Here’s something you don’t often see — a Canadian ultra low cost carrier is guaranteeing your flight will be on-time, or else you’ll be compensated. Is there a catch, though?
Continue reading: Flair Airlines On-Time Guarantee: A Smart Gimmick
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
For the typical traveler, I would guess the value of this is basically $0 and the cost to the airline is also nearly $0. As you said, if the credit has to be used within 60 days, you basically have to be booking a trip quite close (for the average person) to use it. So a lot of these will will go unused. (unless the 60 day time limit condition is for booking, not actual travel)
The key question is whether the airline actually makes any operational changes to back up this promise/offer, or it's just an empty arguing position.
Given that Flair is near bankrupt according to several reports, this is a last ditch effort to prop up traffic...
I had my first flight with them 2 days ago on the direct and unique Guadalajara-Toronto route.
Plane arrived 30 minutes earlier in Guadalajara, boarding started 15 mins earlier (which bothered me because I had bought priority boarding and I stayed at at a Priority Pass lounge until 10 mins before official boarding time). We arrived in Toronto 30 mins earlier. See Air Canada, it’s possible to have a better OTP here in Canada.
They do verify every carry-on during boarding to make sure it’s within their size limits.
Even though boarding started earlier, it was clear the plane had not been cleaned from the prior Toronto - Guadalajara flight. Food crumbs all over the place. Chips and packaging all over the floor.
I don’t know why, but the only seat map they show online for you to select (and buy) your seat show that the left bulkhead row is row 1 (ABC) and right bulkhead row is row 2 (DEF). However, they seem to also have planes where right bulkhead seats are row 1 DEF and I ended up on one of them. I had bought the bulkhead seat and ended up on the second row (fortunately, the space between row 1 and 2 was comfortable and I suspect it was between 32 and 33 inches).
In summary, not an extraordinary experience, but at the right price or on unique routes it makes sense if they keep running a reliable schedule.
Just wondering: redeeming the voucher, does that actually mean have to fly with them within 60 days or can it mean book another flight with them within 60 days for travel on a later point in time?
The idea of this is not new, as some ULCC carriers like WizzAir and RyanAir also offered such 'compensation'. The difference seems to be that Flair hands it out for free while the other two offered compensation via an 'insurance policy' which costs a few euros when booking a ticket. Not sure if they still have it, though.
Flair has cancelled flights 7 days before departure, and not rerouted me. Apparently if an airline cuts seasonal service early, they don't need to provide anything but a refund ??
Bonza airlines would not be surprised by this - these people are on a downward spiral to bankruptcy
Short validity of vouchers seems the new normal. Last week, Blacklane did not pick me up at CDG, because they had "no cars available". Just to be clear, I booked the transfer about three weeks before ...
Anyhow, as a compensation they offered refund (fair enough) and a free transfer. Here comes the catch, the free transfer must take place before 31 December 2024, i.e., within about 55 days from the incident and 50 days from the issuance of the voucher.