For my weekend trip to Whistler, I decided to fly to Vancouver on WestJet. Working the full-time demanding job of Consulting, I knew that the best option for me was to leave on a Thursday evening after work and return on the Sunday red-eye, ready for work the next day. Also, running a blog, I wanted to review different products. On the way to Vancouver, I opted for WestJet Flight 719, leaving from Toronto at 7 PM, leaving me plenty of time to get to the lounge to download some work for the 5-hour transcontinental flight.

Flight: WestJet 719

Departing: Toronto (YYZ)

Arriving: Vancouver (YVR)

Operated by: B737-800

Cabin: Economy

Booking

For context for non-Canadian readers, WestJet was previously a low-cost carrier that start operating in Canada in 1996, but it’s now moved to more of a full-service airline, operating both 737s and 787s in it’s mainline fleet from coast to coast.

As I have the WestJet World Elite Mastercard offered by RBC (currently with a welcome bonus of $350 WJD), I have a few WestJet dollars that I was able to use to book a WestJet fare for only 103 WSD and $75, an absolute steal for a transcontinental flight. If flights are more expensive, I could have used my WestJet Dollars for a member-exclusive fare for only 125WJD.

For Americans who may not have access to WestJet Dollars, WestJet also makes the seats available to partners. In this case, you can redeem SkyMiles on Westjet, as Delta charges 12.5K SkyMiles for one of these seats. This is the price for intra-North American flights on WestJet for SkyMiles redemptions.

That being said, in the middle of Winter, one can typically pick up Toronto to Vancouver flights for less than $200 each way.  I did briefly consider flying WestJet Premium, but it is significantly more WestJet dollars, and therefore it wasn’t worth it for me on this evening flight.

The Flight

WestJet departs out of Terminal 3 at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Although I didn’t check a bag, the Check-in area was organised and seemed to be moving quickly. Most bag dropoffs were automated.

The airport was relatively quiet for my early Thursday evening departure. I flew through security and headed to the Plaza Premium Lounge.

After leaving the Plaza Premium Lounge in Terminal 3, I headed towards my boarding gate, B41.

We started our boarding on time, boarding our 5-year-old Boeing 737-800 (Tail C-FUMF). By the time I boarded, there was a long line of passengers waiting on the jetway to board the plane. It almost felt like everyone was trying to take their sweet time to board the plane.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the first to board the plane, so there were people sitting in my aisle when I sat down. The seats looked worn for a plane only 5 years old.

Even though I wasn’t one of the first people on board, there was plenty of room in the overhead bins and I didn’t have to check my bag.  The pitch (legroom) on the plane is between 31-33 inches on the WestJet B737-800, and it looked like this one was on the low end of that range. While it was tight, I still managed to fit my 6’2” frame in the seat. That being said, it was much better than economy on an Air Canada Rouge flight. 

The tray table was nothing special but it did slide out a few inches which helped get some work done on the plane. 

All seats also had a universal plug which was useful for keeping my devices charged during the 5-hour journey. 

In the air 

In the end, we only pushed off 5 minutes late. We didn’t de-ice, even though it was starting to snow, but the First Officer came back to check the wings while we were on the taxiway, something that is quite infrequent. We took our spot on the runway after an Air Canada 787 arrived from Montreal. 

After taking off, I took a look at WestJetMagazine, which had the buy-on-board menu for my WestJet flight. WestJet provides all guests in economy class a non-alcoholic drink and a snack, in this case, it was a package of cookies. That being said, there isn’t much room to put your drink down when you’re watching TV or working on your laptop.  The WestJet onboard menu read as follows: 

There is also Wifi available on all WestJet planes. Wifi is $10.99 for 90 minutes, $21.99 for the flight and $32.99 for 24 hours. Even better, if you have a Mastercard World Elite credit card (like the WestJet World Elite Mastercard) then you get free access if you sign up for Boingo. I didn’t want any distraction from the work that I needed to get done, so I didn’t test out the internet. 

WestJet used to have TVs in every seatback, but they have phased that out in their narrowbody fleet. Instead, they have WestJet Connect, a stream your own device that is common on many airlines these days. Compared to Air Canada Rouge, they had better options, including local favourite Letterkenny, Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother. Make sure you enable Flash player on your browser to view WestJet Connect.

The flight was mostly smooth sailing, except for 15 minutes of impressive turbulence just North of Sault Saint Marie. Even though we took off late, we managed to land on time. I was off the plane and curbside within 20 minutes of landing. 

The Point

WestJet provides a comfortable and safe flight across the country that's easily accessible using WestJet Dollars. Is WestJet a good airline? I would certainly say so. While it’s nice to fly business class, an evening flight when you need to get work done meant that I choose to save some of my points and fly in Economy.