WestJet is at it again. Check your flights.

[ottawamom]

I'm figuring an already full overhead bin by the time I get on the flight. No issues reaching DH is 6'3".

 

[bababear_50]

Both trips before boarding the plane the flight crew asked for people to volunteer (at no cost) to gate check their carryon bag in.
Seems many people are only using carry-ons lately.
Planes are just not made to handle all those carry-ons in cabin.

Hugs Mel

 

[hdrolfe]

I travel with carry ons only 90% of the time, I don't want to pay to check the bag, or have to wait for it at the end. They are always asking for people to gate check their bags. Who knows, maybe next time I'll say ok to the gate checking. If you are near the front of the plane you will likely be boarding sooner and have space available for your bags.

 

[ottawamom]

Don't gate check if you can avoid it. Last time I flew I thought I would be nice and gate check as I was just coming home. It took 45 minutes for them to get the bags off the plane and onto the carousel in Ottawa. Keep that in mind when volunteering.

 

[bababear_50]

Don't gate check if you can avoid it. Last time I flew I thought I would be nice and gate check as I was just coming home. It took 45 minutes for them to get the bags off the plane and onto the carousel in Ottawa. Keep that in mind when volunteering.

Now she tells me...........

 

[Lesverts]

If not enough people gate check, they will force you. They will just make an announcement, all those in boarding groups 3-5 will have their bags gate checked. If the gate agents are on the petty side of things, if they don't get enough volunteers and have to gate check while loading the plane. They will charge you.

 

[SirDuff]

I was kidding. You know it's always Mom's fault... The aren't codesharing.

On a slightly positive not I just received notification from Airmiles (booked through Airmiles flights on WestJet) that the flights had changed,.. Call them if I needed to discuss it... I already tried that this morning and gave up waiting. I'll just stick with what WestJet has decided to book me on. Crossing my fingers and toes it all works out. I've got a grandbaby being born to get back to.

Sorry, I was a bit slow yesterday - I was really wondering what Air Canada had done *now* that they had even managed to mess up a different airline's scheduling.

Good luck and congratulations on the new grandbaby.

 

[merfsko]

Ahhh... this prompted me to check my July flights and sure, enough... my outgoing 10:15am flight is now a 4:00pm and my return 1:45pm flight is now 11:00am. The return flight is particularly annoying since I'm coming off DCL that day and I can't handle the stress of that tight of a turnaround... I guess be joining the callback parties this week.

 

[ottawamom]

In my case they are still flying from LA to Toronto, it's just that it lands a few hours after the one flight per day to Ottawa leaves. So now I get to detour via Calgary.

I liked having the option of WestJet or Air Canada when making my flying choices. I'm thinking I will be back to flying out of the States moving forward for my Orlando trips. Clearing the border via a land crossing is so much easier. The airport we fly out of is smaller and easy to navigate and the flights in the US are cheaper.

I would love to support Canadian airlines it's just getting really tough to do that.

 

[I Run Long]

In my case they are still flying from LA to Toronto, it's just that it lands a few hours after the one flight per day to Ottawa leaves. So now I get to detour via Calgary.

I liked having the option of WestJet or Air Canada when making my flying choices. I'm thinking I will be back to flying out of the States moving forward for my Orlando trips. Clearing the border via a land crossing is so much easier. The airport we fly out of is smaller and easy to navigate and the flights in the US are cheaper.

I would love to support Canadian airlines it's just getting really tough to do that.

I agree - we would love to support Cdn airlines but this is just getting out of hand. I think we will fly through Seattle from now on. Unfortunately since we live on Vancouver Island that means either a ferry or a short flight off the island. Even with that, it's still cheaper to fly to MCO out of the U.S.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

uestion for those who have connected from US through Calgary. Is 1 1/2 connection doable going through customs etc? If it's like Ottawa, I would say yes, in and out of customs here in no time.

Albertan here Getting through customs in Calgary is a breeze compared to Toronto. That will be plenty of time for you to get through. The sucky part is going through security again to get to your gate. The good thing is, Calgary airport is easy to navigate and you can get to your gate quickly.

 

[bbangel]

Albertan here Getting through customs in Calgary is a breeze compared to Toronto. That will be plenty of time for you to get through. The sucky part is going through security again to get to your gate. The good thing is, Calgary airport is easy to navigate and you can get to your gate quickly.

Glad to hear that. I have a connection through Calgary to San Diego and they just moved it up over an hour so I only have an hour and a half in Calgary instead of the more comfortable almost 3 hours I booked!

 

[ottawamom]

Albertan here Getting through customs in Calgary is a breeze compared to Toronto. That will be plenty of time for you to get through. The sucky part is going through security again to get to your gate. The good thing is, Calgary airport is easy to navigate and you can get to your gate quickly.

Thanks for the heads up about having to go through security again. I will make sure to rearrange my carryon once through in LA to account for the need clear security again in Calgary. I pack things that need to be seen together in a shopping type bag until I'm through security then I usually repack to meet the airline carryon requirements. I will change that up a little.

Advance knowledge of the setup in Calgary is golden.

 

[jenkh]

thank you for the heads up. Both our flights got changes earlier. Luckily it works for us, but we still haven't been informed by them.

 

[ottawamom]

I got an email from Airmiles about the changes. I haven't heard anything from WestJet even though they also had my email on file.

 

[Silvermist999]

Ahhh... this prompted me to check my July flights and sure, enough... my outgoing 10:15am flight is now a 4:00pm and my return 1:45pm flight is now 11:00am. The return flight is particularly annoying since I'm coming off DCL that day and I can't handle the stress of that tight of a turnaround... I guess be joining the callback parties this week.

It was inevitable I suppose, I got an email this morning about our July flights also.

My 10:15am flight out of Pearson is now 4pm, and we land in MCO close to 7pm. Not acceptable, the only other direct option is a 7:30am flight. Coming home we were supposed to get back around 9pm, changed to 11:30pm. Looks like they eliminated the 10:15am morning flights completely for other dates I checked.

 

[ottawamom]

Count your blessings. At least they are still flying out of Toronto to MCO.

I'm kind of annoyed that they publish a schedule and you book based on that. Then they pull the rug out from under you as they've got your money and you have no choice but to fly with them.

 

[Debbie]

Count your blessings. At least they are still flying out of Toronto to MCO.

I'm kind of annoyed that they publish a schedule and you book based on that. Then they pull the rug out from under you as they've got your money and you have no choice but to fly with them.

They've always done that. I got snookered once when I booked a direct flight early and then they changed their schedule so they weren't even flying out of London for my dates, so no wiggle room whatsoever. I had to scramble to book an AC flight.

 

[I Run Long]

When we travelled last Aug/Sept they changed our return flight twice. Both times I almost accepted the flight changes thinking, "Perfect! We get to leave a little later and don't have to get up at the crack of dawn for our flight". That is until I noticed it was 2 days earlier - both times!! Ah no, we've paid for our tickets and have our stay booked on points, I'm not returning sooner. Sheesh!

 

[Silvermist999]

What really bugs me is that I booked our flights when they had that big seat sale in early January. Now that they changed my flights, if I want to change them, I’ve got to pay the price difference because the sale is over. Nice strategy to lock us in.