Complaint Review: West Jet -

West Jet took it apon themselves to cancel a flight reservation that my husband and I had for travel from Halifax, NS to Toronto, ON on July 13, 20219. I admit that our late arrival for scheduled flight from St. John's, NFLD to Halifax, NS for July 9, was partially our fault. I was informed that they could perhaps have helped us further to be boarded for this flight, had we been more than "basic fare" passengers, or if the flight was not leaving early.

Why are flights leaving early if not all passengers have been accounted for. Anyway we did book again to leave with their airlines at 3:30 at the cost of $690.28 , which we did. When returning to Halifax airport for our flight back to Toronto, on July 13, we were informed much to our shock, this reservation had been cancelled on July 9 in St.Johns.

How is this possible or at all ethical?? Obviously, we were not going to walk back to Toronto and at not time was this told to us in St.John's, when they rebooked us for later flight. West Jet's explaination to me was that " this is common knowledge" that this happens, as the airlines assumes since we missed our first flight, that we would not be available to take the next flight that has been reserved on the itinerary. How would we not be available??

They booked our flight that we paid again for to reach Halifax and we were checked in on that flight!! What does one flight have to do with another?? I would have thought it might, if there had been a connecting flight on the SAME DAY to Toronto, but did not think of this as a connecting flight, since they were on completely different days. I had made these reservations at Expedia.com by phone. and West Jet said that Expedia should have informed me, that this is considered a multi-city flight, which they definitely did not. I had never even heard the term before, perhaps because I have never missed a flight prior to this experience! 

To end this nightmare, we pulled out our charge card again at the Porter check in and bought new tickets on July 13 from Halifax to Toronto, for the cost of $797.24. We then landed at the Centre Island Airport, and struggled to make our way back to Pearson Airport to retrieve our vehicle. 

I find West Jets offer to me for a $270.00 credit on future air travel to be totally offensive. We should  have been reimbursed for the extra expense of having to purchase new tickets from the Porter Airlines.

This is robbery on their part, they should have not been able to cancel our reservations made to fly from Halifax to Toronto on July 13. This was NOT a connecting flilght, we were in Amherst for family reasons, and made absolutely sure to be well ahead of time to check in for the July 13 flight. 

A credit is absolutely no good for us, as we will never again do business with this company. We were informed once again in Halifax that this was the way that "basic fare" passengers are dealt with, and obviously making it clear, that basic fare passengers can be treated like dirt. I was not even aware that a "basic fare passenger is not the same as an economy fare passenger" I certainly was not nformed that this was so, and it was never explained to me by Expedia, that this was the category they had purchased my tickets in.

Therefore, my husband and I had no idea until this ordeal started that we were listed as "basic fare passengers". Should not the consumer be educated when booking flights that third parties like Expedia is booking a passenger under this designation as opposed to an economy fare that you can expect different treatment if there is a problem. At no time was I made aware of any of these dfferent distinct categories when booking flights and I have done quite a bit of travelling prior to this.  The only categories I was aware of are, Business class, First Class and Economy . 

In closing, I hope my above comments can educate others so that they may avoid the nightmare that West Jet has put my husband and I through with this rediculous callous treatment!!