Mapleflot

Evan Spence | 2002-08-13

WestJet
5055, 11th Street N.E.
Calgary, AB T2E 8N4

Attention: Clive Beddoe, President

Dear sir:

I am Evan Spence, co-editor and publisher of the weekly Internet serial pintday.org. This week I was going to publish the following rant about Air Canada as the feature article, but I thought I would get more mileage out of it by also sending it to you, in the form of a plea for you to extend service to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

My wife and I live in Halifax, but we’re from Calgary and are on the East Coast only temporarily. We like to return home to visit as often as possible, either once or twice a year. Previously we had driven to Moncton to pick up your service there, but on our last trip we made a foolish, stupid mistake. We’re sorry.

The text of the article is as follows:

It was 6:00 a.m., I had been up and travelling since 4:00 a.m., I was at the boarding gate, and I couldn’t believe I already felt the need to rant about Air Canada.

First, I should admit that part of the problem was of my own making: my wife and I opted to travel from Halifax to Calgary via the universally reviled Red Carrier because we didn’t think we had the fortitude to make the three hour drive to Moncton to take WestJet. We’d done that before, with good success, so it served us right for not sticking with the tried, true and Western.

What got me going was the impromptu bait-and-switch pulled by The Scourge Of Canada’s Skies. Months ago, we booked a direct ticket from Halifax (YHZ) to Calgary (The mighty YYC) from our friendly local Internet transaction processing system. We picked an awkwardly timed flight, departing at 6:45 a.m., because it meant a direct trip. No stops meant no plane changes meant no missed connections equalled less risk. We are all about minimizing the things that can go wrong when we travel.

About a month before our departure date we received a notice from Canadian’s Cadaver that our zero-stop flight to Calgary had been changed. We now had to switch planes in Winnipeg (YWG). That was disappointing, but we weren’t overly surprised. We were taking Air Canada’s discount airline, Tango (pronounced “Tangle”), so we had to know they were going to rearrange routes to keep the plane full. (“Oh, I see,” I can hear our readers saying. “You bought the cheap ticket and now you’re complaining. Serves you right.” Whatever. An Air Canada ticket to Calgary costs $800. A discount carrier costs $400. This is the new standard of Canadian air travel. No one buys a full fare ducat when a discount route is available.)

Stopping in Winnipeg wasn’t so bad anyway. Ignoring the measly half-hour plane change time allowance, I’ve always contended that the ’Peg is close enough to home that we could rent a car and drive the rest, if necessary. But that early slight of hand didn’t prepare us for the steaming turd waiting for us at Gate 14.

Groggy and irritated by the ramshackle and pathetic state of Halifax’s airport, we were cheerfully greeted by the destination board, which added Ottawa (YOW) and Windsor (YQG to our travel itinerary. What had once been an early morning flight straight through to Cowtown had become a nightmarish gauntlet run through Halifax-Ottawa-Windsor-Winnipeg-Calgary. The saccharine automaton at the departure desk explained that there’s a difference between a direct flight (no changeovers) and a non-stop flight, so we should be sure to check for that next time. (“Next time?” my wife asks me.) Well we thought we had a non-stop before all the tinkering began, but that was probably a little naive. We innocently thought Tango could do as competent a job as WestJet.

Air Canada is playing a sick little game with travellers. They’ve said to themselves “People want no-frills, so we’ll show them no-frills,.” and have proceeded to go about creating nasty little spinoff carriers that are deliberately hostile to consumers because “they asked for it.” Well they’re delusional. Hordes of Canadians fly WestJet not only because they’re the cheapest birds in the sky, but because they’re also the most pleasant experience. For one, they don’t charge for the Goddamn peanuts and club soda. For another, their staff aren’t disgruntled re-treads from the monstrous, merged, Air Canada union. While it’s not the flight attendants’ fault that Air Canada sucks so hard, they’re not helping matters much either, and they’re the public face of the company so they deserve to take the flak.

(Let me explain. While it’s never acceptable to be rude, aggressive or anything less than civilized to a customer service representative, if you cut them too much slack, it makes their grisly business inappropriately tolerable. If the company deserves grief, you have to dish it out through their front men, so they’re encouraged to look for work with less sorry outfits. This is the basis of why it’s okay to play with telemarketers. It’s a two pronged attack: the employees have to find their way out, and the customers have to find a different way around the country.)

...which brings me back on topic. Yes, it was my bad for buying the stupid Tragicgo tickets. Terrible things happen when you don’t stand for your principles, such as vowing to walk before taking Air Canada.

