Adam Smith

Anyone ever had the WestJet site/app just refuse to pull up a PNR?

I have a DL ticket with WS-operated segments. I had DL give me the WS PNR, but got errors on both the app and website. Details of the error below, but I'm curious whether this might create any issues for check-in or anything else. I assumed the DL rep just gave me the wrong PNR, but called WS and the rep I spoke to confirmed it was correct, and swore up and down it was properly ticketed, everything looked fine, etc. He tried to blame it on it being a DL booking, then on the fact that it had an AF segment on it, then on maybe needing to wait a bit for the systems to sync up, despite the fact none of these of these things have prevented me from pulling up another booking with the same WS and KL flights.

Here's the app error:



The desktop gave me a different error, which I suspect is probably the correct one:

Sopwith

I don't have any such experience specifically with the WS app, but I have noticed occasionally in the past that when I book a trip with one airline involving flights operated by another airline each airline has their own PNR which are different. Could that be it?

D582

My partially-educated guess is WS website cannot properly deal with 'complex' multi-carrier PNRs that they don't have direct agreements with, and so it just fails. Or something else in the record is not being handled correctly (again, bad website).

OLCI might still work as that's generally a different 'system', but YMMV

Adam Smith

No, that's not it. I got the WS PNR from DL, and that's the PNR I tried to access via the website/app. I phoned WS and confirmed that the PNR DL gave me was correct.

I was wondering about that, but the bizarre thing is that this is very similar to another ticket I have, which pulls up fine with WS.

The problem PNR is YYC-YVR-CDG-BCN; FCO-JFK-YYC, operated by WS-AF-AF; DL-WS. The second PNR is YYC-YVR-CDG-FLR; BLQ-AMS-YYC, operated by WS-AF-AF; KL-KL. Both are ticketed by DL and have a DL PNR, a WS PNR, and an AF/KL Amadeus PNR. The WS segments are DL codeshares on both. WS has agreements with all of these carriers (I would say DL and AF/KL are their closest partners). The AF segments are native flight numbers on both. One ticket has DL metal and the other has KL metal, and one has two WS flights instead of one, so it's possible one of these subtle differences is causing the problem, but it's unclear why any of those would be an issue. It's not like one of them is to some weird airport that WS doesn't recognize or has some exotic airline.

D582

Looks to me the error is "No timezone provided in airport data for airport code "BCN", cannot parse flight leg dates."

Adam Smith

@D582 and I were on a Zoom last night and he figured it out.

Pretty shameful error considering this is a destination WS served up until a few weeks ago.

cedric

Shameful, but not surprising. Dad was trying to submit an APPR claim for a cancelled flight to BCN, and they've removed BCN from the from so he's unable to proceed.

Adam Smith

Also can't OLCI this itinerary for the same reason. So, way to go WestJet

I am surprised. If this had happened to the FLR itinerary because WS has never heard of FLR, I would still think it was amateurish, but it would be more understandable. But WestJet actually flew to BCN until just a few weeks ago. I presume when they ended their service for the season, someone just deleted BCN from some database, with the parochial mindset that if WS wasn't flying there, there was no possible need to have it in their system.

Now I kind of want to book refundable DL tickets to all sorts of places around the world and see what other places WS manages to ignore the existence of.

Adam Smith

It never ends with this booking... Turns out the reason OLCI wouldn't work is DL supposedly transmitted my KTN as my passport number, and Sabre didn't like that. WS reservations support desk was able to pull that off the file, then OLCI worked. But only on the website - not on the app.

The booking still won't pull up on either the website or app, so that does appear to be driven by the BCN time zone error.

BPs not available through OLCI - maybe doc check, maybe the time zone thing, who knows.

arf04

I am having a similar-type issue, which we have seen before on KL bookings with WS segments: I get a "Missing or invalid fields" error message and then a note that my name does not match "KLM Royal Dutch Airlines" + the Flying Blue FF number (and same for my wife). The last time we had this issue it was sorted at the airport here in YQR, but we had issues on the return out of NUE with not being able to get the WS BP, which had to be done manually at YYZ. I assume this is because each system does not talk well with the other (though AC and AF/KL have no issues and the WS flights are actually code shares, so you'd think...).

