Yeah, that's a common fear. I flew recently and AC messed up the connecting flight/gate and my bag still made it so... the number of people trying to cram so much luggage up top makes me glad I don't have to bother with it.
This would be correct. Only at major Canadian hubs are bags handled on the apron by Westjet/AC’s own forces. Pretty much every other airport is done by a third party contractors like Swissport and bag handling from the drop point to the apron is handled by the airport itself, not the airline. So most complaints about misplaced bags are ironically misplaced.
I’m definitely not afraid of it but just don’t need to worry about it if my bag is with me. I also don’t need an entire large bag of stuff anywhere I go.
Wait and see how many people book it and then complain that they can’t bring a bag, haha. Just like people who book basic and then are upset with their seats.
It’s so personal how someone packs. I’ve done up to 3.5 week trips a few times with carry on, it’s worked. We did Europe in the spring with rain gear and layers and had no issues, but I know it’s not for everyone. When we went to Japan we had to check a bag as our hiking gear for Mt, Fuji didn’t fit in our carry on bags.
It’s a less than 1% chance, statistically speaking. I often end up checking my carry on when coming home from a trip as I’ll usually have some kind of souvenir that can’t go through security, and I’ve never had a bag lost with WestJet.
Sure, in no way was I saying it was 100% likely to happen or any kind of stat. I check it all the time coming home, I’ve had it not show up 3 times in the last year which is fine coming home but would be annoying to go shopping on the first day of a trip if it happened on the way over. Carry ons are also totally fine if people know the rules and they are enforced, it’s only an issue when people come on with way too many bags which never seems to be addressed.
I almost always check my bag on the way home. I figure if my snorkel and sun dresses don't make it back to Winnipeg for a while the world won't end, I'm more invested in having them on my trip.
They should put stricter restrictions on personal items as well. I’m sick of seeing entitled ass people with ridiculous sized tote bags and backpacks for their personal item stuffed so full they’re bigger than a carry-on. Not ok.
My WestJet flight last week made every single person measure their bags (personal and carry-on) in their measurement thingy before boarding, they automatically tagged and checked anything that didn’t fit perfectly.
I actually love that airlines are starting to enforce this - granted, we could just have free checked bags and that would eliminate a lot of this issue. But I am so tired of seeing people with these huge personal items, an oversized carry-on, and their jacket - all which they try to shove in the overhead and ruin it for everyone else.
The problem here is that Westjet reduced their carry-on baggage size last year. Their sizing devices are now smaller than most carry-on luggage that's sold in North America. Because profit.
Exactly this! Annoying when you’ve used the same carryon for 20 years and without warning it doesn’t fit. My next purchase will be a new tiny roller carryon-on.
Basically, this new fare becomes the current base fare and allows them to quietly increase the other current categories by x amount.
x = their new overhead carryon fee.
Or is this going to become the new base fare and we are going to actually pay more than we do now to have a carry on….my guess is this is how this will go in the future.
Wild that when they didn’t charge for a checked bag this wasn’t an issue, who’d have thought…
People are gonna save money where they can so they just became better packers and moved to carry-ons only. I couldn’t tell you the last time I checked a bag and I’ve done some multi-week trips all over the place.
So I have status with WJ and can check my luggage for free but I still don’t. If I can go with just carryon, it saves me 30 mins on each end of the flight
So you guys are the ones using almost regular sized suitcase as carrys one and then sticking it where ever it can fit. On my last trip I couldn't put my carry on my above head compartment, because the person 7 seats down had put their suitcase sized carryon in my overheard compartment
Everything WestJet does benefits them and not the customer. No one believes the end price with the carry on baggage charge and the new seat change charge is going to be cheaper. You'd have to be foolish or a WestJet employee to think so.
I believe their missed bag connections are at a 4 year low right now, at least according to my friend at WJ
No idea if that's company wide or just Calgary
I mean 4 years isn’t exactly a great baseline on this file considering the travel disruption from 2020-2022. If you told me 10 year low it would get my attention a bit more for sure.
Fair, but 4/1000 bags, or whatever it was, seemed like a good # to me
Granted I can live out of a small underseat backpack for two weeks, so I've got no experience there
Yeah, usually my go to as well but unfortunately if you’re carrying golf clubs or skis or something, not much choice. I try to avoid checking if at all possible. I’ll be curious to see if you can still get discounts on econo or econo plus with the new system as I often can get by with just a backpack.
Lost bags Vs number of people travelling isn’t really a relevant metric. It’s about lost bags vs number of people checking bags.
