WestJet Airlines

Not Verified | Booked my $4600 all inclusive vacation in March 2020 for June flight and WestJet cancelled because of corona. Now WestJet is refusing to issue a refund in the original payment form, only WestJet dollars, which expires, can't be used on international flights and they are raising their prices compared to competitors as they know you are locked to them. Will never fly them again.

✅ Trip Verified | We were delayed 7 times then cancelled. They gathered us and told us to book hotel rooms, $40 a day per person in food. And taxi to and from the airport will be reimbursed. They would rebook us and give us a new itinerary. They also mentioned that it was a staffing issue. Not weather. The next day the storm came in. 2 days later, still nothing. We rented a vehicle and drove back. Sent in our receipts. Finally got an email back 3 weeks later and they are saying that it was weather related and we don’t get our money back for hotels or food or taxi. This is embarrassing on Westjet end and I would never recommend anyone fly with this deceitful, lying company.

✅ Trip Verified | Just completed a flight from Toronto to Vancouver with my 65lb doodle. Was so nervous about this first and long flight for her. WestJet staff were amazing! Ushered us through check-in and helped with paper work. Allowed us to wait with her until it was time to head to cargo. Staff super friendly and very supportive. Our dog arrived safe and sound and in good spirits. Thank you WestJet. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend your airline.

✅ Trip Verified | We had the bad luck of getting stuck in the weather issues just before Christmas 2022. There is much to the story (of course) but what I most want to say here is how utterly disappointed we are in WestJet's lack of communication, literally abandoning us, with absolutely no assistance, no discussion, no communication & no next tickets. We were all told (about 200 people) to "go home" three times on the loud speaker because there was "nothing they could do for us". If they couldn't, who could? When we called the WestJet customer service line it said go on the website. When we went on the website it said call. We were on a 5 day trip and ended up stranded for an additional 4 days. We paid for these additional days directly out of our own pockets (at Christmas time) which was easily $1200 for hotels, transportation, & food. We were not offered so much as a coffee as we waited in line for 6 hours trying to get someone to help us. Nor were we offered one thing for the next 4 days we waited to figure out what was going on and get home. Since we had no way of communicating with anyone from WestJet, we were forced back on to the dangerous, icy roads again to drive back to the airport 30 minutes so that we could wait in line again to try to get some assistance. This whole process was very stressful! We felt helpless, abandoned and disregarded. After decades of service, one would think that some kind of customer care process could have been created by now for just such circumstances. Why on earth is there not a clear procedure? There has obviously been many similar cases over the years and it will be more and more of an issue going forward. I don't understand how an airline is not responsible to the people that have "signed up" for service and are there right in front of them when issues arise. Do the right thing! And the right thing is not abandoning people. We were planning a hot holiday for March but now will not go anywhere near an airline for at least a year.

✅ Trip Verified | We had a long layover in Toronto caused by a flight change by WestJet two weeks after we made the reservations. We asked the company to accomodate us on a early flight and the gentlemen at the kiosk named Llewellyn was a real help. He was very polite, professional and patient and was able to help us. Thanks so much Llewellyn.

✅ Trip Verified | I flew into Calgary from Vegas and had a flight for 2.15 pm to Kamloops. Late due to 35 min baggage delay, ran to customer service who looked at a blank screen and said they were boarding, no black or white area to get me on and persisted on getting someone involved! Could not get me on flight! Paid for the next flight at 11.15 pm. Called customer service and stated I need to take responsibility for this too but would no give me a credit to my cc but on travel bank credit. Nope they put on WJ rewards and lied on phone. Gauging $$$ from people, lying and no customer respect. I’m now taking it with the credit card company! Shame on you WJ! Get back to normalcy or go bankrupt!

✅ Trip Verified | This was a round trip from Toronto to Yellowknife, I went with my friends total 4 of us with 3 carry-on but we were forced to checked them after boarding, since there wasn't any overhead cabin for us. Which was totally understandable. However flight attendants brought those 3 baggage without telling us it were going to be checked, so we didn't have chance to take out important item with us, such like medical things. the checked in action was the beginning of tragedy. When we arrived in Calgary we had more than 3 hours connecting next leg to Yellowknife, so we went to counter to Make Sure if our baggage would load in to this flight, and got a positive answer, apparently she just wanted to send us away. Then we landed in Yellowknife, we found out all the baggage unloaded from our flight were from previous 3-5 days, nearly none of passengers got their checked bag at the moment. The staff had QR code ready for everyone already, it seems he knew it already. and told us it would come with next flight so we didn't file lost online, we kept waiting our bag make it to final destination. Obviously, this was another time we got brushed off. In the following 5 days of our trip, we went back to airport everyday if there was a flight coming in, got nothing until we back in Toronto. When I landed in Toronto airport, I went to counter to ask my baggage again while waiting for my inbound checked bag coming from carousel. The lady at the counter wasn't willing to help AT ALL. I handed my tag to her, she did not even try to check if anything she could see, just gave me a piece of paper with QR Code again. Then I told her I just wanna know where was my bag and when I could get it back. She answered my boarding pass is standby, so I can only wait. I said that's ridiculous, my boarding pass was STBY, but I boarded into the flight anyway. So let me know where and when! Then she found me annoying so told me something like "You are banned, you cannot fly with WestJet anymore". and wrote down my reservation number and name. Then send me away without checked my tag from computer. Then I went back to carousel to wait my inbound checked bag. and it was not flying with me again. I went back counter, luckily it wasn't the same lady anymore. The guy checked my baggage tag, told me it was still in Calgary, then gave me a QR code to file the lost. I found him more helpful, so I handed my first baggage tag, asked him if he could find some info. So he went into system to check. He couldn't find anything, but he told me, my first baggage cannot file the lost online, it has to be filed manually. So he brought me a form then helped me to fill up. So now everyone can see how westjet customer services are not willing to help, of course few of them are good. Anyway, in the future, I'll try my best to avoid flying WestJet if I'm not in blacklist yet even though WestJet was one of my favorite airlines in North America before.

