Okay, just got off my latest flight. I figured I’ve travelled 40,000km in the last month. As such, there have been good flights and bad flights. Typically a good flight is thanks to decent passengers, staff, etc. Bad flights are, generally, because of the opposite. Had a flight attendant once who refused to get me anything to drink because I’d “already been served once.”
It was a 4 hour flight. One drink in a little cup, somehow, wasn’t enough.
My latest flight was with WestJet.
Near as I can tell they’re the Canadian equivalent to Southwest. Cheap flights, very friendly staff, packed planes. It’s great when you need to travel loads (and aren’t making big bucks).
Generally, my past experiences with WestJet have been alright. The planes are overly packed, but the friendly staff generally makes up for it.
Not so on this flight. The staff was good. No problem with the staff.
The problem was the seats. I was behind the emergency exit row. The emergency exit row gets extra legroom. I’d never realized this apparently means the row behind the row that gets extra seating gets LESS legroom.
There wasn’t even enough room for me to sit. I couldn’t change seats until after takeoff though, because of “regulations”. Problem was, there were no free seats. So I had to stay there. Thankfully, I had a rather friendly passenger beside me. Halfway through I realized he may have been gay, with how much of my space he was taking up.
So, my lesson? Never sit behind the emergency exit thing row. It’s alright to sit IN it. As long as you don’t mind the guilt inherent in crushing the guy behind you. For 3 hours.
Or maybe it’s all just WestJet. Sad, since I love the people behind WestJet.
February 21st, 2005 at 9:30 pm
Hey you. I’m glad you’re home safe and sound and that your little family is all together again. Hope you have a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed in the morning……….Love ya
February 21st, 2005 at 10:07 pm
I love how they come around to ask you if you can do certain things when you sit in the emergency exit row. I generally keep things like “sure, I can rip off the door and let people get sucked out” or “I have no problem tossing people out of here” to myself.
I’ve been sticking to JetBlue and Song (division of Delta) when travelling here. Satellite tv to keep me busy (despite always travelling with a crapload of gadgets) has really helped me get by.
February 21st, 2005 at 10:29 pm
WestJet is much better for short flights, man. Good seeing you at the conference. I was lucky and just had to walk around on the ferry going back to Victoria afterwards.
February 21st, 2005 at 10:46 pm
Last year I flew to Toronto with JetsGo, cheap flight with no amenities. You had to pay extra for everything except water. Pissed me off that the flight attendants were wearing nice leather jackets (could’ve been fake leather, didn’t ask).
Well, you are home now, so enjoy
February 22nd, 2005 at 1:38 am
I missed the whole Northen Voice confernece thanks to Jetsgo messing up my flights. I’m still stewing about it.
February 22nd, 2005 at 7:54 am
If you’re flying on an airline that assigns seating, always use Seat Guru to check the rating of your seats. It will save you hours of trouble.
February 24th, 2005 at 10:33 pm
WESTJET SUCKS CRAP
yeah my most horrible flight was with WestJet also.
I am Canadian, they delayed me 6 hrs then dropped me in adiffernt city at 6am then trucked me in a tiny bus to Toronto and sent me $40 reimbursement in the mail for my cab ride only if i bought a new flight with them. never will i use them again.
dirt bags
February 27th, 2005 at 2:24 pm
That’s the stupidest comment I’ve ever heard. “Thankfully, I had a rather friendly passenger beside me. Halfway through I realized he may have been gay, with how much of my space he was taking up.”
Like, in passing, let’s make a homophobic slur and then move on as though it was either funny, appropriate or justified.
Perhaps he was just as cramped and crushed by the seating as you were, perhaps he was being lighthearted and involved to mitigate the fact that you were pushed unnaturally close together. I really don’t understand.
February 27th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Yes, that’s it. I’m homophobic. I wrote this post with the express intent of taking a sideways jab at some of my best friends.
Oh, wait, no I didn’t.
If you don’t like my off-handed humour, you’re free to not read. All of my happily gay friends don’t mind it, anymore than I mind their “straight jokes” on their blogs or in our conversations.
Humour is part of being me, being Canadian and being human. I also joke about women, blacks and Americans. Generally in the presence of whoever I’m joking about.
It’s funny, but it’s generally the people that I’m joking about that are laughing the hardest. Because sometimes we take political correctness too seriously.
Maybe, just maybe, I didn’t intend to offend anyone and I was actually being myself (God forbid) on my blog.
Sorry I offended you, for whatever reason you were offended. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t go out of my way to offend folk.
February 28th, 2005 at 11:54 am
I know humour, my point was that I was surprised because it seemed so out of place in context.
I realise that I’m free not to read what you write, and I fully appreciate that, but I write on my site because I enjoy the feedback people give me on what’s said, on my opinions, and I’d be disappointed if someone were to stop reading me simply because of a disagreement on opinions etc. I guess I made the decision that you’d rather hear my opinion than just have me shut the browser and think, “huh!”.
I definitely agree that that we can be too politicall correct, so I’ve got no issue with you there. I just, I suppose from years of writing ‘text messages’ and so forth, tend to always qualify my humour to make sure people know what I’m on about since so often people just get it completely wrong. I blame my dad: dry humour runs in the family.
Cheers for the reply though, I ‘get it’ more now that I know it was a joke!
p
February 28th, 2005 at 1:16 pm
I guess to me, racism / sexism / etc only comes when you don’t appreciate the differences and similarities and when you don’t accept that you are different as well as the other person being different.
To me, natural humour is a sign of that.
As I said, it wasn’t my intent to offend. And I can’t remember any time a gay friend or individual actually hit on me, so it’s not like it’s some deep seeded pain coming through.
Sorry if it was off colour to you. As I said, not my intention, and really not my personality
March 11th, 2005 at 1:07 am
Oh shut up, Patrick.
March 12th, 2005 at 11:21 am
Sorry to hear about your legroom fiasco. Just wanted to clear something up… seat pitch (the distance between each seat/legroom) is the exact same in every row except for emergency exit rows. If you were on one of the older, smaller 737-200’s (all the seats are cloth), the seat pitch is about 30″. The row directly behind the emergency exit is the same as all the other regular rows. You’ll be happy to know we are retiring all the -200 series aircraft and soon it will all be -600, -700, and -800 series 737’s with standard 32″ seat pitch.
If you’re a taller but thinner man, you can always request bulkhead seating at the front of the aircraft as well, the legroom there is also much better. I say thinner because the armrests don’t go up as your tray tables are in them and for some folks it can feel cramped.
Thanks for the kind words about our inflight crew. We do appreciate that a plane is sometimes the least comfortable place on the planet and hopefully we will continue to be one of the reasons you come back to fly with us.
cheers.
March 12th, 2005 at 11:27 am
wjafa, I didn’t suddenly get taller, and I’ve ridden the same plane a half dozen times since with no problems.
Thankfully it didn’t sour me on Westjet, it just means that I now make sure I’m not directly behind the emergency exit row
March 12th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
You didn’t suddenly get taller, and the seats didn’t suddenly get pushed closer together
I’ve been a flight attendant for a few years on the same planes. I operate up to 6 legs a day on those birds, I know them well, and I would be honest with you if that row was less in seat pitch than any other.
March 21st, 2005 at 10:37 am
are you ever dumb. there is no less room in the seats behind the exit. did you actually go and measure them or something. the most legroom on an airplane is in the bulkhead and emergency exit. all other rows are exactly the same space. i work for an airline and have for a very long time. we see the stupidest people (obviously – such as yourself) you speak without thinking. most people think they know so much when in actuality they know very little. perhpas you should investigate your concerns before speaking so stupidly about them.