WestJet UltraBasic vs Flair Airlines: Complete Comparison Guide

WestJet’s UltraBasic product is a competitive product to Flair’s no-frills, low-cost carrier model. With WestJet’s continuation of slashing benefits and features to maximize revenues, including public outrage over reduced legroom for rear rows, I wanted to see for myself how comparable WestJet’s UltraBasic product is to Flair’s service.

All the major airlines in Canada have a basic economy product nowadays, including Air Canada and Porter. However, WestJet and Flair seem to be competing for the most frugal-oriented travellers. Both airlines seem to have more of a focus on leisurely routes, with consistent service to major sun destinations, and service from secondary airports like Abbotsford (YXX) and Waterloo (YKF), both of which are about an hour drive from Vancouver and Toronto respectively.

Experience

To get the full comparative experience between Flair and WestJet’s lowest fare tier, I booked a roundtrip from Vancouver (YVR) to Edmonton (YEG) in late February 2026. This was the first time I’ve taken either Flair or WestJet since 2024 so I wanted to get a fresh look at both options. 

Flair – Vancouver to Edmonton

For the flight to Edmonton, I booked Flair, with no additional add-ons, no flexible travel arrangements, or even seat selection. As a safeguard, I booked using my Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard, to take advantage of the flight delay insurance in case I had to face any issues. Last time I flew with Flair, I had to deal with a flight cancellation for the return trip, where I didn’t have a non-American Express card with any trip protection nor did I purchase Flair’s optional insurance.

The boarding process was simple for Flair with just three zones, Customers with mobility aids or special assistance, Flair Express for those who paid for priority boarding, and Flair Standard for everyone else, including the most restrictive fare class. For the designated 45 minutes of boarding time, it only took about 20 minutes for everyone to get onboard. Thus, we were able to depart early for Edmonton by about 7 minutes since we still had to slot in for air traffic control flow.

At remote stands, Flair will board the aircraft through the front and rear, which can speed up the boarding process since each half of the plane boards through one side.

WestJet UltraBasic  – Edmonton to Vancouver

Coming back from Edmonton, I booked WestJet, since they had a more desirable departure time of 4:00 PM instead of 10:30 AM. I booked using my American Express Platinum Card, to really safeguard my trip in case of any mishaps. Similar to Flair, I had no add-ons, just a personal bag. The bag was never sized or measured at any point. 

Although my plane had no delays the entire day until my flight, coming back to Vancouver was a different story. My flight was initially on-time, with the aircraft already at the gate way before boarding was scheduled to start. However, the gate staff mentioned that our pilots were dealing with a small mechanical issue around the time we were supposed to start boarding. After 25 minutes of waiting, I finally received a delay notification in the WestJet app, with an expected delay of 25 minutes, even though we hadn’t actually started boarding yet.

WestJet designated the Zone 9 boarding group for Basic Economy customers, which I thought was a little absurd to have 9 boarding groups. Since we were late, the gate agents grouped some of the boarding groups in the following order:

• WestJet Platinum
• Zone 1
• Emergency Row
• Family with Small Children and/or Pets
• WestJet Gold
• Zone 2 + WestJet Silver
• Zone 3
• Zone 4
• Zone 9 (where I was)

Eventually, we departed YEG just over 40 minutes later than scheduled, with the cabin crew pleading for all customers onboard to give way to about 40 or so passengers when we arrived into YVR. All of which were connecting onto multiple WestJet flights bound for Hawaii and a connection onto Air New Zealand. Obviously, mechanical issues are nothing to scoff about, however, out of 18 total flights I’ve flown with WestJet, 13 have arrived late into their destination. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky whenever I’ve flown with WestJet…

Amenities

Both aircraft were Boeing 737 MAX-8s, where Flair’s was the exact same aircraft I took in 2024 between Edmonton and Abbotsford, and WestJet’s was freshly delivered to the airline just two months ago. Both aircraft had the same seat model which was a great way to compare both economy cabins.

The WestJet aircraft I flew on featured the controversial cabin, with as little as 28 inches of legroom in the last ten rows, which was almost a third of the aircraft. Interestingly, even with an UltraBasic ticket, I was assigned 11A, with a more spacious 30 inches of pitch. I had fully anticipated being assigned a seat in the 28 inch rows so this was certainly a surprise. For Premium customers, the cabin didn’t have a curtain or any kind of divider between Economy and Premium. The only thing separating the two sections were the different seat types.

After hearing an uproar from passengers and social media posts about the below-average seat pitch, WestJet is changing back to a consistent 30 inches of pitch for the Economy cabin.

Flair features an all economy layout, with almost equal legroom across the entire cabin with the exception of the first and emergency exit rows. Pitch throughout the entire aircraft was about industry standard at around 29-30 inches per row. 

