Homeward Found

[[Olle]] reminded me that I’d neglected to mention that I’m in the midst of a very short pre-Christmas jaunt to Ontario with [[Oliver]]. I was suddenly struck with a bout of holiday homesickness last week (“home” in the “where Mom and Dad live” sense — “home” proper has tipped to PEI now), so I booked a couple of WestJet seats and here we are.

I noted an important shift in the WestJet passenger base on the flight down: people are now flying WestJet simply because it’s a better airline and price is no longer the most important aspect in the choice over Air Canada.

Why would I fly an airline that treats Charlottetown as an impediment, is staffed by grumpy employees, and flys grotty old planes when, instead, I can fly an airline that sees Charlottetown as an opportunity, has the best staff of any airline I’ve every flown, and flies new planes with televisions at every seat?

The WestJet attitude towards kids was particularly worthy of mention: the last time we flew Air Canada with [[Oliver]] we overheard the flight attendants complaining to each other about the bothersome number of kids aboard; yesterday the WestJet flight attendants made sure all the kids had headphones for the TVs ahead of the adults, provided juiceboxes before take-off to help with the change in air pressure, handed out crayons and colouring paper, came by every once in a while to make sure everything was okay, and actually treated the kids like real people and not unwanted excess cargo.

We’re actually looking forward to the trip back. When’s the last time you could say that about Air Canada?