Heather Craine flew out of Kelowna en route to Vancouver on Sunday with every intention of making it home that same night, with plenty of time to introduce her family to the new puppy she’d gone to pick up.
That introduction happened a lot later than expected.
Between snowstorms delaying flights and airlines not coming through as planned, Craine, her puppy and nearly a full flight of travellers trying to make it to Kelowna, had a very long layover in Vancouver.
Craine flew into Vancouver Sunday afternoon to pick her new pet up from a breeder and made it back to the airport in plenty of time to catch her WestJet flight home to Kelowna.
When she got back to the airport, however, the flight was delayed, not just once but three times before it was ultimately cancelled.
WestJet told passengers on that flight they wouldn’t have a replacement option available until Tuesday and communication kind of dried up from there, she said.
“(WestJet) did give me some vouchers after my first cancelled morning flight to allow me to have some food at the airport on my Sunday, which was great. It was about $30 bucks worth of vouchers,” she said.
But after that, there was no information, no hotel vouchers, “nothing.”
“I have not received any other information from them at all. I tried to stand in line at the counter. I was in the line for about two hours and ultimately gave up and rebooked with Air Canada because with a puppy there’s only so much you can do,” Craine said.
So she and her new pup found a hotel for the night, but their travel misadventure continued.
- Delivery issue: Why Canada Post ‘must change’ to avoid collapse
- Most Canadians could get a test alert today. Which regions won’t?
- London, Ont. train fire: How sparks from locomotive exhaust may have played a role
- N.S. couple felt they won ‘doctor lottery’ after years on wait-list. Now they’re back on it
“(Monday) we got to (Vancouver International Airport) for an 8:40 a.m. flight (with Air Canada), got on an airplane, flew to Kelowna, did three giant loops around the airport and then flew back to Vancouver,” she said.
“Once we were back (in Vancouver), they told us we were going to hang out for a couple of hours and they were going to try again.”
That flight got delayed until 5 p.m. and then cancelled again.
The next flight was Tuesday at 11 a.m., and it was filled with passengers who had similar stories, Crane said. Finally, it took off and landed, safe and sound.
Many, however, who had been through the ordeal that lasted several days, have yet to get their baggage back.
Travel problems have become commonplace in recent months, but Craine said she was surprised by the lack of communication or support as she navigated the stressful situation.
She didn’t have any of her new dog’s proper food, nor any toiletries for herself or even a change of clothes. None of that was on offer, either.
“I ended up buying some new stuff from the Lululemon store in the airport so that I was fresh enough to be seen in public,” she said. “And then as far as the cancellation goes (Monday), there was, again, no compensation as far as everybody basically did not get compensated because it was weather related.”
It’s been a big hit to her pocketbook.
“I will go through their claims process because the only alternate flight available to me was almost two days after my current flight, which is crazy,” she said.
“It’s really impacted my family and obviously now, what was supposed to be a Sunday flight is a Tuesday afternoon flight, which means I’ve missed two days of work. So I get to play catch-up there as well.”
The silver lining is the new dog.
“I’ve seen a lot of very stressed-out people. So because I’ve got the puppy I’ve been trying to help other people, help calm their nerves a little and bring some smiles to some,” she said.
Aaron Hicks is another traveller who has been trying to make it to Kelowna for days, with little luck.
He was planning to fly into Kelowna Saturday but his WestJet flight got cancelled. On Sunday his make-up flight was delayed and then he was on board the Monday flight that circled the airport.
By the time he arrived in Kelowna Tuesday, he’d heard very little about whether there would be any compensation for the days he spent in limbo.
Weather issues happen, the weary travellers said, but the lack of communication made matters worse.
“Since COVID happened, travel has been a challenge and you know, the people working in these airports, a lot of it is out of their control as well,” Craine said.
“So I think there’s been a fair amount of respect but the lack of communication is definitely hard for everyone.”
Craine said that it would simply be better if that was taken into consideration.
“I was helping a lady who didn’t speak the language and you could see the confusion and the stress … you could feel it,” she said. “It would be great if airports could at least offer some more assistance in the gates just with people milling about answering questions for us.”
A WestJet representative explained that over the weekend and across Monday, the airline saw more than 220 cancellations related to a service outage caused by a cooling issue in its primary data centre that came back online late Saturday evening.
“We sincerely apologize to all guests for this unforeseen disruption to their travel plans. We deeply regret this weekend’s extraordinary events that prevented us from delivering the experience they deserve,” WestJet said in the emailed statement.
As the airline moves closer to fully recovering operations, it has added 25 extra segment flights to assist with guest movement, in addition to re-accommodation options through normal scheduled operations.
In an effort to assist with imminent travel plans, they are asking all other guests refrain from contacting them until 72 hours in advance of their flight to ensure they are able to prioritize calls.
“Re-accommodation options for impacted guests continue to be communicated through email. Given the significant impacts this unexpected situation has had on our guests we have proactively provided hotels, transportation and meal vouchers, while also seeking alternate travel arrangements to get them to their destinations as soon as reasonably possible,” WestJet said.
Air Canada told Global News that adverse winter conditions and snow in the Okanagan over the past couple of days has affected Air Canada and Air Canada Express operations.
“Safety is the overriding priority, and Air Canada and Air Canada Express flights operate when it is safe to do so,” Air Canada said.
_ONLINE_848x480_1441946179786.jpg?w=1200&quality=70&strip=all)
Comments