And our trip got even better! When we landed in Windsor, we didn’t take off again for quite a long while. The reason: our flight plan was causing trouble with air traffic control in Detroit. A required change in our flight path (there’s just no arguing with Americans these days) necessitated our taking on more fuel. These changes totalled 50 minutes of waiting on the tarmac, which put us well past the point of making our connection. (As a side note, when I book flights, I never schedule plane changes for less than two hours. I’d rather read The Economist in the lounge than miss a flight. Air Canada, however, seems to think their planes run like the proverbial fascist trains: on time. Thanks for the schedule, you schmucks.)

Before we took off from Windsor all the connecting passengers had been re-booked on a later flight out of Winnipeg, so we were reassured we would eventually make our destination.

Now would be a good time to visit our two travel itineraries. The first, as booked by Evan and Arundel, and the second, as masticated by Strango.

  1. Depart: Halifax 06:45
    Arrive: Calgary 13:29
    “Confirmed”

    Total travel time: 6 hours, 44 minutes. Total hops: one. Total plane changes: none.

  2. Depart: Halifax 06:45
    Arrive: Ottawa 07:30
    Depart: Ottawa 08:00
    Arrive: Windsor 09:35
    Depart: Windsor 10:10 11:00
    Arrive: Winnipeg 12:40 11:50
    Depart: Winnipeg 16:10
    Arrive: Calgary 17:19

    Total travel time: Like around 15 hours. Total hops: four. Total plane changes: one.

Apparently, Air Canada took our $1,696.46 commitment not to mean they fly us from Halifax to Calgary by 1:30 p.m., but to mean they can take us to Calgary by whatever means is most lucrative and convenient to them, as long as we arrive sometime.

(We had a similar travel experience once, where the train tracks were in disrepair, so all the passengers were loaded on to a bus and transported to a connecting train on a different line. Confusing, but they did get us there—in freaking Slovakia.)

As far as air travel goes, that was the first time either of us had ever missed a flight, in somewhere near 100 takeoffs. (I counted. I had time.) That was quite a streak, made possible only by the fact that neither of us ever flew Air Canada unless absolutely necessary. As long as you stick to more reputable carriers like WestJet, Lufthansa, Qantas and Aeroflot (seriously), you’ll be sure to make your next flight.

To get to the reason behind the Windsor delay, we have to contemplate two possible causes. First, that Air Canada had never flow out of Windsor before, and so couldn’t know that there would be problems with flight plans intersecting American airspace. Second, that they’re just incompetent boobs.

A little subsequent research has lead me to understand that the first is not the case.

In the end we got home on the same day, in the same tired state. But you better believe that we won’t be making the same mistake twice.

Mr. Beddoe, sir, please expand to Halifax as quickly as your 23-consecutive profitable quarters can allow. We won’t foolishly fly Mapleflot again, but only you can prevent others from making the same error.

Oh, and if you think I sounded angry during any of this rant, you should have heard my wife.

Yours truly,

Evan Spence

Tuesday, August 13, 2002
PD DLX

cc: www.pintday.org/archive/20020813.shtml

WestJet’s Response

August 27, 2002

Dear Mr. Spence:

Thank you very much for [your letter of August 13, 2002] outlining yor experience with the flight on Air Canada from Halifax to Calgary. I appreciate you taking the time to send this along.

I have passed a copy of your letter along to our Sales and Marketing department for their consideration. WestJet’s success has been based on our steady controlled growth. Please be patient. You never know when Halifax may appear on the WestJet radar screen.

Thank you again for your support. We look forward to welcoming you on board WestJet again, in the near future.

Yours very truly,

WESTJET

Clive J. Beddoe
Executive Chairman, President & C.E.O.

Reader Feedback

From: Dave Steen
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002

So I flew to Vancouver on Friday via the great West airline and had to pass on an observation. I got to the airport about an hour ahead and discovered the Westjet line was lengthy. It went through their tape maze and out into the main shopping hallway. I thought it was good that I got there in time ’cuz I figured the line would take about 20 minutes to get through.

So I stood there... and the line moved, I shuffled up... then it kept moving, and moving. It was amazing. People were getting processed at an amazing rate. I barely stood still for more than 20 secs. I then looked at the check-in counters.

All nine counters were in operation, with bright smiling joking happy faces. It was—after having had multiple Mapleflot experiences the weeks before—simply amazing. I got to the front in under ten minutes. I said to my happy representative and her coworker that I was amazed at the speed and how many people were working (there was even a guy at the front of the line directing traffic). The coworker said, “Oh, not like those other guys huh?”

“Nope,” I said, “They’d have three counters open and one of them would end up going on break.”

It’s amazing how customers are more relaxed and pleasant if the people serving them are happy, take pride in what they do, and show some respect.

I have met the exception to the rule in a Scare Canada check-in agent that was extremely helpful in Montreal. I think she must have been in training for Westjet expansion to her city.

—Dave Steen

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