Westjet Lost My Luggage

[pylon]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I actually know someone who had scalding tea water spilled on her by a WJ flight attendant. She still has scars all over her stomach from it.

When she called the airline to complain and hopefully get some type of apology or compansation, they told her that they couldn't talk to her or do anything for her. She wasn't going to take it to court, but she ended up doing it just because of their crappy attitude about it.

Wasn't that in the news? East Indian lady right?

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by pylon

Wasn't that in the news? East Indian lady right?

No, this girl is white. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened more than once though.

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I actually know someone who had scalding tea water spilled on her by a WJ flight attendant. She still has scars all over her stomach from it.

When she called the airline to complain and hopefully get some type of apology or compansation, they told her that they couldn't talk to her or do anything for her. She wasn't going to take it to court, but she ended up doing it just because of their crappy attitude about it.

[Bill Bumface]

About 3/4 of the flights I take are delayed, yet luckily all airlines tack a good 15% onto the duration of every flight so that half of those will still "arrive on time".

I've flown out to the Pacific Ocean and had to turn back to Calgary because of equipment issues and no maintenance crew for that equipment in Vancouver, then the crew expired, 7 hours later we left again.

I've had an airliner start on fire on the runway (before boarding) and waited 8 hours for a new one to come in from a different city.

I've sat on an airliner for 3.5 hours on the tarmac from 12:30am - 4am before finally taking off (I think they passed a regulation shortly after not allowing that to happen).

I've flown on a jet with no water.

I've had a flight cancelled and missed the first period of an Olympic hockey game because of it.

I've had the person I'm traveling with have a tray of champagne and orange juice dumped on their lap at the beginning of a flight, that was a cold one from then on....

Don't fly with me, they all seem to suck when I'm on board.

[Violator]

Ive shown up an hour and a half late only to find out my flight was cancelled but still been given a free flight at a later time plus the flight home was free

Ive gotten apple juice dumped on me flying into Calgary during wicked turbulence.

[Jimmy Stang]

A few years ago I was in Vancouver for an event. The after party got a little out of hand, and despite setting multiple alarms, I slept through them and woke up at the exact moment that my flight was scheduled to depart. To their credit, Westjet simply said "get to the airport as soon as you can, it'll cost you a $40 fee, but we'll put you on standby until there's a flight with room on it."

So the one time in my life that I totally deserved and expected my indiscretion to cost me hundreds of dollars, it only set me back $40. Plus the humiliation of being "that guy" who reeked of booze, smoke, and who knows what else. Good times.

Westjet came through for me that day, but I'm sure there were a few passengers sitting nearby that cite their experience as a reason NOT to fly with Westjet.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

A few years ago I was in Vancouver for an event. The after party got a little out of hand, and despite setting multiple alarms, I slept through them and woke up at the exact moment that my flight was scheduled to depart. To their credit, Westjet simply said "get to the airport as soon as you can, it'll cost you a $40 fee, but we'll put you on standby until there's a flight with room on it."

So the one time in my life that I totally deserved and expected my indiscretion to cost me hundreds of dollars, it only set me back $40. Plus the humiliation of being "that guy" who reeked of booze, smoke, and who knows what else. Good times.

Westjet came through for me that day, but I'm sure there were a few passengers sitting nearby that cite their experience as a reason NOT to fly with Westjet.

I completely underestimated traffic going from downtown Chicago on the Dan Ryan and the security cluster that is O'hare.

The security line was all the way out to the entrance doors, and everyone in line around us seemed to be missing their early morning flights. Go check at the United counter, and it seemed like a very regular thing for them, no big deal. Free to go standby on a later flight, $20 to reserve a seat. Since we were connecting in Minneapolis on a separately booked flight, the reserved seat saved us a whole other can of worms if we blew that flight (probably would have had to overnight in Minneapolis).

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

A few years ago I was in Vancouver for an event. The after party got a little out of hand, and despite setting multiple alarms, I slept through them and woke up at the exact moment that my flight was scheduled to depart. To their credit, Westjet simply said "get to the airport as soon as you can, it'll cost you a $40 fee, but we'll put you on standby until there's a flight with room on it."

