After spending a week in San Diego without a hitch, Alex Blair and his family were in for a rude awakening from WestJet.

Blair and his wife had booked a roundtrip flight from Victoria to California to accompany their daughter to soccer camp.

On Saturday, June 29, the day they were supposed to fly back home, the family received an unfortunate message from the airline.

"We woke up to an email, basically saying, 'Your flight has been cancelled. We and our partner airlines have no availability to get you home for at least 48 hours,'" Blair told Daily Hive over the phone.

"That was basically all we were told. The call centre wasn't taking calls; everything was auto-generated."

It turns out Blair and his family were among the 20,000 passengers impacted by flight cancellations due to the WestJet Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association's (AMFA) strike.

The AMFA's surprise decision to proceed with a strike beginning on the evening of Friday, June 28 forced the carrier to abruptly cancel 150 flights at the start of the busy Canada Day long weekend.

With WestJet customer service MIA, Blair and his family had to fend for themselves and find a way home.

Six days later

Fortunately, they were able to find a reasonably priced flight out of Los Angeles on Sunday with Flair. However, that required renting a car to drive to LA and booking a hotel to stay overnight.

Blair says, all in all, they spent an additional CAD$2,851.12 to get back home.

They only heard back from WestJet six days later, on July 4, when they received a message notifying them that they were booked on a return flight for the following day.

"We kind of laughed because we'd been home for four days… I don't know who has the ability to sit around for an additional five days somewhere," said Blair.

They submitted compensation requests for their return flight, car rental, meals and accommodations.

Blair says they received a refund of USD$145 for the hotel, but it didn't cover the full cost of the stay, which was USD$196.

To his chagrin, WestJet declined to reimburse them for anything else.

He says he wasn't expecting a great response from the carrier, but was "holding out hope" that it would "do the right thing" and compensate them for out-of-pocket expenses caused by its flight cancellations.

Blair took to X on Wednesday to express his frustrations after receiving the email from the airline declining their request for reimbursement.

Dear @WestJet
After cancelling our ✈️ home and
no contact or new flight for 6 days.

The least you should do is reimburse your customers for the hotel and new✈️they were forced to purchase because of your cancellation.@WestJet : Declined

Pathetic and embarrassing.

— Alex Blair (@thealexblair) August 21, 2024

He says the email explained that labour disruptions are considered outside of the carrier's control, so it does not have to reimburse customers' out-of-pocket costs.

In a response, a WestJet spokesperson apologized "for the inconvenience" Blair and his family experienced travelling back home.

They also referred to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), which says that carriers are only obligated to compensate or assist passengers when disruptions are "within airline control."

"The courts have held that the declaration of a strike marks the onset of a labour disruption. Therefore, flights disrupted due to a declaration of a strike and the strike itself are considered outside of a carrier's control under the APPR," explained the spokesperson.

However, air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs told Daily Hive that WestJet is "sowing confusion" about Blair's situation and passenger rights in general.

He cites section 18 of the APPR, which says when a cancellation is outside a carrier's control, it must rebook the passenger on the next available flight that is operated by the airline or on its partner's network, for free within 48 hours.

Since WestJet failed to provide Blair's family with an alternate ride home, Lukacs says they're entitled to reimbursement for expenses incurred from the flight they booked with Flair based on breach of contract with obligations outlined in the APPR and Article 19 of the Montreal Convention.

In addition, because the family was travelling from the US on an international itinerary, WestJet is also responsible for their expenses on meals, car rental, accommodations, telecommunications, lost wages, and any other losses they incurred.

"This is because Article 19 of the Montreal Convention imposes such liability, and WestJet clearly failed to take all reasonable measures to mitigate the passengers' delay," explained Lukacs.

As for the late response to Blair and his family's flight cancellation, WestJet blamed the high volume of phone, email and social media inquiries it was experiencing leading up to the strike.

"We apologize that Mr. Blair was not contacted in a timely manner," stated the spokesperson.

"Don't plan to ever use WestJet again"

Blair says he's becoming increasingly frustrated with dealing with a corporate entity in which he has "very little faith will do the right thing."

The ordeal his family went through is not unique. Canada's two largest airlines, Air Canada and WestJet, have been the subject of many passenger complaints. In fact, the latter is being sued for alleged misleading information on its site regarding reimbursements for flight delays or cancellations.

Blair says their family has been loyal WestJet customers for a while, but this stressful experience has changed their perception of the airline.

"We've been incredibly disappointed by them and don't plan to ever use WestJet again," he said. "It doesn't feel like there's any accountability."

Blair added that corporations should be held to a higher standard, especially if only two carriers are going to have a monopoly on air travel in Canada.

The family isn't going to take the declined compensation lying down. Blair says they will proceed with taking the case to small claims court.