Good evening from Toronto Pearson! My name is Alex, and I’m flying home to Calgary with WestJet.
Back in February, myself and some friends spent a
few nights here for some plane spotting at Canada’s busiest airport, and after
many hours of standing outside and freezing for content, it was time to head back home.
One of the more interesting ways to fly between Toronto and Calgary
is with WestJet’s 787 Dreamliner, which usually flies this route daily.
With that comes possibly the cheapest opportunity to fly in Business Class
in Canada. I booked this flight in Economy originally for only $140,
and made sure to check in exactly 24 hours prior to grab one of WestJet’s upgrades at check-in.
Between Calgary and Toronto, it only costs $300 to go from Economy to Business,
so less than $500 total for a lie flat seat even domestically is an absolute steal!
Of course, I’m not sure if those upgrade prices are the same today,
but they’re bound to be similar at least.
Now this did take place before WestJet’s recent shift in strategy once again back
to the low cost carrier model, so it’s gonna be interesting to see where the
whole lie flat Business Class fits into that. That shift has already meant the cancellation
of 3 Dreamliners that they had on order, so it’s worth keeping that in mind as we go through this.
Toronto to Calgary is one of the busiest domestic routes in the country,
and it’s not at all uncommon to see widebodies flying it.
Ironically, the first ever WestJet 787 flight was on this very route,
and even with this very plane as well. Today’s Dreamliner is tail 901, the first
one delivered to WestJet in January of 2019, and registered as Charlie Golf Uniform Delta Hotel.
901 is also named in honour of Clive Beddoe,
one of the founders of WestJet and the former chairman of their board of directors.
With WestJet’s Business Class, even on a check-in upgrade,
you do get lounge access, which was very conveniently located right beside our gate.
In Toronto, they use the Plaza Premium Lounge, which was recently renovated.
Here, there was tons of seating and it felt very bright and open.
I think it helped that we were leaving before the usual rush
of departures to Europe. They still did a fantastic job with this place!
The best part about the lounge though was definitely the view outside,
and we had this spectacular view of our plane sitting below.
Unlike a lot of other lounges at this point, they were actually offering hot food here,
which you’d have to ask the staff to serve for you.
The hot food selection was good,
but what caught my eye immediately is that they actually had perogies.
Like any self-respecting Polish-Canadian, I had an unhealthy number of these,
and this definitely marks one of the best meals I’ve had in a lounge! I
ended up spending over an hour here, and soon made my way down to the gate for boarding.
All things considered, this flight has been off to a great start,
so let’s see what WestJet has to offer on board!
Both Premium and Business on WestJet’s Dreamliners are between the first and second set of doors,
with Premium seating 28 passengers in 4 rows in a 2-3-2 configuration. Business
Class has another 4 rows just forward of that, and my seat over to Calgary is 4A.
I’ve always been a big fan of how WestJet’s Business Class
cabin looks. There’s just something about that combination of dark blue and teal.
Settling in, the seat is as comfortable as ever, with no shortage of space at all!
Row 4 also has arguably the best wing view, which we’ll see in a bit.
After sitting down though, I looked around and found some garbage and this
leftover menu from the previous flight which seems like… a bit of an oopsie.
Regardless, looking at the rest of the seat, you’ve got the footrest at the very end, along
with some storage along the side. There, you’ll find two compartments that open up, including
this one which had the headphone jack, USB port, a handheld remote, and a universal power outlet.
The other compartment is a bit smaller and has a mirror.
Below both of those is a smaller screen for the seat controls.
Up and to the left of that is a literature pocket for the safety card and a reading light.
The tray table slides out from below the in-flight entertainment screen and flips
out for lots of space. I’ve always liked the sort of granite look to these too.
Pretty soon, a cabin crew member came by to welcome me on board
and gave out pre-departure drinks as well as the… correct menu for today’s flight.
One thing I’ve noticed about WestJet’s 787s specifically is that they always
have really long boarding times, almost a full hour in this case.