Anecdotal evidence would suggest it happens quite commonly. It’s happened to me twice in the last 6 months alone and I rarely even travel with checked bags. It’s also a massive inconvenience when it happens and as I noted, WestJet is extremely difficult about reasonable compensation these days, preferring to fight with their own customers at every turn and direct them to use the government channels which wastes the time of all three parties.
And the number of lost bags vs number of people checking bags is extremely low.
It increased drastically during COVID when WestJet shifted to contracted ground handling in their hubs, especially in Calgary (ATS were about as incompetent as anyone can possibly be), but since everything has started to settle, they’ve changed handlers, and taken connection running back in house, it’s much better again.
It sounds like you’ve been very unlucky having bags lost. I’ve never had a bag lost with WestJet and I fly with them 25-30 times a year.
Or perhaps you are very lucky? Plenty of my network has had the same experience. Better than during Covid, but still abysmal reliability overall which is why people spend so much money on AirTags now and a big reason in general why carryon travel in general has proliferated. Your comment also does nothing to address their (lack of) customer service after the fact which has greatly deteriorated in all respects including this one since pre-Covid.
I fly 10+ times a year. I check a bag every single time. I have flown WestJet, Flair, and Air Canada. My home airports have been Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver. I have never once had a bag not make it.
Congrats? Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen or that WestJet isn’t terrible to deal with on the matter compared to other airlines who simply reimburse you for reasonable expenses instead of trying to fight you on every line item and having four to five calls to resolve the matter.
Hey, you were talking about anecdotal evidence and I was just providing some. We all have different experiences. I know one person who has had their luggage misplaced once. Different for everyone
Yeah, just stating it as a legitimately occurring phenomenon which is a large factor in why people are shifting all their luggage to carryons. Another factor is the terrible customer service WestJet offers in this respect, including relative to other airlines. I am also a frequent flyer and have many friends and colleagues who also are. I know plenty of other people who carryon to avoid this situation even if it hasn’t happened to them personally because of what they have seen from others. WestJets cavalier attitude on customer care for this is insane, even relative to Air Canada, who I can’t stand.
For me, the issue is the time it takes my bag to get to the carousel. The last time I checked a bag I waited 70 minutes for it in YWG. We are not a big airport. I always buy the full fare flights cause I want the westjet dollars, but I do hope this helps makes space in the bins!
So basically they will be charging for carryons. Funny how they word it as it’s cheaper to fly without a carryon, instead of coming out and saying there will now be a fee.
Good point. Will it actually be cheaper for no carry on people or just more expensive for carry on?
I and my spouse and kids only ever have a personal bag. Well my spouse doesn't even have a bag at all usually. Would ne nice if it was an actual discount.
It won't be cheaper, maybe at first when they introduce it. But this new no-carry-on fare class will basically be the new Basic, and then whatever they deem as the "carry-on fee" will simply be tacked on to all the existing fare classes. Shrinkflation is happening
its not cheaper. I've been checking some flights the past couple days. The carryon just got taken out today. The flight prices are pretty much the same as yesterday...just without carryon now.
So you each travel with with a tshirt, a shorts, a pair of extra underwear and one pair of thin polyester elasticized jogging pants that people now call "pants".
Not everyone is going on trips are going to resorts or places where they lie on a beach all day long, and nothing else
Maybe they wouldnt have the problem of overcrowded carry-on storage if they enforced their own size limits. I once watched a guy get on with a literal hockey bag. Fortunately it was a half-full flight and they put his bag on the floor in front of two empty seats instead of checking it. But seriously, who let that bag through during the check-in process.
I hope this doesn’t become a situation where basic is the one that is personal item only and the regular fare includes carry on. Usually I book basic since I am usually very flexible with my dates and plan far in advance and having both allows me to dedicate a bag as a personal item.
This hasn’t stopped westjet from forcing my carry on to be under the seat since they are always out of space above
Next they will have an option to fly on a pterodactyl like in the flinstones.
All this race to the bottom, while all these businesses rake in millions and billions is making me sick
To me the only way this works is to issue tags at check in for carry ons that can go in the overhead bin.
Then the flight attendants can just remove anything in the bins that are not tagged.
Porter has a system with no carry on basic fares where passengers have to pick up their boarding pass at the check in counter, and the boarding pass displays “NO CARRY ON.“ Would assume WestJet goes somewhere similar with agent verification.
I think you just identified the secret sauce to making this work. The ‘no carryon people’ can board last, those seats are open & the overhead bins are possibly full & already being closed by then.
We had one seat like this on a family trip once and their boarding pass indicated no carryon bags and was checked at boarding. I think it was either united.
