WestJet passengers frustrated after flights from Winnipeg cancelled, hours on hold over holidays

Frustrated WestJet passengers say they've been left stranded by cancelled flights and waiting on hold for hours as the airline struggles to deal with the impact of surging COVID-19 cases on its staffing levels.

Dana Carlson came to visit family in Sandy Hook, Man., over the holidays and was supposed to fly home to Edmonton on Sunday.

WestJet cancelled that flight the day before and rebooked him on a flight leaving Monday, with a six-hour layover in Calgary.

Hoping to rebook a direct flight, Carlson spent eight hours on the phone before the call simply dropped. He waited more than seven hours on hold the next day before a customer service agent picked up.

"That was so frustrating to me," he said. "I mean, this is ridiculous.… Who has customer service like that? Nobody."

But his travel woes didn't end there. Eventually, he managed to book a direct flight that was scheduled to leave on Tuesday — but it was cancelled again, and rescheduled for Thursday.

Like Carlson, Robert Truijen flew to Manitoba to visit family over the holidays. He was supposed to fly home to Vancouver on Dec. 29.

WestJet cancelled flights twice with only a couple hours notice, and offered no support or compensation, he said. 

When he tried to schedule a callback from a customer service representative, the earliest time available was on Jan. 4. 

"It's just like, man, that's not reasonable at all if you're trying to call them about your flight that's just been changed … without any notice, basically," he said.

"I was packed up, I was ready to go. And then I got the door slammed right in my face."

Seeking compensation

Truijen and Carlson both say they want WestJet to offer compensation for the cancelled flights.

Under the Canadian Air Passenger Protection Regulations, airlines are required to compensate passengers when flights are cancelled or delayed by three hours or more. 

However, that doesn't apply to flights that are delayed or cancelled due to uncontrollable factors, such as bad weather or mechanical problems discovered outside of routine maintenance checks. 

Last week, the airline announced it was cancelling 15 per cent of its scheduled flights through to the end of January due to staff shortages, as the Omicron coronavirus variant has caused a spike in COVID-19 case counts.

The company said last week it had seen a 35 per cent rise in active COVID-19 cases among staff, with 181 employees testing positive for the illness as of Dec. 30.

In an email statement on Wednesday, a WestJet spokesperson said the airline was dealing with high call volumes and apologized to customers experiencing delays.

"Despite facing many months of some of the most draconian restrictions anywhere in the world which impacted our ability to rehire as fast as we would have liked to, we ensured we were sufficiently staffed to support the demand of our evolving network and the busy holiday travel season," spokesperson Madison Kruger wrote in the email.

"We could not have anticipated the impact of Omicron and there remains a shared challenge among businesses worldwide to rehire and train people quickly enough in this landscape."

WestJet is not the only company experiencing headaches due to COVID-19. Other airlines, including Air Canada and Flair, cancelled hundreds of flights over the holidays. In addition to staffing difficulties due to Omicron, extreme cold is also hampering flights.

Nonetheless, Carlson says while he's been a loyal WestJet customer for years, his recent experiences have him wondering whether he'll fly with them again. 

"You're at the mercy of the airline and whatever they tell you," he said.