Extended Comfort
Apr 4, 2024, 11:52 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Copenhagen
Programs: skyteam
Posts: 582
Extended Comfort economy cabin
Westjet launches and relaunches new onboard seating: Extended Comfort
https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2024/westjet-introduces-a-new-way-to-experience-travel-with-extended-
Extended Comfort experience includes:
https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2024/westjet-introduces-a-new-way-to-experience-travel-with-extended-
Extended Comfort experience includes:
- Seats with extra legroom (3-6 inches)
- Priority boarding (Zone 2)
- Early access to overhead bin space
- Quicker exit upon arrival
- A distinct section at the front of the Economy cabin
- A complimentary alcoholic beverage during inflight service (based on flight duration, aircraft type and destination)
Last edited by cirrusdragoon; Apr 4, 2024 at 12:09 pm
Apr 4, 2024, 12:25 pm
#2
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 5
So, how is any of this really significantly different from the existing Preferred Seats that already have the extra leg room? Are they just basically adding in a free alcoholic beverage as a reason to increase the price of the extra leg room seats?
Apr 4, 2024, 12:31 pm
#3
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE
Posts: 2,355
Yeah, effectively sounds like they're adding a drink to Preferred seats and presumably increasing the cost significantly to bundle them together. I guess the Zone 2 boarding might be a minor change for those without status, but my impression is that Zone 2 on a WS 737 is effectively the back half of economy, so unless they change the boarding zones, most of economy on a 737 is now Zone 2?
No mention of any benefits for elite members, as currently Gold/Plat/Silver can use their seat selection vouchers or benefits for preferred seats. If this eliminates preferred seating for status members, that's a huge downgrade, especially with WS densifying their 737 economy seating down to a knee-crushing 28-29" pitch.
They make it sound like an enhancement, but it sounds like this could be a major downgrade of seating benefits for status members.
No mention of any benefits for elite members, as currently Gold/Plat/Silver can use their seat selection vouchers or benefits for preferred seats. If this eliminates preferred seating for status members, that's a huge downgrade, especially with WS densifying their 737 economy seating down to a knee-crushing 28-29" pitch.
They make it sound like an enhancement, but it sounds like this could be a major downgrade of seating benefits for status members.
Apr 4, 2024, 1:10 pm
#4
Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: YMJ (YQR)
Programs: Qantas LTG, WestJet Plat
Posts: 354
WestJet's Extended Comfort page has some more information, specifically that it'll be accessed through seat selection, rather than it being sold as a separate fare/cabin type. Based on this, I assume that existing status seating benefits would still work, but we won't know for sure until April 10.
Apr 4, 2024, 3:17 pm
#8
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: YVR
Programs: Erstwhile Accidental AC E35K
Posts: 2,964
So let’s see if we can follow the logic trail that led us to this:
WS decides to charge a fee for checked bags —> predictably, passengers connive to avoid the fee by bringing more or only carry-on baggage —> inevitably and predictably a significant number make it through security and arrive at the gate with too many and/or oversized bags that should have been checked and paid for at the bag drop —> in the early stages of this policy the bins filled up early and the FAs had to deal with the excess, mainly by checking the excess bags for free during the boarding process amongst everything else they have to do —> to try to alleviate the chaos, WS then proactively offers to gate check for free the excess/oversize bags before the boarding starts, to the irritation of passengers who did follow the rules and paid for checked bags —> this works to an extent, but some passengers in the peon class boarding zones still don’t get bin space, so now the FAs are still dealing with the excess/oversized bags during boarding —> in a further attempt to address the chaos WS decides to charge a fee for early access to the bins, which actually means that roughly the same number of passengers, just different ones, will still be out of luck for bin space, but now WS has more money.
Have I got that right?
WS decides to charge a fee for checked bags —> predictably, passengers connive to avoid the fee by bringing more or only carry-on baggage —> inevitably and predictably a significant number make it through security and arrive at the gate with too many and/or oversized bags that should have been checked and paid for at the bag drop —> in the early stages of this policy the bins filled up early and the FAs had to deal with the excess, mainly by checking the excess bags for free during the boarding process amongst everything else they have to do —> to try to alleviate the chaos, WS then proactively offers to gate check for free the excess/oversize bags before the boarding starts, to the irritation of passengers who did follow the rules and paid for checked bags —> this works to an extent, but some passengers in the peon class boarding zones still don’t get bin space, so now the FAs are still dealing with the excess/oversized bags during boarding —> in a further attempt to address the chaos WS decides to charge a fee for early access to the bins, which actually means that roughly the same number of passengers, just different ones, will still be out of luck for bin space, but now WS has more money.