For power availability, on Flair, you had to share two USB A charging ports with your neighbour. On WestJet’s newer interiors, you have your own personal USB A port as well as a 60 Watt USB-C port, which was able to charge my laptop. 

Both flights on Flair and WestJet did not have recline options, which might be uncomfortable for longer flights like a cross country redeye or some of WestJet’s shorter European services on their 737s. WestJet shot themselves in the foot with the change, especially when their low-cost competitor hasn’t tried to cram more people into the same plane cabin.

Route Networks and Destinations

WestJet

WestJet’s route network is based on a traditional hub-and-spoke model, with its main hub in Calgary. However, their route network branches off in other major airports including Vancouver and Toronto. They’ve recently been adjusting their route strategy, discontinuing cross-country arterial flights including Vancouver to Montreal, and refocusing on regional markets.

WestJet’s international strategy has also had interesting developments over the last few years. During the Winter months, their widebody 787-9 Dreamliners fly to just 3 intercontinental routes: London, Paris, and Tokyo. They also use these aircraft to serve high-demand beach destinations such as Cancun and Cabo, as well as the occasional flight to Hawaii, all of which depart from Calgary.

In the summer, these aircraft are used for more unique destinations including Rome, Barcelona, Seoul, and Sao Paolo. Additionally, WestJet has been expanding its international services in Atlantic Canada, with new flights from Halifax to Copenhagen, Madrid, and Lisbon using narrowbody aircraft.

WestJet also has great partnerships with SkyTeam airlines, with service to all Delta hubs in the United States from various Canadian airports. They also have codeshare and interline agreements with airlines outside of North America, including Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and even Emirates.

Flair

Flair operates as a point-to-point carrier, with no defined hubs. With no widebody aircraft, their routes focus on leisure destinations and arterial services. Unlike WestJet, Flair doesn’t have a robust international network, with its destinations changing every year. Moreover, they don’t have partnerships with other carriers, with all bookings coming directly from Flair’s website or an authorized travel agent. 

Although Flair flies from major airports including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, they also serve secondary airports as well, including Abbotsford and Kitchener-Waterloo. Flights from secondary airports only serve a limited number of domestic destinations.

Reliability

WestJet

WestJet’s main hub is in Calgary, which may become problematic during the winter months, especially with the cold and snowfall the region experiences. WestJet does have crew based in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg, which means that if there’s any staffing issues in these cities, typically it’ll be much faster to find crew than in another destination.

During my one night stay in Edmonton, my Flair flight departed on time and arrived early, whereas my WestJet flight departed about 40 minutes late due to a conspicuous maintenance issue.

Flair

According to Cirium data, Flair has the best on-time performance and flight completion factor among major carriers in Canada, including WestJet, Air Canada and Porter. This includes flights during January, when all airlines experienced disruptions due to Canadian winter weather.

Our passionate readers have mentioned in the comments of previous Flair articles regarding their issues with flying on Flair, more notably the customer service when things go wrong. In my experience, Flair will proactively notify travellers who booked directly about any delays or cancellations before their flights. Just be sure to use their digital booking tools before resorting to using their call center, as there is an additional fee to use their phone service.

All three of the Flair flights I’ve taken so far have had a different outcome for departure, one early/on-time flight, one late departure, and one complete cancellation and rebooking. Fellow writer Jeff on the other hand has had a flawless record with Flair, with no problems on all his bookings. That being said, for me, the low prices are reflective of the service and reliability.

Pricing Comparison 

Flair typically has lower pricing, however, in some scenarios both WestJet and Flair offer similar pricing, especially to international destinations including the United States.

Flying Vancouver to Edmonton on Flair was just under $62 whereas my flight back from Edmonton to Vancouver on WestJet was $105. If you booked a roundtrip with Flair, you can easily find roundtrip fares for less than $100 Canadian Dollars, with even lower prices when Flair comes out with special promotions.

Taking a deeper dive into how much fares cost, Flair’s one-way pricing from Vancouver to Edmonton is substantially cheaper than WestJet, ranging between starting at just $46 for dates in April 2026.

In comparison, WestJet’s cheapest one-way airfares for the same route and month start at $79.

What’s Included: Comparing the Basics

In-Flight Entertainment

WestJet has Wi-Fi onboard their 737 aircraft, where WestJet Rewards members can surf the internet for free. This has however eliminated on-demand movies and TV shows that you could previously watch through the WestJet app.

For their intercontinental services, WestJet’s 787 Dreamliners are equipped with WestJet Connect, where internet can be accessed for a fee. These customers do have access to lots of movies and TV shows on their mobile device, or using the entertainment screen at their seat.

Flair on the other hand, does not have any onboard entertainment services at all, so make sure you download any content you want to watch from your favourite streaming platforms or make sure that you can work offline. Flair used to offer entertainment and an order at your seat service through a mobile application, however it seems that the feature has been taken offline. Seats do still display a QR code to scan for a menu on the advertising frame in the tray table, however it does not seem to work any more, even with a data connection on the ground.

