YYC Direct Flights Shakeup 2023 - AC Out, WJ In

[haggis88]

I went to Thunder Bay once

it was...interesting...

[Manhattan]

Worked out of a small town couple hours from Thunder Bay early in my career. I had a choice between couple places in SK, BC, or TBay. People thought I was crazy for picking Tbay haha. Beautiful area with hardly any crowds or tourists (faster to drive to eastern canada via US I think). Right on Lake Superior which might as well have been a sea or ocean given its size. Some of the towns smell like ass because of the pulp mills. Overall had a great time and everything there is dirt cheap.

[SkiBum5.0]

Was it Nipigon?

[haggis88]

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Was it Nipigon?

Beat me to it...that's where I went to after my overnight in TB

Stayed at the lovely "Beaver Motor Inn"

[Manhattan]

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Was it Nipigon?

Close by in Schreiber

[haggis88]

Need to fly to NYC on Thursday for a Friday job...of course the direct Westjet flights are Wednesday and Friday

Travel direct on the Wednesday and have a wee tour of NYC (which I've done and would do again, but could be boring on my own) or just do the milk-run flights via everywhere on the Thursday

Decisions, decisions...

[Maxx Mazda]

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Need to fly to NYC on Thursday for a Friday job...of course the direct Westjet flights are Wednesday and Friday

Travel direct on the Wednesday and have a wee tour of NYC (which I've done and would do again, but could be boring on my own) or just do the milk-run flights via everywhere on the Thursday

Decisions, decisions...

AC has a direct flight on Thursday. It's to Newark too, so you don't need to deal with the abortion that is LaGuardia. Not to mention you don't have to deal with the cancellations and meltdown in progress over at WJ.

[ExtraSlow]

This is a situation where the "when" trumps the "who" for me. I'd strongly consider the AC flight to remain direct on the right day.

[haggis88]

Site is only a few blocks away from Queensbridge Houses (hello Nas and Mobb Deep, hello pals) and I'm planning on staying in Long Island City, but a lot of guys do just stay at LGA and I might have to fly to Syracuse straight away anyway so LGA would make rental car return easier

I'm so close to 2024 Platinum status already that I'm thinking WJ on the way there even if I am a day early, then AC on the way back

[Manhattan]

They don't have airbnb at the QB housing projects?

[haggis88]

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They don't have airbnb at the QB housing projects?

I didn't actually look as we're not allowed to use AirBnB, but that would be fucking sick


ETA, no there's not

[haggis88]

Westjet getting a bit of +rep from me today

Into the elevation lounge at YYC at 6.25am today...had some snacks and a drink, then got an email

"sorry your travel plans got changed, here's a $30 coupon to use for food"

Calgary to Toronto flight wasn't delayed, but i took the voucher number to relay and got some snacks and drinks

Got to the gate, upgrade to business class

Idk why that happened, but I'll take the $30

Exact same thing happened to my colleague on the same flight, so he bought the snacks for the yyz-lga flight lol

[haggis88]

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Only $1800 away from my Westjet Platinum Status for 2024 already

Heading to Michigan tomorrow on a magical mystery tour via Montreal and Toronto to try and hit the segments for 50k status before the end of the year...double status 2024 baby!

[littledan]

Nice im jealous. Would love to have ac status so I could actually fly with them sometimes. Usually booking mostly westjet due to my plat. Status.

Yesterday my flight out of san diego ended up being delayed about 90 mins so my layover in yyc was too tight so they rebooked me on later flight to yeg. I said fuck that and literally power walked to customs, then full on ran to departure gate and made it while they were still boarding. Was a bit of fuckery though as they had to reticket me, back onto my original flight, and they had given away my premium seat to a random pleb so I had to sit with the poor people. Was a q400 though so technically the premium seats are the poor seats, just at the front of the plane.

Tldr: all commercial flyers are technically poor, just at slightly diff levels of poordom

[Marsh]

Not sure if this is related to the WJ and AC changes, but I was looking at flights to Australia and NZ for this year. It used to be a straight forward YYC->YVR or SFO->AKL. The flight path is completely fucked up now, as well as timing. Not liking this westjet calgary hub at all.
It'll probably be a good thing for North American flights, but for Int'l flights AC was much better (star alliance and all)

[hurrdurr]

Air New Zealand still operates out of LAX/SFO/YVR - It's based on seasonality and the days of the week. I don't think they're going daily from YVR anymore, looks like Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun for departures in the spring. AC still operates proper connections via YVR as well - What dates are you looking at that are causing difficulty for your scheduling?

[benyl]

There are 4 choices for a gateway that offer a direct flight to SYD or AKL:

YVR, SFO, LAX or HNL

Depending on the season, you might be able to get into BNE or MEL from those same gateways.

To hurrdurr's question, what day are you trying to go? I think QF has a daily from SYD-YVR.

[haggis88]

TSA getting more and more lax on their policies at the xray every time i get on a flight recently

No shoes off and nothing out of the bag, just throw it on the conveyor and walk through (Detroit Metro)

YYC and YYZ still had shoes off and laptops out on the way down

Fucking Air Canada cancelled my DTW to YYZ last night so couldn't get my connection, which had a Dreamliner first class upgrade from YYZ to YYC so I'm pissed.

I now have to go via SLC on the 787 Max with Delta, but at least it's in the premium seats

[benyl]

CATSA is terrible for anyone who travels a lot. Why have a Nexus line when I still have to take out my laptop and take off my shoes and filter in with the plebs. Nexus in canada is the equivalent of a fast pass at disney, but gets you no security benefits.

TSA Pre = throw all your shit in your bag (phone, jacket, laptop, etc) and walkthrough with shoes ON. Even when you come into the states without pre-clearance, Global Entry basically just waves you through.

[haggis88]

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TSA Pre = throw all your shit in your bag (phone, jacket, laptop, etc) and walkthrough with shoes ON. Even when you come into the states without pre-clearance, Global Entry basically just waves you through.

This wasn't even anything special, just the regular security line