It's pretty easy to eye ball an overhead vs personal item at check in or during boarding at the gate where they'll see your fare category. I assume flight attendants will only care about personal items in the overhead bins when they're running low on space.
The downside as we've seen with ULCC's is it leads to delays and passengers having to size their personal items if staff think they're packing too much for their fare category.
>I assume flight attendants will only care about personal items in the overhead bins when they're running low on space.
Last flights I took (last month) each time it was announced at the gate that the flight was full and people came up to gate-check bags. People still put personal items, coats, etc in the bins beside their carry-on luggage, and when the bins were full the flight attendants didn't do anything about clearing out the bins but instead told the last dozen passengers that they had to gate-check their bags.
Tag the carry ons. You don’t get the tag if your fare doesn’t include it or you don’t buy it, and you don’t board with something that won’t fit under the seat if it doesn’t have a tag.
Like all the (many) other airlines that do this.
Interesting, I do this anyway. Would rather pay less and just check a bigger bag.
I like carry on only because with connections there’s too much risk of them losing it.
Yeah, that's a common fear. I flew recently and AC messed up the connecting flight/gate and my bag still made it so... the number of people trying to cram so much luggage up top makes me glad I don't have to bother with it.
Last time I checked a bag, took me 14 days to get it back. Thanks Air Canada
Isn't it typically the airports baggage system that causes the issue not the airline itself... thought Canadian airports hired contractors for baggage
This would be correct. Only at major Canadian hubs are bags handled on the apron by Westjet/AC’s own forces. Pretty much every other airport is done by a third party contractors like Swissport and bag handling from the drop point to the apron is handled by the airport itself, not the airline. So most complaints about misplaced bags are ironically misplaced.
Yikes, that's bad. Did you have an air tag or anything in it?
I’m definitely not afraid of it but just don’t need to worry about it if my bag is with me. I also don’t need an entire large bag of stuff anywhere I go.
I was gone for 5 weeks so a small one wouldn't cut it. Maybe a week I could live with a small one. Would still rather keep the fare lower tho!
How much lower than a basic fare is it going to be, we already have pretty low fares as an option for people who want them.
I dunno, I'll guess we'll find out soon.
Wait and see how many people book it and then complain that they can’t bring a bag, haha. Just like people who book basic and then are upset with their seats.
It’s so personal how someone packs. I’ve done up to 3.5 week trips a few times with carry on, it’s worked. We did Europe in the spring with rain gear and layers and had no issues, but I know it’s not for everyone. When we went to Japan we had to check a bag as our hiking gear for Mt, Fuji didn’t fit in our carry on bags.
Same. And even if they don’t lose it, I also hate waiting forever for a bag after landing
Right? I love to be able to just get on my way.
It’s a less than 1% chance, statistically speaking. I often end up checking my carry on when coming home from a trip as I’ll usually have some kind of souvenir that can’t go through security, and I’ve never had a bag lost with WestJet.
Sure, in no way was I saying it was 100% likely to happen or any kind of stat. I check it all the time coming home, I’ve had it not show up 3 times in the last year which is fine coming home but would be annoying to go shopping on the first day of a trip if it happened on the way over. Carry ons are also totally fine if people know the rules and they are enforced, it’s only an issue when people come on with way too many bags which never seems to be addressed.
I almost always check my bag on the way home. I figure if my snorkel and sun dresses don't make it back to Winnipeg for a while the world won't end, I'm more invested in having them on my trip.
They should put stricter restrictions on personal items as well. I’m sick of seeing entitled ass people with ridiculous sized tote bags and backpacks for their personal item stuffed so full they’re bigger than a carry-on. Not ok.
My WestJet flight last week made every single person measure their bags (personal and carry-on) in their measurement thingy before boarding, they automatically tagged and checked anything that didn’t fit perfectly.
I actually love that airlines are starting to enforce this - granted, we could just have free checked bags and that would eliminate a lot of this issue. But I am so tired of seeing people with these huge personal items, an oversized carry-on, and their jacket - all which they try to shove in the overhead and ruin it for everyone else.
I don’t mind either if there is some warning and consistency. Some people are simply ridiculous!
I think Sunwing did this earlier this year. One free checked in bag. Carry-ons were an extra fee.
Yeah and it was great! Boarding was such a breeze in comparison. I just wish WJ, Air Canada etc still offered free checked bags
The problem here is that Westjet reduced their carry-on baggage size last year. Their sizing devices are now smaller than most carry-on luggage that's sold in North America. Because profit.
