Porter Airlines - Ottawa/Vancouver

[Fouremco]

This is a heads up for anyone who has (or had!) a booking on PD264, Porter's direct flight from Vancouver to Ottawa departing at 12:20PM. I booked this flight in early February, thinking it to be the perfect time for a post-cruise flight home in October, arriving here in the early evening. Purely by accident, I discovered today that Porter no longer offers this flight beyond September 9, but never bothered to inform me by telephone, email or notification of the cancellation. Instead, they simply booked us on a mid-morning flight (see below) that I would never book myself. Oh, and to top it off, we had selected our seats back in February, but in changing our flight, they only re-reserved DW's seat, with the one beside her taken by some other passenger.

 

After September 9, they only offer a direct flight to Ottawa once a day, departing Vancouver at 7:35AM, then a couple of connecting flights at 10:10AM. I wouldn't book a post-cruise flight this early, even flying out of FLL, let alone VCR. So the only viable choice on disembarkation day in October is a connecting flight leaving at 1:40PM and arriving here at 12:28AM the following morning. 

 

While I'm very disappointed with the current options, I'm particularly annoyed with Porter making switches without bothering to inform passengers. I was playing with a new cruise/travel website that offers flight information, so I plugged in the information for our now cancelled flight and discovered that it was no longer offered. When flying with other airlines, I've always been informed of changes, even very minor ones, as soon as they were made, an easy thing for them to do with today's automated systems. A YOW-FLL-YOW flight earlier this year led to a number of issues that took a lot of time and effort to resolve with Porter. The resolution included a good sized credit voucher, which was the major reason we booked the October flights. They seem determined to increase their presence in Ottawa, but they'll have to up their game if they don't want to start losing customers.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Don’t feel bad, beginning of July AC canceled our 2:35 pm flight from MCO to YYZ , put us on a 11:30 am flight , with a hour drive from PC to MCO , we thought it could be tight after a transatlantic cruise 

Their next flight was 9:30 pm , so we canceled and booked Westjet at 2:20 pm

Yesterday got an email from a friend to tell me Westjet canceled the 2:20 pm flight , no noticed from Westjet 

went on line check and it been changed , to 9:20 pm 

Tried to cancel online but there is techanical difficulty and to phone , call Westjet , their lines are busy and not taking calls , to use their on line system 🤬

Check AC , and now they have a 12:30 pm flight which is doable, why didn’t they have this flight 2 weeks ago 

Really hating to deal with airlines now 

[Tango99]

I don’t book any flights anywhere on the planet until I’m within the 6month window of confirmations of the airline agreements of their specific landing rights. 
In fact most airlines don’t offer reservations beyond that space unless they have commits longer.  Maybe Porter is using a tool to assess demand before they are able to commit. It’s bad tactics and can easily backfire for those ready to commit. 
 

[millybess]

We had Air Canada flights in April Toronto to Hong Kong and in May Vancouver to Toronto. 
We have flights booked with AC Toronto to Auckland in December and in January Sydney to Toronto. 
 

All 4 of these flights had changes many times. We were never notified by AC. We only found out about the changes by logging in every once in a while. But each change offered a chance to cancel without a fee. 

[Fairgarth]

Yesterday, my daughter got up real early and drove two and a half hours to Kelowna airport to catch WestJet non-stop to Winnipeg.  On arrival she found that the flight was cancelled due to "air traffic control".  What complete horsefeathers!  Everything else was operating normally, why would ATC pick on that one?  Overnight in Kelowna hotel then this morning she flew Kelowna - Vancouver - Winnipeg.  Ouch!

 

If you have time to spare, go by air.

[Fouremco]

8 minutes ago, Fairgarth said:

If you have time to spare, go by air.

Heck, if I had time to spare, I'd take the train! Over the years, I've travelled across Canada, from Halifax in the East to Banff in the West, and one of these days I'd like to complete the Banff to Vancouver leg.

[Middleager]

That's awful experience with Porter.  Thanks for sharing.

 

We had been flying AC primarily.  There isn't a lot of choices in Canada.  I've seen so many schedule changes and cancellations with AC, and only in the last couple of years we've been getting notifications, but not always.

