My Experience Flying Canada’s Low Budget Airline: Flair Airlines
I love travelling almost as much as I love a good deal. So when I saw a promotion for half-off round trip flights from Toronto to Vancouver, I immediately bought my tickets. The airline was Flair Airlines, sometimes known as NewLeaf since they purchased all of NewLeaf’s assets and retained 85% of their staff in its 2017 acquisition.
I was hesitant at first because of its 3/10 rating on AirlineQuality.com and 2 star rating on TripAdvisor from thousands of reviews, but I just couldn’t pass up such a great deal. I paid CAD$247.52 for a direct flight to Vancouver, and a 1-hour layover in Calgary on the return flight. There was an even cheaper option with a 1-hour layover both ways, but I’ve been burned by flight delays and missing connecting flights, so I opted to pay $25 more for the direct flight there.
Anything larger than a standard backpack will cost you $35 (carry-on) or $30 (checked bag). The prices go up even higher if you upgrade at the airport. The reason why a carry-on costs more is because they want to speed up the passenger offboarding process as much as possible.
Click here to see my hacks for packing a week’s worth of luggage into one personal-sized backpack.
You’re also required to check-in online within 24-hours prior to departure or you’ll be charged a fee to check-in at the airport. They sent me reminder emails and the online check-in process was very easy and quick. This is also the only time you can choose your seat without having to pay an additional fee.
At the airport while waiting to board, I was surprised to see all types of people taking advantage of Flair’s low price flights. There were families, students, passengers with (real?) high-end designer suitcases, and people in full business suits. I was also super stressed out and paranoid that my backpack would be considered too large for a personal item and I would have to shell out $50 at the airport, but nobody checked carry-on or personal-sized items for my flight.
The plane was okay – it was old and didn’t have any inflight entertainment, but I wasn’t expecting much from a budget airline. They do not come around with drinks or snacks – not even water. However, they did have pretty affordable food on the menu. On my flight home, I ordered a Campbell’s chicken noodle soup for $4.
The flight going to Vancouver was smooth and we actually landed early! The flight back was a different story. It was extremely turbulent. I don’t think I’ve ever flown in such nauseating turbulence. It must have been the winds above Calgary, which I obviously won’t hold against the pilot, but I wish they had made an announcement to warn us that we would be flying through some heavy turbulence and to remain seated with seatbelts fastened. The lack of communication was disappointing. When we finally landed in our layover in Calgary, I was about 90% on my way to throwing up and I’m not sensitive to motion sickness at all. I bought Gravol and some candy to get my blood sugar back up. The rest of the flight back to Toronto after that was fairly stable, but that also might be thanks to the Gravol.
Overall, I would rate Flair Airlines 8 out of 10. You get what you pay for and it was very well organized for a new budget airline. I would still be happy to travel with them again in the future. Let me know if you’ve travelled with Flair or another budget North American airline that I can try out too!