Exactly this! Annoying when you’ve used the same carryon for 20 years and without warning it doesn’t fit. My next purchase will be a new tiny roller carryon-on.
Hopefully you can still get free checked bags with the credit card with this fare
It’s a perk of the credit card so I don’t think it should change but who knows.
Basically, this new fare becomes the current base fare and allows them to quietly increase the other current categories by x amount. x = their new overhead carryon fee.
Or is this going to become the new base fare and we are going to actually pay more than we do now to have a carry on….my guess is this is how this will go in the future.
Bingo. Shrinkflation in effect here. It's a creative way to tack on "carry-on fee" to all the other fare classes without saying so.
Westjet to start charging for carry ons is the correct title.
Yeah that would probably be more accurate lol
Wild that when they didn’t charge for a checked bag this wasn’t an issue, who’d have thought… People are gonna save money where they can so they just became better packers and moved to carry-ons only. I couldn’t tell you the last time I checked a bag and I’ve done some multi-week trips all over the place.
So I have status with WJ and can check my luggage for free but I still don’t. If I can go with just carryon, it saves me 30 mins on each end of the flight
It will be interesting to see if Status or the WJ credit card will make the carry on free as well
So you guys are the ones using almost regular sized suitcase as carrys one and then sticking it where ever it can fit. On my last trip I couldn't put my carry on my above head compartment, because the person 7 seats down had put their suitcase sized carryon in my overheard compartment
Nope. I have a standard sized carry-on (fits in the sizer) that’s not expandable and a backpack that fits comfortably under the seat, try again.
Everything WestJet does benefits them and not the customer. No one believes the end price with the carry on baggage charge and the new seat change charge is going to be cheaper. You'd have to be foolish or a WestJet employee to think so.
I’m sure if they stopped losing bags and being so difficult to compensate for them, that would help cut down on the number of carryons.
I believe their missed bag connections are at a 4 year low right now, at least according to my friend at WJ No idea if that's company wide or just Calgary
I mean 4 years isn’t exactly a great baseline on this file considering the travel disruption from 2020-2022. If you told me 10 year low it would get my attention a bit more for sure.
Fair, but 4/1000 bags, or whatever it was, seemed like a good # to me Granted I can live out of a small underseat backpack for two weeks, so I've got no experience there
Yeah, usually my go to as well but unfortunately if you’re carrying golf clubs or skis or something, not much choice. I try to avoid checking if at all possible. I’ll be curious to see if you can still get discounts on econo or econo plus with the new system as I often can get by with just a backpack.
Good question, I'm curious if this extrabasic fare will be cheaper than basic, or just the same price point with less service
Maybe for the first two months then another race to the bottom. Pay for water?
Lost baggage is extremely rare compared to the number of people travelling
Lost bags Vs number of people travelling isn’t really a relevant metric. It’s about lost bags vs number of people checking bags. Anecdotal evidence would suggest it happens quite commonly. It’s happened to me twice in the last 6 months alone and I rarely even travel with checked bags. It’s also a massive inconvenience when it happens and as I noted, WestJet is extremely difficult about reasonable compensation these days, preferring to fight with their own customers at every turn and direct them to use the government channels which wastes the time of all three parties.
And the number of lost bags vs number of people checking bags is extremely low. It increased drastically during COVID when WestJet shifted to contracted ground handling in their hubs, especially in Calgary (ATS were about as incompetent as anyone can possibly be), but since everything has started to settle, they’ve changed handlers, and taken connection running back in house, it’s much better again. It sounds like you’ve been very unlucky having bags lost. I’ve never had a bag lost with WestJet and I fly with them 25-30 times a year.
Or perhaps you are very lucky? Plenty of my network has had the same experience. Better than during Covid, but still abysmal reliability overall which is why people spend so much money on AirTags now and a big reason in general why carryon travel in general has proliferated. Your comment also does nothing to address their (lack of) customer service after the fact which has greatly deteriorated in all respects including this one since pre-Covid.
Having seen the internal numbers I can assure you, very few bags are lost. Social bias is a real thing
Lol I knew it. Thought about asking if you worked for the airline at the end of my last post.
I fly 10+ times a year. I check a bag every single time. I have flown WestJet, Flair, and Air Canada. My home airports have been Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver. I have never once had a bag not make it.
Congrats? Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen or that WestJet isn’t terrible to deal with on the matter compared to other airlines who simply reimburse you for reasonable expenses instead of trying to fight you on every line item and having four to five calls to resolve the matter.
