“Slipping hard”: WestJet slammed after customer complaints go viral

A WestJet customer’s recent negative experience has struck a nerve with Canadians online, leading to hundreds sharing their experiences with air travel lately.

In a post that has been seen more than 500,000 times, Kevin McCurdy wrote on X that he and his wife paid for premium seats on WestJet flights between Edmonton and Toronto and Edmonton and Halifax.

He never received his premium seats, however. McCurdy said that the jets on both flights were swapped out last minute for former Swoop aircraft, which did not contain premium seats or any of the perks one would expect while flying premium.

McCurdy wrote that in both cases, he waited on hold with WestJet customer service for an hour each time to resolve the issue but never spoke to a human and did not receive his credit for the first incident.

“I rarely publicize my frustrations; however, you have broken my trust, and that is not easily regained, also you are impossible to get ahold of,” he said.

McCurdy told Daily Hive that while he didn’t intend for the post to go viral, he wanted to “highlight the issues with air travel in Canada” and not just his situation.

Hi @WestJet

We need to talk.

I’m not sure what’s going on with you, but you’re slipping hard.

My wife and I paid for premium seats in both directions on our flights (one from YEG to YHZ the other from YYZ to YEG), and in both cases at the last minute our jets were swapped…

— Kevin McCurdy (@McCurdy1987) August 1, 2024

WestJet told Daily Hive that it “sincerely apologised” for McCurdy’s inconvenience and had contacted him directly.

“We understand how frustrating it can be when travel does not go as planned. When equipment changes occur, cabin downgrades can sometimes be required if the Premium cabin becomes unavailable,” WestJet explained.

In McCurdy’s replies, WestJet said that it “hit a rough patch” in June.

Hi Kevin – we agree, the time is right for a talk. It’s not you, it’s us. We hit a rough patch at the end of June, and it is taking us longer than we expected to recover. We absolutely understand we let you down-both directions-and we appreciate 1/3

— WestJet (@WestJet) August 2, 2024

you filling in the forms,as the automation is being worked on, as is the retrofit of our aircraft. We had to press them into service early as we needed the planes for our summer schedule. However, this is little excuse for letting you down twice 2/3

— WestJet (@WestJet) August 2, 2024

So please, accept our apology, and our commitment that the next month will be better than the last, and that we will keep working on ourselves until we are worthy of your loyalty. Please send us a private message with your reservation code and email. Thank you 💙 3/3

— WestJet (@WestJet) August 2, 2024

But, as McCurdy highlighted in his post, his issue is just one of many that people have experienced. Some comments pointed to a trend in the airline industry of frequent flight cancellations and difficult-to-reach customer service agents.

In July, a couple whose WestJet flight from Calgary to Kamloops was cancelled took matters into their own hands by renting a car and driving home after being rebooked on a flight two days later.

A dad from Alberta also expressed his outrage online after he said WestJet cancelled and didn’t rebook his wife’s flight, leaving her and their baby stranded.