TACA to codeshare on select Air Canada routes out of Calgary

As TACA (and joint venture partner Avianca) approach their entry into the Star Alliance, we are starting to see the two Latin American carries expand their codeshare services with partners of the alliance. Of course, with Air Canada being one of the founding members of the Star Alliance, TACA recently began codesharing on some of Air Canada's routes and includes the following from YYC:

To - From TACA Flight # AC Flight #
Los Angeles – Calgary TA4001 AC573
Calgary – Los Angeles TA4000 AC572
Calgary – Edmonton TA4024 AC8162
Edmonton – Calgary TA4023 AC8167

It does not appear that these flights are bookable yet on the TACA website (well YYC-YEG will not be of course, but YYC-Latin America via LAX should be). As we have mentioned in the past this opens up more pricing options for flights out of Calgary as TACA may sell their codeshare flights cheaper then AC.

Source: Airline Route Updates

I Fly Calgary to Ottawa & Edmonton: Wallet Makeover Media Tour continued...

This is part two of my trip report for the Air Miles Wallet Makeover media tour that took place early in March. (Part 1 can be found here).

After spending less then 48 hours with my family over the weekend, the tour had me scheduled for Ottawa on Monday March 14, Edmonton on March 15 and one more spot in Calgary on March 16. I arrive at YYC for my suppertime flight to Ottawa on Air Canada with ample time and breeze through security. The flight is listed as being on time and after grabbing some Starbucks I take a seat at gate A18 where I await my flight. The Starbucks runs through me fast so I figure I should hit the washroom before the flight. As I am exiting the washrooms nearest A18 a whole throng of people are walking by in a line with some complaining "Air Canada always does this" and I figure their flight is delayed. I get back to get A18 and see what they are talking about. The E190 that was to be used for the Ottawa flight has now been switched to the London, ON flight! I move away to go find a FIDS display to see what has happened to my flight. Departure is now delayed by nearly an hour and half and the gate has been changed to B20. Here's what I was thinking: "Couldn't they have delayed the London flight instead of mine?" Now I won't be in my bed in Ottawa until 1:30am or so and have to be up before 6am. Oh well, I've done many nights with short sleeps one more won't kill me. Off to Chili's for a beer and some dry ribs. Once at the gate I await the arrival of the new E190 that will be flying the route to Ottawa. It does not take too long for it to arrive at the gate and the Air Canada employees ensure a quick turnaround and off to Ottawa we go. The flight itself is quite uneventful and relatively smooth. I enjoy the selection on AC's IFE as I watch the runaway train movie Unstoppable and follow this up with a bunch of the Canadian short's from Movieola. The last time I flew into Ottawa (Oct 2010) it was pretty much a straight in approach but this time round as the flight approached Ottawa it conducted a right turn of over 90 degrees so that we were backtracked slightly and then a 180 deg turn to line up with and land smoothly on runway 07. Not sure why this happened but I'm thinking they may have changed the active runway as we approached Ottawa, or maybe one of my readers can tell me if this somewhat of a regular procedure at YOW?

Getting off the plane is quick and easy and I am in cab in under 10 minutes off to the Courtyard by Marriott which is just around the corner from A-Channel Ottawa where my first interview is taking place later that morning. A quick 4.5 hour sleep and I am off to the studio for a live on camera interview with Kurt Stoodley. Those of you who have been in YYC for more then 10 years should recognize that name as he used to be on A-Channel here. The media spot goes well and off to the Rogers Ottawa studio I go for a lunchtime spot on their daytime variety show (and an taped radio interview in between). Another successful interview and I have some time to kill before catching a late afternoon flight to YYZ and then connecting onto YEG. Seeing that my Uncle lives in Ottawa, I invite him to lunch as I don't see him too often and I'd rather be having a nice big lunch rather then some fast food junk at the airport.