 

This year we tried Westjet, with the RBC CC promo, for our family trip to Hawaii, and my wife's trip with her mom to Vancouver.  Most of the flights went very well.  For my wife's trip to Vancouver, some of her friends flying on AC went to the airport to find flight suddenly cancelled and rebooked to a flight later that day.  That AC flight kept getting delayed.  My wife's friends arrived Vancouver after midnight.

 

But with the recent Westjet strike, that just damaged Westjet's reputation and will last some time.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

From chatting on the rollcall and FB no one got notified of the Westjet flight being cancelled 

23 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Heck, if I had time to spare, I'd take the train! Over the years, I've travelled across Canada, from Halifax in the East to Banff in the West, and one of these days I'd like to complete the Banff to Vancouver leg.

They really need to give Via the right of way ,

on a trip Cobourg to Ottawa , it was delayed 3 times waiting for freight trains , it add most a hour to a 3 hr trip

[Fouremco]

2 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

They really need to give Via the right of way ,

on a trip Cobourg to Ottawa , it was delayed 3 times waiting for freight trains , it add most a hour to a 3 hr trip

My sister resides in Toronto and visits Ottawa 4-5 times a year. As I always pick her up at the train station, I'm very familiar with the delays encountered along the way as the freight trains zip along. VIA now has an interactive map showing the trains current location and anticipated arrival time at each of the remaining stops, so it's much easier to guesstimate her probable arrival time. That doesn't mean that the train run on time more than it did before, but at least I can delay leaving the house rather than sitting around waiting at the train station. It's about time VIA fed a few years' worth of actual arrival data into a computer system to come up with a more realistic schedule. An excellent opportunity for AI.

[mellowrose]

My daughter and I had our AC flights cancelled the morning of our flight. Mechanical issue. She was actually in a taxi to Victoria ferry to meet me in Vancouver. We were re routed to Dublin insted of Toronto and Lisbon. A day in Dublin and late flight out to Lisbon, really we lost a day of our vacation there. We took it in stride, thinking, glad they found the problem BEFORE our flight! But it was very tiring.

[Fouremco]

On 7/24/2024 at 3:10 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

They really need to give Via the right of way ,

on a trip Cobourg to Ottawa , it was delayed 3 times waiting for freight trains , it add most a hour to a 3 hr trip

I just read an article today that explained that CN owns the tracks and naturally gives priority to its freight trains. As long as Via is using CN's rails, it's not going to be given the right of way. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

16 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I just read an article today that explained that CN owns the tracks and naturally gives priority to its freight trains. As long as Via is using CN's rails, it's not going to be given the right of way. 

It been that way for decades, probably since CN gave up up on passenger rail

This is the reason Metrolinx is building separate tracks for GO Trains around the GTA 

[mexico8]

On 7/22/2024 at 4:37 PM, Fouremco said:

This is a heads up for anyone who has (or had!) a booking on PD264, Porter's direct flight from Vancouver to Ottawa departing at 12:20PM. I booked this flight in early February, thinking it to be the perfect time for a post-cruise flight home in October, arriving here in the early evening. Purely by accident, I discovered today that Porter no longer offers this flight beyond September 9, but never bothered to inform me by telephone, email or notification of the cancellation. Instead, they simply booked us on a mid-morning flight (see below) that I would never book myself. Oh, and to top it off, we had selected our seats back in February, but in changing our flight, they only re-reserved DW's seat, with the one beside her taken by some other passenger.

 

After September 9, they only offer a direct flight to Ottawa once a day, departing Vancouver at 7:35AM, then a couple of connecting flights at 10:10AM. I wouldn't book a post-cruise flight this early, even flying out of FLL, let alone VCR. So the only viable choice on disembarkation day in October is a connecting flight leaving at 1:40PM and arriving here at 12:28AM the following morning. 

 

While I'm very disappointed with the current options, I'm particularly annoyed with Porter making switches without bothering to inform passengers. I was playing with a new cruise/travel website that offers flight information, so I plugged in the information for our now cancelled flight and discovered that it was no longer offered. When flying with other airlines, I've always been informed of changes, even very minor ones, as soon as they were made, an easy thing for them to do with today's automated systems. A YOW-FLL-YOW flight earlier this year led to a number of issues that took a lot of time and effort to resolve with Porter. The resolution included a good sized credit voucher, which was the major reason we booked the October flights. They seem determined to increase their presence in Ottawa, but they'll have to up their game if they don't want to start losing customers.

