There aren’t a lot of options for flying in Canada.  You’ve got Air Canada (the big one), then WestJet, and finally Porter.   I mainly fly Air Canada within Canada, because it goes to my home-town (instead of going to St. John’s, which is an 8 hour drive away).

I’d never flown with Porter before this trip, but most of my friends who have love it.  It’s a Toronto-based airline, so it’s usually taken by people flying to/from Toronto.  There are definitely some pluses to flying with Porter, but there are also some not-so-pluses.

Not-So-Plus:

•  It’s a wee little plane, so if you have a travel suitcase on the large size it gets air-checked.  Not that big of a deal, but you should make sure everything you need for the flight is out of your bag.  Also, be clear about where you’re flying if your plane is making multiple stops.
• Multiple stops means that you fly from Halifax to Ottawa, land, wait 30 minutes, then take off and fly from Ottawa to Toronto.  If you’re not good with landing/taking off it can be annoying – although the 30 minutes wait isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
• You can’t use electronics or have headphones on during take off or landing, which can get annoying during a multiple-stop flight.  Once you’re in the air you’re fine, but it doesn’t seem like you’re up for very long.  Non-electronic distractions (books, writing, drawing, knitting, etc) should be stock-piled – especially if you get bored easily.

Plus:

• They land really close to Toronto.  You’re basically a ferry ride away from the city.  It only took a $12 taxi to get to my friend’s place (usually the cost of a shuttle), although I could have also taken a streetcar for $3.
• Instead of the sesame-stick things or pretzels that other airlines offer, Porter gives you a choice in your snack: Root vegetable chips, almonds, or cookies.  It’s free, and those root chips are very tasty.
• They offer free drinks, including coffee, tea, wine and beer.  (Just remember to drink responsibly, especially if you’re on a small airplane).
• If you make multiple stops they feed you multiple times.  On my flights I had a snack & drink on one leg, and a small meal & drink on the other.  Considering that my flight was only about 3 hours long, that’s a decent amount of food to get.  The meal wasn’t very notable, but had a small sandwich, small cup of pasta and a piece of chocolate.

Another plus/not-so-plus is that they automatically check you in the day before your flight.  If you have a good phone or access to a computer/printer then it’s a real time saver.  I have an older phone that was having issues with my email, so I had to log into my email on my friend’s computer, forward the email to my other account, then access that account on my phone, and download the file.  If I had a better phone it would have been cake.

In all, flying can be annoying, but it’s the little things that make it easier.  Like tasty root-vegetable chips.