Did your original flight happen to be to/from the US? If you want a quicker response and the itinerary happens to involve a US destination, you may want to file a DOT complaint, as WS is obligated to respond within a fixed period of time (initial response within 30 days, full response within 60 days). The basic (informal) DOT complaint form is quick and easy. The content of WS's response may not be any different, but at least it gives them a deadline to respond, and it'll get tracked by the DOT. Unfortunately doesn't apply if it's a domestic Canada flight or another Intl destination outside of the US.

While WS has done flashy press releases promoting their refund program as "industry leading, WS's refund process seems like smoke and mirrors with no set timelines, no criteria for refunds, and their phone agents aren't able to discuss refunds.

 

No........unfortunately within Canada

 

I couldn't agree more! In fact, after being denied my refund, I may have written an e-mail to a senior WS executive titled "Why is WestJet misleading the public about refunds?" wherein I expressed that same view and my disappointment with their stance

 

May I ask what reason was given for the denial ?

 

Reasons for denial are simple: WS found alternative flights to your destination either through WS or DL. I think someone upthread or I read somewhere else had them go from WS direct LGA to YYZ to all DL-metal on LGA-ATL-JFK-YYZ.... and was classified as not eligible for refund.

I think DL codeshares do not extend to the Caribbean or Mexico making refunds more likely

 

Detailed in this post.

 

I managed to obtain a full credit card refund from WestJet for a April 2020 roundtrip itinerary after months of back-and-forth email correspondence, with the Canadian Transportation Agency acting as the mediator. Is there a suitable thread to post up my experience as a data point?

 

Interesting. My flights for an April 2020 trip were cancelled. I just left it at that and in the Winter of 20/21 I got an email from Westjet to call in and request a refund. I did so and got my refund 2 weeks later. Seemed like a well organized process for me.

 

Please share your story.

 

Hopefully this will help some of the folks here with ongoing disputes in obtaining their refund!

I booked a roundtrip flight from British Columbia to California, set to travel entirely within April 2020. On the basis of availability, the outbound sector of the ticket was Premium Fare, and the inbound sector was PremiumFlex Fare, fully on WS metal.

Initial outcome after COVID struck: 28 Mar 2020, the ticket amount was fully credited into Travel Bank. No alternative flight or rebooking offered.

2nd follow-up outcome (no escalation required): 22 Apr 2020, the PremiumFlex portion of the ticket was fully refunded into my original form of payment, while the Premium portion stayed as a credit in Travel Bank.

At this point in time, I started escalating my case to the customer service hotline asking for the remainder of the ticket to be refunded to my original form of payment but to no avail. I submitted a dispute with the Canadian Transportation Agency on 07 May 2020 outlining the facts of my complaint against WestJet.

The Canadian Transportation Agency finally initiated contact with WestJet ([email protected]) in December 2020 and instructed them to provide me with a reply by January 2021. Funny enough, Westjet didn't act upon this request until March 2021.

The contact person from WestJet went by the name of Jane, with her job title being Regulatory Guest Relations | Advisor. This was her initial response (dollar amounts omitted), with the CTA ([email protected]) on carbon copy:

I responded to that email by rattling off the list of airport charges and fees:

CAD 12.10 CA4 (AIR TRAVELLERS SECURITY
CHARGE)
CAD 63.55 XG8 (GOODS AND SERVICES TAX
(GST ))
CAD 25.00 SQ (AIRPORT IMPROVEMENT FEE
(AIF))
CAD 1.25 XG9 (GOODS AND SERVICES TAX
(GST ))
CAD 4 9.36 US2 (TRANSPORTATION TAX
(INTERNATIONAL))
CAD 7.69 YC (CUSTOMS USER FEE)
CAD 9.14 XY2 (IMMIGRATION USER FEE)
CAD 5.17 XA (APHIS USER FEE)
CAD 7.31 AY (SEPTEMBER 11TH SECURITY FEE)
CAD 5.88 XF (PASSENGER FACILITY CHARGE)

Given that these additional fees made up a proportion of the remainder of the airfare that was NOT yet refunded back to me, I questioned Westjet whether it was actually appropriate to pocket these amounts. No alternative flight was offered or scheduled for this particular transaction, therefore for all intents and purposes, this flight has not and will not ever occur in the entire history of humankind. I questioned WestJet in holding my remainder airfare as hostage, whether it was appropriate to pretend that this flight had indeed occurred.

Finally, another WestJet representative responded on the email chain, going by the name of Gail, with the same job title as Jane:

Got the outcome that I wanted, albeit Westet dragged it all the way until 07 April 2021 with their pettiness.

 

I don't know if this was discussed earlier in this forum but...anyone knows a way to get a refund from Swoop? I have a travel credit with them and It will expire in March 2022 ...However.. there is no flights available with them in the Atlantic region to anywhere and I don't intend to travel with them.

Thanks for your reply/Help

 

Still waiting for a refund for a flight they delayed/moved 24 hours.

Flight to Paris is no longer useful. My TA, requested it twice, and I have yet to see anything come across... can't they even respect their own tariffs??

 

Filled in an online complaint form to Canadian Transportation Agency last week complaining about the Westjet refund not coming through yet. Received an email last night showing the Agency emailing Westjet on Tuesday then Westjet replying to them and myself last night saying they will refund the full amount immediately to Mastercard. Never thought Government would work so fast. 😀

 

Nice. I�m still waiting� CTA is involved now and as far as I can tell I still have a ticket to Paris on WS open for tomorrow. Except I�m already in Paris via AC.

 

< Dumb question alert > ... and I might have posted to the wrong thread, too.

A friend got the "Important changes to your upcoming WestJet flight" alert from Westjet.

"Unfortunately, due to adjustments to our flight schedule, we’ve had to change or cancel one or more of your WestJet flights. Our systems have automatically selected the closest available flight options and you’ll find a proposed new itinerary below."

The choices are: go with the new proposed itinerary, or click Cancel, or phone in.

But what happens if my friend takes no action?