For the first time ever I booked a flight to Las Vegas  a couple of weeks ago for end of Ocober leaving Ottawa around 9:30 a.m. and today they sent us an e-mail that they cancelled that flight and now have us booked on a flight leaving Ottawa at 6:30 a.m.    We have to spend over 3 hours in Toronto for the connecting flight to Vegas and will probably not have a hotel room ready when we arrive (too early for check-in).   Maybe the last time we reserve Porter!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

9 hours ago, mexico8 said:

For the first time ever I booked a flight to Las Vegas  a couple of weeks ago for end of Ocober leaving Ottawa around 9:30 a.m. and today they sent us an e-mail that they cancelled that flight and now have us booked on a flight leaving Ottawa at 6:30 a.m.    We have to spend over 3 hours in Toronto for the connecting flight to Vegas and will probably not have a hotel room ready when we arrive (too early for check-in).   Maybe the last time we reserve Porter!

What else is new ? 
For our flight back from Orlando,  we book with AC, it was cancelled , booked with West Jet and that was cancelled

Re book with AC 

Not much fun to fly now

[TeamCan]

We have never flown Porter.... now I'm in fear after reading the negative comments but we have no other good options to get back to YVR. We have a 5 hour layover in YOW! but that was till the best option. We have a Canada/NE cruise leaving Sept 26 and hotel booked Sept 24 in NJ.  We had our air booked with Air Canada departing Vancouver Sept 23(red eye) and we have to return  back to YVR Oct 5 as we are leaving for another trip on Oct 7.  With the possible Air Canada strike on Sept 17, we are nervous about AC cancelling our flight. With the possible strike action,  AC is now allowing cancellations up to Sept 23 with a future travel credit.  

We just booked our non-refundable return flight to YVR-YOW-EWR. We have 24 hours to cancel for a refund. Do you think Canada's national carrier will go on strike? Will the federal govt intervene and prevent strike action?  So for no real progress in negotiations.  Is Porter that bad?  Any advice thoughts would be appreciated... so stressed! Thank you!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

My wife did flight on Porters new jet and thought it was a great flight 

There usually nothing wrong with Porters flights , it is the pre & post service that sucks just like every other airline 😁

I would fly on them if the schedule works , 

one thing flying into Toronto if the flight is from Boston, NJ , Montreal after a cruise ,they fly into the island airport , which could be a problem if your car is park at Person 🤔😉😁

[TeamCan]

2 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

My wife did flight on Porters new jet and thought it was a great flight 

There usually nothing wrong with Porters flights , it is the pre & post service that sucks just like every other airline 😁

I would fly on them if the schedule works , 

one thing flying into Toronto if the flight is from Boston, NJ , Montreal after a cruise ,they fly into the island airport , which could be a problem if your car is park at Person 🤔😉😁

Thank you for the info! Sitting on pins and needles now that we just booked this Porter flight.Lol.

All we want is a flight to get us to our cruise and back to YVR. The Porter schedule is the best option..don't have many choices.. out of WJ and United...the United flight is an AC plane from EWR and don't want to take a chance getting back to YVR as we leave on another trip 2 days later. Our flights are YVR-YOW-EWR and return EWR-YOW-YVR,  so bypassing Toronto.  How's YOW airport?.... never flown through there before... now we have a 5 hr layover to explore the airport.  LOL

[Fouremco]

8 minutes ago, TeamCan said:

How's YOW airport?.... never flown through there before... now we have a 5 hr layover to explore the airport.  LOL

I've flown in and out of YOW hundreds of times, on a wide variety of airlines, and have generally considered the airport pretty good. Our last return flight, earlier this year, was our first post covid, and our first Porter flight in a few years. The outbound flight was very late departing, and upon our return our luggage took a huge amount of time before getting to the carousel. I don't know whether the problems were attributable to the airport or with Porter.

 

On your way to Newark, you'll have to go through US pre-clearance in Ottawa. It helps if you have Nexus or similar to speed processing, but generally it isn't terribly busy. Once through, the waiting area for US flights doesn't have much in the way of shops, restaurants, etc., so if you have the opportunity to eat or browse before heading to security and pre-clearance, I'd suggest that you do so. I'd be more precise, but I'm not sure how they handle passengers or their luggage when transferring from a domestic flight to a US flight. 

