WestJet won’t serve complimentary meals on London flights
Posted May 31, 2016 5:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – You may be able to pay less if you decide to fly with WestJet to London, England, but you’ll also need to bring your own food. This is the latest in the “unbundling” trend unfolding in the industry.
WestJet has been flying from Vancouver to London since May 6th, and unless you pay for a seat in the Plus cabin, you’ll have to buy a meal or bring your own if you want to eat during the nine-hour flight. This is the first Canadian carrier to offer a trans-Atlantic flight without the traditional free meal.
WestJet doesn’t understand the surprise. They’ve never offered free food for economy customers. It’s not part of their business model. But, the airline adds they’ll get you to Europe for much less. The airline doesn’t apologize for charging for a checked bag or a meal because it’s able to offer lower fares. WestJet is boasting fares as low as $328 for the month of June.
Industry expert Karl Moore with McGill University says we’ve seen this before with things like seat selection and checked baggage fees.
“It’s called unbundling. What they do is say things you used to get for free, we’ve unbundled so you can buy it if you want and get a cheap seat. If you want to get an aisle seat, a meal, some drinks, you pay for that. But then you have the freedom not to pay for that and save the money if you don’t want the aisle seat if you don’t want the meal and so on. You leave it up to the customer and theoretically, it gives them more freedom.”
He says having some customers forgo the meal may allow WestJet to fly with fewer flight attendants and take in another revenue stream by selling food to unprepared customers.
Now that the free meal is off the table, Moore isn’t sure there’s anything else available to trim.
