Sunny Day

This is what happens when airlines unbundled every little thing and made buying a ticket so complex. WestJet is still trading on past goodwill, foggy memories, and long expired impression of low fares - all built up from the past but now they want every penny out of all of us. The warm and fuzzy is just a mirage. I get the concept of a more restrictive ticket for a lower price. But I would argue the price of these BE fares are NOT LOW ENOUGH to justify the restrictions. IMO the BE fares should be at least half of the next higher more flexible fare. Put it another way, those BE fares should be so cheap that you can just "throw it away" without shedding a tear if you couldn't use it. Ex., if the Flex fare is $500, the BE fare should be $200. Now you are really differentiating your products.

Altaflyer

Fiordland

I have found that AC staff in general get it and have sufficient discretion to do the right thing. From time to time they mess up and the CBC is there to punish them.

WestJet has managed to develop a strong positive reputation. Perhaps as you say WestJet has changed and that reputation is not deserved any more. If that is the case, then they deserved to be punished by the press until they learn the errors of their ways. The CBC is good at doing the public shamming. CTV looks like it can also do a good job at that from time to time.

robsaw

The "wants" aren't relevant, the contract is. The responsible course of action is insurance.

tcook052

IME travelling against a physician's recommendation nullifies any trip cancellation coverage.

Fiordland

Companies re-negotiate contracts all the time.

Last month I had the "opportunity" to be a passenger on a 737, where one of the other passengers became very sick, ended up going to the washroom at the back and passing away. The in flight crew found a doctor on the flight and with the passenger on the floor they tried to do what they could. At the end the body into one of the last rows, with a blanket and we continued on to St Louis. The flight crew and captain tried to keep it all low key, no announcements, until we arrived at the gate and even then all they said is they wanted us off the aircraft as quickly as possible to let the first respondents on. Not pleasant at all. I am glad we were not quarantined or otherwise detained as the first respondents try to figure out what caused the problem.

Why would any airline permit someone to fly when they know their doctor says there are not fit to fly?

I guess WestJet is the exception. The airline where the contract is more important that common sense.

Fiordland

It has happened before, to someone in Delta and the second one in Halifax....

The Halifax case....

https://globalnews.ca/news/5667164/w...refund-cancer/

It appears to have also happened to a woman in Delta BC about 3 weeks ago.

https://www.narcity.com/news/ca/bc/w...-before-flight

This looks to be a systematic problem. The press need to start connecting the dots on this issue.

Error 601

There is something inherently insane about holding the line on this even when the travelling passenger is dead.

Isn't that called "frustration of contract by death"?

ricktoronto

What balderdash. What is systemic (not systematic) about it? Alive and kicking they get a cheap fare with literally NO refunds or changes, nothing, fees up the hoop. Now they deserve new terms on the fare - instead - don't buy these fares. Not at the pittance you save. If at the end of the day you save anything.

NB systematic actually supports their actions because it means it is a orderly or planned process, e.g. basic fares have no flexibility which is planned and thus, true. Systemic means it's happening to the entire system which is true since people die or get sick which always occurs. Not sure the press need to cover the fact people get sick or die.

What dots to connect? You buy a pumpkin pie and at home you are angry with the grocery store it is not apple. You rent a car and return it with no gas they charge you 5X the going rate. Read the rules. Obey the rules or buy something superior which let's face it, is anything else.

ricktoronto

But that costs money and adds to the fare. People want bus fares for airline flights and then are spinning when the rules fall towards the airline.

Fiordland

Perhaps, I am wrong, but I do not think for one minute WestJet has any intention of living up to the contractual commitment it made to these passengers. If between buying the ticket and the day of travel a passenger becomes sick to the point where a doctor determine they are not fit to travel, will WestJet knowingly accept them on the flight as a passenger or will they turn them away?

If they fly the passenger knowing they are medically not stable, the airline is being irresponsible.

If they turn them away then its denied boarding and the airline provides a refund.

Given the two logical outcomes, WestJet is playing games instead of being pragmatic and working with these passengers to find a suitable resolution.

LO 044

It would be interesting to know if everyone in economy bought a basic fare, would WS lose money, break even or make money on the flight. Based on passenger statistics, WS has obviously factored in (hoping for) that a certain amount of people will buy these tickets and then get burned for lack of a better word by having to cancel their flight and lose the entire fare. I'm not trying to single out WS, the majority of the airlines now have this basic fare.

Sorry to go off on a tangent but after my dealings with Air Transat a couple of years ago i have found air travel to be an interesting business that basically amounts to false advertising. I booked a YEG-CUN trip for my family a 5 and then a couple of weeks before the flight they added a stop in YYC. I argued for compensation and they wouldn't give me anything. Now some people will say read the T&C and all that stuff but even that is BS. You go on a airline's website and see a flight with a departure and arrival time, the amount of stops, the aircraft and a price. Besides the price you pay at the time, there is nothing else guaranteed. They can cancel the flight and refund your money, they can add any amount of stops, they can change the arrival and departure times, they can swap aircraft. Yes some will refund your money but how many people can actually change their travel plans at that point? I told TS that if you refund my money now, i will pay more for any other airline to fly me there and the times and connections are worse so i kept the flight.

Long story long, the basic fares are just as stupid and these stories will continue and WS is going downhill fast in terms of what you read in the paper but it will not hurt the bottom line so these practices will continue. Just ask most other airlines such as Ryanair, Air Canada, etc. that have gotten bad press yet their ledger sheets look good.

Error 601

How many people in that situation would even bother to cancel?

This is exactly why we aren't booking Hawaii for January until the MAX fiasco is resolved.

s0ssos

So you drink the kool-aid that says they offer a rock-bottom fare? You save a few dollars, it isn't rock-bottom fare. As far as I know (cause I don't fly intra-Canada much) WS comes nowhere close to matching the fares of actual LCCs (or ULCCs).

Fiordland

The rock bottom fares is WS marketing smoke and mirrors. On any day you just need to look at YVR-YYZ. Basically flights every hour or so through the day. You can see flights where "Basic" is $100 more expensive than "Economy" on a neighboring flight leaving within an hour of each other.

That basically says this is a yield management algorithm that is running in the background and on any give flight you should not be surprised to find passengers who purchased "Basic" that have paid more than passengers who purchased "Economy".