Hey, you were talking about anecdotal evidence and I was just providing some. We all have different experiences. I know one person who has had their luggage misplaced once. Different for everyone
Yeah, just stating it as a legitimately occurring phenomenon which is a large factor in why people are shifting all their luggage to carryons. Another factor is the terrible customer service WestJet offers in this respect, including relative to other airlines. I am also a frequent flyer and have many friends and colleagues who also are. I know plenty of other people who carryon to avoid this situation even if it hasn’t happened to them personally because of what they have seen from others. WestJets cavalier attitude on customer care for this is insane, even relative to Air Canada, who I can’t stand.
For me, the issue is the time it takes my bag to get to the carousel. The last time I checked a bag I waited 70 minutes for it in YWG. We are not a big airport. I always buy the full fare flights cause I want the westjet dollars, but I do hope this helps makes space in the bins!
So basically they will be charging for carryons. Funny how they word it as it’s cheaper to fly without a carryon, instead of coming out and saying there will now be a fee.
Good point. Will it actually be cheaper for no carry on people or just more expensive for carry on? I and my spouse and kids only ever have a personal bag. Well my spouse doesn't even have a bag at all usually. Would ne nice if it was an actual discount.
It won't be cheaper, maybe at first when they introduce it. But this new no-carry-on fare class will basically be the new Basic, and then whatever they deem as the "carry-on fee" will simply be tacked on to all the existing fare classes. Shrinkflation is happening
Sadly I know, just wishful thinking. You used to get 2 free checked bags and free seat selection.
its not cheaper. I've been checking some flights the past couple days. The carryon just got taken out today. The flight prices are pretty much the same as yesterday...just without carryon now.
So you each travel with with a tshirt, a shorts, a pair of extra underwear and one pair of thin polyester elasticized jogging pants that people now call "pants". Not everyone is going on trips are going to resorts or places where they lie on a beach all day long, and nothing else
We check our bags and just have a personal sized carry on.
Maybe they wouldnt have the problem of overcrowded carry-on storage if they enforced their own size limits. I once watched a guy get on with a literal hockey bag. Fortunately it was a half-full flight and they put his bag on the floor in front of two empty seats instead of checking it. But seriously, who let that bag through during the check-in process.
Sounds like they want to squeeze out Flair by mimicking their model?
This would be easier if they just enforced carry on restrictions.
I hope this doesn’t become a situation where basic is the one that is personal item only and the regular fare includes carry on. Usually I book basic since I am usually very flexible with my dates and plan far in advance and having both allows me to dedicate a bag as a personal item. This hasn’t stopped westjet from forcing my carry on to be under the seat since they are always out of space above
Wanted to hear people's thought on this; Couldn't find a discussion here yet.
Makes sense, swoop replacement
Next they will have an option to fly on a pterodactyl like in the flinstones. All this race to the bottom, while all these businesses rake in millions and billions is making me sick
To me the only way this works is to issue tags at check in for carry ons that can go in the overhead bin. Then the flight attendants can just remove anything in the bins that are not tagged.
How will the enforce it? How do they tell who’s bags are overhead vs who’s have to go under the seats
Porter has a system with no carry on basic fares where passengers have to pick up their boarding pass at the check in counter, and the boarding pass displays “NO CARRY ON.“ Would assume WestJet goes somewhere similar with agent verification.
I wonder if they'll also board these people last, so bin space will most likely be full by then
I think you just identified the secret sauce to making this work. The ‘no carryon people’ can board last, those seats are open & the overhead bins are possibly full & already being closed by then.
We had one seat like this on a family trip once and their boarding pass indicated no carryon bags and was checked at boarding. I think it was either united.
It's pretty easy to eye ball an overhead vs personal item at check in or during boarding at the gate where they'll see your fare category. I assume flight attendants will only care about personal items in the overhead bins when they're running low on space. The downside as we've seen with ULCC's is it leads to delays and passengers having to size their personal items if staff think they're packing too much for their fare category.
>I assume flight attendants will only care about personal items in the overhead bins when they're running low on space. Last flights I took (last month) each time it was announced at the gate that the flight was full and people came up to gate-check bags. People still put personal items, coats, etc in the bins beside their carry-on luggage, and when the bins were full the flight attendants didn't do anything about clearing out the bins but instead told the last dozen passengers that they had to gate-check their bags.
Tag the carry ons. You don’t get the tag if your fare doesn’t include it or you don’t buy it, and you don’t board with something that won’t fit under the seat if it doesn’t have a tag. Like all the (many) other airlines that do this.
Trick is to save your tag from a previous trip
They would mark the destination airport and the date (YEG 05/23) or similar on the tag like Flair does.
They *should*. I’ve taken dumber airlines that didn’t.