The one time I decided to be nice and, the time I reviewed my flight

As mentioned in previous posts I flew back to Darmstadt last Thursday and I realized I never really told you about my actual flight. Consider this an airline review of sorts….

I flew with a new airline. Normally when I fly in Canada I prefer to fly with West Jet because they are super amazing and fun and I have never encountered serious issues with them. It truly does upset me that they do not fly international to Europe. I’m sure it will come soon enough. I’m sure they have already taken a large market share from Air Canada simply due to the fact that their flight attendants smile.

(Sidenote: Watching Germans in the Luisenplatz reminds me of how some of them give the worst hugs ever. Like worse than my cousin, and she hates giving hugs so I always give her extra squeezes.)

I did fly with air canada to Germany after consultation with friends who said that air canada really was going to be the best. I figured that there probably wasn't going to be huge differences in pricing and so I figured that I should book with air canada. The flight was fine, the food was tolerable. It was average. I wouldn't really say that they stood out to me as being exceptional in one way. If you look at porters keys to succeeding in business he says that you need to either differentiate or lead by price. Air Canada doesn't do either of these. They simply lead by being convenient and perhaps the fact that they're canadian makes some people feel loyal, but if you had the choice between air canada and singapore airlines at the same price point I'm sure most would choose singapore simply based on service and reputation. Never the less I did a little bit more investigating this time into pricing because I am now a poor debtor. I had also met someone at the frankfurt airport who had recommended condor, and someone at work had mentioned air transat. I went over to the websites and investigated the prices and my jaw dropped to the floor. Sadly neither of these airlines flew through winnipeg so I'd have to get a connecting flight. When I told my mom about this she said why not fly through toronto and visit people. Deal. So I got my wish to fly West Jet. Even cooler, was having my old teacher watch my struggle to properly distribute the weight between my bags. 

But my flight from Toronto ended up costing less than $400!!! And they offered a cheap one way flight, which air canada doesn't offer. That is amazing. I figured that it was without taxes, but no...everything inclusive. I did have to pay to book a seat, but they also offered this "options plus" which included an extra piece of checked baggage, your seat booking, a welcome glass of champagne, and priority boarding. Deal! It was less than the cost of an extra piece of luggage cost for air canada. 

So I guess now is the time I actually tell you about me being nice. Seeing as I didn't even need all these extras (I really just wanted the extra checked baggage) I shared with the girl sitting in the aisle seat. Gave her my earplugs, headphones and a sleep mask. She was very surprised. I really didn't need them. I even was going to offer my champagne, but she was already asleep. I'm very proud for not just thinking about myself!

So in terms of the review for air transat. 

Decent. I really didn't expect that much going in, considering I know no one that has flown it, and the price was dirt cheap. I would say that I got what I paid for though. The seats were certainly smaller than I was expecting, but not completely horrible. It was more narrow than losing leg room. I was also extremely fortunate that I didn't have anyone sitting in the middle seat. One thing I did like about air canada was that they have the in-seat entertainment. That is really super, but I also can't focus on a movie very easily. For some reason it makes me feel very more anxious about the time and why my flight isn't there yet and that I have to sit for 6 more hours. The worst part...the food. I almost didn't want to eat. Like thanks for giving me a choice, but I don't think there was a "right" choice. I'm sure they were all barely palatable. Even the container it was served in grossed me out, and normally I enjoy airplane food. I'm a little weird. I used to get excited for it as a child. I didn't eat the side salad which I'm pretty sure was still half frozen. I could not have even identified one ingredient..except salt. There was definitely salt. I will fly with them again. The price really outweighs all the negative aspects, but if you have high standards, I wouldn't recommend it.

By the way - you're welcome marketing people for giving you the exact insight into my decision so that you can use it in planning marketing operations in the future. You would probably feel better about exploiting me if you at least left me some compensation.