My Uncle is nice enough to drop me off at the airport and seeing as I already have my boarding pass go straight through to security and off to my gate to await the short flight to Toronto. When I checked in for my flight the day before the schedule had it being operated with another E190 but as I find out when I hand more boarding pass to gate agent to board the plane my seat is no longer there.... turns out the flight has been switched to the smaller E175 and my original seat near the back of plane does not exist on the E175. The gate agent finds me a new window seat near the back and I am off to YYZ. The flight left YOW early and arrived into YYZ even earlier. Enough time to walk around YYZ for a little bit and grab a small snack and drink from Starbucks. The flight is to Edmonton is delayed of course but only by a  half hour or so as the plane is late getting in from Atlantic Canada. Once boarded, the plane is absolutely packed and only a couple of minutes before the closing of the door one passenger decided that did not want to take the flight and either did not board or got off the plane. Of course they were travelling with luggage so we had another delay of almost half an hour so that the luggage could be found and offloaded. Now I am not superstitious, love flying (if that is not obvious, don't think I'd have this blog if I didn't) but when something like this happens you go back and think about those stories where people had a feeling about a flight, don't board and that plane goes on to crash and wonder if this person felt the same thing. Well, I put that at the back of my head as I know the flight will be just fine. The flight goes off without a hitch and I arrive into YEG and am at the Delta Center Suite Hotel around 10pm allowing for a bit of longer sleep as I have to be at City TV Edmonton around 7:00am for a spot on Breakfast television. I must say, the rooms at Delta Center Suite Hotel are in a serious need of an update to get out of the 1970s and 80s. It must say it was not worth the $270 that my client paid for the room. That brings me back to the Courtyard in Ottawa, another hotel that needs some updating! The lobby was being renovated so hopefully the rooms will follow.

Up at 6am to get ready for the BT spot with Ryan (this guy is a great host and interviewer) and by 8am I am all done. My client had me booked for a mid afternoon flight from YEG to YYC just in case some last minute media request came in. It did not look like anymore were going to bite on their press release so after a quick bite to eat and a long cab ride to the Leduc International Airport (sorry to the Edmonton readers, had to poke some fun here) I arrive at 9am. I am not up for waiting in YEG for 6 hours so I change my flight to the 10am Dash 8 patented tarmac to tarmac service between Alberta's main cities. I advise my client I am taking the early flight. Of course, just as I am about to board the flight my phone rings and they have lined up another interview, luckily it is a radio spot that can be done by phone but the radio station wants it right away. So I delay boarding as long as I can as I await a call from 660 News in Calgary. The phone call comes and I start my interview in the terminal and finish it in my seat at the very rear of the Dash 8-300. Talk about cutting it close. The Dash 9 is full and I am seated next to a couple of Edmonton based Air Canada Jazz pilots who are deadheading to Calgary. Always nice to chat flying and airlines with the pilots who were off to Victoria and Saskatoon that day. The flight is an uneventful one, a quick juice service from the flight attendant and then we are landing on runway 16 and I am back home.

The travelling part of the Wallet Makeover media tour was over but I still had another 2 TV appearances in YYC and some print interviews for some newspapers down east.

I hope you enjoyed my latest trip report and I look forward to writing about more of my trips out of YYC.

Air Canada updates Calgary-Tokyo schedule

Back in March Air Canada reduced their entire flying schedule to Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami disaster. The YYC-NRT flight was reduced to 3 flights per week but the good news is that the service is going up to 4 flights per week for the summer season between July 3 and September 4th. Air Canada had announced that the service was going to increase to 5 flights per week as of March 26th but this was prior to the disaster that struck Japan.

Source: Airline Route Updates

February 2011 Passenger Stats

We knew the passenger number growth at YYC could not continue forever and after 14 months of continuous growth Calgary International finally faltered.

Compared to February 2010, the same month in 2011 saw passenger numbers decrease by an overall amount of 1.2%. All sectors saw declines with the sharpest drop coming from International passengers. Domestic travel decreased by 0.4%, Transborder by 1.7% and International went down by 4.5%. Overall, 942,172 passengers used the airport in February.

As a side note, YYC has corrected January's numbers and the month actually saw a 1.9% increase (vs. the 0.6% initially reported) which means the so far 2011 is 0.4% ahead of 2010.

February 2011
Domestic: 627,393
Transborder: 206,651
International: 108,128

Source: YYC.com

Flying LH to Abu Dhabi or Dubai? Earn Double Miles & More miles

I know that I have a few readers of the IflyCalgary blog who are in the Oil & Gas Industry and perhaps some of you utilize LH's to go to the Middle East via Frankfurt. If you do so and your final destination is Abu Dhabi or Dubai, LH's Miles & More program is offering Double miles on the non-stop flights from Germany (and Austria/Switzerland on OS/LX) to those cities. The valid flight numbers to earn the extra miles on are LH 618, LH 619, LH 630, LH 631, LH 638, LH 639, LX 242, LX 243, OS 839, OS 840. To earn the miles you must register first which can be done so here and the offer is good for up to 8 segments until May 31, 11.

If this offer doesn't work for you I list many more Miles & More offers on RewardsCanada.ca on this page including their newest offer where you name a route within Europe to earn up to triple miles on for the rest of the year.

