sofasurfer

I've just received an email informing me of a schedule change to an upcoming flight (WS4, LGW-YYZ, end of July - I'd received a nearly-identical email for our end-of-August trip two months ago).

A I'd love Darren aka WestJet (or perhaps Aerobod) to shed some light on, if they're able:

1. the emails aren't formatted in a user-friendly way. You end up scrolling past *three* sets of ("UNCONFIRMED") flight details, before getting to the revised "CONFIMED"info - which appears to be what the changed itinerary now looks like.

2. Is there any specific reason why the August flight times were revised back in early April, and the late July ones have only just been revised to the same times now? Seems a little odd.

I appreciate you've all got several teething issues with these new birds, and I'm sure you're focusing on getting those resolved (and ensuring back-up metal is on hand from third parties)... But I like to think that I'm not too easily fazed or confused by the sorts of changes I've outlined above, and I'm left scratching my head a little here..

Also, there may be very little that can be done in the immediate term wrt the formatting of the stock emails that may automatically get sent out - but I'd suggest this could do with some attention soon. If nothing else, it'll help lighten the load on your doubtless-frazzled call centre staff...

(I guess this could have gone under the "new service" thread, but I suspect this email formatting issue may not just be limited to the LGW service - mods, if you disagree, I understand!)

aerobod

I agree that the emails can be confusing, email notifications in general are under review for simplification and general streamlining, at the moment they are issued by the reservation system's email engine, we are looking at moving them to a much more intelligent notification system that will apply context and better formatting to the email.

In terms of the sections, any prior schedule will be marked as "unconfirmed", you are correct assuming that the correct itinerary is in the section marked "confirmed".

There are schedule adjustments being made to minimise the compounding of operational delays and to also adjust the focus on the hub for routine maintenance being YYC as opposed to YYZ, so the aircraft rotation and order through each of the Canadian destinations has to be altered for this to happen. The August flight times were altered before service started based on operational aspects (anticipated congestion and seasonal winds, for example), whereas the July changes are based on the maintenance hub shift.

sofasurfer

Thanks for the comprehensive response!

Sounds like the reservation system that you currently have really isn't doing you any favours right now. Is there not even a way to prepend the emails with some text that concisely articulate what you've stated - and effectively "TL; DR - the 'confirmed' bit is right, we can't do much about the rest just now but we're working on it!" (work on the tone, of course, but you get the idea )

I suspect this is related, but when I try to log in to manage my booking (need to add passport details for one of our party), I can't even seem to do that now because of the schedule change...

...but I think in another thread, someone mentioned that the mobile app has better functionality than your website? Maybe I should give that a try.

aerobod

The complication is that for the core reservation system, it is a shared service with dozens of other airlines, any change to meet our specific needs is very expensive to have made and maintained, if we don't abide by the 'community" service model. At the moment the outbound email notifications are driven from the community software. The alternative is to front the reservation system with a different application, we have done this for the mobile app, so we just pull data via a web service from the reservation system, that is why the schedule updates look so much better in the app than in the emails. We do have alternate outbound email delivery channels, but we have to be careful we handle all email notifications correctly, as we also have travel agent bookings that have a different set of rules and requirements.

One of the primary reasons for having a shared reservation system is that all the non-direct channels (such as travel agents, whether bricks-and-mortar or online) are handled by the reservation system service provider, so many of the outbound notifications are never processed by WestJet. It is estimated our reservation system operating cost would more than double if we had to handle all the indirect channels ourselves (as most legacy airlines do).

uzi123

I've had six of these emails for my upcoming trip - I agree it is very confusing and not very user friendly.

sofasurfer

I've just received another "SCHEDULE CHANGE / CHANGEMENT D HORAIRE" email - which, from looking over it in detail, appears to contain no changes whatsoever from the one I received 2.5 weeks ago...

...but now, I can't help but wonder if I'm missing something

Re-read it again, and pretty certain that it's just a duplicate - but if Aerobod or Darren/Westjet can confirm if there's any rhyme or reason as to why duplicates may get emailed out, this would be very helpful!

I note that Aerobod mentioned in an earlier reply:

So might this just be due to some trigger from the reservation system end? If so, curious to understand why this may be the case.
In any case, I'd like to ensure I'm not missing something important...!

aerobod

There will have been a subtle change in the schedule or equipment for a re-issue. With the current notifications, a time change of a minute or more on departure or arrival, operational flight number adjustment or aircraft change will cause an automated notification email. As Omni is not doing any flying for us at the moment, it may be just a switch from what was planned to be an Omni 767, back on to a WestJet one.