Sask. traveller's story underlines WestJet's COVID-19 struggles

SASKATOON -

Mona Collins and her husband Allie are retired, so being able to enjoy some travel has been nice - but Mona says she couldn't believe her recent booking experience.

"It shouldn’t be that difficult,” Collins told CTV News of her dealings with WestJet.

The company says it has hired hundreds of call centre agents to deal with delays, and that a reduction in flights is causing issues with rescheduling.

Collins said she had difficulties with a trip booked to Mexico in July. She had thought everything was alright because they booked early. But she got an email more than two months later, in October, saying the direct flight they had paid for now had a two-hour layover.

“They asked us from WestJet to confirm the change. I tried several times to phone WestJet. I’ve emailed and I’ve gone through Facebook, but can’t talk to anyone about the change,” she said.

Collins says she was on hold for four and a half hours and ended up hanging up. Feeling frustrated and wanting answers, she drove from her home in Oxbow to the Regina airport to try and talk to someone from the airline in person - but was told the manager was busy.

During the ride home, Collins wrote a registered letter to WestJet to advise them to cancel the flight. They didn’t want to cancel simply because of the layover issue, but because with a new COVID-19 variant emerging, she feared having to cancel anyway, but not being able to get through if need be.

A week later she did get a call back from a WestJet agent and cancelled that trip. She said the agent was professional and apologetic. She’s hopeful she’ll travel later this winter, maybe even with WestJet if things improve.

Morgan Bell, WestJet's public relations manager, said the company is not living up to their standards and that volumes are a top priority.

She said they hired 600 call centre agents since the summer and much of the call delays are COVID-19 driven.

“A lot of people have questions on policy and travel restrictions and entry requirements and they’re going to us for those answers even though they’re federal policies,” Bell told CTV News.

WestJet is operating at just over half capacity. Pre-pandemic they would be running 750 flights a day, but right now they are running 400. That's causing issues with rescheduling with fewer options available to move people around.

Because of this, in some cases Saskatoon travellers are being switched from a direct flight to an overnight stop in Calgary or Edmonton, Bell said.

Customers are cancelling trips last minute due to COVID-19 concerns, leading to flights being cancelled because it’s not feasible to run a flight with barely any passengers, according to Bell.

Bell said a social media hashtag calling the carrier “worst-jet” is hard for the company to hear, but she’s hopeful things will improve soon and is asking for patience.

She also recommended travellers read all emails WestJet sends with COVID-19 instructions as well as general information to reduce the number of calls coming into the call centre.