Good morning from Vancouver International Airport!
My name is Alex, and welcome back to the channel.
Today, I’m flying with WestJet back to Calgary, on board their Boeing 737 MAX 8, in their
Premium cabin!
First things first, this was filmed in January 2021, right after my previous flight on the MAX.
That makes this only the second commercial 737 MAX flight in Canada since the grounding
was lifted.
Obviously though, times being what they are, I didn’t set foot outside of the terminal
and was only here for a few hours to fly the MAX from Calgary and back on these first flights.
Now, WestJet’s Premium class is essentially their version of Premium Economy.
Premium was originally introduced in 2013 as “Plus”, using Economy Class seats in
a Euro-business layout with middle seat blockers - basically WestJet’s way of testing out
the premium market.
Over the years, “Plus” evolved to become “Premium”, and quite a few of WestJet’s
737s now have these newer 2x2 seats up front, including all of their MAXs!
WestJet Premium comes with even better food and drink offerings, and it is a pretty cost
effective way to fly in a North American premium cabin.
Having said that, things have undoubtedly changed on board in the last 11 months.
I was curious to see what Premium was like on the MAX, but wasn’t expecting much in
the way of onboard service.
It was nice to see the Plaza Premium Lounge open again here in Vancouver’s domestic
terminal, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time here to get the most out of a visit.
However, past Alex did, and managed to film some footage of the interior on a separate
trip through YVR in November 2019.
Once again, in case it’s not obvious enough by strangers standing close together and the
presence of a buffet, this is very much not filmed recently, so I imagine things look
a bit different these days.
Nevertheless, this is pretty nice as far as lounges go.
There is a nice view of the rest of the terminal, and there was a decent selection of food and
drink, back then, at least.
That all being said, a Premium ticket doesn’t necessarily include free lounge access with WestJet.
Access is complimentary for certain WestJet Rewards members, and for those flying in Business
on the 787, but you can also buy a lounge pass for a fee.
Our aircraft for this hour-long hop across the mountains is a two-year-old Boeing 737
MAX 8, registered as Charlie Foxtrot Hotel Charlie Mike.
This particular aircraft was WestJet’s newest MAX at the time.
Since filming this though, they’ve taken delivery of another one for the first time
in quite a while, bringing the fleet to 14 MAXs at the time of uploading,
with more to come.
Soon enough, boarding time rolled around, so let’s go see what Premium is like on
WestJet’s 737 MAX!
My seat over to Calgary is 1F, in the bulkhead row of WestJet’s Premium cabin.
My first impressions - these seats look really nice in person!
Settling in, the legroom is pretty impressive, despite it being a bulkhead, and you do still
get a bit of a wing view from this row.
There’s a storage pocket in front, with just the safety card and an air sickness bag,
along with this universal power outlet at every seat.
There’s also some storage space in the centre armrest for loose items, which is pretty useful,
along with a platform for drinks.
The headrests are all adjustable as well.
As we boarded, passengers were given the option of a disinfecting wipe for our seats, as a
peace-of-mind gesture.
Once everyone was settled in, the cabin crew came around handing out water bottles to those
of us in Premium.
Like the previous flight, WestJet’s President and CEO, Ed Sims joined us on board.
With some introductory words from him, here’s our departure from Vancouver, off of runway 26L.
ED SIMS: "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, good afternoon, my name's Ed Sims, I'm the president
and chief executive here at WestJet, and it gives me great pleasure to welcome you on board
and to thank you for joining us on what is quite a historic flight from beautiful Vancouver
to equally beautiful Calgary this afternoon.
I'm sure by now you are very well aware that you are on board a Boeing MAX 8,
an aircraft that we have had grounded for the last 22 months, and we have been working tirelessly,
particularly, I would note, the gentleman in the right-hand seat of the aircraft this afternoon,
our vice president of operations, Captain Scott Wilson, who will be working with
our captain of our flight today, Captain David Colquhoun, to bring this aircraft back into service
in a way to give you a hundred percent peace of mind about the processes, the training,
the certification that we have gone through, to ensure that this aircraft will remain
one of the safest aircraft that has ever flown.
We flew this aircraft for 14 very successful months before the grounding and the closure of airspace to the aircraft,
and in flying this aircraft, we note, and mourn, the terrible incidents that happened at
Lion Air and Ethiopian, and the loss of 346 lives.
But with that, I can give you my personal confidence that the reason I am so
confident to be on board this morning, is because of the processes and the training, the software
evaluations that we have followed, and it's given me great pleasure today to be led in that reassurance by
our two largest union partners, by ALPA, represented by Captain Dave Colquhoun, who'll be flying us out this afternoon,
and by our flight attendant's union, CUPE, and I'm delighted to have my colleague, Chris Rauenbusch
leading a fantastic crew, including [...] as she is known, and of course Carly and Sam at the back
who represent our flight attendant's union.
