Goodbye WestJet
By Roger Bill
It was 2:30 AM and the arrivals area at the St. John’s airport was quiet and almost empty. Three couples gathered at the Westjet baggage counter to report lost baggage. What was odd, however, was the presence of an elderly woman who appeared to be, at least, well into her 60’s who was a not a passenger on the late-arriving Westjet flight.
When the elderly woman got the attention of the Westjet baggage attendant she said she was looking for luggage that was supposed to have arrived on a flight three days earlier. What was puzzling was, why was this older woman out in the middle of a frigid night looking for lost luggage?
One answer is that Westjet’s online tracking service could not locate the elderly woman’s missing baggage. Surprise surprise.
An example from a recent experience with the airline’s online tracking service: a piece of luggage went missing on an outgoing January 13 Westjet flight. Three days later Westjet’s online tracking service continues to say the bag has been found and is enroute. Facing the choice of believing in the tooth fairy or wading into the chaos at a crowded Caribbean airport to search for the bag what came next was push, shove, jump the queue. Wrong spot. Gotta go someplace else. Get in line. Wait wait wait. One of the people at the head of the line-up welcomes a newcomer with the greeting, “Welcome to purgatory.” Eventually the bag is retrieved. No apologies.
Weeks later, as this is being written, Westjet’s online tracking service continues to say the airline has, “Good News. We’ve located your baggage. We are awaiting receipt of your baggage at the airport.”
A second reason why the elderly woman was at the St. John’s airport in the middle of a frigid night is that Westjet’s 1-888 “contact us” phone service is more than crap. Waiting on hold for an hour before giving up was the last step before spending an afternoon at the crowded Caribbean airport searching for lost luggage.
A third reason the elderly woman was out in the middle of a winter night is that Westjet personnel generally disappear from the St. John’s airport except for servicing the outgoing 05:30 AM Toronto flight and it’s 12:40 AM return. The elderly woman has two chances to speak face-to-face with someone from Westjet at the St. John’s airport. One is before most people have breakfast and other is after most people have gone to bed.
Remember 2007/08? Air Canada announces it is cancelling the direct St. John’s to London flight. Then Mayor Andy Wells announces St. John’s City staff would no longer fly Air Canada. Since then, Westjet has been the carrier of choice for many. Now Westjet is cutting back its service to Atlantic Canada. What customer service it provides bears little resemblance to the days when its employees were shareholders in the company and Westjet’s slogan was “Owners Care.” Why the change? Thank Onex, the Toronto based private equity firm that bought Westjet in 2019.
Oh, the bag that went missing on the January 13 flight to the Caribbean also went missing on the return flight to St. John’s. For four days Westjet’s online tracking service said Westjet was “searching for your baggage.”
In the meantime, the gifts for the grandchildren . . . the stuffed doll and the magic shells with their names written on them (they had seen the pictures) . . . ah, they were in a bag we gave to Westjet and I’m sure. . . uh, … what if Westjet can’t find the bag? Hmm, one of these nights Pop will go out to the airport and see if he can find it.
Then, the bag shows up. It is kind of a happy funny ending. The handle is broken. The bag is torn. Ruined. But the magic shells survived the journey.
Thanks, Westjet. You can delete the tracking references for the bag’s January journey and its return. It’s obvious, however, you’ve changed. Your focus has shifted west towards other markets. Onex’s calculation is that it will improve your bottom line. Hard to argue with that. The sale was a $5 billion deal. Employees aren’t shareholders any longer. It’s business. Things change, but for those of us who remember the early Westjet days, well, it was good while it lasted.