‘It sucks’: WestJet bumps N.S. cycling group from flight, costing athletes costly training time
Ten members of Nova Scotia’s provincial cycling organisation are so dissapoint with their new knowledge with WestJet, they’re formulation to take a airline to court.
“It’s a summary of a fear story we hear about travelling,” says provincial organisation coach Jon Burgess.
In February, a organisation of 7 immature athletes and 3 coaches were set to fly from Halifax to Atlanta for a cycling training stay forward of tryouts for a arriving Canada Games. The outing cost $14,000 in total.
But WestJet bumped a whole organisation from their flight, that lighted a slew of transport troubles including mixed delays and moody changes. As a result, they missed roughly dual days during a camp.
“Just removing there was really defeating, really unsatisfactory on so many levels,” says Burgess who lives in Bedford, N.S.
‘Maximally stressed’
WestJet is now running a TV ad braggadocio that it doesn’t overbook flights, that can outcome in bumped passengers.
The airline told CBC News a cycling organisation was bumped since WestJet had to switch to a smaller aircraft due to “inclement weather.” It provided no sum about a continue conditions or since switching to a smaller aircraft would be beneficial.
Burgess doesn’t remember any bad continue that day. “It was ideally sunny,” he says.
Coach Jon Burgess believes his cycling organisation deserves remuneration than what WestJet offered. (N.S. cycling team)
WestJet then requisitioned a organisation onto dual apart flights withdrawal a following day. In a initial group, two coaches, including Burgess, and 5 teenaged athletes were put on a moody to Toronto with a joining Delta moody to Atlanta.
But when a organisation arrived in Toronto, they were dumbfounded to discover only a other manager was requisitioned on a Delta flight.
Burgess says he was “maximally stressed,” by that point. “Everything that could go wrong, it seems to be going wrong.”
While a one manager got to take a scheduled Delta flight, Burgess and a 5 athletes were instead put on a moody to Boston and afterwards a joining one to Atlanta.
They landed on Saturday night, roughly 24 hours after than they would’ve arrived if they hadn’t been bumped.
To make matters worse, their checked luggage and bikes didn’t arrive with them.
“No luggage, no bikes and it sucks,” recalls 16-year-old Calum MacEachen from Mahone Bay, N.S.
“It’s irritating that you’re formulation something vast and we only get fumble after mishap.”
16-year-old cycling contestant Calum MacEachen sits subsequent to Burgess during their prolonged tour to Atlanta. (N.S. cycling team)
The second organisation of 3 organisation members travelling on a apart moody also strike a snafu during a stopover in Boston.
That group, too, was somehow not requisitioned on their joining flight to Atlanta. They were put on another moody and didn’t arrive in Atlanta until Sunday — two days after their tour had begun.
Because a second organisation arrived so late, and since Burgess had to lease bikes for a initial group, it was Sunday evening by a time everybody started training. They had missed roughly dual days out of a 10-day training camp.
“When you’re holding time off of propagandize and time off of work to go down there, dual days is a lot,” says Burgess, who’s also a full-time firefighter.
By a time a athletes were means to strike a highway during a cycling camp, they had mislaid roughly dual days of training. (N.S. cycling team)
The outing wasn’t cheap, either. Although a organisation got some funding, any contestant had to compensate a vast cube of their costs. MacEachen’s mom says she shelled out about $1,600 for him to attend.
“It’s unsatisfactory for sure,” says Rosemary MacEachen. “WestJet really forsaken a ball.”
Flight vouchers
When they got back, Burgess contacted WestJet to complain. He says a airline initial offering him a $150 document per newcomer for destiny WestJet flights.
“My jaw dropped,” he says. “Like, you’re kidding, right?”
Burgess protested and says WestJet upped a offer to $200 moody vouchers.
The airline also offering to cover a group’s initial night’s accommodation during a camp, that they missed though were still charged for. WestJet said it would also reinstate the group’s baggage fees. Burgess and 5 athletes didn’t get their bags and bikes until a third day of their trip.
The offer wasn’t good adequate for Burgess or for anyone else concerned in a trip.
“It didn’t seem to be adequate deliberation what they had to go through,” says Rosemary MacEachen.
Some organisation members didn’t get their bikes until 3 days into a training camp. (N.S. cycling team)
According to WestJet’s rules, bumped passengers behind some-more than dual hours are entitled to 400 per cent of a a flight’s sheet cost to a limit of $1,300 per passenger.
But a manners don’t request if passengers are bumped since a airline had to downgrade to a smaller aircraft for reserve or operational reasons. That would embody a moody in question, says WestJet.
“This was a conditions where we were compulsory to switch to a smaller aircraft due to continue in a area,” pronounced spokesperson Lauren Stewart. “Weather, unnecessary to say, is out of a control.”
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Stewart did, however, offer an reparation to a cycling team. “We are contemptible a use a guest were supposing was clearly not adult to a WestJet standards to that we aspire,”  she pronounced in an email to CBC News.Â
Regardless, she says WestJet believes a remuneration if has offering is fair.
Burgess has teamed adult with Halifax-based airline rights activist Gabor Lukacs and skeleton to take authorised movement to quarrel for some-more remuneration for a group.
The cycling manager says if he’s successful, a income will go to a athletes who could use it for destiny training or to cover some of their debt from a Atlanta trip.
“[That’s] a biggest thing for me,” says Burgess. “It was such a financial investment for a lot of these athletes and parents.”
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nova-scotia-cycling-team-westjet-bumped-flight-1.4162822?cmp=rss