So, airborne out of Toronto, heading across the country to Vancouver.
It's a magical mystery tour!
Welcome to Pearson International Airport, here in Toronto, Canada.
Is this not just the best view that you could ever expect to get from a hotel room?
It's amazing, isn't it?
Anyway, today, we're leaving Toronto behind and taking a ride
on an airline that is, according to the completely unbiased
and impartial travel oracle that is Tripadvisor,
the worst rated airline in the whole of Canada.
The worst customer service. Avoid.
Cancelled flights without prior notification.
Terrible never again.
They're awful.
That's just the first handful of over 1,300 reviews
of Flair airlines.
They are an ultra low cost airline here in Canada.
So far the only ultra low cost airline, here in Canada
and today, well, I want to find out if they are as bad as Tribadvisor suggests.
So what did I do? Well, I booked a 5 hour,
transcontinental flight with them
from here in Toronto across to the other side of the country, in Vancouver.
So, without further ado, it's time to head to Pearson Airport
to get on board Canada's worst rated airline.
Were the reviews accurate, well, there's only one way to find out.
[Noel] Hey, good morning.
[Clerk] So your gate is 339, you have to be there no later than 11:15
and that right there is your...
[Noel] Perfect, thank you very much, have a good day. Thank you.
Well, that was all very easy. Checked in, dropped my bag,
got my boarding pass, now it's time to head through to the gate.
So, Flair do charge you, being a low cost airline
they do charge you for the bags.
I'll put all the costs at the end of the video,
so you can see how much they charged me to drop my bag off there
but now, we're going to head through security and head to the gate.
Now, it's just incredible the rate at which
Flair airlines are growing at the moment.
Just a few months ago, they only had a fleet of three 737-800s.
But in three months they have taken delivery of eight 737 MAX 8 aircraft
and they've still got more to come.
The last time I saw an airline growing
quite this aggressively was probably Ryanair
back in the late 90s and early 2000s
and we all know how that turned out.
So then, here's my ride over to Vancouver today.
737 MAX 8, of which, at the moment, Flair have got 8 of them in their fleet
they've got a load more still on the way.
At the minute, they've only got a few of these.
I'm not going to give it too long, though,
when they are probably going to have a whole lot more
[Noel] Hey, good morning, or afternoon. [Clerk] Thank you sir. Enjoy your flight.
[Noel] Thank you so much. Have a good afternoon.
Right, heading down to board the Flair MAX 8
[Cabin crew] Come on in sir, sorry about that.
[Noel] No worries at all.
[Cabin crew] We were just having our morning discussion. Thank you.
Right then, on board the Flair 737 MAX 8
and I think I remember booking an extra leg room seat
here at the front, which is actually...
I can't imagine it's like this all the way back through the plane.
I don't think I had, I just booked a seat for the engine, but
I'll let you know when I manage to land and actually figure out
how much I've paid for all this.
I'll be able to let you know whether I booked an extra leg room seat after all
I didn't realise I had, but it's very comfy.
Very comfy indeed.
Plenty of leg room.
In fact if you look at the legroom on the other side
you can see that these seats
do seem to have a bit more, which is quite nice.
Very comfy indeed.
So, I can spread out for this five hour run over to Vancouver.
Out of the window, of course, look at that. MAX 8 Engine and wing. Beautiful.
So, they're getting everybody on board, and then we'll be on our way.
[PA announcement] Smoking is banned on board all Canadian provincial aircraft
this includes e-cigarettes and vaporisers.
(PA announcement in French)
(Engine noise ramps up)
Our route today, took us West from Toronto to Vancouver
following the US border the entire way.
Flight time today was four 4 hours and 43 minutes
cruising at 34 and 36,000 feet.
Alright then, airborne out of Toronto heading across the country to Vancouver
on the Flair MAX 8.
It's still relatively comfy
quite handily I've got nobody in the middle seat at the side of me
so I've got plenty of room to stretch out on this flight
for the five hours it's going to take us
to get from one side of the country to the other.
I just love the Boeing sky interior that they put on these things
on the new 737s, it is pretty cool indeed.
It's a very comfortable aircraft to ride on, the MAX 8.
I wasn't sure quite what it would be like.
I heard about the cramped seating conditions, and things, on here
but, to be fair. I know I am in an extra leg room seat here, but
if you look across the aisle there those are standard seats with less leg room
and it seems pretty decent even over there.
So, yeah. Quite good.
So far. Let's see how I feel in another few hours.
So then, the Flair 737 seat. Let's look at what we get here.
It's a little bit basic. No frills really.
We get a tray table. It goes up and down in that sort of manner.
We get a seat pocket with a safety card in it.
And, well... that's it. Really, pretty much.
It's relatively comfortable. I do like the fact that it's this cloth,
rather than the leather seats. Because it tends to be a little bit softer
and a bit more comfortable.
Certainly more comfortable than a lot of European low cost carriers
on some of the routes over there. So, it's quite nice.
But, again, we'll see how we feel when we get off later.
They have just decided to announce that because of COVID there is going to be
no food and drink available for buy on board this flight.
It's a five hour flight.
It, kind of, would have been nice to know that before we got on board
so we could have gone and bought something.
Fortunately I have got a little bit of water to get me through the flight.
But... I'm going to be a bit hungry by the time we arrive in to Vancouver.
I was kind of hoping just to get, at least, a bag of crisps, or something
on board the flight to keep me going.
But, no.
It would have been nice if they would have told us before the flight, maybe?
But, hey ho. Here we are.
