I’m flying quite a bit at the moment. This year I’ve been to New Zealand, Portugal twice, France three times (Beaujolais, Alsace, Champagne), Germany, Spain, South Africa (twice), California (twice) and Canada. And, as I speak, I’m on a plane to Vancouver, from where I’ll be heading down to Seattle and Portland for some conferences (one on Riesling, one on terroir). I admit: I was pushing it a bit this morning. I arrived in Heathrow from Cape Town first thing, and then flew out of Gatwick at lunchtime. But I made the connection.

My guilty secret this time is that I’m flying to Vancouver on WestJet, the budget Canadian carrier that, for this trip, is about half the price of Air Canada economy. My Canuck friends have taunted me about this, telling me horrible stories about the staff making terrible jokes all the time and trying to boost the spirits of all the passengers on in a folksy Canadian way. And there’s no food or drink unless you pay for it, and you have to make your own entertainment. The worst thing is that they looked genuinely sorry for me when I told them who I was flying with. As if it was 9 h on Ryan Air.

So what is the WestJet experience really like, and should regular airlines be worried about these budget carriers? The plane itself is a 767-300, and it is new. This makes a huge difference. My Cape Town flights with BA were on a creaky old 747-400 and it had a very tired interior. My recent flight to Vancouver for judging the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada was on a new Air Canada plane, and it was much better. The age of the plane almost matters more than the airline you fly with, if you are in economy.

The seats on this WestJet are big enough, and there’s plenty of legroom. This is one of the benefits that not having an inflight entertainment system has. These systems are very expensive for airlines to install, they add weight, and they can obstruct the floor space. Especially in BA’s case, where the aisle seats lose a lot of space to the Highlife system’s box on the base of the seat infront.

On the WestJet flight, if you want entertainment, then you can bring your own iPad or tablet, or rent one from WestJest ($7), and watch streaming movies. You can also access the internet for a modest fee ($14 for the whole flight, or £8 for 3 hours). And the internet works. This is a huge bonus for me. The seats have USB power, which is great. Air Canada offered this, but BA’s ageing 747 didn’t.

What don’t you get with WestJet? Food. But when was the last time you ate plane food and felt good about the experience? You can buy food if you want to on board, and it’s not expensive. Or you can bring something palatable with you if you prefer. The lack of free food is not a problem for me. And booze? I always feel bad after drinking economy class wine. It’s pretty horrible. And the beer is too. If you feel the need for booze, you can buy it. Even if you rent a tablet, and buy all the booze and all the food, you will still have saved a fortune flying WestJet.

The flight isn’t over yet, but at the moment, save for having to pay for stuff if you want it, I can’t see any difference flying WestJet to flying economy with a more expensive carrier. Except you don’t get airmiles or lounge access (if you have the status). That’s about it.

The only hitch with this flight is that it is 2 h late so I will miss my connection in Calgary. That’s a bit of a pain, but it’s WestJet’s hub, so there are plenty more YYC-YVR flights this evening I should be able to get on to. So how they deal with this will be the test of whether I’m going to carry on using them. Their prices are so, so much cheaper, I might just use them even if there’s a degree of hassle. We will see.