Westjet At IT AGAIN

[Jabroniville]

The really sad thing about my experience is that it's still the best trip home from Disney World I've ever had, lol. The first time, WestJet/Pearson destroyed my suitcase, and the second time, I had pinkeye, an ear infection AND a cold on the flights home (guess what REALLY sucks when you have an ear infection? Ascending and descending in an airplane)! So "nearly missing my flight because I got randomly selected, but OH WAIT it was delayed anyways so it didn't matter" is like the best case scenario right now, lol.

 

[Chip#1]

Check your February flights — just had 2 end Jan/beginning Feb and one Feb flight change over night. I just HATE that stupid orange ! mark!!!!!! Now to book a call back since of course the times don’t work. I should have just booked United…

 

[LuvMyEAR]

Slightly off topic but don’t really want to start a thread. Not sure why I’m stressing about it since I am sure WestJet will change the options around before April. What would you rather:

1. leave your city at 5am, but then have a 2.5 hour layover and arrive at Orlando around 1:00pm.

2. direct flight, but leave your city at 4pm and arrive in Orlando at 8:45pm.

with 2 we basically lose a whole day. Get to condo and go to bed essentially.
With 1, we have the late afternoon to swim/go for dinner/grab a few groceries. But we have to wake up and like 3am to get to airport and then I know 1pm is a crazy time at Orlando airport.
What would you do?! I am leaning toward 1 but want to see some thoughts of people who have maybe done both.

Definitely Option #2. However, we have booked this exact option for the third time, only to have our itinerary changed to Option 1 EVERY SINGLE TIME. Like you said, the insane early trip to the airport, but even worse, there is not enough time for me to make the connecting flight in the nightmare that is Pearson Airport. I am beyond disgusted.

 

[wdwmom3]

Check your February flights — just had 2 end Jan/beginning Feb and one Feb flight change over night. I just HATE that stupid orange ! mark!!!!!! Now to book a call back since of course the times don’t work. I should have just booked United…

Ugh. They changed my flight that arrived in Orlando at 8pm. To one that arrives close to midnight

 

[bcwife76]

Yep, just checked and our direct YVR to MCO trip in March has now been changed to a layover in Calgary both ways ...now, we had already rented out of Vero Beach stay but had kept the flights anyway, just in case. Cancelling now, back into the travel bank they go Glad we are still sorting out our March break plans at this point...grrr.

 

[Chip#1]

Ugh. They changed my flight that arrived in Orlando at 8pm. To one that arrives close to midnight

UGGHHH midnight?! I think ur plan on the other thread to stay at the airport when u get in is a good one; if you can make it work w Disney dropping the first night. Upon further review of my changes, they pushed me to a different day to hit SNA!! No more Tuesday flights direct to SNA from either Calgary or Vancouver. This is for sure cancel worthy and I have my call back scheduled for Wednesday night — I’ll be booking with United for sure now; I’m not changing dates of my trip.

 

[FinnFogg]

Argh! It looks like Westjet has cancelled all direct flights from Vancouver to Orlando for March Break. Have been re-routed through Calgary.

 

[bcwife76]

Argh! It looks like Westjet has cancelled all direct flights from Vancouver to Orlando for March Break. Have been re-routed through Calgary.

Yep. We just cancelled that flight because we had already rented out our DVC points but I had kept the flights because I got such a great price on direct flights!! So now $2k BACK into the travel bank and we have no plans for spring break because WJ prices are insane to pretty much anywhere in the world for March break

 

[soccerra]

When I spoke to an agent about our issue he said that normally they do 1-2 changes per quarter, they had done 6 already in a month.. They seem to be shuffling plane sizes/types, schedules quicker then the agents can even keep up. The agent also said they had 90 agents that finished training and he figured they needed at least twice that again to make a dent into the call volume

 

[wdwmom3]

The only redeeming quality for WestJet in my eyes right now, if I’ve been able to talk to someone over FB messenger and actually have them do stuff for me. It may take a long time for them to respond but they at least do something.

I’ve tried that with Air Canada and all they ever do is tell me to call the number. And the call centre is open such limited hours (9-7). I’ve called them right at 9am and been on hold for over 4 hours before.