So the one time in my life that I totally deserved and expected my indiscretion to cost me hundreds of dollars, it only set me back $40. Plus the humiliation of being "that guy" who reeked of booze, smoke, and who knows what else. Good times.

Westjet came through for me that day, but I'm sure there were a few passengers sitting nearby that cite their experience as a reason NOT to fly with Westjet.

I did that on an overnight layover in Tokyo. It was a Saturday morning, so the American Airlines office was closed leaving me to contact JAL, who was the local codeshare partner (although it was an AA flight). The first person I got on the phone spoke decent English and told me I'd need to buy another ticket, which was about $2000. So I hung up and called again. The next person spoke less English, but for some reason decide to not only let me get on the next flight out, they gave me a confirmed seat and everything. I spent every moment prior to actual take-off expecting someone to catch on and ask me to pay up.

An absolute nightmare, but that Friday night was totally worth it.

[ernie]

I go Westjet if I'm traveling in Canada. I avoid Air Canada as much as I can which given I'm in the states is pretty easy. Why?

First major inconvenience:
-coming back from Europe we land in Toronto and have a tight 2.5 hr connection. Tight because you need to claim baggage, go through customs, put the baggage back through screening etc.

-the ground crew took 1.5 h to get the baggage off the plane, so there is no hope of actually catching the next flight

-It's late at night with 2 kids and Air Canada first refuses to confirm us for another flight at all the next day and then refuses to help us out with a room. In fact the flight they can confirm us on is 3 days out. The reason being it was our fault because we had plenty of time to make the connection as the plan landed on time so they would only do standby for the already overbooked flights.

-imagine if you will, 150 people on the same plane who have missed a connection explaining over and over that because the baggage was so late coming off the plane they had no chance to make the connection and the Air Canada people staring blankly each and every time. A family of 4 hasn't a hope of getting standby tickets when there are so many single seat looking for the same

-the solution? I called up a friend who works for WestJet and they got us on a flight first thing in the morning for minimal cost

Major issue #2:
-different trip to Europe (only one kid at this time)

-on the return flight which was being operated by Lufthansa we get to the Koln airport and find out that Air Canada has CANCELLED the ticket for my wife for the Munich-Toronto stretch

-in addition they have ILLEGALLY moved the lap child from my wifes ticket to my ticket.

-the solution? The Lufthansa flight attendant (and gate attendant) in Munich happened to recognize that we were coming off of one flight and only one of us was boarding the second flight. She also noticed the infant switcheroo. She saved a seat and prevented it from being taken by someone on standby. She makes several comments on how horrible Air Canada is to deal with and they pull this kind of crap all the time.

Major issue #3:
-Boston flight to Montreal

-I check in several hours early as my work in Boston was done early

-they somehow lose my luggage.

-solution? There is none. That was 7 years ago and I still haven't seen it.

Major issue #4...this would be comical if it didn't cause me to miss my presentation i was giving

-going to a conference in Toronto and the last stretch is a Chicago-TO flight (I know avoid O'Hare at all costs but I couldn't)

-weather was moving in

-The gate literally changes 5 times and they have a representative walking us back and forth between the gates as they change

-at the last and final gate the entire plane load of people shows up at this gate led by our gate agent (who I will admit was great) to find out the gate agents at this new and final gate have closed the gate and the EMPTY plane was backing away from the gate.

-solution? There was none. I didn't get out until the afternoon next day and missed my conference presentation.




It was the last time I flew Air Canada. Now i've had troubles with other airlines with cancellations, luggage taking an extra day to get to me etc. but the top 4 annoyances I listed above all happened with Air Canada so they get to be on the receiving end of my hate in threads like this.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by ernie

-the ground crew took 1.5 h to get the baggage off the plane, so there is no hope of actually catching the next flight

A lot of your complaints are about baggage, but I thought the ground crew worked for the airport authority and not the airline.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

A lot of your complaints are about baggage, but I thought the ground crew worked for the airport authority and not the airline.

I think it varies by airport and airline, but I'm pretty sure the baggage crews working AC flights in Calgary, Toronto etc. are AC employees.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

A lot of your complaints are about baggage, but I thought the ground crew worked for the airport authority and not the airline.

WestJet has their own ramp crew only in YYC and YMM. Everywhere else is contracted with a separate company, not usually the airport authority.

