Westjet bumps pax after launching ad campaign that it doesn't

[altiplano]

Westjet bumps passengers after launching ad campaign that it doesn't bump passengers.

Nice timing... $200 for a 2 day delay? Watch out for Gabor.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/no ... -1.4162822

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/we ... -1.4151790

[Canoehead]

Only catch; they "bumped" them long before the ad campaign.

[delta1]

WHAT?! CBC is actually reporting something negative about WJ?????

[Black_Tusk]

WHAT?! CBC is actually reporting something negative about WJ?????

It's a whole new world.

[Gravol]

Nice try.

Westjet screwing up the logistics / routings / schedule of a biking team does not make their business strategy or commercial false .

As per the story, Westjet did NOT bump passengers as a result of a disgraceful overbooking business practice. The original AC was not available for reasons which were not clearly explained. This happens every day, with every airline across the country. A smaller aircraft filled the gap thus tossing a wrench into some peoples plans.

There is a stark difference being bumped for overbooking and bumped because of unforeseen wx related circumstances. It happens. WJ could have handled it differently. They will pay out with a refund / vouchers and it will be swept under the rug.

Hardly a story compared to Air Canada overbooking blunders

[groundpilot]

Nice try.

Westjet screwing up the logistics / routings / schedule of a biking team does not make their business strategy or commercial false .

As per the story, Westjet did NOT bump passengers as a result of a disgraceful overbooking business practice. The original AC was not available for reasons which were not clearly explained. This happens every day, with every airline across the country. A smaller aircraft filled the gap thus tossing a wrench into some peoples plans.

There is a stark difference being bumped for overbooking and bumped because of unforeseen wx related circumstances. It happens. WJ could have handled it differently. They will pay out with a refund / vouchers and it will be swept under the rug.

Hardly a story compared to Air Canada overbooking blunders

Sure...

But at AC you would never an Airbus swapped out for a Q400...

[Gravol]

Nice try.

Westjet screwing up the logistics / routings / schedule of a biking team does not make their business strategy or commercial false .

As per the story, Westjet did NOT bump passengers as a result of a disgraceful overbooking business practice. The original AC was not available for reasons which were not clearly explained. This happens every day, with every airline across the country. A smaller aircraft filled the gap thus tossing a wrench into some peoples plans.

There is a stark difference being bumped for overbooking and bumped because of unforeseen wx related circumstances. It happens. WJ could have handled it differently. They will pay out with a refund / vouchers and it will be swept under the rug.

Hardly a story compared to Air Canada overbooking blunders

Sure...

But at AC you would never an Airbus swapped out for a Q400...

You're right.

AC would shit can the entire flight and leave you stranded

[altiplano]

Nice try Gravol.

Please don't hijack this thread. It's about Westjet bumping the poor underprivileged youth bike racing team. Weather? Where? Probably down gauged for an anemic load.

Deflect and deny all you want. Gabor is getting involved and he will see justice for these poor guys I am sure...

AC might have more bad stories, but aside from the fact media likes the exploitation with the name recognition factor, and bring out the crazies that have a hate on AC because "it's tax payer funded and I heard they lost my neighbours bag in 1983", I think it's largely because of the fact there are 4x as many people flying to 2.5x as many destinations on 3x as many continents for 4x as many years...

and honestly the timing of the ad with the story is pretty funny... it happens to every airline, except westjet, until now.

[Gravol]

Nice try Gravol.

Please don't hijack this thread. It's about Westjet bumping the poor underprivileged youth bike racing team. Weather? Where? Probably down gauged for an anemic load.

Deflect and deny all you want. Gabor is getting involved and he will see justice for these poor guys I am sure...

AC might have more bad stories, but aside from the fact media likes the exploitation with the name recognition factor, and bring out the crazies that have a hate on AC because "it's tax payer funded and I heard they lost my neighbours bag in 1983", I think it's largely because of the fact there are 4x as many people flying to 2.5x as many destinations on 3x as many continents for 4x as many years...

and honestly the timing of the ad with the story is pretty funny... it happens to every airline, except westjet, until now.

No hijacking a thread. I also do not resort to those lame arguments regarding tax payer funding. It happened and it's history. Anyway it just came to me .... the CBC / Air Canada actually have something in common.

