I tried and like Porter when I moved to Toronto but pretty much everything is wrong with this company and their business model - at least from any serious and frequent traveller perspective.
Yes they have free newspaper and glassware on the plane but that's really not what matters. What matters is getting from A to B with some amount of time predictability and good safety. From a safety perspective I must say it's OK although their landings can be a bit bumpy.
Time wise they are the worst. We got stranded a family of five coming from Boston trying to get back to Toronto on a Sunday PM. All Porter flights were cancelled one after the other. Some other companies had some delay but Porter was the only company cancelling all their flights. That is due to 2 things:
- they operate antiquated propeller planes
- they operate out of Billy Bishop
Both these things are impacted by a tiny drop of rain or mild wind.
So with all these flights cancelled one after the other you would think:
- they would give you the heads up: NO -they don't like to intrude with people's life so the surprise will await you at the gate
- they would put some energy behind smoothing things out: NO - they had one and only one agent working a huge line of complaints on a busy Sunday afternoon
- they would show some empathy: NO - not a single word of apology
- they would help you with accommodation: NO again - the beauty is that it is always weather related for these guys so you're on your own. They don't give a damn and why should they, right? Go find yourself a hotel and take that cab again back and forth. It's all on you! And for us it added up to almost $500. Thank you Porter!
So here you go: if you like cheap easy perks and the weather is clear it may work for you. If you want reliability and service so much for that. My advice is go to Pearson and take any company flying out of there and you'll be better off.
Will never take Porter again.