✅ Trip Verified | Poor customer service. We arrived in Calgary 2 hours in advance of a flight to Toronto, followed by a flight to LaGuardia (NYC). We had already checked in but because we had skis we were directed to go to the line for "special" assistance with checking in. The line was relatively short with about 20-25 people (some in groups like us four) before us. With 6 or 7 people working the counter we were optimistic that it would take a short time. Well, of the seven or so staff member only half were actually available. Consistently it took two of the counter staff to work with one group or person to check in. It was not unusual for the process to take 10 minutes or. Some of the staff were just sitting there checking computers without helping anybody. In short, the throughput was astonishingly low and there was no sense of urgency. When we finally were called, the staff member made a mistake in not putting one of us on the TSA flight manifest. We only found that out when we got to the TSA check in Toronto. The TSA staff member rolled her eyes and said, yeah that is WestJet they routinely make this mistake. She fixed the problem and we made the flight after sprinting through the terminal in Toronto. We got home and are much better of than some of the stories I read here. But I will not fly them again.

✅ Trip Verified | I was waiting a little bit before writing this review in case our issues were dealt with better then they had been previously but that hasn't happened and I have not received any emails back after writing WestJet in their "concerns" portion of their website. We had the WORST experience I have ever had with ANY airline, this truly saddens me because I have always loved WestJet but after this, I will not be choosing their airline again. I booked us a quick week long vacation to Puerto Vallarta just before the holidays. I usually book through Expedia but thought I would cut the possibility of issues by 90% if I would just book it all through the same company/airline since it was quite last minute. We do not have much room here but I will cut the story to the mains issues. Basically we were told at the first gate that our flight would be fine and have time to connect by a very uninterested gate attendant who rolled her eyes and scuffed when I asked her about our connecting flight. I asked the flight attendant on board the airplane after another passenger did and her reply was very similar and inconvenienced. "There is nothing I can do from here". As we sat on the tarmac waiting for over 20-minutes. I realized we most likely would not be making it on time but be VERY close. So I called the vacations line and asked what we needed to do or how this was going to be handled. Even asking if there was any way of contacting that gate because we were likely going to need 15min. She replied with a "I am sorry there is nothing I can do." Now, I understand a portion of this. But I do not understand how booking with the airline, and its vacations line can end in this type of experience. I have been on many planes before where we sat at the gate, and waited because "there were a few connecting passengers" and sometimes waited half an hour or longer. We were literally 15min after the plane had left the gate. It had just taken off when we got to the gate after running across the entire Calgary airport. We were then left with the decision to cut off 2 days from our 7 day vacation, catch a flight which had a connection in Denver (yeah right because this connection went so well) or book a flight back to Edmonton and call the vacations line when they re opened at 6am. That night we tried to sleep in the airport, which is another review in itself. Called the vacations line at 6am and we started making our way to our next gate. I finally got connected with someone around 6:20 and went back and forth with the attendant on and off hold while she tried to figure something out for us. By 6:57 I was told our vacation was definitely non refundable and was put soon hold again to see if we were still booked for a 9:10am direct flight the following morning. The gate attendant at Gate A04 on Dec 17th was the rudest attendant I have ever encountered. She was belittling the passengers who finally said to her "you know, a little bit of kindness goes a long way" and when it came time for us to board I was on hold and told her that we were just waiting for a yes or no answer. She raised her voice and said "you have 2 minutes and I am closing the gate and you are missing your flight" I again told her that I was speaking to one of her colleagues and trying to get an answer. She replied with "1 minute". My partner and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders in utter defeat. I hung up the phone and we boarded our flight back to Edmonton. Exhausted.

✅ Trip Verified | The Toronto based crew were verbally unhappy to be on call and flying that afternoon. The man in charge was rude and condescending via the PA system. One elderly passenger had to check his bag with medication while entering the aircraft. The male flight attendant screamed out “If the passenger dies don’t blame me”. Absolutely unacceptable behaviour. Before the aircraft arrived at the gate in Edmonton, the crew sitting near the gate were bashing Alberta. If you don’t like Alberta, why are you working for WestJet? I’ve never witnessed unprofessional behaviour.