General Aviation Thread

[Djeffery]

Royal Air Force demonstration team The Red Arrows announced a late summer visit to Canada to commemorate the RCAF 100th Anniversary. In addition to their airshow performances at CFB Greenwood, Toronto and London, they will be at the Gatineau airshow Sept 6, 7 and 8. They will also be doing a flypast over Ottawa on Sept 4 as they arrive in from Toronto. In their 2019 tour, they also travelled with an A400M Atlas transport aircraft as well, so odds are they will have one of these along this time as well.

The RCAF Snowbirds and the USAF Thunderbirds will also be performing that weekend, so this will be an incredible show to be at. And most of the performers will likely be based at YOW (Snowbirds might be on the ground at Gatineau as in years past).

[RomanR27]

If anyone is planning on flying the YOW-CDG route with AF over the next year or so, until March 10 you can sign up for this credit card and get a year of Flying Blue silver status, which gives a free checked bag, free seat selection and priority check-in and boarding. The first year annual fee is waived. Note the card itself doesn't have any of these benefits, just the status given upon signup.

https://brim.flyingblue.ca/card/signup_en_2

[SimpleEng]

I did a YOW<->FLL trip recently using Porter, some thoughts below:

* Booking - having a daily (currently 8x weekly) nonstop flight to South Florida is super convenient. Porter was slightly cheaper than Air Canada and had far more options for nonstop flights, it was a no brainer to book with Porter
* Parking - we had pre booked a parking spot at YOW's long term outdoor parking (P4) but when we arrived the entrance was blocked with a lot full sign. This actually worked out well as we parked at the indoor lot (P1) for no extra charge
* Check in / security / customs - The check in / baggage drop off time at YOW was <10 mins, the time getting through security and customs line was slightly longer, ~20 mins
FLL check in was much longer, I would say ~30 mins for check in, although security was quick (<15 mins). There appeared to be no benefit of checking in online as it's the same line up for everyone. It would be nice if Porter installed kiosks so we can print baggage tags and skip the line like Air Canada does at many airports
* Gate area - YOW was packed and didn't have many options for dinner so we chose to eat on the plane. Given the demand for transborder flights I hope YOW will expand the transborder section and add more food options. FLL had a restaurant and a few fast food places
* Flight Experience - We had a lot of turbulence on the flight to FLL. Seat belt sign was on >90% of the flight. In flight service was abruptly stopped so no meals were offered. My wife was hangry and kids were upset, although it turns out my toddler enjoys turbulence!? The flight attendants were cranky gossiping and complaining about passengers quite loudly. At one point they shamed a passenger for walking to the bathroom on the speaker, then a few minutes specifically told parents to stop taking their kids to bathroom. I understand the turbulence was bad but we felt it was unprofessional. The return flight to YOW was better but we still felt Air Canada has better service.

Overall Porter has definitely won me over with their non stop flights from YOW. I will prefer Porter going forward for domestic and Transborder flights. So long Air Canada and Star Alliance.

But the flight experience matters much more to my wife and her preference is still Air Canada. Although she did agree that given a non stop Porter flight versus an Air Canada flight with a connection she will choose Porter.