Flying Refined with Porter

I finally had an opportunity to get Muriel on a Porter flight. We flew from Billy Bishop Toronto Island Airport to Montreal and back again on Saturday for a Silversea ship inspection (more on that in the next blog). I've felt that Porter was five star travel with discount rates and was thrilled to be able to finally show Muriel what I had experienced.

And she agreed.

It is such a breath of fresh air to travel with complimentary beverages (wine and beer too!) and some actual leg room! The lounge at the Toronto Island Airport is so tasteful and serene with an airline steward checking to see if you've got time for a coffee in their complimentary self-serve cafe.

We sat with amused pleasure watching first time Porter fliers reaching for their purses and wallets as they scanned the offerings (Iced Tea, bottled water, variety of juices, coffee, tea, cappuccino - to just name a few! Plus there were some handy snacks to take the edge off) only to then see the look of utter shock when they realized it was all FREE!

Then we sat at a comfy table with it's own lamp - yes an actual lamp resting on a side table, next to a sofa chair. No rows of uncomfortable chairs bolted together and to the floor! Kind of like sitting in your own living room.

Free wireless and free business center with a large number of Mac's standing ready - just waiting for a bored client to log on.

Once aboard our 1 hour flight we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of legroom. Muriel, having just returned from London with Air Transat noted with pleasure that she had more than twice the amount of room as on her transatlantic 8 hour flight! The plane interior felt new and clean and the stewards were lovely in their retro pill box hat and uniforms. Even though there's no inflight entertainment you don't miss it. You sort of realize that maybe all the other airlines' inflight entertainment is meant to distract passengers from the fact that they have to pay for every drink, blanket and pillow and that their knees have permanent etch marks from the seat in front!

The whole experience is so pleasant it's just not NORMAL! And yet, this is the way air travel used to be, should be, obviously can be.

And now for the kicker - what do you think we paid to be treated like paying customers rather than a herd of cattle? This may really shock you! LESS than WestJet - LESS than Air Canada, for the same flight and schedule. Hard to believe that an airline could offer such a high level of service and actually charge us LESS than the big airlines.

Well, suffice to say, we were both pleasantly surprised and impressed and will be recommending Porter Airlines to ALL our clients traveling to a Porter destination. It's absolutely worth every penny and then some!

You can check them out for yourselves at www.flyporter.com or find them on twitter and facebook.