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?
In this post:
How Flair’s on-time flight guarantee works
Flair Airlines, a Canadian ultra low cost carrier with its headquarters in Edmonton, has just introduced the country’s first on-time guarantee for flights. With this guarantee, you can automatically receive a $60 CAD e-voucher if your flight is delayed or canceled within certain parameters:
- The delay guarantee applies when your fight is delayed by more than 60 minutes from the arrival time stated on your itinerary
- The cancelation guarantee applies when your flight is canceled within 72 hours of the departure time stated on your itinerary
In order to be eligible, you must be at least 18 years old, bookings must be made directly on flyflair.com, and you must have booked more than 72 hours before departure. If eligible, you should automatically receive an email with a voucher code no more than 48 hours after your flight arrives.
What’s the catch? Well, it’s how restrictive the voucher is. The $60 CAD e-voucher is only valid for base fare, and is only valid for the same traveler. Those two restrictions are fair enough. The most limiting factor is how the voucher is only valid for 60 days from when it’s issued. That’s rough, especially since the carrier is leisure focused, so it’s not like the average Flair customer flies with the airline every month or two.
This is a smart promotion on Flair’s part
In the past, Flair Airlines has had some major issues with operational reliability, so when I first read this, I thought this was a gimmick to mask the carrier’s on-time performance. However, as part of this guarantee, the company claims to be Canada’s most reliable airline, and I was wondering what that was based on, because that caught me off guard.
Flair has a page dedicated to its performance, which is surprisingly transparent in comparing its performance to other carriers. The company is updating this, even in months where it’s not in first place. For example, in October 2024, Flair claims to be number one in completion factor, while it’s in third place in terms of on-time performance, only beating out Air Canada.
But I’ve gotta Flair credit here, this is a smart offer. Handing out vouchers to delayed passengers isn’t going to cost the airline much. If anything, it’s an initiative to encourage repeat business, since those with vouchers will have to book another ticket for travel within two months.
And since we’re talking about an ultra low cost carrier, and the voucher can only be applied to base fare, the airline can still make a lot of money on passengers on fees.
So I think this is a pretty creative initiative. The airline is basically handing out vouchers like candy, but the condition to using them is having to plan Flair travel again within two months, so that should be pretty profitable. All of that says nothing of Flair’s major financial issues, which make one wonder how long the airline will even be around.
Bottom line
Canada’s Flair Airlines has introduced an on-time guarantee. With this, you can receive a $60 CAD e-voucher if your flight is delayed by at least an hour. The catch is that the voucher has to be redeemed within two months.
Ultimately a good number of Flair flights are delayed, so this isn’t some guarantee in the unlikely event a flight doesn’t operate as scheduled. Quite to the contrary, the airline will be handing out a lot of these vouchers, with hopes of generating quite a bit of incremental business.
What do you make of Flair’s on-time guarantee?
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.
Bonza airlines would not be surprised by this - these people are on a downward spiral to bankruptcy
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 ??
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...
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.
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.
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.
Given that Flair is near bankrupt according to several reports, this is a last ditch effort to prop up traffic...
What reports are those JFB?
What do you mean by “prop up traffic “?
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...
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.