Inflight Food and Drinks

Both airlines feature a buy-on-board menu with similar food selections and beverages. With the exception of a complimentary cookie or pretzel bag and non-alcoholic drink on WestJet, Flair’s menu prices were mostly cheaper than WestJet’s buy-on-board prices. WestJet does offer more hot food selections, where Flair only has a single pizza available for its hot food selection.

Some examples include a KitKat chocolate bar which is $3.99 while Flair is slightly cheaper at $3.79. Want potato chips? You can get a 50 gram bag of Hardbite chips for $3.99 on Flair compared to a 37 gram can of Pringles for $4.49 on WestJet.

If you’re looking for something to drink, the same 200ml Peller Wine bottle is $9.29 on Flair and $9.99 on WestJet. Spirits like Smirnoff Red are a dollar cheaper on Flair for $8.49, though WestJet’s website lists a broader selection for $9.99 each.

Baggage Policies and Fees

With both airlines, the most basic fares only include a personal item. Flair is a little more strict, where they will tag every passenger’s bag after everyone gets their bag sized. If your personal item exceeds the sizer’s dimensions, it can cost up to $109 per passenger per flight, charging as a carry-on bag. In contrast to other North American airlines, the carry-on bag must be 10 kilograms/22 pounds or less, otherwise it will be checked-in for up to $135 per passenger per flight.

Interestingly, Flair is planning to audit all their baggage sizers after someone’s custom bag that is built for Flair’s sizers did not fit into the sizer at YEG.

Meanwhile on WestJet, if your personal item exceeds the dimensions of a personal item will have to check it in and pay the checked bag fee. The fee to check in an oversized personal item at the airport will be between $70-$83. There is no option for WestJet UltraBasic passengers to bring their oversized personal item as a carry-on, requiring a mandatory check-in.

If you’re flying to Europe or Asia on a WestJet UltraBasic fare, you are allowed to bring one carry-on bag free of charge.

Seat Selection 

Seat selection is typically cheaper on Flair than it is in WestJet, even for basic tier WestJet Rewards members. For past flights with Flair, I was assigned a middle seat in the rear of the plane, so I was surprised to find myself in a window seat instead. I don’t know if check-in timing has to do with it, but I checked in about 3 hours after it was started.

WestJet’s website states that UltraBasic customers who don’t pay for seat selection will be assigned a seat at the rear of the plane. The plane I flew had the ‘new’ configuration with 28 pitch seats in the rear rows, so I was anticipating being assigned to the last few rows of the plane.

Seat Pricing

If I wanted to pick my seats, Flair’s prices ranged from $9 a seat for an aisle seat toward the rear of the plane, to $25 for a seat in either the first 3 rows or the emergency exit.

Seat selection prices change between booking and check-in, where emergency exit row seats were $21 and seats behind were $11 per person. The seat map does indicate where you might be sitting on the flight, however it was different compared to where I actually sat for the flight.

In comparison, WestJet charged a little more, with the lowest prices at $15 for a middle seat near the rear of the plane, and around $60 for the exit rows. Without selecting my seat, I was assigned to seat 11A in the forward section, valued at about $18.

If I wanted to sit in the Extended Comfort section, it would’ve cost more than my entire Flair flight, at $63 for a middle seat and $66 for a window or aisle.

Change and Cancellation Policies

Both WestJet UltraBasic and Flair have extremely strict change and cancellation policies. Unless you purchase the additional insurance add-on or you don’t book with an insurance-heavy credit card like the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card, you will be out of luck when it comes to any major issues.

Previously, I had to deal with a missed connection on WestJet flying from Boston to Vancouver via Calgary, for a flight that was delayed three hours. They proactively rebooked me while I was still on the way to Calgary, for a flight in the morning the next day and gave me accommodation at a decent hotel near the Calgary airport. 

In contrast, when Flair cancelled my flight in 2024 from Edmonton to Vancouver, they rebooked me for a flight four days later. Unfortunately I had to get back as soon as possible for work, so I shelled out over $400 for rebooking to Abbotsford instead, even with the rebooking fee waived. The price was constantly changing due to the high rebooking demand, so every time it changed I had to go through the check out process again and again, with a different price. 

Ever since, Flair has changed in two years, with the introduction of a “$60 On-Time Guarantee” where delays or cancellations over an hour, up to 72 hours in advance would credit passengers with a $60 voucher on Flair. As Kirin also pointed out, even if you accept the voucher, you are still entitled to Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) compensation.

Flair Resell

Flair recently introduced a reselling service where customers with any direct bookings, refundable or not, through Flair could resell their tickets. In exchange, those who submit a resale request to Flair will receive a voucher. The service is not a peer to peer marketplace like Facebook Marketplace, so all vouchers and re-sell prices are determined by Flair themselves.  There is no separate site just for tickets up for re-sale, instead everything is funneled through Flair’s existing booking system.