Now, one thing that is quite nice
about the Flair 737 MAX 8 compared to a lot of low cost carriers.
You can recline the seat.
Let's see if we can do it without annoying the person behind me.
It goes back a little bit. It's not too bad.
It's not too bad.
Slightly more reclined than it was originally
(laughs) I mean, it's not a flat bed, that's for sure.
But what do you expect on a 5 hour low cost flight?
Across Canada.
I tried getting on the WiFi by the way.
They have this WiFi system that you can use, apparently,
and get loads of in-flight entertainment and stuff on it.
But... it's not working, so... (sighs)
there's my in-flight entertainment.
Looking out of the window, enjoying the view
of, admittedly, just water at the minute.
I don't know where we are, actually. Again, there's no flight maps, or anything.
But, hey ho.
Hey ho.
It's a magical mystery tour.
Where we know where we're going from and to but we don't know
how we are getting there.
Yeah, there we go.
[Announcer] It's time for the Noel Philips
Loo Review (loo flushes)
(door clicks)
So, bathroom on the Flair airlines MAX 8, let's have a look.
It's a little tight.
We have a sink.
We have a toilet.
We have a "not a garbage".
There we go.
We have a very tight bathroom.
Very tight. I can't even open my elbows.
But there we go.
If you wanted to see what the Flair MAX 8 bathroom looks like, there we go.
Now I just need a minute or two please. Thank you.
[Announcer] That was the Noel Philips
Loo Review (loo flushes)
So, on our way down into Vancouver.
We're now four and a half hours into the five hour flight.
And, I have to say, I am not entirely sure
what people are complaining about with Flair.
The seats are relatively comfortable.
The plane was on time. We took off on time,
we're going to landing early, a little bit.
The crew have been really friendly.
Yeah, we've not had the entertainment working.
And, yeah, we've not had any buy on board service.
Which, that particularly, we can't blame the airline for. It's just the situation.
A lot airlines are working at the minute.
Flair seem pretty decent to me, to be honest.
For the amount of money that you pay. Well, I am quite happy with this.
And that's the thing. You could pay a lot more money for this flight.
You could pay for an airline with entertainment, meals,
frequent flyer miles or lounge access.
You could even pay extra for a fancy business class seat.
But ultimately, for a daytime flight, a few hours long,
most people just need a seat on a plane that gets them there on time.
And that seems like something that Flair do pretty well.
Sure, Flair are low frills compared to Air Canada, for instance.
But, they're at least pretty reliable.
So, here's the important bit.
My flight today cost me just £148 or around about $200
working out at an incredible 7 pence per mile,
which, personally, I think is excellent value for money
Flair may be cheap, and they may be very low frills, but there is no doubt
that in Canada, a country with notoriously expensive air fares,
Flair represent a welcome change to lower fares.
They were on time, relatively comfortable and the crew were all pretty decent too.
And, when you're only paying £150 for a five hour flight,
well, that's pretty much all you can expect.
Just remember your packed lunch.
As always, I'd like to say a big thanks to my Patreons.
You can join them at the link on the screen now for access to my Whatsapp group,
live weekly Zoom calls with me, and much more.
[Noel] Hi there, how're you doing?
Thank you very much.
[Noel] Hey, thank you. Thank you very much.
[Driver] You're welcome. [Noel] Cheers, have a good one. Bye.
[Valet] May I help you with that?
[Noel] I'm alright, thank you. I can manage it.
[Noel] I think he can do that.
He shouted at me for doing it at the airport (laughs)
Thank you.
[Valet] These days you don't know what... [Noel] I know, I know.
[Noel] Hey, good afternoon. I'm good how are you?
[Clerk] Have you ever the Fairmont by the airport?
There's another Fairmont by the airport.
[Noel] No, I've literally just come off the phone with my friend.
And he said you need to stay at that one. You can see all the planes.
[Clerk] They do have specific rooms that are actually facing the runway.
And it's actually pretty cool. Thay name their rooms for those...
[Noel] After the aircraft, yeah.
[Clerk] Something like that.
[Noel] That's why I booked this room. I can see the harbour,
I can see the seaplanes. [Clerk] That's true,
you still get your airplanes there.
[Noel] Yeah, absolutely.
[Lift] 19th Floor
(door clicks open)
(sighs) Hey, well. Welcome to Vancouver.
Oh, my goodness, look at this view.
I can see planes. Sea planes.
Maybe a slight hint of what's coming in the next few videos.
Welcome to this beautiful hotel on the seafront in Vancouver.
What an amazing city Vancouver is,
I've never actually been to Vancouver before
And, I have to say, so far
based on what I've seen on the way in here and on the flight path in to the airport
and then driving in, it's probably,
my favourite place in Canada yet.
It's absolutely glorious. Gorgeous, gorgeous city.
Yeah, here we are for a few days.
Flair airlines, then. Well, they weren't too bad, actually.
I don't know how they get their reputation as the worst airline in Canada.
Because, actually, I thought they were pretty alright.
You know, compared to ultra low cost carriers in other parts of the world
I'm looking at you guys like Wizz Air and Ryanair
I mean, you can't go wrong with Flair.
They were perfectly fine. The seats were comfy,
the crew were lovely, the plane was on time,
it was clean, well mostly clean.
It was a brand new aeroplane.
I don't even know why these negative reviews are there
because I didn't have any issues at all with them
and I wouldn't hesitate to fly with them again.
But, let me know what you thought of Flair down in the comments,
and, in the mean time, I am going to go and get some rest.
Thanks for watching, take care. And I'll see you on the next one.
Bye for now.