https://globalnews.ca/news/10992713/calgary-westjet-passengers-stranded-in-cancun/

It appears there were some poorly handled IRROPS (again) starting on January 30 with a cancellation out of Cancun.

Some reports have mentioned how a few people (the ones with the best grievances make for the best news, I guess) had no idea what to do, panicked about getting on buses between the airport and hotels, people becoming ill due to waiting in the airport (huh?), and people not knowing how to feed themselves — which makes me roll my eyes at the fragility of some package holiday travellers.

(That, likely combined with a high percentage of those packaged holiday people on the flight, likely combined with a lot of people who bought through third party channels, probably complicates IRROPS recovery and communication.)

But in fairness, it sounds like WestJet truly fumbled the communication on this one.

As in, totally dropped the ball.

Proactive, fast communication about IRROPS would go a long way — even if they don’t yet know the resolution. Communicate fast, frequently and openly.

And even though CUN is an outsourced station (ie staffed by people wearing WestJet uniforms but who don’t work for WestJet), it’s a really big station for WS. Bigger than many airports in Canada. You’d hope they’d have good resources and expertise there to communicate and help recover.