Free Holiday Tip: Never fly WestJet

[240SX92]

Here's a play by play of my night at Calgary air port last night. And the beginning of one of the worst day/nights of my life thanks to Westjet.

1) Arrive Calgary airport, 230, to fly out to Toronto at 5.
2) check in, lady tells us flight is delayed till 830. Shit.
3) Wait around till 6. Flight delayed till 930. Shit.
4) Wait around till 7. Flight delayed till 10. Shit.
5) Wait around till 9. Flight delayed till 1130. Fuck.
6) Wait around till 11. Flight delayed till 1230. (BUT THE DELAYS ARE GETTING LESS! CLOSER TO THE TIME WE COULD POSSIBLY GO!)
7) Jet Arrives, Hurray we are ready.... right?
8) Pre-Boarding for my flight finally after waiting 10 hours!
9) "we're sorry to announce, the crew is too tired to fly, and over their hours, we are currently looking for a new crew to fly" (This is the point, where they could have told us, GO FUCKING HOME. They could have also done that 5 hours ago, because you know they knew.
10) More updates "still looking for crew."
11) 300 AM. Sorry CANCELLED. Go get your shit, go home, phone back tomorrow.
12) 3AM Get baggage, after a ZOO trying to get it.
13) 4AM Talk to people at check in desk who have no fucking clue what they're doing or what to do. They tell us to call at 9AM this morning.
14) 5AM. Home for 4 hours sleep.
15) 9AM. Phone Westjet. "Sorry we are trying, no update."
16) 9AM-11AM Currently. "Sorry, no update on rescue flight, try back every hour, because the flight could get booked up fast."

12 hours at the airport, to find out the crew is to tired to fly, and I can't see my family for christmas.

Here's what really ticks me off the most, there was no auxiliary crew, no auxiliary Jet, NO BACK UP PLAN. To make things worse, every other flight to Toronto area, including Ottawa/Montreal for christs sakes, is booked. Except for the exception, where you can fly Economy for 700$ one way. That's for Air Canada. Glad they could bend us over once more by even proposing we pay almost double what we paid originally for a new flight that would get us to our families in time for Christmas. And I consider myself one of the lucky ones from this flight, let alone thinking of the people who don't even live here.

[SJW]

Perhaps the real problem is mother nature..

That bitch.

First time flying in winter at xmas?

[JRSC00LUDE]

I feel bad for you but I'll still fly WestJet 100 times before I'll fly Air Canada once unless there is absolutely, positively no other way.

[240SX92]

Originally posted by SJW
Perhaps the real problem is mother nature..

That bitch.

First time flying in winter at xmas?

I fly every year for winter for christmas for the past 20 years of my divorce parents led lives.

This is the ONLY time, that's every year, for 20 years, that we have been bent over this hard.

[240SX92]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
I feel bad for you but I'll still fly WestJet 100 times before I'll fly Air Canada once unless there is absolutely, positively no other way.

I will NEVER fly west jet again because of this. All it takes is one clusterfuck to lose me as a customer. And this showed how completely disorganized they really were.

[Eleanor]

Damn WestJet's ability to control weather. That must be why only Air Canada flights have turbulence.

[SJW]

I'm flying westjet to Kelowna tomorrow.

But i'm going in expecting to spend xmas here in Calgary due to the back log.

Shit happens. No sense stressin.

[240SX92]

Originally posted by SJW
Perhaps the real problem is mother nature..

That bitch.

First time flying in winter at xmas?

That's the original problem yep, but there are so many ways to deal with it (as every other airline in the country did) without stranding 300 people 2 days before christmas.

We were the only flight cancelled to Toronto. My sister in law, who's flight was at 1230 to Toronto, got out at about 2 AM, and is there now. Every other jet arrived, took off fine, except for ours.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by 240SX92

I will NEVER fly west jet again because of this. All it takes is one clusterfuck to lose me as a customer. And this showed how completely disorganized they really were.