[Ryan Coke]

Correct. Baggage handlers don't work for the airport authority.

Air Canada has their own at most Canadian bases, and as Art says WJ has there own in Calgary and ft Mac.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

A lot of your complaints are about baggage, but I thought the ground crew worked for the airport authority and not the airline.

First...the airline takes possession of my bags. It doesn't really matter who at their end is at fault it still boils down to being their fault from the point of view of the customer.

Second...my complaint of the missed connection had far more to do with the idiocy and they displayed as person after person after person etc tell them the same things and the only thing they can come up with amounts to "you landed on time it's your fault"

Third...2 of the 4 complaints were about baggage with one of those not really being about baggage as I just mentioned. One complaint was straight up illegal from anything I've ever been told. You quite simply can not move a lap child from one ticket to another without consent of both parents, they didn't get the consent of either of us. I also never went into that whole story...we (Lufthansa and us) spent over an hour on the phone with Air Canada where even at the end of the various conversations they were straight up denying they did anything even though Lufthansa was able to tell them when it was done and essentially who did it. It was evident (and expressed) that Lufthansa people hate dealing with Air Canada. All in all I find an appalling lack of customer service in Air Canada compared to other airlines

[moon]

Originally Posted by ernie

It was evident (and expressed) that Lufthansa people hate dealing with Air Canada. All in all I find an appalling lack of customer service in Air Canada compared to other airlines

It was evident that some Lufthansa people hate dealing with Air Canada.

Having spent 3 years flying on connecting flights with both airlines twice a month I haven't heard any issues from Lufthansa people or had a single issue with Air Canada.

Seems like a bit of a generalization to say that Lufthansa people in general have a problem with Air Canada based on one event.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by moon

It was evident that some Lufthansa people hate dealing with Air Canada.

Having spent 3 years flying on connecting flights with both airlines twice a month I haven't heard any issues from Lufthansa people or had a single issue with Air Canada.

Seems like a bit of a generalization to say that Lufthansa people in general have a problem with Air Canada based on one event.

Agreed, Lufthansa and Air Canada were two of the founding members of the Star Alliance, they have had a lot of years to work together and figure out best practices and solutions when trouble arises.

Stuff still can go sideways, but I have to bet the Lufthansa agent just dumping on Air Canada was taking the easy way in dealing with a difficult situation.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by moon

It was evident that some Lufthansa people hate dealing with Air Canada.

Having spent 3 years flying on connecting flights with both airlines twice a month I haven't heard any issues from Lufthansa people or had a single issue with Air Canada.

Seems like a bit of a generalization to say that Lufthansa people in general have a problem with Air Canada based on one event.

I apologize if you took away an over generalization where none was meant. I to have flown both airlines numerous times and it wasn't the first time nor the last the annoyance with Air Canada moving around reservations, eliminating tickets and swapping lap infants to other tickets in the party has been mentioned. Those other occurrences is the exact reason the flight attendant noticed it in the first place.

Hey, if all you've had is good experiences on Air Canada feel free to fly them. I won't unless I have to. They are the only airline I will go out of my way to avoid. I fully acknowledge it might have simply been the (bad) luck of the draw but it's my experience.

[Violator]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

WestJet has their own ramp crew only in YYC and YMM. Everywhere else is contracted with a separate company, not usually the airport authority.

The westjet baggage handler contractor is swissport the were doing a vancouver and edmonton.I worked for them as a baggage handler

[moon]

Originally Posted by ernie

Hey, if all you've had is good experiences on Air Canada feel free to fly them. I won't unless I have to. They are the only airline I will go out of my way to avoid. I fully acknowledge it might have simply been the (bad) luck of the draw but it's my experience.

I agree that with your experiences you should fly with which ever airline you want and I would use your own experiences over what other people have had but I just thought it was odd in the numerous flights I have taken and in talking to Lufthansa workers that I never heard anything close to complaints about Air Canada and didn't see any issues.

[STeeLy]

Here's something unrelated.

I'm flying WJ tomorrow (they had better deals than AC at the time I was buying). I did the web check-in for my flight.

What happened to seat selection? There was nowhere in the web check in process where it asked me to pick a seat.