Yukon Chatter Bug

The headline in this morning’s Globe & Mail caught my attention and got me thinking about our own airline. It’s a story about WestJet and SouthWest, both discount airlines, agreeing to sell seats on each other’s flights. To read the above headline in our local paper would be, to say the least, a dream come true. Why? Immediately, I can think of at least of three advantages to this kind of arrangement.

For starters, with one phone call, or one click, you could book your trip across North America.

Imagine being able to go to Air North’s website, and book a flight to, say, Halifax, Thunder Bay, or Regina, with just one click. Of course, it’s still possible to do so with services like Expedia [Expedia doesn't list Air North as an option] or through a travel agent, but I’m not a business traveller, and prefer to book my own flights.

Also, an agreement between airlines has the advantage that their connections would be better synced.

When booking a flight out of Whitehorse and across the country, the problem usually encountered involves connections and wait times. It’s easy enough to get to Vancouver, Edmonton, or Calgary with our beloved airline, but, unless you only have one connection, (i.e. travelling to a major city centre), it’s next to impossible to connect to WestJet without spending a night en route. Air North doesn’t get to Edmonton and Calgary until late in the evening.

Maybe it’s just my problem, because I usually have to connect at least twice to travel home. Plus, the only airlines that travel south from my hometown (Timmins) are Air Canada (to Toronto) and Bearskin Airlines (to Thunder Bay). Last year, when I travelled to Thunder Bay to visit relatives, I had to go through Toronto on the way there (further east) and had a 9hr wait on the way back in Edmonton. I ended up going to THE Mall for a bit and visited a friend, but it still was a long wait.

Finally, an agreement between airlines would surely include the service of baggage transfer.

When booking my mom’s and mother-in-law’s flight to Whitehorse for my graduation this past June, I booked with Air North for the YVR-YXY portion of the flight. Little did I know that Air Canada recently pulled out of the agreement between the two airlines to transfer luggage (shame on them). For most travellers, it’s an inconvenience to have to leave the secure area to get your luggage and check-in again. Plus, you have to allocate more time between connections to do this. I hadn’t considered this when scheduling connections and thinking about wait times, because I was under the impression that the luggage would be transferred by the airlines. As a result, I ended up sending her luggage home on Greyhound to avoid the hassle. This is the only issue I’ve ever had with Air North, as I felt that these new requirements (updated link June ’09–They’ve revamped the page, and I’m pleased to see the information more clearly laid out.) for travellers to transfer their own luggage (when connecting to AC) wasn’t made clear enough when booking the flights.

I HAVE A DREAM!