Westjet - how much do they really care?

[Kremlin]

Originally posted by joegrang


I totally agree if you as a parent don't care enough to fly with your own kid, why on earth would you expect someone else to care?

I think you're missing the point.

The $50 UM fee is to pay the airline to babysit the child and ensure that they safely make their way from one guardian's hands to another. Much like paying a babysitter to take care of your kid when you're absent, this is paying an airline to babysit your kid when you're absent.

If there was no UM fee, this would be a non-issue. UM fee collected = airline accepted responsibility for the kid.

How would you feel if you dropped your kid off at daycare while you were at work and when you came back to pick him up at the end of the day your kid was missing? You paid the daycare to babysit your kid. But if you dropped your kid off at Burger King and came back 10 hours later to find him missing it isn't the King's fault that your kid wandered onto a highway, because there was no expectation of care.

The parent in this case didn't just drop his kid off at the airport and say "Have fun!" he used a service that is supposed to guarantee the safety of a child from end to end, period.

[l8braker]

WestJet is the only airline I would not hesite to fly my child with alone, regardless of the isolated incident noted in the original post.

[frozenrice]

Originally posted by JoeyJoJoJunior


Right......

And sending a Kid off to day Care is a CHEAP LAZY WAY to raise your kid, in a parent's absense. The money saved by using self care, not to mention, the lost work income on your behalf would definately justify the poverty stricken lifestyle that you would be providing for your child in the mean time.....

GAFB ! Way to be a parent !

Unfortunatlely, the 2 cases are similar (Daycare + UM Flying).......so be carefull with the double edged sword here that most are about to walk when you reply to this comment of mine.

Allan

..... IN A SITUATION LIKE THAT .....I'm not talking about child care in general. Daycares are what they are - DAYCARES which means that's what they're supposed to be good at. We're talking about an airline which to me is not a daycare. Would you trust your babysitter to fly a plane? How about give me $50 bucks and I'll watch your kid for you.

[TrevorK]

I think everyone can agree that Westjet made mistakes in this. They were being paid to look after their child.

You have lodged a complaint, and I'm sure it's worked it's way to the people responsible. To ask for someone to be fired for this, when you do not know both sides of the story is absurd. For all you know the kids pass wasn't showing, he snuck off the plane, etc.... It's doesn't absolve Westjet of their responsibility, but it doesn't absolve the parent/child either.


But we also have to look at the other side of the coin - why did the parents not instruct the child to make sure he was with a flight attendant before leaving the plane? This simple step would have saved all the confusion. Don't give me the ignorant response of "Well, they were paying Westjet for the service" because if they cared about their child they would ensure they do EVERYTHING possible to protect them, which would include instructing them on what to do in case Westjet fails. No one is perfect at their job, mistakes do happen to everyone.

I know if it was my kid I'd do everything in my power to ensure it went smooth. Which would entail outlining the importance of finding the flight attendant before leaving the plane.

Perhaps the parents of the child should look at their role in this (And how they discussed the flight and it's dangers to the child) and think of how they can also improve, because there is much room for improvement on their part and they do hold some responsibility for the situation (Even though they sound much too selfish to admit it).

[scat19]

Originally posted by Redlyne_mr2
Mistakes happen man.. what do they want out of West jet, they got an apology, they were given a credit. What more can be done, if anything it will give their child some skills in independence because youd be surprised how many useless first time flyers I encouter at the airport every week... and they arent children.

how is that fair for a 7 year old kid? they have no idea where to start in an airport.

[lilmira]

This is very simple. Someone paid for a service and it wasn't delivered, then it wasn't followed up professionally.

[kertejud]

I remember when I was 9 me and my 12 year old cousin and 13 year old sister had to make our way through Heathrow to connect on a flight to Dublin, make our way to the bus station and get on a bus across the country. My how things have changed (our parents were pretty laid back when it came to these sorts of things, but violently strict about doing the dishes). I don't ever remember being a UM or anything like that. The stewardesses were nice to us on the flights and told us where to go and if we got lost, ask the first airport staff member we saw. And apparently 13 means you can supervise children back in the early 90s in the world's busiest airport.

Its an interesting situation. It seems as though the kid made the trip enough times that he both knew how to "dupe" the airline staff like hiding his tag cozying up to other adults and what not (I'm not saying he did, but its a possibility) and felt that he knew what to do so why bother waiting for everybody to leave and then having to wait for the airline staff to babysit him. WestJet did mess up, but they apologized and tried to make up for it (in a business like way obviously). But the kid can't be held faultless in all of this.

[Lex350]

there....would this make the angry mob happy?

[em2ab]

This is hilarious, why are parents so fast to say, "What if a bear hijacked a car, convinced my son to get in and proceeded to weave in and out of lanes on the interstate until blowing up a bomb in the trunk while simultaneously driving off a cliff?" Funny.

Anyway, not sure if you meant to do this or not:

just plane stupidity

but that's pretty funny too!

[CBRComet]

I can't believe the fee for this is only 50 bux; it seems stupid to pay 50 bux for this service and expect someone to babysit and be responsible for your kid. you get what you pay for, dont shove your kid off on someone for 50 lousy bux and then shit when something goes wrong.

whats going to happen at some point is WestJet is going to have to get rid of this program because of incidents like this just for liability reasons.

people who are bitching about paying for a service and not getting it in this case need to get a reality check; you are expecting some kind of super babysit service when you dump your kid on a plane with 50 bux insurance. if you don't want something to happen fly with your kid.