For me, this is the spirit of collaboration with which we have brought back the aircraft, and I'm really proud
to have such strong representation from our pilots and our flight attendants who have the same
100% level of confidence that I do in the airworthiness of this aircraft.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are part of a historic flight today, it's a great pleasure to welcome you on board,
for whatever reason you're travelling to Calgary, we're delighted that you've chosen WestJet,
we're delighted to have you on board this beautiful MAX aircraft, which I'll just remind everybody,
is 40% quieter in terms of its noise footprint than any other aircraft, and 15% more fuel efficient,
so those, amongst many many reasons why that we believe and have such confidence in this great aircraft.
I'm going to be sat in seat 5D, 4D, and I'm looking forward to having
any conversations with you on board as I come through the cabin.
I don't think the crew are going to let me be part of the service, but I will be collecting garbage,
so that might be another opportunity for you to be able to speak to me.
That is, of course, my role in life as the union partners regularly remind me.
With that, I'm not going to hold our flight up, thank you again so much for joining us this afternoon, and welcome aboard."
*applause*
With that gorgeous scenic departure and nice personal reminder that there is more to the
world than the frozen prairies of Alberta, let’s take a closer look around the seat.
You’ll find a tray table in the armrest, which folds out all the way across your lap.
There’s also a tablet holder built into the tray table, which you’ll only find in
the bulkhead seats.
Shortly after departure, the cabin crew came around with a drink service, and I went for
another bottle of water, although they do have other options.
They also handed out these snack boxes, which had a wet wipe, chocolate covered fruit,
a mint, some salted cashews, and this granola bar.
It’s obviously not the snack tray that they used to give out on this route but it is something at least.
Now, this flight had quite a few more people on board than the previous one, so I thought
it best to not be obnoxiously wandering around the cabin taking photos and videos.
So, 2019 Alex proved to be of some use once again, with these cabin clips that I filmed
in another MAX at an event in WestJet’s hangar.
WestJet’s 737 MAX Premium Cabin has 12 seats up front in a 2-2 configuration.
Like I said earlier, the MAXs all have these new seats, as do the vast majority of the 737-800s.
I believe they’re working their way through the 737-700s, with quite a few having been
done already, and there is at least one 737-600 with these.
There are three lavatories on board, and this one at the very front is admittedly a bit small.
Regardless, it was bright and clean.
The rest of the aircraft is Economy Class, with 162 seats for a total capacity of 174
passengers on this 737 MAX.
The MAX is also the only version of the 737 in WestJet’s fleet with Boeing Sky Interior.
Compared to the older 737NGs, it really does look nice!
Now, some of you may note the lack of in-flight entertainment screens throughout that.
On their 737 fleet, WestJet opted to provide entertainment through personal devices instead,
which can be accessed through their app, and connecting to the onboard wifi.
Once there, there’s the usual selection of movies, TV shows, some flight information,
and a moving map.
Flying between Vancouver and Calgary on a clear day like today though, the mountain
views below are spectacular, and had me pretty much captivated for the rest of the flight.
Please enjoy these stunning views of the Rockies as we make our way down towards Calgary, for
a sunny arrival on runway 35L!
Overall, this was a really nice flight on WestJet’s 737 MAX!
I had originally booked this flight back in Economy, but decided to upgrade to Premium
during check-in, seeing as there was a window seat available.
To upgrade from Economy to Premium cost me $59, and that price does go up on longer flights
so between Calgary and Vancouver it is a pretty good deal.
I’m a huge fan of WestJet’s new Premium seats!
They’re super wide, comfortable, and without a doubt, a huge step up from the older Plus seating.
The 737 MAX itself, I think, is a great aircraft to fly.
It’s quiet, new, and like I said in the last video, it’s worth giving it a chance.
The onboard offering in Premium at the moment is not what it was a year ago, but it was
nice to get that snack box.
The way I see it though, now’s probably not the time to be too worried about the food
offerings on a one-hour flight.
That said, WestJet’s MAXs all have ovens on board, so by the time things are a bit
more normal and food service ramps back up, I think WestJet’s 737 MAX Premium will be
very competitive.
As always, thank you so much for watching this trip report with WestJet.
The support I get from all of you every week is greatly appreciated and I just wouldn’t
be able to do stuff like this without it.
If you enjoyed the video, please, do leave a like, subscribe, consider becoming a channel
member, and I will see you next time.