If there’s anything people can agree on these days, it’s that flying sucks.

And between the delays and cancellations, extreme turbulence, and jets literally falling apart in the sky, it seems that some people have had about enough of flying experiences getting ostensibly worse instead of better.

Which may partially explain the online roasting of WestJet’s new UltraBasic fare, where you can board the plane and that’s about it.

Announced Tuesday, the new “no-frills fare option” doesn’t permit carry-on baggage (unless you’re flying overseas), has pre-assigned seats at the back of the plane, and those who select the fare will be the last to board the plane. They also can’t collect WestJet Rewards.

Even then, an UltraBasic round trip from Toronto to Calgary at the end of June costs about $650.

    • Beaver [she/her]@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Whaaat you don’t like high prices and poor service?

      The propagandists said Air Canada would be better off privatized.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          And America is RIGHT THERE to show them otherwise, and still they pitch that to their slobbering crowd of knuckledraggers.

  • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
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    5 months ago

    So… You wear 10 layers of clothing, and shove everything else into a CPAP bag? (Medical things are often excluded)

    • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Oh man I had a friend that did the clothes thing. It was his first time flying and the didn’t bother to learn or ask about carry-on stuff. He flew to visit his girlfriend’s family wearing all the clothes he would use that week.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Just so everyone is clear on this, the airline isn’t trying to sell to a lower market. They’re trying to normalize higher prices for standard fares. By itemizing the things that are normally included, they can pin values on all of them and then make it seem like a deal to “upgrade”.

  • 8ender@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The other thing WestJet has been doing lately is charging you full price for a ticket and then shoving you on one of the cramped former Swoop planes.

      • maxprime@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        Unless I’m going on a really long trip I never bring carryon. Just my small backpack with enough clothes for the trip (plus 2 socks and underwear). I feel like I should be given a cheaper [e] ticket for that.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Actually, you can put four passengers in a Chevy Suburban with a big V8 and they’ll be polluting less to travel the same distance compared to doing it in a passenger plane, the shorter the trip the better as well because planes burn a shit ton of fuel for takeoff.

          • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            And not considering the impact of emissions at high altitude vs ground level which is much worse which explains why air traffic has a disproportionately high green house effect compared to the amount of emissions it releases.

            I was just talking about the amount of fuel burnt over the distance covered. Also the road infrastructure will continue to exist even if it’s just for heavy transport (which is much worse on roads anyway).

            • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              Also the road infrastructure will continue to exist even if it’s just for heavy transport (which is much worse on roads anyway).

              If you’re not aware of how much it costs to maintain roads, that’s because it’s largely subsidized FOR trucking, and incompletely at that.

              Witness the state of roads and especially bridges, and explain how they should be maintained considering who’s on them. Now remove trucking because we got smart and used rail for inter-city. You’re either going to be using a ez-pass a lot more or the roads will be straight outta Mad Max.

              And finally, it’s a 6 hour flight or a 4-day driving trip. One’s shorter and far safer, and the other one destroys friendships because Dave will not stop snoring and I swear I’m going to stop this car right now.

  • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    God damn it’s so stupid that we fill plans front to back just so people can feel special about sitting down first.

    • rab@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Front is the best so you can get off the plane immediately

      I never understood why people dick around with their bags after a 10 hour flight, I want to get the fuck out immediately

      • alyth@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I’m the opposite. I’ve already spent 10 hours so what’s another 15 minutes waiting for the corridor to clear up.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Yea, my partner has mobility issues, so we tend to wait until most of the other people are off before trying to get canes out and the deplane without the stress of being in front of people pushing to get off.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        If you’re the type who immediately stands up and blocks everything, then you’re definitely on the list of flying gripes; sorry to say.

        Boarding back to front, windows-in, was definitely really cool when I was on a plane with that rule.

        A way to lock the overheads and publicize that info would go a long way, I think.

  • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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    5 months ago

    This is why having classes in transportation is bad. You are literally in the same vehicle, but companies are trying to convince people to pay more. The only way for this to actually work is to make the cheaper options suck ass.

    Airlines have ended up with a business model that depends on them providing bad service.