 

Just in case you've not seen it already:  https://yow.ca/en

 

Given my previously mentioned experience with the change in flights returning to Ottawa from Vancouver in October, with no notification from Porter, I recommend that you keep checking their website to ensure that your flights remain the same, or that any changes that they make will work for you.

[TeamCan]

3 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I've flown in and out of YOW hundreds of times, on a wide variety of airlines, and have generally considered the airport pretty good. Our last return flight, earlier this year, was our first post covid, and our first Porter flight in a few years. The outbound flight was very late departing, and upon our return our luggage took a huge amount of time before getting to the carousel. I don't know whether the problems were attributable to the airport or with Porter.

 

On your way to Newark, you'll have to go through US pre-clearance in Ottawa. It helps if you have Nexus or similar to speed processing, but generally it isn't terribly busy. Once through, the waiting area for US flights doesn't have much in the way of shops, restaurants, etc., so if you have the opportunity to eat or browse before heading to security and pre-clearance, I'd suggest that you do so. I'd be more precise, but I'm not sure how they handle passengers or their luggage when transferring from a domestic flight to a US flight. 

 

Just in case you've not seen it already:  https://yow.ca/en

 

Given my previously mentioned experience with the change in flights returning to Ottawa from Vancouver in October, with no notification from Porter, I recommend that you keep checking their website to ensure that your flights remain the same, or that any changes that they make will work for you.

Thank you so much for the helpful info!  Thankfully, we do have Nexus as our connection in YOW to EWR is tight... only 67min so probably running through US pre-clearance and straight to the gate. We are travelling with carry-on only,  so don't have to worry about check-in luggage.  On the way back, we have lots of time.. 5 hours in YOW to shop and eat 😃. Thanks for the YOW airport link. I will definitely check Porter's website on a daily basis to check that our flights are the same.

Not happy...After only an hour on hold with AC, since our AC ticket was non-refundable, it goes back to a credit that expires in one year from the date of purchase of ticket... wasn't planning on flying with them within the next year. Wish Canada had more reliable airline options...had cancelled flights from WJ too😥

[Fouremco]

On 7/22/2024 at 4:37 PM, Fouremco said:

This is a heads up for anyone who has (or had!) a booking on PD264, Porter's direct flight from Vancouver to Ottawa departing at 12:20PM. I booked this flight in early February, thinking it to be the perfect time for a post-cruise flight home in October, arriving here in the early evening. Purely by accident, I discovered today that Porter no longer offers this flight beyond September 9, but never bothered to inform me by telephone, email or notification of the cancellation. Instead, they simply booked us on a mid-morning flight (see below) that I would never book myself. Oh, and to top it off, we had selected our seats back in February, but in changing our flight, they only re-reserved DW's seat, with the one beside her taken by some other passenger.

 

After September 9, they only offer a direct flight to Ottawa once a day, departing Vancouver at 7:35AM, then a couple of connecting flights at 10:10AM. I wouldn't book a post-cruise flight this early, even flying out of FLL, let alone VCR. So the only viable choice on disembarkation day in October is a connecting flight leaving at 1:40PM and arriving here at 12:28AM the following morning. 

 

While I'm very disappointed with the current options, I'm particularly annoyed with Porter making switches without bothering to inform passengers. I was playing with a new cruise/travel website that offers flight information, so I plugged in the information for our now cancelled flight and discovered that it was no longer offered. When flying with other airlines, I've always been informed of changes, even very minor ones, as soon as they were made, an easy thing for them to do with today's automated systems. A YOW-FLL-YOW flight earlier this year led to a number of issues that took a lot of time and effort to resolve with Porter. The resolution included a good sized credit voucher, which was the major reason we booked the October flights. They seem determined to increase their presence in Ottawa, but they'll have to up their game if they don't want to start losing customers.

Well, good old Porter has done it again, less than a month from our departure date. Today they cancelled our direct morning flight to Vancouver, and switched us to a flight that doesn't get in until 9:58pm PDST. As we had afternoon and evening plans for Vancouver, this change is bad news. So from a February booking with two direct flights at great times, we have one direct flight at a terrible time and one 1-stop through Pearson, also at a terrible time. With a month left, hopefully Porter won't make further changes and go from good to bad to worse. 

 

I know, flying these days isn't what it used to be, but Porter just doesn't seem to be able to get its, er, act together.