[Amysicle]

Well most flights with WestJet aren't more than a couple of hours long. So it works out to be roughly $25/h which is much better than ANY babysitting job I've ever heard of, on top of what you pay for the fare.

Also, for just making sure the kid gets picked up by the proper people isn't too much to ask for $50. I'm sure it's outlined on the website the procedure they're supposed to follow and what is expected of WestJet when you pay the UM fee. If WestJet feels it's more work than it's worth, they can raise the fee or take away the service entirely.

[Redlyne_mr2]

Originally posted by scat19



how is that fair for a 7 year old kid? they have no idea where to start in an airport.

Best time to learn.

[lilmira]

Originally posted by CBRComet
I can't believe the fee for this is only 50 bux; it seems stupid to pay 50 bux for this service and expect someone to babysit and be responsible for your kid. you get what you pay for, dont shove your kid off on someone for 50 lousy bux and then shit when something goes wrong.

whats going to happen at some point is WestJet is going to have to get rid of this program because of incidents like this just for liability reasons.

people who are bitching about paying for a service and not getting it in this case need to get a reality check; you are expecting some kind of super babysit service when you dump your kid on a plane with 50 bux insurance. if you don't want something to happen fly with your kid.

50 does seem to be a little low but they don't have to babysit the child neither. All they have to do is to make sure that the kid is picked up by the right people. Clearly they didn't deliver what they have promised, plain and simple. There isn't much to argue about.

Westjet could have easily resolved the problem by giving an apology and a reasonable explanation. They only did half. That's why the OP is pissed. Would you be pissed if you pay for a burger and you only get half?

[Freeskier]

Originally posted by nos_efx
When did an airline company start becoming a child daycare?

As soon as they started accepting unaccompanied minors....

I agree that mistakes do happen, thats the attitude I take when trying to recover lost luggage, or a missed meal...but not a missing child. Slightly different scale i think

[Ashers]

Personally... I haven't heard about this incident yet (although, I don't keep up with the latest news.) First off, we're called "CSA" 's, not "CSR", as in Customer Service Agent. Just getting that clear. What I don't understand is how such a incident could happen. Even when I'm busy with say 5 or more UM's, I can still keep an eye on them all. The way that it usually works is that there will be a CSA waiting at the plane before the plane even arrives. Then the FA with "hand-off" the UM to the CSA when he/she feels that there is not enough people traffic to cause confusion. We then escort the UM to the parents, all while keeping the UM within physical reach of me at all times, incase something happens. If for some reason the CSA that escorts the UM does not show up, the Gate Agent will keep the cild in their custody until the CSA arrives, or even escort the UM down on their own. I agree that this shouldn't happen, and that if everything was set up correctly and planned, it couldn't have, but accidents do happen.I personally feel sickened by this happening, but I do believe that whole deal about kids being rowdy could have happened. Not taking sides here though. I once had a kid "judo chop" me right in the soft spot just for fun.

[Mixalot27]

This story made the morning sun

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/...93385-sun.html

[bignerd]

Like a previous poster touched on, the procedure they will put in place is just to take away the service entirely. That way their will never be any lost kids. Seems this is what a lot of companies do these days, it is cheaper just to get rid of it all together than it is to fix it, or spend the time making sure it never happens again.

[FiveFreshFish]

Originally posted by CBRComet
I can't believe the fee for this is only 50 bux; it seems stupid to pay 50 bux for this service and expect someone to babysit and be responsible for your kid. you get what you pay for, dont shove your kid off on someone for 50 lousy bux and then shit when something goes wrong.

whats going to happen at some point is WestJet is going to have to get rid of this program because of incidents like this just for liability reasons.

people who are bitching about paying for a service and not getting it in this case need to get a reality check; you are expecting some kind of super babysit service when you dump your kid on a plane with 50 bux insurance. if you don't want something to happen fly with your kid.

Yeah, $50 seems kind of cheap to me. Improve the service and charge more for it. A lot more.

[Cowtown_Raider]

Those of you slagging daycare and the concept of getting a break from parenting might eat your words one day. I'm a single dad and I rely on an after school program to watch my child when she's done school. They are paid to keep an eye on her. My daughter is very close with my parents and spends part of the summer with them so I send her UM on WJ or AC several times a year. For the extra $50, all they do is call the UMs to board before everyone else. They're seated and checked on once in a while during the flight, then upon arrival they are asked to wait for everyone else to get off. The CSA then takes the UMs all in a group through the terminal to meet the person(s) doing the pickup. They ask for ID and everything needs to match up for the UMs to be released. In this incident there were multiple breakdowns in the system. It wasn't because the kid was being disruptive...he's very well behaved. Greg could probably have let this go if they would've handled the mistake better. A flaw in the system has been exposed and WJ could've reacted better to reassure that measures were being put in place to tighten the process. Instead, Greg gets the runaround and the door slammed in his face. The idea of this post was to raise awareness of this flaw and pressure WJ into doing something about it.

[BrknFngrs]

I think alot of people in this thread are right on the money, if this does turn into as big a shit-storm as the OP's friend is hoping then I would be very surprised if WestJet kept offering the service, why bother with the risk.

As much as I agree with many of the points made I just know the person trying to cause the drama will be the same person whining when the airlines decide to cancel the service so if he wants to send his kid somewhere he has to be with them.