Under the
APPR, if the rebooked alternative offered by WestJet, would depart more than 9 hours after the original departure time for a controllable situation, then they should rebook you on a flight of any airline.
If the situation is within the airline's control (whether or not it's related to safety), if that next available flight would not leave within 9 hours of the original departure time, a large carrier must rebook the passenger on a flight operated by any airline. This could mean booking a ticket with a competing airline.
As to #1/#2, the
APPR does say that if the arrangements don't meet your travel needs, you can be entitled to a refund, and if it wasn't due to safety, $400 in compensation.
For disruptions other than those outside the airline's control, a passenger would be entitled to a refund instead of rebooking, if:
- the arrangements offered do not meet their travel needs; or
- there is no longer any purpose to the travel, because of the disruption.
Passengers who experience a flight disruption that is within the airline's control but not required for safety and who choose to take a ticket refund instead of rebooking must still be compensated for inconvenience. Large airlines must pay them $400 and small airlines, $125.
#3 I think you need to determine what exactly you're pursuing. You could try to pursue a full refund of the WS ticket (and the $400 compensation), but then I think you'd forfeit your claim to the fare difference and hotel compensation. Alternatively, you could claim the fare difference between the tickets (since WS was unable to rebook you within 9 hours on their flights, or an airline with which they have a commercial agreement), and then pursue the additional hotel costs (since you have a right to care), plus the cash compensation for the controllable delay.
WS has 30 days to respond to your APPR claim, so expect to wait up to 3 more weeks before hearing back. If their response is not satisfactory, you can contact the CTA and work through facilitation (and then mediation and adjudication), or pursue it in small claims court. Or as someone else said, file a claim with travel insurance who may cover the cost of food, hotels, and replacement transportation.
Your situation does provide an interesting case, if an airline was sold out through normal booking channels, should the airlines reimburse flights you have access to through guaranteed availability? And I think that would need to go to small claims or CTA adjudication before you get an answer to that.