Flying Westjet? Check your flights!

[Toy Story Fan]

Just checked on our WestJet return direct flights from Edmonton to Orlando in December and it stated that our flights have been cancelled. I then noticed that there was a new itinerary and the times had changed by a few minutes and on the flight back, the plane was changed. So for now, we still have the direct flights within minutes of our original flights. Fingers crossed that it stays this way! I wonder why they didn’t state a time change instead of a cancelled flight change? Is it because they changed out one of the planes? It’s now a Max 8 coming home. I phoned this morning to confirm we still have these flights and I got through in less than 5 minutes! I was expecting hours.

 

[tlcdoula]

I've been watching since Sep1st for the next round of changes since the last few months the beginning of the month is when they push them through; believe it's typically for the 7/8th of the following month through the 7/8th of the next month Wishing everyone luck with their current changes.

I am thinking Of just leaving ours to what they changed them to for now. We are booked for mid November so you think we should see the big changes by early October?

Our flights are boon west jet dollars so I’m not worried about having to cancel and rebook. I just don’t want to waste my time if they are going to keep changing them. I hope they will restart the direct flight from yvr to sna. It’s a long shot but one can hope

 

[damo]

Our flight that they cancelled from Toronto to Orlando was for December 1.

 

[HersheyKiss]

Ugh I just checked and our flights have changed. I'm not really surprised though. There used to be 3 flights a day to John Wayne and now there's only one. Our flights there are only 90 minutes later (3 hour 50 minute layer in Vancouver vs 2 hour 20 min) which is fine, but on the way home we now have to stay overnight in Vancouver. At least we get there early enough to have dinner before going to bed, Thankfully I had enough Hilton points to book a hotel near the airport.

 

[tlcdoula]

Ugh I just checked and our flights have changed. I'm not really surprised though. There used to be 3 flights a day to John Wayne and now there's only one. Our flights there are only 90 minutes later (3 hour 50 minute layer in Vancouver vs 2 hour 20 min) which is fine, but on the way home we now have to stay overnight in Vancouver. At least we get there early enough to have dinner before going to bed, Thankfully I had enough Hilton points to book a hotel near the airport.

When are you going? I couldn’t find a direct flight from yvr on nov 13.

 

[HersheyKiss]

When are you going? I couldn’t find a direct flight from yvr on nov 13.

November 8-15

 

[bcwife76]

So I had not booked our flights yet for DD13 and I to go to Disneyland in November. Just checked and while there is a direct flight home on our date still (Nov 14) there is no direct flight TO LAX on our date (Nov 10) but there is a direct flight every single other day Didn't really want to pull DD out of school for two days (she's in high school now) so I don't know what to do....Air Canada meanwhile has four direct flights every single day but we have to use WJ because of our credits (and because we paid waaayyyy too much for our AC flights to DR last month).

 

[bcwife76]

When are you going? I couldn’t find a direct flight from yvr on nov 13.

There is a direct flight at 1:45pm from YVR to LAX on the 13. Or are you looking for SNA?

 

[tlcdoula]

So I had not booked our flights yet for DD13 and I to go to Disneyland in November. Just checked and while there is a direct flight home on our date still (Nov 14) there is no direct flight TO LAX on our date (Nov 10) but there is a direct flight every single other day Didn't really want to pull DD out of school for two days (she's in high school now) so I don't know what to do....Air Canada meanwhile has four direct flights every single day but we have to use WJ because of our credits (and because we paid waaayyyy too much for our AC flights to DR last month).

Sooo frustrating. If they keep changing we will be bouncing around till who knows when. I really would rather not have to add a hotel stay before or after our flights to save on costs because nothing about travelling right now is going to be cheap.

 

[tlcdoula]

There is a direct flight at 1:45pm from YVR to LAX on the 13. Or are you looking for SNA?

I really want SNA but that might not end up being feasible.

 

[bcwife76]

100%. This is just one kick after another.

 

[Chip#1]

Definitely don't quote me (because I would feel HORRIBLE if something happened to someone's flight because of me) but I think i've been tracking this early month change thing w WJ for at least 4 months now (I've also been having to track AA, Delta & United because those guys keep changing as well). @ottawamom -- if you have been tracking this flight for a good 6 weeks and it's only 2 weeks away and domestic, I would feel comfortable booking it now. I feel the beginning of the month change is their 'locking it in' period and while yes some further out flights like @damo for Dec 1st do come up (which if they are going to be rude and cancel my flight, I would prefer to know now vs in another month) -- my MCO-YYC actually changed up this time last month but only the departure time. Of course that being said, they can always change short notice too -- I have the YYC departures/arrivals on my phone and for 3 months looked at it daily (now I'm only looking every few days) but they are all still doing the whole 'let's cancel this Victoria flight and put everyone on this later Vic flight to fill it up'; which I definitely experienced pre-Covid.

