It’s a fascinating time for Canada’s second largest airline, WestJet. The carrier is getting an investment from Delta and Korean Air, has ordered more aircraft (including more Dreamliners), and very much seems poised to take on Air Canada on a more national level.
Adding to that, the airline has just announced plans to retrofit dozens of Boeing 737s, including adding a premium cabin.
In this post:
WestJet’s economy-only Boeing 737s get a glow-up
WestJet has nearly 150 Boeing 737s in its fleet, including 737-700s, 737-800s, and 737 MAX 8s. The passenger experience on these planes is pretty mixed, given the varied ways the airline acquired these planes.
The airline has now announced plans to refresh the cabins of its 43 Boeing 737s that are in an all-economy layout. These are primarily planes that were acquired through Swoop and Sunwing. With these new interiors, WestJet hopes to offer a more consistent passenger experience across its fleet, and also offer more premium seating options.
The retrofitted 737s will feature 12 Premium Class seats, which are the equivalent of regional business class, in a 2-2 configuration.
Behind that will be 36 Extended Comfort seats, which are the carrier’s extra legroom economy section. There will be cabin dividers between all cabins.
Even the standard economy seats will offer more choice, with seats having less space at the back, and more space at the front. I’m sure the seats in the back will be really tight, but then again, so are the seats right now on these planes.
While there won’t be seat back entertainment, all seats onboard will have power outlets and personal device holders. Keep in mind that WestJet is also in the process of introducing free Starlink Wi-Fi.
The airline notes how using “ultra slim-line seats” will allow for enough space onboard to add one seating row compared to the prior standard layout, “reducing the cost per seat and helping to provide Canadians with affordable fares and optionality.” Meh.
Planes should start to be reconfigured as of the coming weeks, though it remains to be seen how long it takes to reconfigure all 43 planes.
Here’s how Samantha Taylor, WestJet’s Chief Experience Officer, describes this:
“The cabin has been thoughtfully designed to offer WestJet’s welcoming service at every budget. It reflects our commitment to elevating every aspect of the travel experience and meeting guest demand for a broader range of product offerings.”
“WestJet has always been a pioneer in making air travel available to Canadians, largely through keeping costs low to offer affordable airfares. The layout for our refreshed cabin caters to our guests’ diverse preferences. Whether they opt for Premium seating with extra amenities and legroom or for more affordable ticket prices with less space, we’re excited to introduce this range of products for our guests to enjoy.”
It’s cool to see the way that WestJet is evolving
As I often say, Canada is a challenging aviation market, given how big the country is, while having a fairly small population, with a limited number of air markets with large demand. That being said, it’s always good to see more competition, and WestJet is definitely becoming more of a competitor to Air Canada.
It’s about time that WestJet reconfigure those all-economy Boeing 737s that were integrated into the fleet in recent years. It ultimately makes sense to have a consistent experience across the fleet, and hopefully this helps lower premium cabin airfare pricing in many markets (since premium fares are oddly expensive in Canada compared to the United States, presumably due to Air Canada having such a dominant position).
I actually really need to fly WestJet again, as I’ve never flown the carrier’s 737 premium cabin, and would like to revisit the carrier’s 787 business class, which I flew shortly after launch.
I haven’t been paying all that much attention to WestJet’s loyalty situation, as the carrier’s own program is revenue based. Am I correct in thinking there still aren’t opportunities to redeem partner airline miles for business class travel on the airline? I believe WestJet sometimes has attractive one-way business class fares for long haul flights, so maybe I should look into those?
Bottom line
WestJet will be reconfiguring 43 of its Boeing 737s that are in an all-economy layout. The airline plans to introduce a cabin with more customer choice, including offering 12 business class seats, 36 extra legroom economy seats, and even standard economy seats with a varying amount of legroom.
It’s nice to see an increasingly competitive larger player in Canada, especially one with more premium capacity.
What do you make of WestJet reconfiguring dozens of Boeing 737s?
I'm not sure I agree with your statement that Westjet "seems poised to take on Air Canada on a more national level". If anything, I feel like they have pulled back and ceded Eastern Canada to Porter. Looking at departures from Ottawa tomorrow, Westjet has only 7 flights, while even United has 10, and AC and Porter each have over 30.
Glad to see WS "meeting guest demand for a broader range of product offerings". If they actually offer something equivalent to AC or AA domestic business class I'll consider ceasing my decades-long practice of referring to WestJet as a LCC with lipstick. It says a lot about Canada that airlines, which know what they're doing, rarely commit to serious premium cabins/services. All the rants about "AC garbage" notwithstanding, let me know when porter or Westjet...
Glad to see WS "meeting guest demand for a broader range of product offerings". If they actually offer something equivalent to AC or AA domestic business class I'll consider ceasing my decades-long practice of referring to WestJet as a LCC with lipstick. It says a lot about Canada that airlines, which know what they're doing, rarely commit to serious premium cabins/services. All the rants about "AC garbage" notwithstanding, let me know when porter or Westjet offer Signature Suite dining or lie-flat seating on 5-hour flights.
Why doesn’t westjet issue a credit card in that US citizens can get?
A resourceful US resident can get Canadian credit cards, just as innumerable Canadian residents already get US credit cards. Learn more at miles/points conferences. This is one of the growing areas of discussion.
Delta often has good pricing for WestJet domestic Y redemptions so that's an option if you're in the MR ecosystem.
Amazing! I hope Westjet and Porter keep growing saving us from having to fly AC garbage.
Ben, there are often attractively priced cash one-way fares from YYZ to ICN via YYC (often with an overnight layover in YYC, which would allow you to check out one of two Marriott in-terminal hotels...) For instance, next April and May, there are a large number of days with a cash one-way fare of approximately $1600 USD. This is with the first segment, YYZ-YYC, in the 737 Premium cabin.
iirc both Delta and Flying Blue only has access to economy award space (it’s one of the few remaining non-variable pricing redemption with SkyPesos…which can be tremendously good value considering how expensive domestic Canada flights can get last minute).
But yes they often publish some attractive business fares — for example, currently seeing some dates where you can fly NRT-YYC for US$1600 or NRT-YYC-YUL for $1700 (if you want to review their domestic business product,...
iirc both Delta and Flying Blue only has access to economy award space (it’s one of the few remaining non-variable pricing redemption with SkyPesos…which can be tremendously good value considering how expensive domestic Canada flights can get last minute).
But yes they often publish some attractive business fares — for example, currently seeing some dates where you can fly NRT-YYC for US$1600 or NRT-YYC-YUL for $1700 (if you want to review their domestic business product, which is listed as “Premium Economy” on metasearch sites). Sometimes the business fares on certain OTAs such as (Trip .com) are lower than booking direct.
I similarly saw ATL-YYC-NRT J fares this fall that were attractive - I forget the exact amount, but it was significantly less than everyone else.
When visiting back the WestJet 787 review, I couldn't help but notice that you used to include a detailed description of each flight at the very beginning of the review (which I really enjoyed as it encompasses key/interesting info in one single place). Is there any reason in particular why you don't do this anymore?
Lucky, do you see any possibility of them joining either SkyTeam or oneworld some time in the future? Gine the Delta and Korean investments ST could be a possibility.
@ Aaron -- If anything, it would definitely be SkyTeam, with Porter moving closer to oneworld. That being said, I'm not convinced it'll happen. As we know, Delta doesn't really care much about alliances, when it has a say. It's just like how when Delta invested in LATAM, the airline left oneworld, but didn't join SkyTeam. So it could happen, but I wouldn't bet on it.
With LATAM it's worth noting that Qatar Airways has remained a substantial investor in LA.