The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
The main subjects of the story - the vacationers going from Edmonton to Cuba - would almost certainly not have had decent alternate arrangements available to them at all … whether or not a WS had looked. There are very few open seats available on any flight these days — even when the weather is good and there are no flight disruptions.
But that couple probably would have needed seats on 2 flights, as they probably would have needed a connection. And a workable connection. Their odds of their vacation happening as scheduled? Probably close to zero, no matter what anybody did or didn’t do. Aircraft and bridges and fuelling systems were all frozen and planes stuck on the ground during that weather. There would not have been available seats on those planes that still operated to get everyone where they wanted to go, when they wanted to get there. But, yes, I feel for them. Their vacation was ruined. It’s too bad.
I’m probably going to be the contrarian here. Putting on my helmet now…
But, in my humble opinion, I think too many airline passengers think that a cheap airline ticket gives them:
- full travel insurance for free (over and above APPR requirements), and
- some magical guarantee that if a flight cancels a new, empty plane (and a “weather immune” plane at that) and crew will be instantly made available to them, and
- free and instantly-available airport hotel rooms will be available, even if weather shuts down an entire airport and strands thousands of people, and
- above and beyond all of that, their cheap ticket also means that the airline owes them some sort or Mary-Poppins-esque nanny service for adults.
None of that is the case. But a lot of folks honestly seem to expect that.
I saw many news reports in Calgary when the weather literally froze WestJet’s ground ops in YYC and across Alberta. None of those news reports talked about baggage doors being frozen shut and inoperable for hours, or about refuelling not working in the extreme cold, or about the impact of deicing fluid not being effective at those temps. The news reports were all “Passengers demand compensation!!” and “Passengers furious that WestJet won’t give them free hotel rooms!”
I saw another news report about a cancellation not related to that weather — where a woman was furious because WestJet tried to give her a free hotel room … but at an airport hotel that wasn’t attached to the airport. It required taking a shuttle bus a few minutes away from the terminal, instead of the one in the terminal. So instead, she ranted to the media, refused the room, and overnighted angrily at the terminal. Because she didn’t care for her free hotel room.
And all of those news reports, of course, end up with the same airline bashing conclusion from Gabor Whassisname, the self-proclaimed president of … his own Facebook page.
We’ve already discussed how WS handles IRROPS here. It leaves a lot to be desired, and needs to improve. Drastically.
And do either WS or AC live up to the APPR rules? Maybe not. But also they are bad rules and it’s a stupid system. (Yes, WS still does have an obligation to live up to the rules. And if they’re not, that’s a big problem.)
But people also need to realize that weather is a thing. We all live in a place with horrendously awful weather. There’s no way that airlines can make us immune from that 365 days a year, because there’s no way they can make themselves immune from that. Weather will impact many flights. Period. Weather will ruin some vacations. Period.
And people need to realize that sometimes, yes, you actually should buy your own travel insurance — or be ready to “self insure” and cover some of your own costs.
If you think a flight that costs a few hundred bucks will automatically give you an instant replacement flight or a free room at the closest hotel if the weather turns bad, think again. Or that cheap ticket will give you free cancellation, even though you bought the ultra-basic-ultra-no-refund-fare … but you deserve to cancel because you have a good reason.
And we all need to be realistic when it comes to getting rebooked. Just lower your expectations. Seriously. We all need to. When a flight cancels and 150 people are left needing to be rebooked from that origin to the same destination — remember that there are maybe only a handful of open seats available on any flight on any airline. That’s just the reality of flying.
Whenever I see a news article about an airline, there’s inevitably a “I demand compensation” quote from a passenger with, frankly, unreasonable expectations. Followed of course by an airline-bashing quote from Gabor. I’m tired of it, but they’ll keep coming because airline bashing has become Canada’s favourite sport, and because those stories in the news get clicks and eyeballs, and because Gabor keeps Gaboring. I’m just tired of it.
Should WS do what the APPR rules require them to do? Of course. Absolutely. If they’re really not, they need to.
Are the APPR rules good? No. Are they fair and do they make sense for passengers and airlines? No. They need to be overhauled.
But is it time for travellers to grow up and take some accountability for themselves … I really think so.