 

[Chip#1]

I am thinking Of just leaving ours to what they changed them to for now. We are booked for mid November so you think we should see the big changes by early October?

Our flights are boon west jet dollars so I’m not worried about having to cancel and rebook. I just don’t want to waste my time if they are going to keep changing them. I hope they will restart the direct flight from yvr to sna. It’s a long shot but one can hope

Yours is a tough one. When you mentioned before about SNA-YYC I was all excited; the problem is there's no history or tracking a person can do because I dont think that leg was supposed to start till Nov anyway -- but yes for a mid Nov flight I would anticipate them 'locking it in' beginning of Oct. I took at look at the SNA flights and it looks like they have the SNA-YVR for Sunday/Friday through most of October then starting Nov 1st showing Sun/Mon/Friday with the SNA-YYC thrown in there for Thur/Sat. It truly is a tough one; if i was booked on that SNA-YYC for say Nov 4th I would probably honestly have a backup plan...(I have trust issues which is obvious from pretty much all my posts!) much like I do now with my MCO-YYC. While it should be locked in...they've done that to me before and changed/canceled. I feel bad because I'm certainly not being helpful. I would recommend tracking these SNA-YVR Oct flights and make sure they go as scheduled; while I don't see them changing those Thurs/Sat from SNA-YYC to SNA-YVR, they might still keep those going and you can adjust from there. If you can swing it, I would probably stay another day in DL and come back on the Sunday? I hear ya on the SNA vs LAX; that's what we are doing at the end of Oct -- booked with United through Denver (which they already changed on me and took me 3 calls for a total of 5.5hrs to get things adjusted and sorted out).

 

[bookbabe626]

The person I talked to on the WJ Gold Support Line this morning, when I called to fix two of the three cancelled/changed trips we woke up to this morning, said that today’s update covers the period up to December 15th. Flights before that should be pretty set, as far as she was aware.

For those keeping track of what kinds of changes:
Trip one, YYZ to MCO, Oct 16-24, departure leaving two hours later, return leaving five hours earlier, but at least the same travel days.
Trip two, YYZ to GCM (Cayman) in November, entirely cancelled, no flights until Dec. Have not fixed that yet, will likely end up on AC.
Thrip three, YYZ to MCO, Dec 3-8, departure only 5 min later but no Wednesday returns so they bumped us to Thursday. Changed to Tuesday since DH can’t take the extra day off.

Sigh. We normally love WJ, but they’re making it really hard right now.

 

[bcwife76]

Well if these really are the set flights up until December 15 then their schedule lies. Supposed to be a daily direct flight YVR to LAX but there is no direct flight on Wednesdays. I wouldn't call that daily

 

[Chip#1]

That would be golden if they were finally set after all these months of changing -- at some point you have to just set it and forget it; otherwise they will continuously lose customers.

 

[bcwife76]

Alright, the November 10 (Wednesday) direct flight is now showing on WJ's site. Except it's coming up at $970 a person vs $213 which are all the other dates around it. I feel like I'm being punk'd.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

They did this right before they cancelled all SNA flights before. - I noticed my flight I had booked was now $900+ and so was every other day for the month of September. Next day they cancelled all SNA flights and moved us to LAX

 

[thenicefamily]

So I had not booked our flights yet for DD13 and I to go to Disneyland in November. Just checked and while there is a direct flight home on our date still (Nov 14) there is no direct flight TO LAX on our date (Nov 10)

We just booked YVR-LAX direct on November 10th (1:45p.m. out of YVR) with WestJet. Booked SNA-YVR direct on the return on 14th. Both mean getting to YVR from Vancouver Island - WJ seems to have cancelled all reasonable connecting flights into SNA for now) - but they're very reasonable times and you can't beat a 2.5 hour direct flight. Here's hoping they stick!

 

[bcwife76]

Sooo frustrating. If they keep changing we will be bouncing around till who knows when. I really would rather not have to add a hotel stay before or after our flights to save on costs because nothing about travelling right now is going to be cheap.

We just booked YVR-LAX direct on November 10th (1:45p.m. out of YVR) with WestJet. Booked SNA-YVR direct on the return on 14th. Both mean getting to YVR from Vancouver Island - WJ seems to have cancelled all reasonable connecting flights into SNA for now) - but they're very reasonable times and you can't beat a 2.5 hour direct flight. Here's hoping they stick!

So I just looked at again at our dates (Nov 10-14) and WJ wants $2600 for the two of us round trip Ugh, what in the heck? Meanwhile AC wants $800 for the same dates. Something is very screwy in the WJ system because I'm not paying $2600