WESTJET – A Passable Premium Experience

Flight Segment: LAX-YYC-YYJ
Aircraft Flown: Boeing 737Max8 (C-FFLZ)
Distance Travelled: 2,656 kilometers (1,660 miles)
Cost: $375.94 each, $0.142/km, or $0.57/km for the four of us
Class of Service: Premium Economy

Background

So for October 2022, we decided to book a short weekend getaway using up the last of our vacation days for the year to extend our long weekend during the Canadian Thanksgiving. We found an amazing fare for Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas (review to come soon), for a 3 night Ensenada getaway out of Los Angeles. At the time of booking all of this during the spring 2022, travel prices were still quite reasonable, and for only a minimal cost difference, we booked our return flight on WestJet’s (WS) Premium class, their version of North American domestic business class, or domestic first class if you’re American.

Check In and Airport Experience

We arrived at LAX bright and early, just after 6am to check in for our 9am flight. The majority of our check in was already done online, and we were only doing a bag drop at the counter. WS Premium gives you a priority line, and our bags were dropped off and physical boarding passes in hand within 5 minutes.

Now, LAX is a very scattered airport to fly out of, WS shares the terminal it uses at LAX with Delta, which makes sense as that Skyteam airline is a close codeshare partner of WS. We checked in at the WS counter in terminal 3, but flew out of terminal 2, which isn’t too bad actually. However, we didn’t have a priority pass lounge to access during our time there, the Centurion lounge wasn’t worth trudging over to at Terminal B.

The terminal itself is quite crowded, the terminals are essentially piers, and the bulges at the end host even more gates meaning there is nowhere near enough seating in the terminal at the pier ends. Without any lounges, we had Starbucks (which took 20 minutes to get drinks) and this expensive breakfast sandwich shop.

I think calling it Premium versus business class for WS is fitting, as you get the enhanced seat, but that’s about it. There is no lounge access, no seatback entertainment screen, no increased award earns or loyalty credit, you essentially get a nicer seat, priority check in and boarding, and baggage handling. I hope you get what they promise meal-wide post COVID. I’ll let you decide if that’s worth the extra money.

Onboard

We boarded relatively on time for our departure out of LAX and headed to Calgary (YYC). After an operational pause in the jetway, aka, they weren’t ready for us onboard, we were greeted warmly by the Calgary-based crew and quickly found our seats, spread across row 2.

A bit of background about WS’s Premium class, for a number of years, it was called Plus fare, and for a bit extra, you’d get a seat at the front of the plane with a blocked middle seat, a la Euro-business class. A few years back, WS refitted their older 737NG’s with new North American business class-style recliner seats that you’ll see on most carriers such as Air Canada and United and changed the name to Premium.

WS’s Premium class itself is quite basic. It has your standard North American recliner-style business class seat, universal outlet, and a USB-A charging port, but that’s it. All of WS inflight entertainment is via the WestJet Connect app. There is a decent selection though and more then enough for this medium-haul flight. The seat itself is wide, with ample legroom, and as you can see from the photos, the kids were swimming in it!

I wrongly assumed we’d get some breakfast onboard. You see, scanning WS own website shows that on flights over 2.5 hours, a hot meal should be served, this was a 3 hour flight. It might be because the aircraft had overnighted at LAX and perhaps WS doesn’t have a catering contract at LAX, but we were woefully disappointed to only receive a snack box on board. To be fair, this was the larger snack box, not the small triangle ones, and it was quite filling, but I was expecting their signature pancakes for breakfast. The kids were happy though, and the seat was extremely comfortable for both flights.

This was a 3-hour and 1.25 hour flight, the crew were absolutely lovely, and especially accommodating and attentive towards the kids. I found that the FA was frequently coming around to see if we wanted a top up on drinks.

Transborder to Domestic Connection – YYC

Clearing customs and connecting our bags through to our flight to Victoria (YYJ) was pretty straight forward in YYC. There are many electronic customs kiosks, and gone now is the need to fill a customs declaration on the plane (no need to scramble for that pen now!). You have to pickup and recheck your bag at a special connection bag drop, then carry on into the domestic terminal. We had enough time to head into the WestJet Elevation Lounge by concourse B.

Again, lounge access is not included on the Premium fares, only on business class fares and those are only found on the 787 Dreamliners. We entered by virtue of the priority pass that came with our Amex Platinum card. The kids really like the Elevation Lounge which has a separate room for families where the kids can play games and let loose before a flight, the ordering is still done via QR code and they bring your items to your table. A recent visit showed this is still the case, and only non-alcoholic drinks are self-serve.

Our flight from YYC to YYJ was equally uneventful. It is just a short 1-hour 15-minute hop, and a light snack box (the triangle shaped one) was provided. Again, totally sufficient for the short flight. Again, the onboard flight crew was very friendly and attentive, and very welcoming to the kids. We landed, and our bags were among the first off the plane and onto the carousel, win for priority bag handling.

Final Thoughts

WS Premium was a comfortable way to get home from LAX via YYC. The crew, from check in, gate, and onboard were all lovely, we felt welcomed and that the kids were well taken care of. In this case, the fare was significantly cheaper then Air Canada’s business class, and only marginally more then economy to justify the splurge.

As I noted earlier though, WS Premium is often on par fare wise with Air Canada’s North American business class. A cheap upgrade would be a fun splurge, but the cost at the time of booking isn’t really worth it. In addition, the ability to earn extra Aeroplan points, lounge access, additional priority benefits, and the onboard service including IFE and onboard meals is a much better proposition from Air Canada. Just the additional Aeroplan points alone is worth much more as Aeroplan is one of the most valuable frequent flyer programs globally.

I appreciated and felt highly priviliged to be able to fly at the front of the plane, and the criticism is only there based on my opinion of the value-proposition on the product we paid for and received. All that being said, for the right fare, I’d do it again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to, and I found way more value in the extra legroom seats we had on the way down to LAX.

Have you flown on WS Premium before? What did you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.