Travel

Air Canada Rouge, is it really bad??

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  • May 1st, 2019 3:47 pm
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Pete_Coach wrote: As with any airline nowadays, pre selecting seats may cost you extra, depending on what fare group you choose (and pay for).
I've willing to pay more for risk mitigation. And having flown Rouge, I'm now willing to pay more for reasonable standards of comfort and cleanliness.
Also, over booking (as per the link) is so common nowadays, it is from an Air Canada unique problem.
Well, WestJet claims they don't. And AC does have a poor record for their treatment of bumped passengers.
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JAC wrote: I've willing to pay more for risk mitigation. And having flown Rouge, I'm now willing to pay more for reasonable standards of comfort and cleanliness.


Well, WestJet claims they don't. And AC does have a poor record for their treatment of bumped passengers.
Westjet can say what they want. If not overbooked, then they do not have the customer base they wish they had.

As for poor treatment of "bumped" passengers well, I am not so sure. There will always be a pissed off passenger but really of the tens of thousands that fly every day on Air Canada, the one that is pissed and goes to the media may not have gotten the amount they thought they wanted to get or whatever other reason.
I fly an awful lot and have been at the gate when the agent explains the aircraft is overbooked. They always offer cash and a seat on the next plane. I have seen offers go waay up in cash and upgrade to business class. I was on a late flight once and the offer was $800, bumped to business class the next morning and free hotel as well as meals.
I took an offer on a trip to London. We were offered upgrade to business, $500 each and routed through Manchester 2 hours later and arrived in London 6 hours after original time. Had a great flight and better time in London than we thought LOL
Point is, if bumped, there will always be compensation. Just depends if you like it or not. Don't like it, then hit the media and whine.
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Good news for me, one of my fav routes, YVR-HNL, has been de-Rouged.

The bad news... the 737MAX, putting aside the known safety issues, have a 30" seat pitch which is just as bad as most of the Rouge planes. So there's really not a lot of difference.
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i6s1 wrote: Good news for me, one of my fav routes, YVR-HNL, has been de-Rouged.

The bad news... the 737MAX, putting aside the known safety issues, have a 30" seat pitch which is just as bad as most of the Rouge planes. So there's really not a lot of difference.
If and when the 737MAX gets it's airworthiness certification again soon.
And the pitch can be 34 if you pay the premium price.
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Pete_Coach wrote: If and when the 737MAX gets it's airworthiness certification again soon.
And the pitch can be 34 if you pay the premium price.
Oh... what I wouldn't give for 4 more inches.
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Has anyone flown Rouge and paid for the Premium Economy (they don't offer a business class)? I'm heading to Italy later this year and the best direct flight is Rouge and I'm thinking of booking the premium economy. The seats are wider with more legroom so it looks decent.
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The_Professor wrote: Has anyone flown Rouge and paid for the Premium Economy (they don't offer a business class)? I'm heading to Italy later this year and the best direct flight is Rouge and I'm thinking of booking the premium economy. The seats are wider with more legroom so it looks decent.
I have. To Miami. The seats are 2X2. Seats are much wider and much more legroom.
https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Air_C ... ER_new.php
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The_Professor wrote: Has anyone flown Rouge and paid for the Premium Economy (they don't offer a business class)? I'm heading to Italy later this year and the best direct flight is Rouge and I'm thinking of booking the premium economy. The seats are wider with more legroom so it looks decent.
Interesting - you may want to play with your dates as I believe I saw certain flights using AC mainline with lie flat. There’s been a ton of aircraft shuffling / schedule changes lately though as they finalize summer schedules.

“ Premium Rouge “ is worth it way (obviously price dependent). Flown them a few times. Premium Rouge is equivalent to Transat’s Club Class imho (only differences being that you get Maple Leaf Lounge access with AC - not with Transat). So if you have Lounge passes anyways / don’t care about airlines I would evaluate both prices / times.

.... again it’s price dependent. There have been instances I’ve seen Premium Rouge sold for the same price as Alitalia. Yes, Alitalia and Rouge both aren’t the guiding light in terms of reviews but Alitalia’s airbuses offer lie flat seats and better food then Rouge.
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The_Professor wrote: Has anyone flown Rouge and paid for the Premium Economy (they don't offer a business class)? I'm heading to Italy later this year and the best direct flight is Rouge and I'm thinking of booking the premium economy. The seats are wider with more legroom so it looks decent.
Well, they do offer a business class, it's called "Premium Rouge." The premium economy is called "Rouge Plus."

Now, some say that the Premium Rouge isn't really business class, but:
-It has the same 2x2 layout that mainline domestic J has
-It gets you access to the lounge
-It gets you 150% AP points
-It has the same 37"/21" seat pitch/width as the domestic J in mainline

So it's basically a domestic business class product but it flies international routes. It's FAR better than premium economy on a mainline carrier, even though it's clearly not comparable to layflat seats on most long haul international routes.

Whether it's worth it or not is completely up to you. Fare differences change all the time, it might be worth it to me to pay an extra $300 for Premium on a long flight but it might not be worth it for me to pay $400 extra for the same route. So look at the price, and decide if the perks are worthwhile to you.

Another option to consider is paying extra for bulkhead row or exit row. They can have more legroom than even some PE seats, at a far lower price. My next trip I paid for a mainline "comfort" fare, so I got premium seat selection in a bulkhead row, a checked bag, a drink, 115% AP points, priority boarding, and better cancellation terms. I won't get the nice meal or the greater recline as the PE, but the cost was far less. Since my main issue when flying is seat pitch, the extra perks of PE just weren't worth the extra cost. But if that bulkhead wasn't available, I might have thought harder about PE.
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Thank you everyone, it is in fact Premium Rouge that I'm considering. This particular leg (Toronto to Venice) is only available direct via Rouge at this time. Lie flat seats would be nice, but we're travelling with two young children and I don't like the idea of being that far away from them. I want to be able to play games with them and occupy them when awake versus just letting them play on an iPad the entire time. Premium Rouge seems pretty reasonable so I may just book it.

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