On a frigid Saturday earlier this month, Mindy Watson discovered that her household’s flight that day from Edmonton to Toronto, en path to Cuba, was cancelled.
WestJet provided to rebook their Varadero trip on Sunday — not the next day, however eight days afterward Jan. 21.
“My spouse is Canadian navy and must be again on base at CFB Comox on Jan. 22,” Watson mentioned. Her daughter wanted to clock into her nursing shift the identical day, and one other member of the family on the journey — a veteran with disabilities — needed to be residence for appointments.
One agent advised her he was not allowed to e-book them on one other airline, she mentioned, including that a number of representatives mentioned the identical.
They ended up scrapping the journey, a getaway the household had been trying ahead to for months.
Watson was amongst hundreds of WestJet prospects whose flights have been cancelled amid an excessive chilly snap in Alberta earlier this month. And plenty of say the airline wouldn’t reschedule them inside the required window, in what one advocate framed as simply the newest instance of a failure to uphold travellers’ rights.
If a provider has to name off a visit for causes exterior its management — extreme climate, for instance — Canada’s passenger rights constitution requires it to rebook passengers by itself planes or these of a associate airline inside 48 hours. If it may well’t, it should put them on board “the following obtainable flight that’s operated by any provider” to succeed in their vacation spot.
Meagan Watson, left, and her spouse Mindy are seen in a undated handout photograph with their baggage. The Watsons have been amongst hundreds of WestJet prospects whose journeys have been cancelled amid an excessive chilly snap in Alberta earlier this month. Many say the airline refused to e-book them inside two days regardless of a regulatory obligation to take action normally.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Watson household
The Canadian Press has spoken or emailed with greater than two dozen passengers who say they weren’t rebooked inside the prescribed timeframe — a lot of them for WestJet journeys scheduled this month, however others for flights over the previous couple of years throughout a number of airways.
Calgary-based WestJet says it rebooks prospects, together with with rival airways, in accordance with federal guidelines, together with throughout the interval of utmost chilly that disrupted flights like Watson’s.
“We perceive how irritating it’s when journey doesn’t go as deliberate throughout excessive climate occasions and are dedicated to our friends and making certain their protected and expedient journey,” spokeswoman Madison Kruger mentioned in an e mail.
“We sincerely apologize to our friends who have been impacted by the intense climate occasions of the previous week, however security will at all times be our first precedence,” she mentioned.
Kruger mentioned the airline rebooks with quite a few totally different carriers.
“WestJet books reaccommodation flights on associate and non-partner airways throughout irregular operations for home and worldwide flights in compliance with the (passenger rights constitution) and in sure circumstances as a gesture of goodwill.”
Recordings of cellphone conversations between passengers and WestJet brokers recommend that isn’t at all times the case.
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WestJet cancelled Winnipeg resident Kelly Regula’s connecting flight again residence from Toronto on Jan. 12. In recordings of her cellphone conversations with airline brokers shared with The Canadian Press, firm representatives say they have been barred from reserving her on one of many a number of Air Canada flights apparently obtainable that Friday, slotting her right into a Monday departure with WestJet as a substitute — properly over 48 hours later.
Regula wound up reserving a visit with Air Canada for herself, her husband and youngster at a worth of $2,855.
“It’s simply not proper,” she mentioned. “However I can see why individuals simply hand over. It’s exhausting.”
Ashley Armstrong, whose Saskatoon-Orlando flight was additionally cancelled by WestJet on Friday, Jan. 12, was rebooked for the next Wednesday even after she highlighted different journey choices.
“There’s an Air Canada flight that travels on Sunday, and so I don’t perceive why we couldn’t get booked onto that flight,” she advised the agent the following day, in response to a recording she made and shared with The Canadian Press.
“I’m unable to do interline stuff. I can solely take care of WestJet,” he replied.
Requested about Armstrong and Regula’s experiences, WestJet mentioned it had forwarded their recordsdata to its visitor staff for evaluate to make sure the airline’s insurance policies have been correctly utilized.
Some passengers mentioned carriers knowledgeable them of a cancellation by e mail and {that a} message on rebooking choices would observe — but it surely by no means truly landed of their inbox.
Even when it does, prospects can spend hours ready — on the cellphone or in individual — to attempt for a special reserving.
Colin MacRae referred to as the quantity given to make alternate preparations after his Toronto-Calgary flight on Dec. 23 was cancelled and he was rebooked on a flight three days later.
“After being on maintain for over six hours, we have been requested if we wished for a callback. We mentioned sure, we’d. They then scheduled their ‘earliest attainable callback,’ which was for 8 a.m. on the thirtieth of December — the identical day as our scheduled return flight,” MacRae mentioned.
Some prospects, like Regula, merely rebook with one other airline themselves and hope to reclaim the price from the unique provider later. This requires filling out a type on the airline’s web site and ready 30 days for a response. If it’s denied, passengers can file a grievance with the Canadian Transportation Company, a course of can take as much as two years on account of a backlog of about 64,000.
Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights shopper advocacy group, says he believes airways have been failing to fulfill rebooking necessities since they got here into pressure in 2019.
“I imagine it’s very widespread, and it’s one of many prime examples of airways blatantly sabotaging the (rules) with full impunity,” he claimed.
To emphasize the rules’ intent, he pointed to a 2022 federal impression evaluation stating “that giant carriers must rebook the passenger on the following obtainable flight of any provider, together with rivals.”
The Canadian Transportation Company must crack down on rule breakers, he mentioned.
Fines have shot up from a complete of $725,000 in 2022-23 to $1.17 million to date this fiscal yr, which ends March 31.
However that tally is a drop within the sea of income that carriers earn annually — Air Canada alone took in $6.34 billion within the first 9 months of 2023. And the penalties have been unfold throughout international and home airways, in addition to railways.
The company’s enforcement staff tracks complaints to scan for a sample of violations, and appears to impose fines when it sees an issue as “systemic,” mentioned Tom Oommen, the company’s director normal of research and outreach, in an interview.
“To this point, we haven’t discovered that but,” he mentioned of rebooking violations.
The company plans to ratchet up its most fines by an element of 10 as a part of an overhaul to the passenger rights constitution later this yr, Oommen mentioned.
Over the previous 4 years, the regulator has issued a complete of $16,700 in fines for breaches round rebooking. All 30 cases concerned WestJet and Sunwing — since purchased by WestJet.
The 2 carriers usually are not the one targets of buyer ire. Final week, a B.C.-based tour operator launched a $28,000 lawsuit in opposition to Air Canada, aiming to recoup cash it spent on taxis, lodges and flights when 31 British Columbians discovered themselves stranded in Toronto after heading off for a two-week tour of Newfoundland in June 2022.
The airline provided to e-book the passengers of Wells Grey Excursions three to 5 days after the cancellation, in response to the submitting. Not one of the allegations has been confirmed in courtroom and Air Canada didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the swimsuit.
As for Mindy Watson, after calling off their Cuban getaway and rebooking a flight again residence to Vancouver Island for Jan. 14, the household was once more hit with a cancellation and rebooked for 3 days later.
“We couldn’t incur any extra bills,” she mentioned. “We’ve got been trapped in Edmonton for days, ready to see if right this moment’s reserving truly occurs.”
That flight too fell by way of. They lastly touched down in Comox, B.C., at 3 a.m. final Friday — practically every week after they tried to go away on trip, with out ever taking one.
