Calgary Family Calls For WestJet Refund After 'Day From Hell' & Missed $4K Vacation

A Calgary family is calling on WestJet to refund them for a $4,000 trip after they spent an entire day travelling, only to find themselves back in Calgary at the end.

April Kendell told Narcity that she is asking WestJet for a full refund after a series of delays led to her family having to cancel their entire vacation.

Kendell had been travelling to Deer Lake, Newfoundland from Calgary via Toronto with her partner, two kids, her sister and her sister's boyfriend, on July 14.

Kendell said booking the trip had cost around $4,000 in total including $3,000 for flights and another $1,000 for a dog kennel.

She said their original flight to Toronto was due to leave Calgary at 7 a.m., but it was cancelled. The party was then moved to a later flight, which they boarded at 9 a.m. before spending another two hours on the tarmac.

"While this happened I panicked because I knew our connecting flight was only a two-hour layover," she explained.

However, she said that when she told a WestJet employee, she was "assured" the flight to Deer Lake would be held in Toronto.

"She even did the dismissive causal wave of 'oh it’s fine'," Kendell said.

Kendell said that when they did take off, her sister paid for WiFi and saw the Deer Lake flight had not been held.

Once the group arrived in Toronto, Kendell said they proceeded to wait in line for almost six hours to speak to an agent about their missed connecting flight.

"No WestJet employee in Toronto was made aware of what they were inheriting from Calgary," Kendell said.

According to Kendall, the group was given the option to wait in Toronto until the next flight to Deer Lake, which was in three days' time, but she said the airline "refused to pay for a hotel or offer any vouchers for food."

They also looked into flying to Ottawa instead but Kendall says they were told they would need to pay the fare difference "which would have amounted to another $1,000."

"The only way we could get those kids off the Toronto airport floor without paying extra was to fly right back to Calgary," she added.

In a statement to Narcity, WestJet said that several flights had been impacted after it "experienced significant uncontrollable delays" due to a "third-party infrastructure outage," on the same day that Kendell travelled.

The airline also tweeted about the outage.

"We apologize to our impacted guests for the unexpected disruption to their travel and understand the frustration involved when travel does not go as planned," it said.

"In the event of an uncontrollable flight interruption," WestJet said in its statement to Narcity that it will accommodate guests on the next available flight, but they "do suggest that impacted guests review their travel insurance policy as additional support and coverage may be offered through a third-party or credit card used at the time of booking."

This article's left-hand cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.