WestJet Airlines review: Having to buy my flight again because the plane broke and flight was canceled

I had booked a trip to England for myself and my sister in November 2022

I was leaving Grande Prairie and she was leaving from Nanaimo. July 25, 2023

We were to meet in Vancouver to get on the plane to England.

In January of 2023 West jet changed the location of the England flight to Calgary from Vancouver.

This made my flight go Grande Prairie to Calgary, Calgary to Vancouver, Vancouver to Calgary, Calgary to England. I tried to change this, but WestJet said Redtag had to and Redtag said WestJet had to. So, I just decided to keep the “milk run”

I booked the England holiday through Redtag as they offered the trip with a hotel in Woking. West jet did not offer hotel booking in Woking. The rest of the flights were booked through WestJet directly as we were leaving from separate airports and was easier to do this way.

On July 25th my first plane from Grande Prairie to Calgary broke and was cancelled.

I spoke to an agent at the airport, and she called customer service to “help”

They could not get me to Vancouver in time to catch the flight to Calgary to board the plane to England. The agent at the airport and I tried to explain to the Customer service rep that I did not need to go to Vancouver and that I could just catch the next plane to Calgary and get on the flight to England from there. The customer service agent would not allow us to do this and insisted that I had to go to Vancouver. (The flight to England left from Calgary) The agent and I argued with the customer service rep to no avail.

By this time the next flight to Calgary was booked up (full) from all the people who were on the cancelled flight.

West jet offered no alternative but for me to purchase an entirely new ticket to England last minute. The flight went Grande Prairie to Edmonton, Edmonton to Calgary and Calgary to England. (Same flight I was originally booked on) But they made me pay an extra 1300.00 for these flights.

I thought to myself ok, I will fight with them when I get home as I did not want to ruin my vacation.

On my way home I had a bit of time to spare in Calgary and spoke to the special services desk. The ladies were amazing and could not believe the nightmare getting to England was. They made notes on all of my flights etc. so that when I called Regtag they could easily get my refund for me.

When I called Red tag and they contacted Westjet, this is what they/we were told …. Westjet is trying to say that I forfeited my flight to England and cannot get a refund.( even though none of this was my fault) I never once forfeited my flight or was told I could not ask for a refund. I also asked west jet to provide proof of me being told this and they do not have any. So it is a he said she said situation.

Now I asked Redtag to escalate this and I am still waiting for a reply. I am at a complete loss as to how West jet thinks its ok to completely screw someone.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Niki Wall