A Comedy of Errors

Wrong boarding pass, delayed flight, no potable water, and misdirected luggage.

Because of the great experience with WestJet last year with holiday travel, I decided that I didn’t want to risk it with Air Canada and convinced my husband to fly WestJet. I told him that WestJet had the 24-hour no-penalty refund policy, plus that they would take care of you should anything happen with our holiday travels (unlike their major competitor who stranded their passengers last year). Had I known what ended up unfolding, I might have kept my mouth shut, as he now prefers AC.

Wrong boarding pass

Upon checking in on Christmas Day, we were warmly greeted by the WestJet agent at the counter, who was still in good spirits despite having to work on Christmas day (something was said about being a WestJet owner!). Perhaps it was Christmas day or our general chit chat that may have distracted him, but after he printed our boarding passes (I guess because only I had mine on my BlackBerry but j.w didn’t), j.w happened to look down and noticed we weren’t sitting together. I pointed it out to the agent, who gave a diplomatic response that essentially meant “don’t look at me – that’s what the system gave me”. I was certain that we booked our seats together when we had checked in online, but as I was about to say something, j.w looked at his ticket again and asked, “Who is Allison Wong?”

For some reason, the WestJet had printed out the wrong boarding pass; it’s likely that Allison’s name was the first name that showed under Wong. Funny thing is that j.w turned around and lo, and behold, the next in line was Allison and we knew her! (yes, the agent was surprised too). By the time we waved her over, he had already ripped up her boarding pass. She wasn’t even going to Vancouver; she was bound for Calgary! At least they caught it – I mean, what would happen if it was only noticed during security…or worse, at the gate or on the plane?

Delayed flight

With that out of the way, we went through security without incident and waited at the gate for (to me) the standard holiday delays – this time for 2 hours. The plane had been caught in Edmonton for deicing, from Kelowna. When it finally arrived, we were moved to a different gate, and Allison had long departed. Because of the rush to move people off and on the plane as they were behind schedule, I have a feeling that’s why they forgot to refill the potable water.

No potable water

Yes, in mid-flight, the WestJet attendant announces over the speakers that a strange occurance had happened: they had seemed to run out of potable water; they must have forgotten to refill it in Toronto. What that meant? No more water in the lavatories to wash dirty hands, and no more coffee or tea. Instead they would provide you with hand wipes or bottled water to rinse your hands. I opted for the bottled option, followed by my own hand sanitizer. Still, it felt very unhygenic (especially if you had to come out of the lavatory to get the bottled water).

Misdirected luggage

Once we landed, the luggage came very quickly. Well, one of them did. When one suitcase didn’t show up and I asked someone if all the luggage was out, I was directed to the baggage counter. Thankfully, I had kept my luggage tags/claim stickers but it was too late when we realized that no, I was not Allison Wong (due to the check-in mistake!). And yes, my suitcase was waiting at YYC (in Calgary). With promises to deliver it to us first thing the next day, I was happy that at least they were able to locate it.

In the morning, a call came asking if we were willing to pick it up for a $100 WJ credit in exchange, which was a very nice gesture on WestJet’s part. What they failed to tell us was that we had to book a flight within 90 days for a trip within the year. As I didn’t have plans at the time to travel anytime soon, I was a little annoyed that they didn’t tell us the catch when we picked up the phone since it takes us almost an hour to get the luggage and come back. Thankfully, I remembered that I could try and apply the credit to my return flight – which they accepted! Yaay!

Epilogue

J.w says that he’s not about to choose WestJet again if Air Canada is an option. Me? I just booked with WestJet again to attend a friend’s wedding in May :). I must say that I’m not very thrilled at their new reservation system (Sabre). I like their online reservation (and refund) system, but their phone wait times are RIDICULOUSLY long (1.5-2 hours) even after midnight EST, and when you do finally connect to an agent, and they transfer you, it disconnects you! Otherwise, if you try to call the Wedding and Convention line to try and book a seat using a wedding discount code (which by the way, is great when it works), all you get is “all circuits are in use; please try again later” instead of being put in the queue. However, I have learned that WestJet gets social media: if their response times on the phones is as great as their responses on Twitter, I think you would have more happy customers. Now if this was my first time with WestJet, I might jump ship, but why do I still choose WestJet? Generally, it’s because of their attitude towards customers – they seem to care…and it sure beats the alternative choice.