Review of Air North flight from Calgary to Whitehorse in Economy

ANT

4N - Air North

Flight taken on 08 December 2014
4N 528
19:40 03h 50m 22:30
Class Economy
Seat 17F
Esteban
2,401 · 94 · 1 · 0

  • BSL - AMS KL J / E190: HERE
  • AMS - YYC KL J / A330-200: [url=http://flight-report.com/en/report-8794.html
  • YYC - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
  • ??? - ??? ?? Y / ??: Later
This is the continuation of the above journey. I was in YYC to fly to YXY, there were directs flights with AC available, but as I made my reservation, Air North scheduled its 737-200 to fly that leg, with an intermediate stop in Edmonton. As an AvGeek, I really wanted to fly on this classic old lady again.
Unfortunately a few weeks before departure, 4N bought another second hand 737-500 and swapped equipment. Not great for me, but that's life.
Back to my report. Interlining between KL and 4N does not exist for sure, only with AC. I arrived at around 02:00PM at the airport and made my way to the 4N counters that … do not exist.
After some search, I found out that they only open 02:30 before departure and as the flight does not operate everydays they even don't have a ticketing desk.
I needed to visit the lavatory but with two big suitcases plus hand luggage it was close to mission impossible
To forget my loo need, I went for some spotting:
Christmas is getting closer:


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Kids corner:


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YYC has no information desk at departure level but retired people patrol the terminal dressed like rangers to give answers to questions that may arise. I speak a bit with one of them and he kindly agrees to keep my trolley with the bags the time for me to go to the lavs. Thanks!!
Inside / Outside:



At around 05:00, the 4N board is taken up to the wall and I head for check-in:


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4N has quite a few slogans:
You're home before you get home
The Yukon's airline
Home of Yukon's hospitality
Experience Yukon's hospitality
So let's see if this is true. They are right, the check in staff are really cool. Smiling, jocking, professional. Boarding car in hands, I head for the airside part of YYC. Sorry not that much spotting as the lights are much too bright inside.


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I make a good use of the free wifi to kill time.
As soon as the plan lands, some passengers disembark and boarding is launched straight after.
The plane flies YXY-YYC-YEG-YXY, I checked the flight path through Flightradar24 and when I saw the A/C reg. I had to smile. C-GANV is an old friend as it flew with Air France from 1999 to 2004 under french reg. F-GJNV.
When I entered the plan I was quiet shocked about it being a kindergarten. There were kids everywhere. But it made the flight fun at the end.
Some pictures that I took very fast as there were the transit passengers aboard, not easy to take pictures in those conditions:



Take off and some downtown shoots of Calgary.


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Only 20 minutes later we landed in YEG. There was no service on this leg, as it is too short. But water was available on request.


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I make good use of this 45 minutes stopover to take lots of shoots from the A/C with the kind ok from the crew.
Lavs:


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Rear Galley and doors:


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Cabin: (from the logo on the seats I was under the impression that 4N bought a whole batch of Southwest old seats)



PSU / Safety on board card:



Boarding was quickly finished but some freight loading problem will cause us a 30 minutes delay. The cockpit crew was keeping us updated constantly and the 3 crew members patrolled the cabin to check if everyone was doing fine.
Always with a smile!
Take off then followed with a flight time of 02:20. I was quite curious to see what kind of catering 4N would offer, since they seem to be perfect in anyway until now.
I won't be deceived! The crew starts with the first round of drink. 4N charges for alcoolic beverages but since we had a 30 minutes delay, that first round will be open bar for everyone, on the house!! The only pre-requisite was to be 21 and over.
If it's like that, I'll take bacardi with my coke. And a coffee:


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Just following the beverage cart, the third crew member offers a choice between ham / turkey or vegetarian sandwich, together with cheese crackers. I took the ham.


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Refreshing towels are handing out as well
The whole service was performed with a smile. The sandwich was really good.
Half an hour later, second drink round together with hot cookies:


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The service level amazed me, and so the girls. They did not stop for one second. A true great service. I have seen as well that they cleaned the cabin during the turnaround. They told me they do it at all stop except from YXY.
We arrived 30 minutes late at the very little Whitehorse airport!


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Display all

Product ratings

Airline

Air North 8.5

  • Cabin7.0 / 10
  • Cabin crew10.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi7.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering10.0 / 10
Departure airport

Calgary - YYC10.0

  • Efficiency10.0 / 10
  • Access10.0 / 10
  • Services10.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness10.0 / 10
Arrival Airport

Whitehorse - YXY10.0

  • Efficiency10.0 / 10
  • Access10.0 / 10
  • Services10.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness10.0 / 10

Conclusion

What should I say? An amazing crew, customer and service oriented, a very good catering.

Some will say that a 10 out of 10 for a sandwich and a cookie is ways to much, but for North America and Y - domestic class, this is absolutely amazing.

The cabin was nothing to write a home about, same for the non-existent IFE but they gave newspapers at the gate and the inflight magazine is absolutely great.

We were a bit delayed but the crew kept us updated.

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Comments (1)

  • A trip to the Yukon...how exotic! Too bad you didn't get to fly the 737 classic. Interesting to discover this carrier, and pleasantly surprised. I see where you're coming from with a 10/10 for catering. Free food in Y just doesn't happen anymore.

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