Was your issue relatively easily resolved for you by calling in, Adam? I am ok with waiting until the airport at YQR to get it done, but it is inconvenient as we will have to give it extra time. We already have 4h 50 min at YYC for our connection so less time in airports is good!

Thanks

Adam Smith

I don't know that I'd say my issue was easily resolved. The agent I spoke to on the phone couldn't figure it out and had to call the support desk. They did figure it out. Maybe 15 minutes between them? So not the worst, but it shouldn't have needed any time at all.

I also had issues with a KL ticket earlier this year.

And I'm currently having problems with the booking that's the subject of this thread again, because the idiot WS agent I talked to the first time (to find out whether the booking was okay) put my WS Rewards number on the file, even though I never asked him to do that. When he told me he had done it, I immediately told him to pull it off, and he said he did, but clearly he didn't, because when I went to OLCI, my WS number was the one populated, and that's what DL still sees on the file. DL can't pull the number off the file, they say WS has control of that (the agent I spoke to was pretty experienced, very good, and said she had never seen this before). WS eventually was able to pull the number off the file. The WS number still showed on the DL website, but when I called DL back, they were able to add my SkyMiles number very quickly. So hopefully it's all sorted now. But it took an hour.

The moral of the story, as far as I'm concerned, is don't book any partner tickets involving WS metal. WS screws something up every single time. The number of hours I've spent this year dealing with this nonsense is incredible. AC-AF/KL should be relatively smooth since they're all on Amadeus, and the occasional hiccup on partner tickets is maybe understandable, but I've never had this kind of friction before, even on airlines that aren't close partners and are on different systems, e.g. AA-UA/AC, AC-BA (when AC was still on RES III and BA was on Amadeus), etc. DL and AF/KL are the airlines with which WS collaborates the closest, and yet every single ticket involving those partners has had problems like this. That clearly says to me that WS has screwed up the implementation somewhere. It's not credible that DL and AF/KL properly transmit information like passport numbers and FFNs to dozens of other airlines around the world, including some running Sabre, yet can't properly send things over to WS.

V1213

FWIW, I've travelled on Qantas-issued tickets with WS-operated (although QF codeshare flight numbers) legs several times and never had any issues like this. Sure, WestJet's systems are usually in denial about the existence of any legs within Australia, but that's never caused any issues beyond maybe not getting the last boarding passes when checking in with WS.

arf04

When we checked in at YQR last week I asked the agent if she could see anything on the file and she said everything looked normal and had no explanation for why we couldn’t do it online. I fully expect on our return in a few days that when we check in via KL that we will not be able to generate a WS BP as with our previous experience. I am not sure how this is handled at YYC, but I hope to not have to exit the secure zone to get it sorted.

Unfortunately for us in YQR, avoiding WS is going to be a problem in the new year with the loss of the YQR-YYC flights on AC and routing through YYZ is not especially appealing given the early timings on the Toronto flights and ensuing long layover. The one plus with the KL/AF bookings we’ve had with WS connectors is that whenever a schedule change occurs (even by a few minutes) KL/AF are happy to rebook onto AC flights instead of WS.

Adam Smith

To be clear, I'm referring to my own experiences this year when I say every time. I did take a WS segment on a CX ticket a number of years ago that was relatively uneventful. But my sample size this year is large enough, and all with DL and AF/KL, combined with a few things others have posted like @arf04, to cause me to believe there are fundamental problems between WS and those airlines, and make me reluctant to buy tickets from them involving WS.

arf04

To add a data point: we had no issues generating WS BPs on recent LHR-YYC-YQR flights. At worst, or at best if one is so inclined, it’s unpredictable whether or not there will be issues with KL/WS combinations. On the outbound, as reported above, we were not able to get any BPs until we got to the airport, which was ok coming out of YQR but would have been more stressful out of LHR.