Of course, that just means more time in these fantastic seats, but the knowledge that you’re
not exactly going anywhere just yet can make anyone feel a bit antsy. It was during this time I
accidentally stumbled on a bit of wear and tear in the seat. I don’t think it’s supposed to do that.
Eventually, the bridge pulled away and there was my perfect view of that
General Electric GEnx. Here’s our departure from Toronto, taking off from runway 23.
First things first, let’s take a look at the
in-flight entertainment as we climb out from Toronto.
The 787s are the only WestJet plane with any sort of physical in-flight
entertainment screens, and these ones in Business Class are huge.
The selection is pretty comprehensive as expected, with plenty of movies,
TV shows, games, and some WestJet-specific information. That included some nice renderings
of their fleet in the new livery, even some retired types like the 767s, interestingly.
They’ve also got the usual moving map, which can also be controlled by the handset.
The seat controls are very straightforward and easy to use,
and the seat folds fully flat in no time at all. WestJet doesn’t provide blankets
on their domestic flights, but this pillow was very soft and comfortable at least.
On the aisle side of the seat is a movable armrest, which had a little
compartment for the headphones. These are obviously not for taking home,
but are very good quality and adjust to fit anyone.
Shortly after levelling off, the cabin crew came around
with a small snack of coconut cashews and this cup of coffee.
Eventually, tablecloths appeared on the tray table and the meal service started.
On their domestic flights, WestJet usually serves everything in one go on this very nice tray,
and I went for the braised beef short rib. This came with mashed potatoes,
carrots, and zucchini in a delicious sauce.
The meal also came with a caprese salad, some crackers, cheese,
butter, this bread roll, and a slice of tiramisu for dessert.
Both the salad and bread roll were decent enough, but the main course was definitely
the highlight. I couldn’t get enough of that sauce and pretty much cleared the plate.
The tiramisu finished it all off really nicely! For a domestic Business Class
flight, this was really good, although it’s worth mentioning
the meals are a bit more elaborate on international flights as you’d expect.
From then on, it was a pretty quiet flight. Since we departed after sunset,
most people went to sleep right away while I watched a movie.
Also, in that literature pocket, WestJet just had the safety card and
an air sickness bag. I do wonder if we’ll ever see their in-flight magazines return,
since there weren’t any on another flight I took with them in September.
An hour or so went by and the crew came around with these snack boxes, which are the same ones
they give out in Premium on most short flights these days. Inside this one was a wipe, a package
of almonds, a Toblerone, biscoff, and a mint. Not a bad bonus snack to have just before landing!
Now, as we start the descent into Calgary for our arrival on runway 35R, it’s worth thinking
about where WestJet’s Business Class, or even the 787s will be going forward.
The idea of a low-cost carrier with a full-blown Business Class on only 7 specific airplanes is
a bit odd to say the least. Along with that, WestJet recently announced that
they’re going to be consolidating all of their intercontinental Dreamliner flying to Calgary.
That presumably means no more Toronto-London or even Vancouver-London Dreamliner flights.
While that’s fantastic news for Calgary and could mean some interesting route
announcements to follow, it’s a real shame to see the drawdown from the rest of the country.
What was originally meant to position WestJet as a solid international competitor to Air
Canada will only really benefit one city, plus any connecting traffic throughout Western Canada only.
The thing is that WestJet does the whole Business Class thing very very well,
and although they say that they’re keeping their existing Premium offerings around,
things can and do change. The full-service version of WestJet had a lot of really
good things going for it, and given the investment that went into things like the
787s themselves and their Calgary lounge, some of that can’t be reversed so easily.
Today’s flight was a solid example of how good WestJet’s Business Class can be,
bar some minor hiccups, and still really shows how far they’ve come. I
guess I just hate to see them backtrack some of their progress with the 787s,
since those planes are easily my favourite part of the airline!
But, if consolidating all of the Dreamliner to one city is what the higher-ups think is
needed for the long term health of the airline, I can’t dispute it.
I’ll certainly be following any future WestJet 787 development with cautious optimism,
and depending on what kind of other long-haul flights they announce out
of Calgary, will absolutely fly with them again.
Thank you very much for watching this trip report with WestJet, and I’ll see you next time.