Stupid Airlines
I recently sent an email to WestJet.
Dish said:
I am wondering why I can book a round-trip ticket from Ottawa to Charlottetown, but I can't book a one-way ticket from Charlottetown to Ottawa.
WestJet responded:
Thank you for taking the time to contact WestJet. Hearing from you is important to us and I apologize for the delay of our response.
Currently, our guests can book flights from Ottawa to Charlottetown only, we do not offer return flights on this route at this time unfortunately.
As we add more aircraft to our fleet and WestJetters to our family we are always looking for ways to improve the service we offer. Knowing that you and possibly other guests would like to see service from Charlottetown to Ottawa helps us as we grow and strive to provide convenient service throughout our network.
Please bear in mind the addition of new flights to our route network is affected by the rate at which we add new aircraft to our fleet, public demand and more. I have shared your comments with our Marketing and Scheduling teams for their input when they are considering adjustments to our schedule.
Thank you for thinking of WestJet Trish, we hope to welcome you aboard an enjoyable and convenient flight with us before long.
Now, not only did it take them 20 days to even get back to me, by which point I had already booked with another airline, but they did not even provide a satisfactory response. According to their brilliant marketing, I can fly from Ottawa to Charlottetown and back or I can fly one-way from Ottawa to Charlottetown, but it is somehow impossible for me to fly from Charlottetown to Ottawa.
Now, clearly they have planes going from Charlottetown to Ottawa, otherwise how would the people who booked the round-trip tickets get back to Ottawa? And clearly there must be availability on their flights sometimes since people are allowed to book one-way tickets and theoretically those seats would be empty on the way back. Am I missing something in the logic here?
In any case, Dish is one unimpressed WestJet customer (well, except for the fact that I have never actually flown with WestJet because of these difficulties so I guess I am an unimpressed non-WestJet customer).
In an attempt to be the bigger person in this situation, I will refrain from pointing out all the grammatical errors in their reply. :o)
posted by Dish @ 6:00 PM
4 Comments:
I don't see what the problem is. You've always said that PEI is the place to be. Clearly people agree with you and love it so much that they just end up staying there and there less need for a flight to Ottawa.
It's unfortunate that we live in an age where people do not appear to even attempt to look into answering the questions at hand. The respondent completely missed the mark in his/her answer. However, the feedback did provide valuable insight into the possible problems with WestJet's system.
A plausible reason for not providing the flight is that marketing has more recently added flights from Ottawa to Charlottetown due to market feedback from Ottawa travelers, and:
a) Marketing did not direct the web site developers to provide the converse flight information, even though it is clearly available.
b) The web site developers completely overlooked adding this information due to laziness or poor design.
Being an engineer, and having run across this problem before on other web sites, Gus Johnson felt inclined to investigate.
Whilst choosing a round-trip flight from Ottawa to Charlottetown, it was noted that the return leg actually connects through the Centre of the Universe (C.U. -- sorry, for you T-dotters, that is a less-than-endearing term for Toronto). Using this information, Gus Johnson found that he could select a Multi-city trip from Charlottetown to C.U. and then from C.U. to Ottawa. Also of interest was the fact that booking this way decreased the return price by about $7.
Now, Gus Johnson does not endorse WestJet. In fact, after this discovery, Gus Johnson can only deride WestJet for this practice. This clearly proves that you cannot trust that the airline is providing all the necessary information about obtaining the least costly flight, or, as this case has shown, any good flight information at all.
Your in-depth research impresses me. I think maybe you should do some Dear Dish guest spots. :o)
Dish also likes that Gus Johnson refers to himself in the third person just like Dish does. ha ha.
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