‘Luck of the draw’ for passengers with WestJet’s half-completed seating changes

When she flew home to Edmonton from Mexico this month, Mahala Swisterski says she and her husband breathed a sigh of relief as they boarded the plane.

They could tell the seats looked different than the WestJet plane they flew on a week earlier. And they were pretty sure, that meant more legroom.

The flight down had been a different story, one she noticed right away.

“As we start walking down the aisle to get to our seats, the space between the seats gets smaller and smaller, and noticeably smaller than what we had expected or what we were used to,” she said.

“I was kind of sitting with my legs angled to the side and with my feet completely tucked under me in order to try to get as comfortable as I could,” she said. She is five-foot-eight.

She believes the seat with less legroom was one that had been reconfigured under WestJet’s new seating arrangements. The airline — which has faced pushback on the redesign — has hit pause on the overhaul for now.

Swisterski's flight home was “much more comfortable,” she said, and estimates a few inches difference in the legroom. Both flights were on the same type of plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8.

New seats announced in September 

WestJet announced the new seating plans in September, with customers charged more if they wanted a premium seat that can recline. That section is followed by extended comfort seats that don’t recline but are advertised as having more legroom.

Behind that is standard seating, which WestJet says has varied space and fixed seats that do not recline.

In a statement, WestJet said it estimates about half of its fleet had been reconfigured by mid-December, but is pausing changing any more during the busy winter travel season.

“Throughout this winter, we will also be monitoring guest feedback and assessing the operational performance of the reconfigured aircraft to learn more about how this product is performing in the market,” the airline’s statement said.

The plan is to restart in the spring.

WestJet also said user testing showed about half of its customers prefer fixed recline seating, where they do not have other passengers leaning back into their space.

The WestJet contingent of the Canadian Union of Public Employees has flagged concerns about how the new seating would affect passengers with mobility issues, and “guest frustration” that employees may have to handle.

Last month the union entered a new round of collective bargaining with WestJet, and launched an awareness campaign that highlights reduced legroom as an issue for passengers.

The seating changes were met with some criticism by passengers frustrated by another instance of airlines charging for upgrades.

There’s a fee to pick a seat. A charge to bring a carry-on. The list goes on. Aviation analyst John Gradek says these junk fees are “big business” for airlines.

Seating guessing game 

Gradek, a lecturer in supply networks and aviation at McGill University, said without the whole fleet reconfigured, it can be a bit of a guessing game when booking a ticket as to what plane actually shows up. It could also be a plane from a fleet like Sunwing that WestJet has taken over.

“This is a surprise package that's awaiting the passenger when they get on board the airplane,” Gradek said. “It’s a luck of the draw, as far as I'm concerned.”

And that uncertainty can create confusion for passengers, Gradek said.

While legroom can be a selling feature for customers, there are no requirements for airlines as to how much of it they provide, according to air passenger rights advocate Gábor Lukács.

“The right passengers have is to be provided a seat that they can actually fit into,” Lukács said.

If a passenger is too tall for a seat, airline crew would need to find them a suitable seat, Lukács said.

But beyond that, airlines do not need to account for comfort.

“The regulators have basically washed their hands of this stuff, whether it's service, whether it's seating, whether it's density of the airplane, how many seats can you put on an airplane,” said Gradek.

For Swisterski, she is happy WestJet has hit pause for now, but says she does not feel like she wants to fly with them again. She's also been contemplating cancelling her WestJet credit card.

“My husband and I are pretty opposed to the feeling of, you have to fly premium in order to fly comfortably," she said.