Porter Airlines

I have never received such terrible customer service in my life. My flight from Moncton to Ottawa was cancelled due to weather conditions (understandable) and I was sent an email asking not to contact Porter, stating that they would contact me with the next available flight information. I waited for hours and heard nothing from them. I ended up heading to the airport in hopes that I would be able to get on to the next flight that was going out. When I was told no, I asked when the next available flight was and they told me 8 days from when I was supposed to fly out…. they told me I should have phoned them because everyone else did and were able to get onto the next outgoing flights. Though, the email stated NOT to contact them. And apparently, they had no intention on contacting me either. I ended up having to get a 24 hour, $200 train ticket to get home. To top it off, I received terrible customer service from EVERYONE and was told they would not compensate me in any way for this terrible and costly inconvenience. Plus, my flight TO Moncton was delayed by several hours. Actually, I have taken Porter 4 times in my life and each and every time, my flight has been delayed. This has caused me to miss $60 busses, $100 trains, book hotels in random cities…etc. Basically, yes Porter is cheap…but by the time you pay for missing your transportation (not to mention the time you spend waiting on a delayed airplane) it’s just not worth the penny pinching. Spend the money and fly with an airline that actually cares about you, treats you well, and gets you to where you need to go (on time!)

Porter cancelled my flight without warning at 6:30am 30 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave. 20 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave, I received an email saying that I had been automatically rescheduled to another Halifax-Toronto flight taking place 3.5 days later. Other would-be passengers received emails saying they were put on flights a week late. Finally, when a customer service rep showed up when takeoff was scheduled, she told us all we could do was go to the front desk and be refunded if we didnt want to take the flight Porter had automatically put us on. I waited in a very long line to talk to a customer service rep who was very unsympathetic and offered me no option except a refund, which I had to accept because I only arranged to spend the weekend in Halifax. I should also add that none of the passengers were given any explanation for the cancellation and when I asked, the rep said that a one member of the crew had called in sick. The flights to Toronto with other airlines at the airport were $700-900, which was much more expensive than the $339 ticket from Porter that I had purchased weeks before. 800 number where someone may or may not cover some of the cost. I ended up having to take the bus from Halifax to Toronto since there were no affordable flights and I needed to get to Toronto for school, work and appointments within the next 36 hours. Both the situation and Porter’s follow-up were unacceptable and I would advise against booking with them.

The flight I took with Porter originated in Windsor and finished in Montreal, with one stop in Toronto City — but no plane change. We departed early in Windsor, and even though the flight to Toronto was less than an hour the very friendly flight crew still came through the cabin with a complimentary drink and snack service. We landed on time in Toronto and only waited appx. 10 minutes until a gate was freed up. Passengers only completing the Windsor-Toronto leg deplaned, and Montreal bound passengers loaded. The flight was not full, the seats were very spacious (I got a whole row going to Toronto, but even with a seat mate going to Montreal I still had plenty of space) Definately a good and cost effective alternative to Air Canada, considering that I had no transfers as well. Very good job, Porter!

I fly them regularly between Montreal and Toronto for business. Service quality is consistently higher than competitors, especially Air Canada, though I concede it has gone downhill over the past couple of years, with the introduction of additional baggage and ancillary fees and the reduction of call centre staff. They eliminated meals and started serving only snacks, though I still love the free coffee and cookies in the Toronto lounge. They also cancel flights quite often for capacity / load reasons. But the staff are always polite and helpful, the cabin comfort is good for short-haul, and the free wine or craft beer on every flight is a nice perk. One of the main advantages has always been been that Porter treats everyone — frequent fliers and occasional travellers — like a human being, versus competitors who will barely acknowledge you as more than dirt on their shoe unless you’re a super-elite status flyer. The introduction of a tiered system on VIPorter this year is a step on the wrong direction, so I hope this continues. For now I’ll continue to rate Porter highly, though it’s a cautionary rating.

When we originally booked this flight we were told there was only one stop. They never told us about the touchdown in Ottawa that added an extra 2 hours to our flight to Toronto. Once in Toronto we were delayed 2 1/2 hours due to “weather” to get to our final destination. The Porter lounge in Billy Bishop Airport is small and because most of their planes were delayed was crowded and many people did not even have a place to sit. There was only 1 place to purchase food and the food was terrible and extremely overpriced. Our flight home was even worse. We were delayed in Newark for 7 hours and by the time we reached Toronto we had missed our connecting flight to Halifax. No one at Porter was any help to us and we were left to fend for ourselves by finding a hotel (luckily our travel agent was able to help us) This was on a Wednesday and Porter rebooked us on flights going home Friday and Saturday with the hotel expense coming out of our pocket. We did not find that acceptable and booked a flight with a different airport the following day. Porter has advised they will not reimburse our portion of the flight from Toronto to Halifax which we did not use. If you plan to use Porter airline