I guess our bookings with a few days notice at full price just aren't important to their core revenue strategy.

One thing is for sure, unlike the AC execs, Westjet execs are paying special attention to what customers are saying: here on this blog, on other sites and with their staff at various levels.


We'll ALL see you soon Westjet!!! I hope you go with Oneworld but Skyteam is nice too. Not a lot of steps left to take the choice cuts from AC's business.

Qster

Since Westjet introduced "gold", I have diverted $6k spend to secure gold till 2016. My experience with my dozen or so WS flights is that:
- I enjoyed the 737s (better than the DH3s, same as the A320s but may be not as good as the E190s), to me, ANYTHING to avoid DH3s.
- I appreciated the priority boarding, but having a zone number like 4 or 5 on the BP seems odd when status show gold; I like the AC method of zone 1 or 2 for status pax so I can kind of priority board in stealth mode. With WS, so few gold pax priority boards, it actually feels a little awkward walking up when gold is announced (most flights, I was the only gold who did priority boarding).
- I smiled through the occasional quirky safey demos, please tell the SDs that they are doing a good job bringing smiles through this tedious monotonous process.
- I appreciated the young and energetic FAs, I disliked the young and ignorant FAs, (very similar to the old and crusty FAs, the ratio of good v. bad FAs seem consistent between airlines)
- I hated the concept of limited lounge access and the process of having to log in on a computer to get a pass ahead of time. More often than not, I forget, I went and hung out at Starbucks instead, (lol, my own fault). Please add it to the WS mobile app so we can access on the fly! Many of us refuse to get pass too far ahead of time because travel plans are consistently changing.
- I would really like free seat selections when I travel on flex or higher fares please.

Most of all, I hated the concept of "I must maintain status with AC because WS has no intl affiliates". As AC MMSE pointed out, regardless of how few international trip we fly a year (I fly a lot less than he does), no intl affiliate means no status outside of Canada; most of us are simply too spoiled to accept that.