My complaint:
My friend. And I were planning a holiday in Mexico. We weren’t sure we could afford it as we are both pensioners with a small part-time income.
We were making tentative bookings. I called westjet and the agent helped find a booking. While we were setting it up I was following her online and as I picked up the flights online she could no longer access them so she helped me process online. I am telling you this because the agent in customer service acted like I was lying that I was with an agent. The flight was an econoflex which I took because there is an option to change or cancel your flight. Well, turns out you cannot cancel and get your money back but westjet keeps the money in a fund for you for later use. To me this is “change your flight” not cancel. I told the agent that I might have to cancel but at no time did she discourage me from taking the flight and at no time did she say to me, knowing my plans were tentative, that I would not get my money back. We talked a long time and she knew the situation.
My friend decided she could not afford it and I didn’t want to go alone so I was happy to be able to cancel my flight because it was very expensive compared to what it used to cost to go to Mexico.
The customer service rep was disrespectful, needless to say I was upset. And said there was no-one else I could talk to about this at westjet. She told me to look up the international airlines regulation organization and gave me no number or person I could write to to tell them my circumstance. I am a pensioner and money is limited and I feel westjet misrepresented what I could do and did not refund me as canceling a flight means you have to take another one at some point. This is misleading and the agent did not inform me after hearing my story before I made the purchase nor doest say anywhere when you are booking that you won’t be able to get your money back if you cancel. I paid more for this ability to cancel and got nothing.
Suggested solution:
Refund my payment.
