Booked with Swoop!
Update: After posting this, Swoop emailed me to say that our times had changed and they were totally the opposite of what I wanted and why I had booked their times. I called the Service Center and got a full refund for the tickets. I am not holding this against them as all airlines change their times, and I will still try to book with them in the future.
Note: they say that there is a $15 charge for calling the Service Center as they want things to be done online. For something like a full refund it cannot be done online, so they do not charge the fee.
I have now booked our flights with Flair (which I wanted to try anyways) and will wait for another opportunity to fly with Swoop!
I am personally very excited about the new market of Ultra-Low Cost Carriers (ULCC) coming to Canada this summer!
Anyone who has lived in any large European city knows the beauty of a cheap airline- Rome for the weekend? Nice for my birthday? Barcelona for a romantic holiday? YES PLEASE!
The flexibility and freedom of knowing that you can get to these amazing travel destinations without saving for 6 months is a great feeling. This is definitely NOT the case in Canada. Even from Winnipeg, flights are cheaper to Europe than within Canada.
For example: I booked my first Swoop flight to go from Winnipeg to Hamilton, ON for August. It cost $531 for two people, including a checked bag. Compare this to an EasyJet or RyanAir flight and it is still expensive, but right before I booked it I checked the prices on Google Flights with Air Canada and WestJet and they were both ranging between $600-$700 FOR ONE PERSON. This is incredible because last November I paid $695 to go from Winnipeg to London Gatwick on WestJet. I know that we are comparing low season and high season here, but still. Getting to Toronto Pearson vs. London Gatwick is very different.
The reason that I am so excited, is that there are multiple companies trying to start out in Canada. Flair Airlines (began as New Leaf but then changed) has been operating since last year. I think their prices have gone up a little bit more than they originally advertised, but still lower. This summer there will be Swoop starting and Canadian Jetlines at once. There is speculation that the Canadian market cannot support all of them, but at least they will stir the pot and hopefully force Air Canada and WestJet to have some competitive pricing too. Note that Swoop is backed by WestJet, even though they will be operating as separate entities.
I do believe that people can spout a lot of hot air, and the best way to see change is by voting with your wallet. As someone who wants these companies to stick around and make change, I want to fly with them and support them as much as I can. Unfortunately I have not flown with Flair Airlines yet, but I hope to. I was excited when I got to book my first Swoop flight!
The below video gives a good summary of the problem:
Booking
Note that low-cost airlines will not appear on Google Flights, and probably things like Expedia and such. This is because if you book through Google Flights the airline has to pay them a percentage, and for an airline trying to cut all costs, this is something they try to avoid. This means that if you want to book with them you have to go directly to their websites and compare between them yourself.
So I went onto the Swoop website.
They only have a few destinations for now, so choosing your route is easy. As per normal, choose your destination and departure cities, pick round-trip or one-way and your dates. There are only a few choices since the routes are flown once a day only. I was impressed with the times that they offered. The purpose of this trip is to attend a wedding in southern Ontario on Saturday, August 18, 2018. I wanted to fly in Thursday and fly out Sunday.
I could not have asked for better times. This way I can go to work on Thursday and fly in the evening. On Sunday I can sleep a bit after the wedding, get to the airport and make my flight comfortably. I will also be home at a reasonable time on Sunday evening to prepare for the week ahead. I could not have asked for better times! I suspect that if Swoop were flying in and out of Toronto Pearson they could have to worst time slots as these are cheaper. I think flying from Hamilton gives them more flexibility and choice for providing flights at useful times. Maybe I am wrong, but I am assuming.
Paying for Everything
The basis of ULCCs is that your ticket gets you a seat, and you pay for everything else. People complain about this, but I really like it. I don’t need to pay $500 more for a 2.5 hour flight on Air Canada, just so that they give me some pretzels during the flight. If I am hungry on the flight I will buy something. If not, I won’t.
While doing the booking on Swoop, they asked if we wanted to select our seats. Just selecting a basic seat (no legroom etc.) cost an extra $6, and any kind of upgraded seat (legroom etc.) was more. There are two of us going and I am not sure if we will sit together or not, but I chose to save my $12 this time.
Then came the baggage.
As you can see above, one checked bag was $26.25 and a carry-on was around $35. I believe that Flair Airlines is doing a similar thing. By getting people to check bags it will make the boarding faster and avoid all the fluster in the cabin. Also when they say checked bag them mean a REAL bag (that everyone now has in the back of their closet) weighing up to 23kg!!! So for $10 less you get so much more room and weight. I booked one checked bag, so the two of us will both put our things in one. Do note that this is per flight, so it comes to just over $50 to have a checked bag both ways on a round trip flight. Again, nice to have the option if you were dropping something off at your destination you wouldn’t have to pay for it on the way back. This is another perk of PAY-AS-YOU-GO flying.
The rest of the booking was the same. You can pay with credit cards. If you sign up for their newsletters they have been sending out a lot of promo codes lately. I didn’t use any because my dates were off, but this could be a great way to get a cheaper flight.
Will you be supporting Canada’s new airlines this summer? Where will they take you?