Have I got that right?
Apr 4, 2024, 4:00 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Copenhagen
Programs: skyteam
Posts: 582
So let’s see if we can follow the logic trail that led us to this:
WS decides to charge a fee for checked bags —> predictably, passengers connive to avoid the fee by bringing more or only carry-on baggage —> inevitably and predictably a significant number make it through security and arrive at the gate with too many and/or oversized bags that should have been checked and paid for at the bag drop —> in the early stages of this policy the bins filled up early and the FAs had to deal with the excess, mainly by checking the excess bags for free during the boarding process amongst everything else they have to do —> to try to alleviate the chaos, WS then proactively offers to gate check for free the excess/oversize bags before the boarding starts, to the irritation of passengers who did follow the rules and paid for checked bags —> this works to an extent, but some passengers in the peon class boarding zones still don’t get bin space, so now the FAs are still dealing with the excess/oversized bags during boarding —> in a further attempt to address the chaos WS decides to charge a fee for early access to the bins, which actually means that roughly the same number of passengers, just different ones, will still be out of luck for bin space, but now WS has more money.
Have I got that right?
WS decides to charge a fee for checked bags —> predictably, passengers connive to avoid the fee by bringing more or only carry-on baggage —> inevitably and predictably a significant number make it through security and arrive at the gate with too many and/or oversized bags that should have been checked and paid for at the bag drop —> in the early stages of this policy the bins filled up early and the FAs had to deal with the excess, mainly by checking the excess bags for free during the boarding process amongst everything else they have to do —> to try to alleviate the chaos, WS then proactively offers to gate check for free the excess/oversize bags before the boarding starts, to the irritation of passengers who did follow the rules and paid for checked bags —> this works to an extent, but some passengers in the peon class boarding zones still don’t get bin space, so now the FAs are still dealing with the excess/oversized bags during boarding —> in a further attempt to address the chaos WS decides to charge a fee for early access to the bins, which actually means that roughly the same number of passengers, just different ones, will still be out of luck for bin space, but now WS has more money.
Have I got that right?
Apr 4, 2024, 11:19 pm
#10
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 1,678
Yeah, effectively sounds like they're adding a drink to Preferred seats and presumably increasing the cost significantly to bundle them together. I guess the Zone 2 boarding might be a minor change for those without status, but my impression is that Zone 2 on a WS 737 is effectively the back half of economy, so unless they change the boarding zones, most of economy on a 737 is now Zone 2?
No mention of any benefits for elite members, as currently Gold/Plat/Silver can use their seat selection vouchers or benefits for preferred seats. If this eliminates preferred seating for status members, that's a huge downgrade, especially with WS densifying their 737 economy seating down to a knee-crushing 28-29" pitch.
They make it sound like an enhancement, but it sounds like this could be a major downgrade of seating benefits for status members.
No mention of any benefits for elite members, as currently Gold/Plat/Silver can use their seat selection vouchers or benefits for preferred seats. If this eliminates preferred seating for status members, that's a huge downgrade, especially with WS densifying their 737 economy seating down to a knee-crushing 28-29" pitch.
They make it sound like an enhancement, but it sounds like this could be a major downgrade of seating benefits for status members.
Currently zone 3 is: row 4 to row fwd of exit row
(exit boards with early boarding for FA briefing)
so adding zone 2 access for 4 rows of what was zone 3 will allow access to bins in EC; as others in zone 2 will be headed to aft; or have Silver status.
Apr 5, 2024, 10:02 am
#11
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,013
Westjet launches and relaunches new onboard seating: Extended Comfort
https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...with-extended-
Extended Comfort experience includes:
https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...with-extended-
Extended Comfort experience includes:
- Seats with extra legroom (3-6 inches)
- Priority boarding (Zone 2)
- Early access to overhead bin space
- Quicker exit upon arrival
- A distinct section at the front of the Economy cabin
- A complimentary alcoholic beverage during inflight service (based on flight duration, aircraft type and destination)
Apr 5, 2024, 10:19 am
#12
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,510
Apr 5, 2024, 10:25 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Copenhagen
Programs: skyteam
Posts: 582
Apr 5, 2024, 1:34 pm
#14
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: YYC, Canada
Programs: AC 35k
Posts: 1,915
Apr 5, 2024, 1:55 pm
#15
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Copenhagen
Programs: skyteam
Posts: 582
The existing preferred seats will remain unchanged, and they'll shrink the pitch in the back to add more rows. This is for all intents and purposes a rebranding of an existing product with a bit extra (better zone boarding + free drink) plus higher cost. Sort of like what Amex does every couple of years with it's annual fees