It’s been two days since WestJet’s mechanics ended their strike, however passengers are nonetheless grappling with cancelled flights and frustration.
“We were starting to wonder, ‘Are these re-bookings even real?'” Laura Stewart informed CBC News Tuesday after WestJet rebooked and re-cancelled a number of of her flights over the lengthy weekend.
“We were in the dark, really.”
WestJet needed to park 72 per cent of its fleet after mechanics introduced a shock strike Saturday, which resulted in a slew of cancelled flights affecting no less than 100,000 passengers. The strike ended Sunday, however the Calgary-based airline warned Monday that disruptions will continue for several days.
WestJet mentioned it had cancelled 1,137 flights throughout Canada as a results of the strike as of Tuesday, together with 295 on Monday and 75 on Tuesday. It anticipated eight flights to be cancelled Wednesday.
“WestJet has taken significant strides to resume normal operations,” the firm wrote in a news release. “As of today, 125 of WestJet’s 180 fleet are now active across the airline’s network.
“Unfortunately, as July lengthy weekend is a peak journey interval throughout Canada, restricted availability exists each inside our community and thru different carriers, making choices for re-accommodation extraordinarily difficult.”
Meal vouchers not enough, says frustrated traveller
Stewart, 55, had been travelling with her husband from Australia to Hawaii and was getting ready to leave the Honolulu airport Friday when, she said, she started hearing media reports of the WestJet strike.
When the couple went to switch planes in Vancouver Saturday morning, their flight back home to Regina was cancelled.
WestJet rebooked them on another flight, which was also later cancelled, Stewart said, so they paid out of pocket for a hotel in Vancouver.
After another cancellation the next morning, they eventually flew to Edmonton with the promise of a connecting flight to Regina. But then that flight was cancelled, too, which meant paying for another hotel stay, this time in Edmonton.
Finally, after another delay, they made it back to Regina on Monday. Stewart says all they had to show for the days of travel pains are two $15 meal vouchers.
“We had been very lucky that we’re ready the place we might deal with the further prices and we might deal with the delay.”
Which flights are cancelled Tuesday?
Meanwhile, other WestJet customers are still stranded, including Gary Tater, 56, and his girlfriend, who have been stuck in Las Vegas since their flight back to Edmonton was cancelled Sunday.
“We are very involved about attempting to get out of Vegas with the 4th of July vacation developing. Hotel costs are going to undergo the roof,” Tater told CBC News in an email.
Using WestJet’s flight status tool, as of Tuesday morning, CBC News counted at least 63 cancelled flights meant to depart out of Canadian airports that day. At 18, Calgary had the most cancellations, followed by 10 cancelled flights out of Toronto and six out of Vancouver.
Also in B.C., there were:
- Three cancelled flights out of Victoria.
- Four out of Abbotsford.
- One out of Comox.
- One out of Nanaimo.
- One in Prince George.
- Two out of Kelowna.
On the Prairies, on top of the 18 cancellations out of Calgary, there were:
- Five cancelled flights out of Edmonton.
- One cancelled flight out of Fort McMurray, Alta.
- One cancelled flight out of Grand Prairie, Alta.
- Three flights out of Regina were cancelled.
- One out of Saskatoon was cancelled.
- Three cancelled flights out of Winnipeg.
In Ontario and further East, there were also cancellations in:
- One in Hamilton, Ont. (its only flight Tuesday).
- One in London, Ont.
- Two in Thunder Bay, Ont.
- One in Quebec City (its only flight Tuesday).
- Two cancelled flights out of Halifax.
- One cancelled flight out of Moncton, N.B.
A strike by WestJet mechanics has ended and staff are back to work, but travellers are still scrambling to find alternative arrangements as the airline works to get its operations back to normal.
If your flight is delayed or cancelled, you will be notified by email if the company has your email address on file, according to WestJet’s guest updates page.
You can also check your flight status on the company website, by flight number or by airport.
What are your options?
WestJet says if your flight is delayed or cancelled, it will make “each effort to get you to your remaining vacation spot, together with shifting visitors to different airways the place accessible.”
In a press release posted to its web site on Friday, WestJet says there are “restricted re-accommodation choices accessible,” suggesting it would be difficult for some people to make alternate plans to get where they’re going.
In its Tuesday update, WestJet wrote that, in compliance with the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, “in the occasion reaccommodation with WestJet or an alternate airline is not accessible inside 48 hours of a visitor’s scheduled departure, visitors are entitled to request a refund to their authentic type of fee.”
On X Tuesday morning, the company wrote that “if on-line administration isn’t attainable on your reserving, our Contact Centre is obtainable 24/7 at 1-888-937-8538.”
But Tater, in Vegas, says trying to reach WestJet has proved nearly impossible.
“We have spent greater than 16 hours on maintain with them since Sunday evening and every time these calls have been lower off earlier than we had been in a position to converse to somebody,” he wrote.
“We’re extraordinarily pissed off.”
Even after a strike by WestJet mechanics was referred to as off on Sunday evening, CBC News spoke to quite a lot of pissed off travellers at YVR International Airport on Monday afternoon.