 

[MotherKnowsBest]

I just checked our March Break flights as well and they actually added a direct flight to Fort Myers from Toronto and for some reason moved us to the new flights. No email notification, obviously. All good though, the new times work even better and we got a screaming deal when we booked originally.

 

[PetePanMan]

Argh! It looks like Westjet has cancelled all direct flights from Vancouver to Orlando for March Break. Have been re-routed through Calgary.

thanks for heads up. We were impacted as well as it turns out. They put us on flights through TO rather than Calgary that would have got us in at midnight (we switched through Calgary). Very frustrating that you do not get notified by Westjet.

 

[bcwife76]

Well I must need my head examining because after cancelling our FL flights this morning (they WJ changed with no notice, thanks again for this post!!!) I found a 'reasonable' flight to Cancun for March break so I booked that with our travel bank credits (and some more $$ added in). In for a penny, in for a pound, right? At least I found a good deal on a resort I wanted to try.

 

[ElCray]

Westjet cancelled our absolutely amazing direct flights from Ottawa to Orlando for March Break. I'd bought them with Air Miles and was so thrilled at the time. I booked on two itineraries because I wasn't sure what our toddler's vaccine status would be.

They booked my husband and toddler's flight a whole day after the original flight. We are working out our options but it is annoying...

 

[musika]

Westjet cancelled our absolutely amazing direct flights from Ottawa to Orlando for March Break. I'd bought them with Air Miles and was so thrilled at the time. I booked on two itineraries because I wasn't sure what our toddler's vaccine status would be.

They booked my husband and toddler's flight a whole day after the original flight. We are working out our options but it is annoying...

Aw that sucks. I saw they were advertising direct out of YHZ which is our preferred flight but I was skeptical at best about it. If YOW got changed I'm sure YHZ isn't far behind.

 

[yowcruiser]

Air Canada is running through another set of fairly significant schedule changes for flights to Orlando from January 7 to mid-February. They are sharply reducing capacity, moving from mainline Dreamliners back to Rouge out of YYZ, cutting the # of flights. From mid-February onward though, the schedule is very generous... and if you do the math in your head... not only is February the start of Spring break but a time when family might be more inclined to travel... so this makes sense

 

[yowcruiser]

Aw that sucks. I saw they were advertising direct out of YHZ which is our preferred flight but I was skeptical at best about it. If YOW got changed I'm sure YHZ isn't far behind.

Air Canada still running the direct to MCO out of YOW and YHZ on SELECT days

 

[AdamsMum]

Checking my WJ flight every other day. So far there's only one change, and I did receive an email. I'm flying December 9, so maybe there's less mayhem that during the actual Christmas period. They changed my seat selection though. I paid for extra leg room so I hope I'm still getting one of those seats, in the grand scheme of things that's minor as long as my flight goes okay. I'm shocked to read that flights are being changed as far out as March break.

I hope you all get your itineraries fixed, it's a lot of stress for a time when you should be having happy anticipation.

 

[cslittle999]

I’ve started to follow the Cranky Flier blog. https://crankyflier.com/category/schedule-changes/

It‘s mostly US airlines but mentions WJ and AC. The November 22 post has a section on all of the long range changes that WJ is making.

WestJet went further out than usual, bringing down both February and March schedules about 35 percent. During that period, these routes will go away: Calgary – Belize, Nassau; Halifax – Montreal; Kelowna – Phoenix; St Johns – Orlando; Toronto – Cayo Coco, Fort McMurray, Varadero; Vancouver – Orlando; Victoria – Los Cabos; and Winnipeg – Las Vegas, Montego Bay, Phoenix.

 

[yowcruiser]

I’ve started to follow the Cranky Flier blog. https://crankyflier.com/category/schedule-changes/

It‘s mostly US airlines but mentions WJ and AC. The November 22 post has a section on all of the long range changes that WJ is making.

It won't be easy to get out of Canada from non-hub cities... and even some hub cities are now having many fewer options. Trying to get to New Orleans for a cruise in March is starting to be an adventure...