WestJet changed their winter schedule

[MikeyNS]

More of a little FYI.. WestJet changed up their winter schedule the other day. I only got notified by Airmiles of the change (my tickets booked directly with WJ changed, but they never sent out a message saying they changed!). Now my direct flights back to YHZ in December are a connection in Toronto.
Check your bookings!

 

[Princess KP]

If there's a direct flight to YHZ available, I would call in and ask them to change it to that. Any significant change in itinerary, you are able to switch to another flight without additional fees. I've done it a few times.

 

[MikeyNS]

If there's a direct flight to YHZ available, I would call in and ask them to change it to that. Any significant change in itinerary, you are able to switch to another flight without additional fees. I've done it a few times.

Unfortunately not for that day. We were booked on a Friday direct back and the next one is now Sunday at ~8:40AM. No thanks! Too early. I loved the ~11:30 directs back. 8am is too early IMHO.

 

[hdrolfe]

WestJet did that last year as well... I am reluctant to use them now. They have changed times for flights I was watching as well, Friday to MCO from Ottawa was to get in there around Noon and now is a later flight. They didn't change the one home, yet. I haven't booked anything though, can't decide what to do.

 

[von Monster]

My favorite is that I learned of the change (booked direct and flight was canceled so we were bumped to an earlier flight) from flyertalk and came here to post as Westjet hasn't bothered to even email direct bookings as of yet. If we didn't have the RBC WE with companion pass I doubt I'd ever book with them again.

At least until I remember Air Canada isn't any better...

 

[Donald - my hero]

My favorite is that I learned of the change (booked direct and flight was canceled so we were bumped to an earlier flight) from flyertalk and came here to post as Westjet hasn't bothered to even email direct bookings as of yet. If we didn't have the RBC WE with companion pass I doubt I'd ever book with them again.

At least until I remember Air Canada isn't any better...

This isn't a problem that's specific to Westjet --- when we went down in Jan 2017 we flew Westjet and that was messed up royally BUT our kids all flew with Air Canada and their flight was moved around repeatedly -- right up until about 48 hours before the flight from a bright & early flight one day .. to a reddish eye the next, to middle of the day a couple of weeks later ... eventually ended up being about 2 hours after they had booked for on a plane that was smaller than originally so they had to fight to get back the $$ they had paid to get seats where they wanted to sit!

 

[von Monster]

My complaint isn't so much the change, but that WJ still hasn't bothered to notify anybody who booked direct with them. Seems like not the way to treat people. For contrast even *spirit* sent out the courtesy email and helped us rebook times that worked.

Although I will have to follow up to see what seats they've assigned us as we did pay for selection and they haven't posted this yet when I look up the flights.

 

[Donald - my hero]

My complaint isn't so much the change, but that WJ still hasn't bothered to notify anybody who booked direct with them. Seems like not the way to treat people. For contrast even *spirit* sent out the courtesy email and helped us rebook times that worked.

Although I will have to follow up to see what seats they've assigned us as we did pay for selection and they haven't posted this yet when I look up the flights.

Agreed!We found out thru an email i get from the local radio station since it's a tiny regional airport. BUT the kids never heard from AC either. By contrast, hubby flew Westjet on Sunday and the app let me know the flight would be delayed in plenty of time to allow a more leisurely morning. So they seem to be on the ball once things get closer to the point of actual travel.

F-I-L flew with AC using airmiles several years ago and didn't find out till he got to the airport to check in that the flight had been cancelled (as in they no longer even flew in or out of the city!) ... no one contacted him and he had paid for seat selection so there was no need to do the 24 hour check-in. now THAT was a headache!!

 

[von Monster]

Agreed!We found out thru an email i get from the local radio station since it's a tiny regional airport. BUT the kids never heard from AC either. By contrast, hubby flew Westjet on Sunday and the app let me know the flight would be delayed in plenty of time to allow a more leisurely morning. So they seem to be on the ball once things get closer to the point of actual travel.

F-I-L flew with AC using airmiles several years ago and didn't find out till he got to the airport to check in that the flight had been cancelled (as in they no longer even flew in or out of the city!) ... no one contacted him and he had paid for seat selection so there was no need to do the 24 hour check-in. now THAT was a headache!!