I Fly Calgary to Toronto: Wallet Makeover Media Tour

These flights were taken back towards the beginning of March with the outbound flight the first of many over 6 days for the Air Miles Wallet Makeover media tour. The first stop of the media tour was Southern Ontario and since my schedule had to keep me in Calgary until late on 9th I was stuck on Air Canada's red eye to Toronto to make an 8:40am live appearance on Canada AM. It has been ages since I flew out of concourse B (always seems to be A, C transborder, D) and I didn't realize that the security area for B is being renovated, so it was off the concourse A to clear security and then make my way over to B via the glass walled walkway connecting the two.

The flight on an AC A321 was scheduled to leave at 12:10am but following what seems to be the norm for this flight we didn't take off until 1:00am. I figured I could get 3 or so hours of sleep on the flight so I that I could pretend to be rested for the early TV spot but turbulence along most of the route made sure I didn't get more then a half hour or so of sleep in one shot. Arrival into rainy Toronto was uneventful with the plane getting to gate at about 6:30am Toronto time. As I only had carry on luggage it took me less then 10 minutes to get to my ride that was waiting to take me over the CTV studios. In fact, if I can recall correctly we got to the studios a little after 7am.

The Canada AM interview went smoothly, then I was off for to CTV Kitchener for a noon newshour live appearance on CTV Southerwestern Ontario, once that was complete, it was off to CTS Studios in Burlington for a taped spot on their Real Life program which aired March 25. Once all the media spots were done I was able to check in into the Residence Inn Toronto Downtown/Entertainment District. I received a room on the 17th with a view of the CN Tower (well supposed to be a view but the rain and fog only let me see the bottom third or so). There was no rest yet as after I checked in it was time to go over to the Loyalty One/Air Miles offices for a tour and to meet some of their brass. Off to dinner with them and then back to the hotel for 9pm or so and I crashed hard after nearly being up since 5am Calgary time the day before!

Friday saw an early morning as I was picked up at 6:30 for the drive to CHCH Studios in Hamilton for a live spot on their morning news show. The spot was delayed slightly due to the Japan Earthquake hitting that morning but went off without any hitches. With that done and no other live appearances needed I was dropped off at YYZ by 10:30am and the WestJet flight they booked for me was not until 5:00pm as they wanted to leave room just in case other media outlets requested spots. However with only a phone interview for a newspaper around lunchtime I went straight to the WestJet counters to see if I could get on the 3:15pm flight so I could get back home sooner (and not wait so long in YYZ). 10 minutes later and $50+tax I was confirmed on the 3:15pm flight. That still gave me quite a bit of time to kill in Terminal 3, so after finding some Toronto branded gifts for my kids, I went through security and was off the KLM Crown Lounge to relax and not be stuck out in the mess that YYZ was, you see this was the Friday March 11th, the start of Ontario's spring break so there were throngs of people everywhere going away for the week. Now, I am not an elite Flying Blue member but one of the perks of having a Diners Club credit card is lounge access to over 350 lounges worldwide and the KLM lounge in YYZ is one of them. Just before entering the lounge I check the departure screens for my flight and much to my disliking it is now delayed by nearly an hour! So much for getting home that much sooner. Oh well, a quick swipe of my card at the KLM lounge and then I spent the next 3 hours or so, relaxing, checking email, enjoying Heineken on tap and eating the various food offerings.

It was a bit of a trek from the KLM lounge to the other side of Terminal 3 but it was nice to stretch the legs after sitting in the lounge and before boarding the flight home. The gate area was packed like the rest of the airport so I could only assume the flight would be packed. I was not wrong, since I was in row 4 and decided to board late there was no more room in the overhead bins so I had to gate check one of my two carry-on bags. The WestJet plane had the newer seats with the somewhat larger TV screens and I must admit I had yet to fly on one of these, I always had the fortune of flying with the older interiors. Now, I'm not sure if it was just me or if this is actual fact, but these new seats seem skinnier then the old ones. I am not a big guy and neither was the guy next to me but we sure were rubbing shoulders and elbows a lot. Plus, the seats are definitely not as cushy as the old ones or so my lower back told me upon arrival.  I don't fly WestJet very often so again this may only be me but has anyone else noticed that a good 1/3 of the satellite channels never seem to be available? I noticed on this flight, my flights to California, and quick ones to Edmonton last year always had numerous channels stating "satellite unavailable"  or something like that. I wanted to watch YYC's early news at 5pm on the flight but could not since the channels were out.

