Westjet and Air Canada to Jamaica

It took seven trips for this to happen but finally my favorite Canadian airline, Westjet, started flying to Montego Bay last year. It was a welcome change to the monopoly that Air Canada had because now there could be price wars! YAAY! Air Canada’s airfares to Montego Bay NEVER fluctuated until now. They pretty much run neck in neck and that gives me more choices, since I frequently got stuck on USA based airlines who’s routes to Montego Bay were anything but direct!

I first flew Westjet to Jamaica for my birthday in 2008. The coolest part about it was the TV’s in all the seatbacks. If you didn’t want to watch anything on TV you automatically get to watch where your plane is in real time! My favorite part was falling asleep somewhere in the USA and waking up over Cuba. Its all on the screen in front of you. It makes the anticipation of getting there ridiculously fun!

 
Both airlines travel the exact same route on the same schedules, which makes me wonder how they can possibly charge different fares. Calgary to Toronto to Montego Bay, most flights are the red eye leaving at midnight-ish and arriving in Toronto at the crack of dawn.  Its a little bit painful if you can’t sleep well on planes.  But the BEST part of this flight schedule is you arrive in Jamaica around noon the same day you left….its like an extra day!

Both airlines do have direct flights but they’re rare and more expensive.  Only once out of all my trips I’ve been lucky enough to catch a direct, short 6 hour AC flight that was super cheap.  It was the trip I took my son on in 2004 and it was only $600 CAD per person.  Unheard of.   For the next 4 years I never got a good deal, paying as much as $1000 CAD for my flights.  Now that its recession time I’m cashing in big time!  4 months ago I went for $600 again on Westjet, and in two weeks I’m going on Air Canada for $530.

My favorite moment flying to Jamaica was this kid in the video below.  He was seated beside me on the plane and was really friendly.  His story was this:  He was 19 years old and moved to Toronto a while back.  This was his first time going back to Jamaica since he left and he was going to visit his mother in Clarendon.  She didn’t know he was coming.  I was excited for him.  Part way through the flight I got really tired so before I went to sleep I told him if he wanted to listen to my MP3 player he could.  It’s always loaded with plenty of reggae and dancehall music so he’d be happy with it.  About an hour later I awoke to this kid singing his heart out with my headphones in LOL!  And he was FAR from on key.  He was attempting to sing a Tessane Chin song.  Plug your ears.

 

This boy was so adorable though, as we approached Jamaica he was trying to look past me out the window.  He’d never flown into Jamaica before and asked me if you could see the outline of the island, like on a map.  I had to chuckle.  It was so cute.

Anyways, Westjet to Montego Bay went off without a hitch.  All flights were on time and no lost luggage…..UNLIKE any US based airline I’ve ever flown, and everything was smooth.