I find it an interesting concept, where it sort of acts like a cancellation protection, but everything is moderated by Flair themselves. If you have a group of people travelling on the same booking, you have to re-sell the entire party’s tickets. If no one ends up purchasing your re-sold ticket, the reservation will continue on, which would be unfortunate for those who aren’t actually able to fly anymore.

Loyalty Programs and Credit Card Benefits

Any purchases with a credit card for Flair incur a credit card processing fee. Moreover, Flair does not accept American Express as a payment option. For my flight, I was charged $1.45 for using my Mastercard.

Flair does not have a loyalty program unlike WestJet, however WestJet Rewards members of any status level will not be able to earn points or use their status benefits when flying on an UltraBasic fare. 

If you’re a frequent WestJetter, you might already have the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard which does include Trip Cancellation and Interruption insurance. Moreover, this card can earn you 2 WestJet points for every dollar spent at WestJet, so you can get at least some points back from UltraBasic purchases. 

Summary of WestJet UltraBasic Economy vs Flair Airlines

Category	WestJet UltraBasic	Flair	Notes
Base fare (YVR–YEGApril 2026)	$79+	$46+	Flair cheaper  Round-trip on Flair is often under $100 CAD; frequent promotions on Flair
Personal item	Included	Included	Flair enforces strict bag sizing; fees up to $109 if oversized
Carry-on bag	Not included (free on intercontinental routes)	Not included	Must be purchased as an add-on on domestic routes for both airlines
Seat selection	From $15 (rear middle) – $60+ (exit row)	From $9 (rear aisle) – $25 (front/exit row)	Flair cheaper  Both assign rear seats if unpurchased
Seat pitch	28–30 in (varies by row; reverting to 30 in)	~29–30 in throughout	Flair more consistent  No reduced-pitch rows
Seat recline	None	None	Same on both airlines
Power ports	USB-A (personal) + 60W USB-C	Shared USB-A (2 per row)	WestJet better  WestJet’s newer interiors can charge laptops
In-flight entertainment	Wi-Fi (free for WestJet Rewards members); no on-demand video	None	WestJet better  Flair’s app-based entertainment has been discontinued
Food & drinks	Buy-on-board; complimentary cookie/pretzel + non-alcoholic drink	Buy-on-board only	Flair slightly cheaper  On most purchased snack & drink items
Boarding groups	9 zones (UltraBasic = Zone 9)	3 zones (Standard last)	Flair simpler  Flair boards front + rear at remote stands
Loyalty program	WestJet Rewards (no points/status on UltraBasic)	None	WestJet RBC Mastercard earns 2 pts/$ on WestJet purchases
Change & cancellation	Very restrictive	Very restrictive	Both: credit card travel insurance strongly recommended; APPR rights still apply
Cancellation protection	Optional add-on ($20-$55 roundtrip)	Optional add-on ($10 one way),$60 on-time guarantee voucher; resell feature available	Flair more options  Voucher doesn’t waive APPR rights
Payment methods	Visa, Mastercard, Amex	Visa, Mastercard only (+1.4%-2.4% processing fee)	WestJet better No surcharge; accepts Amex
Route network	Broad; hub-and-spoke from major Canadian cities, with Calgary main focus; domestic + intl.	Cross-Country Arterial and Leisure-focused routes; use of secondary airports (YXX, YKF)	WestJet broader  More destinations & flight times
On-time performance (January 2026)	57.4%	62.4%	Flair slightly better  Both have reliability concerns, though the data is from January/Winter season; carry credit card trip protection

Which Should You Choose?

If you do choose to fly either Flair or WestJet’s most basic fare, make sure you’re equipped with the right credit card with trip interruption, cancellation, and flight delay insurance. Don’t forget that you can still apply for APPR if things do go sideways as well.

For me, booking very basic fares such as WestJet Basic and Flair will be for trips that are predictable and if the standard option is absurdly more. If I book a basic fare, I get what I paid for. My Flair flight was completely flawless, and even early, with no problems, providing great value for the $62 I paid for. If you do plan on flying on Flair, I would suggest heading to the airport a few days before your flight to check if your bag fits in the Flair size, so that you don’t have to incur extra fees when you get sized just before your flight. That being said, as a current Air Canada Aeroplan status holder, neither Flair or WestJet are typically in my crosshairs for trips.

I personally wouldn’t mind booking either option if it’s a short trip in terms of distance, like flying from Vancouver to Calgary or Edmonton, which would require minimal baggage anyway. I’ve also considered flying these as positioning flights for mileage runs as well, but obviously with risks. At the end of the day, if you’re intending to fly WestJet UltraBasic or Flair, you get what you pay for.