Anyways, the flight arrived into YYC just after 6pm and after a short wait for my gate checked bag I was off to home to see my family and get some rest before jetting out on Sunday for the remainder of the tour.

To be continued...

V Australia applies to code-share on Delta's YYC-SLC route

Recently Australia's V Australia was approved to code-share directly on flights between Canada and Australia however they are not partnered with Air Canada (the only airline offering direct flights) so it is unknown whether V will act upon this approval anytime soon. That being said, they were also approved to code-share on Delta flights between Canada and the U.S. and this is where V Australia is taking action. The airline applied to the U.S. DOT to code-share directly on DL's flights between Calgary (and Vancouver) and Salt Lake City. If approved it could mean that us flyers here in Calgary could book a single V Australia ticket from YYC to the land down under although it would mean 2 stops (SLC and LAX). For some further analysis (and predictions) on this news please see the source for our post:  FlightGlobal.com

January 2011 Passenger Stats

The growth in passengers at YYC continued in January 2011 although like the previous month it was minuscule.

Compared to January 2010, the first month of 2011 saw passenger numbers increase by an overall amount of 0.6%. All three sectors carved out small increases with domestic travel increasing 0.6%, Transborder 0.9% and International 0.5%. Overall, 964,189 passengers used the airport in January.

January 2011
Domestic: 637,036
Transborder: 205,947
International: 121,206

Source: YYC.com

Air Canada cuts Calgary to Chicago, London, ON and San Francisco flights

According to a news release from Air Canada, the airline will be cutting three Calgary routes as of May 1. The routes being cut are Calgary to London Ontario, Chicago and San Francisco. Air Canada says it can no longer operate the routes profitably due to high fuel costs.

Source: Air Canada

December + Full Year Passenger stats

Despite being one of the slowest months in 2010, the December passenger numbers for YYC were still positive a helped contribute to a record year of 12,630,695 passengers! If you have been cooped up then this will be news to you otherwise you will have seen it on or in the news for the past couple of days. I, unfortunately left this in my in-box for a couple days and now it is relatively old news but here it goes anyways:

With only April 2010 showing smaller growth then December, the month just barely carved out a positive growth number of 0.4% over December 2009. Domestic traffic saw a 0.7% growth while Transborder numbers saw the biggest gain of 1.2%. For International numbers, December was the first month to see a negative amount with a 2.5% drop in passengers from 2009. Overall the month saw 1,035,474 passengers go through YYC.

December 2010
Domestic: 720,808
Transborder: 210,594
International: 104,072

2010 Totals (% Change)
Domestic: 8,844,080  (2.3%)
Transborder: 2,462,295 (4.4%)
International: 1,324,320 (12.9%)


Source: YYC.com

Westjet, American Airlines expand relationship with code share agreement

Cross-post from my RewardsCanada.ca blog

Following an earlier interlining announcement in October 2010, WestJet and American Airlines have announced a new code share agreement between the two airlines. The agreement will allow each airline to place their codes on the other airlines flights. At this point this means American customers will be able to connect to up to 20 cities in Canada that AA or American Eagle does not serve while WestJet customers will be able to fly on WestJet coded American Airlines flights from Canada to Boston and Chicago. Future arrangements should see the WestJet place their codes on American flights to more cities.

For our readers, the biggest perk here is the reciprocal frequent flyer benefits in the agreement. This means members of either airlines frequent flyer programs will be able to earn AAdvantage miles or WestJet dollars on the code share flights. What is unknown at this time is whether you have to fly a connecting flight on your actual airline to earn miles/dollars or if you will be able to earn those miles for the code share flight only. In most other agreements as long as the flight has your main airline's code then you get the miles/dollars but on some occasions some programs have made it more restrictive that you have to connect to/from a flight flown with your airlines own metal. Hopefully  that will not be the case here as they may attract a few more business customers to the WestJet frequent guest program primarily out east with the numerous flights that AA has from Eastern Canada to Boston and Chicago.

Source: WestJet

One Day Only: Save 20% on AC flights from Calgary to Asia

Straight from Air Canada:

Calgary special discount code.

Save 20 % on Tango Plus fares from Calgary to Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo.
To get your exclusive discount, simply enter this promotion code when booking right here at aircanada.com:

Promotion code

XNA96K81

• Book by February 23, 2011, midnight, from city of departure.
• Valid for departures from February 23 to May 31, 2011.
• All travel must be completed by May 31, 2011.
• Valid only on Air Canada operated flights (codeshare flights are excluded).

Visit Air Canada to book.