In that case, you're going to run out of airlines REAL quick.

ETA: If the crew were over hours, they legally can't fly, and every other flight crew was probably taking their legally forced rest period because of all the other make-up flights from Monday's cluster-f$%$

[Trini]

ouch that is frustrating

[240SX92]

Originally posted by Eleanor


Damn WestJet's ability to control weather. That must be why only Air Canada flights have turbulence.

That wasn't the problem, did you not hear me say "the crew was too tired to fly"? And they couldn't find a replacement crew?

[AE92_TreunoSC]

My buddy works for American Airlines, and says this kind of thing is normal.

Its the busiest flight time of the year, and one of the worst weather months of the year. So canceled or overbooked flights are almost expected.

My sisters Aircanada flight was delayed almost 18 hours and showed up 3 hours late for when I had to pick her up on sunday. But we knew and expected this to happen.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by 240SX92


That wasn't the problem, did you not hear me say "the crew was too tired to fly"? And they couldn't find a replacement crew?

See my above post

[240SX92]

Originally posted by SJW
I'm flying westjet to Kelowna tomorrow.

But i'm going in expecting to spend xmas here in Calgary due to the back log.

Shit happens. No sense stressin.

Major reason i'm pissed off, is that I won't be spending christmas with my family because of their disorganization, but moreso that my family got a hotel room to wait for us, there's 100$ burnt, and a friend of mine bought non-refundable bus tickets for another 100$, that won't be able to use them.

So it cost people I care about frustration to.

[badatusrnames]

You know why WestJet manages to keep their fares so low?

They are too cheap to shell out for weather control equipment. That and the fact they don't have two crews on the ready for each flight.

[Eleanor]

Originally posted by 240SX92
That wasn't the problem, did you not hear me say "the crew was too tired to fly"? And they couldn't find a replacement crew?

I didn't hear you say that, I read what you typed.

The crew was probably too tired to fly because they've been scrambling to get all the backlogged flights off the ground and they've been putting in hugely long hours. And they probably didn't have an extra crew laying around because they're all up in the air already.

My cousin and her common law husband both work for Air Canada and the airlines are a shit show across the board right now. I can imagine you're frustrated and need to vent, but I believe your anger is misplaced.

[240SX92]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


See my above post

Every time I have flown Air Canada i've never had a problem, just this year, my mom recently divorced again is a little low on funds, so we had to go for cheaper fare.

I understand about the pilots and crew, but you don't dick around 300 people for 13 hours to send them home, only to call back the next day every hour for nothing.

[SJW]

Originally posted by badatusrnames
You know why WestJet manages to keep their fares so low?

They are too cheap to shell out for weather control equipment. That and the fact they don't have two crews on the ready for each flight.

Thats a good piece of sarcasm right there. ^^^^^^^^To you I say BRAVO

[240SX92]

Originally posted by Eleanor

I didn't hear you say that, I read what you typed.

The crew was probably too tired to fly because they've been scrambling to get all the backlogged flights off the ground and they've been putting in hugely long hours. And they probably didn't have an extra crew laying around because they're all up in the air already.

My cousin and her common law husband both work for Air Canada and the airlines are a shit show across the board right now. I can imagine you're frustrated and need to vent, but I believe your anger is misplaced.

I'm not angry at the crew, i'm angry at the company for not having backup plans including alternate jets and pilots. Having them on standby at home, needed for cancellations.

[Euro838]

You realize there was like A LOT of flights yesterday that were either delayed or cancelled. There could have been any number of reasons for these. I understand your inconvenience and hardship but do you really want to fly with a crew that is tired? Holiday travel is always chaos due to volume but the weather across the country probably doesn't help. I'm sure they have backup crews and a backup plan, unlikely they'd have enough contingency for something as major as this occurring.

In hindsight, it would have been nice if they told you just go home or something but I'm pretty sure they were giving you as much information as they could. Anyways, hope you are able to get home for the holidays.