That sounds like classic AC. To be honest pretty much every Canadian airline seems to treat things like schedules or notifications as an afterthought. As opposed to once again Spirit Airlines who not only emailed me but also robocalled my home number to notify me of the change - it was about 6 hours IIRC. Time didn't work so when I called in they fully refunded not only the flight but also their $9 fare club which I thought was more than reasonable. This from whats supposed to be the worst service airline in NA. I would hope AC and WJ could do better but apparently not.

In this case only our return flight has been moved ahead 3 hours to 13:30 from 16:30 so I only had to re-book DME as the flight number changed and I don't fully trust it would get figured out by Disney.

 

[isabellea]

DH often flies with AC up north for work in tiny planes that often get delayed or even cancelled. Once they couldn’t reach him on his cell to tell him his flight was delayed until the next morning (happens all the time in Val D’Or, especially in winter) so they called me instead since my contact info was in his file... I was pretty impressed by how far they went to let him know.

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

Only found out by reading this thread.... heard nothing from Westjet but decided to check since we'll be going in late December. Sure enough... we were affected. No contact at all from Westjet. Checked our reservation and our very early morning direct flight became an evening flight -- which wouldn't work for us. Called and had to switch to an early morning flight with connections through YYZ that adds about 4 hours to our travel time. Think next trip we'll just drive down and back or look at Jet Blue out of Syracuse.

 

[Starwind]

Westjet's schedule change policy can be found here: https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/travel-info/flight-interruptions/service-plan

If their failure to notify you is outside that policy, make sure you complain to them.

Even if it is with the policy but it is of concern to you (e.g. it has an impact on your plans), complain to them.

SW

 

[deedubb]

Thanks for the notice. Ours changed as well but not significantly. Last Xmas, the change made us spend an extra day in Orlando. It was terrible

This year and last, we had no notification from WJ.

Here at DLR right now. 5 am Cali time and anxiously awaiting for our first park day in a few hours. Was able to watch Paint The Night from our hotel last night! Flew down by Delta and it was a great flight with them as always. I would use them every time if I could but don’t want to have to drive a couple hours in the winter as you can never predict the weather.

 

[CaperRD]

Received an email from West Jet this morning of a slight change in time in flight for our return trip Nov 1st. Not a big deal. However, I am anxious about the potential for flights changing (more significantly) over the next several weeks before we leave. I spent so much time researching and deciding on which dates and which flights - so very frustrating to have things changed on you.

 

[Minniemoo15]

For the past 3 years in a row, Westjet has made major changes when their winter schedules are released in July/August.

I have had other airlines make minor changes but never sweeping simultaneous country-wide changes like Westjet does. I never fly them at March Break anymore because we have to book a year early to save $$ and can’t count on them to keep their direct flights to MCO on the same days.

 

[Spotthecat]

Interesting. I wasn't notified that my outbound flight had changed by 10 mins. But I did notice that they now have opened up an 8:05 PM return flight the Saturday we get off the Mickey boat. Currently we are booked on the 9:25 PM one which has us landing in TO past midnight. With 3 kids might bite the bullet and pay for the change if it's reasonable.

 

[archrd]

We were supposed to fly out with West Jet on a Friday at supper time from YHZ, but now we are flying out on Thursday morning with Air Canada and basically getting almost 2 days extra on our trip.

 

[Inga]

Thank you for posting this! We were not notified for our Dec 7th Westjet flight from YHZ and we are on the horn now as we speak!

 

[Inga]

Thanks again OP!

We just called Westjet as it looked like our MCO to YHZ on Dec 7th was now not direct but flying through Toronto (which changes a 4 hour travel time to a 7 hour travel time). Luckily, they were able to switch it to a direct flight the next morning (Saturday) which gives us another day with the mouse! Without your post we would have gone along ignorant to the flight change as we were not notified, and we had booked directly with Westjet!

Now all we need is to get our wait list at OKW for that night...here’s hoping! Fingers crossed! And where to eat, where to eat.....

 

[starvenger]

This actually made me double check my flights for next week's cruise. Thankfully everything's good.