PSPINC CEO Kenichi Uchikura's Blog

Flying from Seattle to Narita on WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, requires a stopover in Calgary. The business class round-trip ticket cost me just over $2,000, which I found to be an amazing deal. However, the first and last legs of the journey between Seattle and Calgary were in economy class. I upgraded to a bulkhead seat for a bit more legroom. The plane for those segments was a Boeing 737-800.

 

One downside to this route was the long layovers in Calgary—5 hours on the way to Tokyo and 7 hours on the way back to Seattle. I wish WestJet offered more flight options between Seattle and Calgary to reduce these layovers.

 

For the Calgary-Narita segment, we flew on a Boeing 787-9, which featured full-flat seating in business class. Although the flight from Calgary to Narita is technically longer in distance than from Seattle, the flight time was comparable. The meal service was great, though I skipped the second meal because I was too tired and had spent a lot of time in the Calgary airport lounge, so I wasn’t hungry.

 

Overall, I was expecting the service to be subpar given the price, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Would I fly this route again? Yes, though I do wish the layover times were shorter.

 

My next business trip is at the end of October, and I’ll be flying ZipAir from Vancouver. I still haven’t figured out how I’ll get to Vancouver from Seattle yet, but I’ll keep you updated!