Good morning from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport!
My name is Alex, and welcome to this trip report.
Today, I’m flying with WestJet Encore on a short flight over to Toronto, on board their
Bombardier Q400.
Or, as they’re called now, their De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400.
WestJet Encore is WestJet’s regional subsidiary, and started operations in 2013.
They’ve since grown to a fleet of 47 Dash 8-400s, serving short regional routes across Canada.
I booked this trip as part of flying on the first revenue flight of WestJet’s Dreamliner
in February, from Toronto to Calgary.
I knew I had to be on the flight, so I decided to make a side trip to Montreal beforehand
to visit my good friend Mark,
and do some plane spotting.
Big thank you to him by the way for driving us around, do go check out his channel!
Anyway, that of course meant that I had to fly from Montreal to Toronto to catch the
Dreamliner,
and the earliest flight happened to be with Encore.
Our aircraft for today is a 2-year-old Dash 8-400, registered as C-FWEP.
This is actually my first time flying one of these aircraft, and for those of you who
don’t know, I’m 6’8”, so going in,
I was really not sure what to expect legroom-wise.
We’ll find out shortly!
WestJet Encore has 78 seats on this aircraft in a two-class configuration.
10 seats in Premium and 68 seats in Economy.
I picked seat 4A in Economy on this flight, and, uh, it’s not great.
Economy Class on WestJet Encore has 30 inches of pitch, which I can normally squeeze into,
but because these are hard-shell seats with low tray tables, it’s actually painful for
me to sit here without raising my knees.
As my travel companion for this trip alluded to, that really is as comical as it looks.
But I think you get the point.
I just did not fit!
However…
As boarding came to a close, there seemed to be one last bastion of hope up front.
Seat 1A, a window seat in the very first row, seemed to be unoccupied.
So I took a chance, got the attention of one of the cabin crew, pointed to my legs,
and asked if there was any way I could move up there.
They said they’d talk to their coworker and get back to me.
The issue is that WestJet sells the first 3 rows as Premium seats, so they can’t really
move passengers freely.
But a few minutes later, and *laughing* bless these wonderful people,
they let me move up into much roomier row 1 for this one hour and 20 minute flight.
So, as you can see, much better than my previous seat, I can’t tell you what a relief that was!
I’m so thankful to the crew for making that happen, and now I can enjoy my first ride
on a Q400!
Here’s our departure from Montreal, taxiing, deicing, and taking off from runway 24L.
Much like the Airbus A220, this former Bombardier product also underwent a change of name.
Essentially, since the program was sold to Longview Aviation, they’ve revived the De
Havilland Canada brand.
Officially, these are no longer known as Bombardier Q400s, rather, the De Havilland
Canada Dash 8-400.
WestJet’s website still advertises it as a Bombardier Q400 though, so essentially,
same plane, mild identity crisis among the airlines.
Like I said earlier, Encore has 78 seats on these Dash 8-400s, but because of the way
the cabin is designed,
there are only 4 bulkhead/exit row seats that offer any real legroom - 1A and B, and then
2C and 2D.
Since these seats are in the Premium cabin, there’s no way for tall people to properly
get them without paying a lot more,
unless you upgrade during check-in, which is usually between 20 and 40 dollars.
Even then, there’s no guarantee one of these four seats will actually be available.
Skipping back to some footage from my previous seat for a moment, in the seatback pocket,
Encore has the current month’s issue of the WestJet Magazine,
… a buy-on-board menu,
… and an air sickness bag, plus a typical safety card.
On this short flight, we received a complimentary granola bar for a snack, as well as a drink.
The tray table in this bulkhead row is located in the armrest and folds out.
These Dash 8s also have a tiny lavatory without any running water.
And yes, that’s about as far in as I’m willing to go.
WestJet Encore has no in-flight entertainment on their aircraft, not even a wifi based system
like mainline aircraft have,
but there’s always the view outside, as well as the sunrise.
Stay tuned for my final thoughts on Encore after landing but for now, here’s our arrival
onto Toronto-Pearson’s runway 05.
Listen closely as we touch down for the altitude callouts from the Ground Proximity Warning System!
So, once the whole… comfort thing was sorted out, I actually had a really pleasant flight
with WestJet Encore!
The crew on this flight were honestly fantastic, I’m so thankful to them for making that exception.
I do recognize I’m not exactly the typical airline passenger,
but this flight really could’ve gone a lot worse without that simple gesture from the crew.
That seat though, was… not healthy for me.
30 inch pitch might be fairly standard on Q400s in general, but some of Encore’s aircraft
fly pretty long routes, like Calgary to Yellowknife, which can be almost three hours long.
Regardless, the next time I fly an Encore Dash 8, or Q400, I know I have to book Premium
no matter what.
I can’t fully blame WestJet though, airlines like FlyBe in the UK and LOT Polish Airlines
also use a 78 seat configuration.
I’m just absurdly tall and didn’t know what I was getting myself into!
Otherwise though, thank you very much for watching this trip report with WestJet Encore.
If you enjoyed the video, please leave a thumbs up, consider subscribing if you’re new,
and I’ll see you next time.