I love WestJet, I promote WestJet to friends and co-workers, and I want WestJet to do well … but I have to agree that they’re far behind all of their competitors when it comes to technology and self-serve options.

Customer-facing tools and tech are relevant to every traveller — but I think it’s absolutely critical for business travellers.

I get the OP’s frustration here. I’ve had to make lots of changes to WS bookings where - for whatever reason - WestJet’s self serve options wouldn’t work. If I didn’t have quick access to an agent via the Platinum phone line, I would be beyond frustrated and probably would have given up on WS

Compared to what DL (and most major carriers) has, for example, WestJet is stuck in the dark ages.

With DL’s app, I can

• easily see my seat assignments (always!) … and do it without having to click multiple times to get into a reservation,
• consistently and easily make changes to any booking (including corporate travel agent bookings, points bookings - anything!),
• buy an upgrade to E+ or J with a couple of clicks, anytime I want,
• see the seat map for any flight and make changes as often as I want,
• immediately rebook myself during IRROPS (like I did quickly and easily at MSP during the Skywest meltdown a couple of weeks ago),
• see full details about every single upcoming segment that I’ve booked -- aircraft details, incoming flight details (thereby alerting you to possible departure delays and missed connections), fare class, upgrade status, number of people on a standby list, etc, etc, etc.

I can’t do any of that with WestJet’s current app or website.

Plus Delta has even more cool features in their app … like automatic real time baggage tracing, real-time notifications about which zone is boarding a flight. And UA is similar to DL in what they offer -- far beyond what WestJet offers.

One thing that I find odd is that - when I’m just looking for info on my WestJet flights - I'm forced to use apps other than WestJet’s. A bunch of what travellers would want to know is readily available, just not via WestJet’s technology (at least not easily).

To see live seatmaps and my own seat assignments for WestJet flights, I go to TripCase, not WestJet. Same if I need a detailed itinerary or receipt -- easily accesible via TripCase (but not WestJet). Fortunately, WS's booking system automatically syncs all of my WS reservations to TripCase without me needing to do anything.

To see real time WS flight info, tracking, inbound aircraft info, etc I use Flighty, not WestJet. And Flighty alerts me to WestJet schedule changes often days in advance of me receiving a schedule change email from WestJet. (The info available via Flightly is fantastic and is beautifully laid out -- a really nice UX. The source info all comes from WestJet -- which makes it kinda frustrating that I pay a hefty subscription fee for Flighty.)

If I can easily get all that info about my WestJet flights from third party apps (but not from WestJet) why couldn’t that just be integrated into WS’s app and website? It’s all just presenting info about WS flights and my WS bookings. (None of that helps with the desperately-needed self serve functionality, but it just amplifies how weak their customer-facing tech is today.)