I am allowed to openly disagree given my personal experience with both Air Canada and Westjet. A subjective experience, is just that. You have some who have had horrible WJ experiences. It just so happens I have had far more success with West Jet when it comes to work / personal travel and I travel a lot.

I do not believe the media exploits Air Canada for the sake of being Air Canada. My proof is this deluded CBC story attempting to label WJ business practice in the same light.

WJ does not OVERBOOK flights, period. Dance around it all you want. This one story in particular doesn't even register on the radar as a shocker or story. Just a shitty experience whereby some people were heavily inconvenienced. I will say one more time, that is different than overselling multiple flights by 5-10 seats over a holiday / long weekend. No doubt though rank and fashion Air Canada party members are stroking it to this "news" story.

[Old fella]

Majority of my airline flying over the many decades as a passenger be it pleasure or business has been with AC and being honest, I never experienced one tenth of the shit I read about in the media on Air Canada.

[altiplano]

Lol. OK Gravol.

[Black_Tusk]

Majority of my airline flying over the many decades as a passenger be it pleasure or business has been with AC and being honest, I never experienced one tenth of the shit I read about in the media on Air Canada.

[confusedalot]

Back to reality, the media will publish anything just to make a story, warranted or not. Does anybody here really take the media seriously? It's all about a juicy story. Bottom feeders for sure.

[Gravol]

Air Canada is the North Korea of Canadian air travel

[sanjet]

Air Canada is the North Korea of Canadian air travel

You must be fun at parties...

[mato]

The last two two times I was on an air Canada this year that had a maintenance issue, both were less than 2 hour delay and replaced with an aircraft same size or larger. Pretty small inconvenience must say I was pleasantly surprised at how fast we were all deplaned and switched to another machine.

I know it may not always work out this way but AC was pretty fantastic those days.

[confusedalot]

Air Canada is the North Korea of Canadian air travel

You must be fun at parties...

I think i will go back to the bar for another beverage.

[rookiepilot]

AC, United get lots of media attention....cause they have lots of incidents.

Cathay, Singapore, other real top tier airlines ... get no attention, cause they have almost no incidents. Safety or otherwise. Don't recall too many Cathay "hard landings" -- and they fly all over the world, too.

Don't see this as overly complicated.

[YesMassaPayson]

The WJ fan girls are out in full force on this one

[Gravol]

The last two two times I was on an air Canada this year that had a maintenance issue, both were less than 2 hour delay and replaced with an aircraft same size or larger. Pretty small inconvenience must say I was pleasantly surprised at how fast we were all deplaned and switched to another machine.

I know it may not always work out this way but AC was pretty fantastic those days.

So you were pleasantly surprised at how fast they got you off and, in the end, at no added discomfort because the AC remained roughly the same size... or larger?

Please tell me more man. This is wicked . I am also pleasantly surprised .

Air Canada is the North Korea of Canadian air travel

You must be fun at parties...

Bro, first round on me!

[altiplano]

Rookie: its' interesting you choose those 2 airlines...

Both are reeling from record losses and big problems at home.
Cathay was recently downgraded from 8th to 69th and has laid off 100's of employees with the stock tumbling.
Singapore, also being hit with record losses, will no doubt be reviewing its network and business plan, they are also believed to be configuring 3/4/3 on their new 777s and have announced consolidation of its 3 LCCs Silk/Scoot/Tiger.
With all that's happening there it will be interesting to see how that affects the product...

Anyway, my post was more about the humour in the contradiction of the ad vs. the story...

You can deflect and deny all you want, point to AC or United, but you might as well point to Aeroflot too because it's about as relevant and it doesn't change anything...

Now that Westjet has blood in the water CBC et al will no doubt come for more.

NA media is all over it. This kind of thing isn't in the news cycle in the rest of the world. We woudn't understand it anyway if it was - language and all...

[rookiepilot]

Alt,


I will fly airlines where the staff treats their customers as customers, not self loading freight. With simple respect.

That is why an airline like Cathay has the reputation it does, and AC by contrast its widely held reputation.

We need more competition in this country, that is the issue with customer service in Canada. When there is only a couple of options, and often only one, there is no incentive for companies to do above the bare minimum.

Here's an option, AC fans.

Let the US airlines in -- give them slots for YYZ - YVR, give AC slots LGA - LAX. Think that's a fair trade.

