17 reviews
Hey guys and welcome to FR Number 4 of 8 of my trip in Canada!
This FR is the 2nd leg of a short domestic trip from Montreal, QC to Windsor, ON. I decided not to do a FR of the 1st leg as these two flights are very similar and if I did 2, I'd probably be copying and pasting the same thing from one to the next.
The flight would be my first time flying Porter. I've heard some great things about them so I'm really looking forward to trying them out. As for price, I paid around CA$200 (~€135/US$150) for the 2 flights including seat selection and a checked bag as extra. This is about the same price as doing the same itiniary on Air Canada.
From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this flight is:
YUL-YTZ: 67kg
YTZ-YQG: 52kg
Total for 2023 (so far): 948kg
I had a 3 hour transfer at YTZ from my Montreal flight so I decided to get out and get some lunch.
Entrance to the airport, Porter and Air Canada offers a very handy free shuttle bus between the airport and Toronto Union Station (the city's main rail hub).
By entrance to the airport, I mean the entrance to a tunnel connecting the airport (which is on an island) to the rest of the city. There is also a ferry, but I never tried it.
The arrivals area on the ground floor.
The check-in area upstairs.
View from the check-in area. As you can see, the airport is really nice and modern.
With the airport being so small, security didn't take long at all (around 10 minutes) and after that we are in the departures lounge, which is basically the entire airside part of the airport.
There's a small number of bars and cafés, no duty-free as all passengers here are domestic passengers (US bound travellers are segregated from check-in).
Departures for the afternoon.
Around an hour before my flight, I received this email:
Great… Looks like we're not going to Windor today as the next available flight departs tomorrow morning. Some passengers opted to refund the ticket and get the 7:00pm train instead. I, however, took the rebooking which means an extra night in Toronto.
The agents at the information desk were absolutely lovely and in under a minute they were able to rebook me on tomorrow's flight (with the same seat reservation) and give me a dinner and breakfast voucher worth $23 in total. After that, they told me to wait while they confirmed availability with the hotel.
Around 15 minutes later, my reservation at the hotel was confirmed and I was able to exit the airport. For the night, Porter booked us all into the Fairmont Royal York right by Union Station. A 5* hotel which, according to some of the locals, is one of the best hotels in the city.
The Hotel (taken a few days later).
I couldn't fault the way Porter handled our cancellation at all. The agent was extremely friendly and professional and they got everyone sorted in under an hour from the cancellation email. I've always said that you only see an airline's true colours by how they handle delays and cancellations and Porter honestly handled it perfectly. This alone makes them one of the top airlines in my eyes.
Catching the free shuttle the next day.
I've already photographed the airport yesterday so I didn't do it again today. The airport was extremely efficient, once again, in the morning.
Departures for the day.
Our new flight is the 09:45 PD2571 to Windsor.
Once again, there wasn't a good shot of our plane in the airport. However, I was fortunate enough to catch our plane landing when I was back in Toronto a few days later.
Some info about our plane:
Type: De Havilland Dash 8 Q-400
Registration: C-GLQX
First flight: October 2009
Age: 13.5 years
Built just miles away in Toronto Downsview Airport (YZD), the aircraft was delivered to Porter in December 2009 and has remained with the airline ever since.
Our flight time will be under an hour and here's today's route:
First picture out of the window.
The seats on this flight is what you'd find on most Dash 8s.
The legroom.
Pushback 5 minutes late.
Lining up for runway 26.
Amazing view of Downtown Toronto and the CN Tower on the runway.
Takeoff out of Toronto.
Heading out over Lake Ontario.
Still over Lake Ontario with Oakville in the distance.
Continuing our climb through the clouds.
Let's have a look at the contents of the seat-back pocket, which includes:
- An air sickness/waste bag
- A safety card
- And Porter's inflight magazine.
Porter's fleet featuring their brand new Embraer E195-E2.
Reached cruising altitude as the crew came around with drinks and snacks.
There were a variety of snacks available. I picked the lighty salted chips (or crisps if you're British, like me) and apple juice. Kinda disappointed they didn't use their glassware for the drinks, which they did for my flight from Montreal.
Starting our descent into Windsor.
Over Lake St Clair.
Gear down, on final for Windsor runway 25.
Welcome to Windsor! We landed 5 minutes late.
Disembarking the plane.
Being a tiny airport, the entire place is empty except for passengers on the flight.
Baggage reclaim area, we had to walk across all of the check-in desks to get here.
View of the entrance.
While there is a bus service to the airport, it's only one route and isn't the most convenient. This means that you really do need a taxi to get anywhere from the airport.
This concludes a very eventful domestic flight with Porter. My next FR will be on another (really special) Porter flight. Thanks for reading and see you there. ;)
An eventful flight with Porter. Obviously the cancellation wasn't ideal, however the airline handled it perfectly. The agent was friendly, professional and we got rebooked (with meal vouchers and a night in a 5* hotel) in under an hour. Honestly couldn't have asked for more from Porter in that situation. The flight itself was nice, seats are what you'd find on most Dash 8s and the snack and drink was an amazing addition for such a short flight. Super excited to see what the airline's product is like on their new Embraer E195-E2s.
Toronto City Airport - really modern and efficient and the free shuttle to Union Station is a nice bonus for accessability. Only (slight) negative is that the departure lounge can be a bit crowded at times, but there's always free seats available so isn't too much of an issue.
Windsor Airport - basically does the job of a small airport, easy to navigate with a limited bus service and taxi ranks outside. Not much more to ask for really.
1 Comments
Thanks for sharing!
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