Judge a cover by its book. A trip with Newleaf.
The Saturday morning had arrived for our trip to Vancouver, it was humid when we arrived at Hamilton airport and the terminal was sticky. My kids fought over which food they could bring on board the aircraft since no meal service was offered on the flight we were booked on. We were trying out Newleaf for the first time and I had my reservations. Friends told me to pass, to go with one of the other two majors, but saving well over a thousand dollars flying my family of 4 was hard to pass up. Fortune favors the bold they say, well does it? As boarding time drew closer I walked up to the gate to see the bird that would carry us, I gazed on a unassuming 737-400. I checked the Reg and found she was in her 27th year, memories of her birth a long time passed. No winglets, no in-flight entertainment, no wifi. Just a seat and a destination. This would be a flight to endure, not enjoy. The 737-800 owned by Westjet the next gate over looked pretty opulent in comparison. Oh well, let’s get this over with.
Upon boarding we were greeted by one of the most cheerful flight attendants I’ve ever encountered. Chantel (hope I spelled that right) directed us to our seat and even helped us out since we had booked our kids in the exit row and we had to shuffle them to a more appropriate spot. There’s a difference between forced pleasantry and the genuine article, this was real. As the trip progressed we noticed a common theme, a flight crew that actually cared about their jobs, the people they were serving and each other too. I noted the camaraderie between them, it was infectious and engaging.
At our stopover in Winnipeg to take on passengers, depart a few others and to top off the tanks with Jet-A, we decided to stay on board for the 40 minutes. We cracked open our airport sandwiches (surprisingly good) and fueled up ourselves. My kids, Penelope and Phoenix asked me if they could take a peek in the cockpit, so asking one of the Pilots (Jason?) our kids were rewarded with an awesome tour of the flightdeck. The Captain and First Officer answered the myriad of questions thrown at them and never rushed my kids. These two gentlemen were proud of their profession and plane, and made my daughter and son’s day. Phoenix even got to share his knowledge of aircraft by correctly declaring that this aircraft had CFM-56 engines to the pilots, I think they were impressed, not many 6 year olds can do that. After my kids left the cockpit, more kids came and received the same kind of treatment. Impressive.
So we survived our trip with with Newleaf, Canada’s newest Ultra Low Cost Carrier. We survived no in-flight movies, no wifi, no winglets and paying for a coffee. We survived and had a wonderful time doing it. That 27 year old Boeing flew like a champ, the pilots greased the landings with a surgeon’s hand, we avoided Pearson’s madness and my wallet is $1500 heavier because of it all. So a thank you to Flair Air and Newleaf and its employees, Chantel and Anne and the two other flight attendants whose name I didn’t get, thanks to the gentleman in the cockpit and a shout out to Bryan from Newleaf’s call centre for fixing an issue we had with a reservation the night before we flew out. Keep this up and I see good things in your future. Good job.
-Finspottr-