Westjet Airline pulled an amazing Christmas “stunt” on it passengers. Even socks and underwear.
Aww, that made me cry like a baby. That was truly incredible. 
And I bet the guy who asked for socks and underwear is pissed.
I wonder how they got the passengers with just carry-on luggage to stick around - my husband and I fly standby so we rarely check bags. We’d be outta there and miss our presents!
This is why I’m so loyal to Westjet! They’re such a great airline. I just flew Calgary to Kona yesterday, and got free upgrades to Plus (almost business class), and no charge for my bike, which is anoversized, over weight bag normally charged $100. Nothing but good things to say about them.
Had I been on that flight, I wonder how they would have wrapped the (real) Schweizer 300 I’d have asked for.
It wasn’t really as “carte blanc” as it might have appeared in the final cut. For instance, someone asked for a new car and did not get one. (It was in the blooper reel.)
Since I work in the aviation industry, I’m waaaaay too cynical to believe this actually happened.
Come on. An airline? The people who will pretty much cut your throat if they thought it would pry another buck in fees out of you? I call some sort of BS on this.
Well, it’s pretty clearly a marketing stunt intended to improve the airline’s bottom line. You have to be pretty damn cynical to think they’d fake their transparent marketing stunt when it wouldn’t really be any more expensive to just do it.
They know who checked bags. Maybe people who didn’t check anything didn’t get gifts.
That would be so disappointing - getting home, seeing the stories about the flight, and realizing you were ON THAT FLIGHT!
No, it actually happened. It happened in my home city, Calgary, where they are headquartered.
WestJet has always been very forthright about trying to not be just another corporation, and trying to do things a little differently (they started out as a employee-owned company, which might be part of that). Of course they’re in it for the money, and of course this is a marketing ploy, but instead of getting a flight, the passengers got a flight and a gift. I’d take it.
Just to point out also - when stunts like this work, the cost of the gifts pales into insignificance when compared to what the airline gets in return.
Round here, for example a single page ad in our daily runs for around $40k - so it doesn’t take much viral coverage to justify this as a “better” marketing proposition.
The video is an advert.
What was the point of showing me an advert ?
Darling video!
Because you watched it.
I’d never heard of this airline. Now I’ve heard of this airline, and I have a positive vibe associated with the name. I may never have occasion to fly with them, but if I did, I probably would. Any advert that can put tears in my eyes from happiness, rather than an attempt to make me sad and depressed, is ok by me.
Sure it was a marketing stunt, but it was a fun, feel-good marketing stunt. It made a lot of people happy, to participate and to watch. There’s nothing wrong with that. I hope other companies and ad agencies take note.