Deal?

[mbav8r]

Rookie, while there is no disputing that some AC frontline employees can be difficult to deal with, I would argue you will encounter this anywhere.
I recently witnessed an exchange between a passenger and gate agent, the passenger who missed the last flight home was understandably upset but it was her own fault, she was in the bar and had not set her watch to local time, she admitted it was her fault but that didn't stop her from yelling, not talking loud, yelling! "I paid AC to get me home, get me home" etc. It was the last flight and this agent was nothing but professional, never lost her cool and at some point this passenger calmed down and was able to listen to reason.
Now, imagine you deal with this twice, three times or more a day, how long before you can keep your cool 100% of the time. Passengers abuse the frontline employees all the time, another time after the whole crew who was reassigned to a different flight worked extremely hard to get the flight out as quick as possible, passengers walking on the delayed flight were mostly rude, the odd smile but mostly rude.
I've had encounters with employees at different businesses and after the exchange I always think the employee was rude and ignorant, my wife who keeps me honest will often tell me I started that and in those situations I don't blame them for giving it back to me, it's frustrating when it's pointed out and I guarantee if she wasn't there I would walk away thinking what a shitty employee, my point is if you continue to have problems with different AC employees, maybe it's you. How do you come across? Do you think it's ok to be short and discourteous and not get it in return?

[rookiepilot]

Rookie, while there is no disputing that some AC frontline employees can be difficult to deal with, I would argue you will encounter this anywhere.
I recently witnessed an exchange between a passenger and gate agent, the passenger who missed the last flight home was understandably upset but it was her own fault, she was in the bar and had not set her watch to local time, she admitted it was her fault but that didn't stop her from yelling, not talking loud, yelling! "I paid AC to get me home, get me home" etc. It was the last flight and this agent was nothing but professional, never lost her cool and at some point this passenger calmed down and was able to listen to reason.
Now, imagine you deal with this twice, three times or more a day, how long before you can keep your cool 100% of the time. Passengers abuse the frontline employees all the time, another time after the whole crew who was reassigned to a different flight worked extremely hard to get the flight out as quick as possible, passengers walking on the delayed flight were mostly rude, the odd smile but mostly rude.
I've had encounters with employees at different businesses and after the exchange I always think the employee was rude and ignorant, my wife who keeps me honest will often tell me I started that and in those situations I don't blame them for giving it back to me, it's frustrating when it's pointed out and I guarantee if she wasn't there I would walk away thinking what a shitty employee, my point is if you continue to have problems with different AC employees, maybe it's you. How do you come across? Do you think it's ok to be short and discourteous and not get it in return?

Why would you assume from my posts I've personally had any problems? I didn't say that.

This is an analysis, nothing more, of observations I've seen of employees behaviour, at different airlines. I'm very, very polite to airline personnel, both because I believe deeply in treating service employees with respect, and usually people are more helpful when treated with kindness.

That said, I've encountered at AC extreme rudeness in some employees -- admittedly rarely -- AFTER I treated them with polite respect. Check in agents seem to be the worst. I don't react, because honestly, I want to get home. I don't argue.

I have honestly never seen that with other airlines, and I've flown most of them.

On a BA flight last year, (my fault) we were going to miss the flight. I missed a train to the airport. I told an agent while waiting in line, she immediately took us to the front to check in, then WALKED us to the front of the security line. Unbelievable service. I profusely thanked her, blew me away. And this is BA at LGW. Not a sleepy airport.

All airlines have to deal with both difficult issues and difficult passengers. Why is it that some airlines repeatedly make the news, and many never do?

Read a few reviews here, M:

http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-r ... ir-canada/

See a common theme? Or why AC is rated as low as they are, from hundreds of comments?

Nice try ...it isn't me.

[altiplano]

Let the US airlines in -- give them slots for YYZ - YVR, give AC slots LGA - LAX. Think that's a fair trade.

US carriers wouldn't go for it. It's not a fair trade and shows your ignorance/prejudice in the matter.

Additionally, allowing outright cabotage without reciprocity would be ridiculously stupid.

We'll never see it happen - but I'd be happy to see Canada/US open skies from my perspective... I'd be happier to see Canadian regulators/airports get in line with US policies re:fees/taxes.