Sask. family says WestJet cancellation derailed Mexico trip

Editor’s note: The story has been updated to include a statement from WestJet.

A Saskatchewan family said a long-planned Christmas vacation to Mexico spiralled into a costly and stressful ordeal after their flight from Regina to Cancun was cancelled after passengers had already boarded.

Dionne Sproat said the trip was meant to be a rare chance for her extended family to travel together for the holidays. “This was supposed to be our first trip away together as a family,” she said. “We just wanted to do something different for Christmas.”

Read more:

• Christmas Q&A: Santa spills secrets to five-year-old Sask. boy
• Santa in the North: Rise Air brings holiday magic to northern Sask.
• Elbow man fined more than $36K, charged with illegal outfitting scheme at game farm

The group 14 relatives, spanning three generations, travelled from Kipling to Regina ahead of the scheduled departure on Dec. 19. Sproat said conditions on the highway were already deteriorating, prompting them to stay overnight in the city to ensure they made the flight.

Once at the airport, she said everything appeared routine. Passengers boarded the plane and took their seats, but after sitting on the tarmac for more than an hour, the pilot made a series of announcements that offered little clarity.

Sproat said the pilot initially apologized for the delay and told passengers he did not yet know the reason. A second update suggested weather might be a factor, something Sproat questioned as she watched other aircraft depart. A third announcement pointed instead to an operational issue.

Minutes later, she said a flight attendant told everyone to disembark. The flight was cancelled.

The aircraft, Sproat said, was full of families and holiday travellers. What followed were hours of confusion inside the terminal.

Sproat said it took roughly an hour to unload the luggage, during which many passengers assumed the delay would still be resolved. One traveller, she said, briefly had his baggage misplaced despite the plane never leaving Regina.

Attempts to contact WestJet by phone were unsuccessful, she said, with automated messages stating call volumes were too high. When emails finally arrived, Sproat said the family discovered their group had been split into multiple rebooked itineraries.

Screenshots shared with 980 CJME show replacement routes involving multiple connections through U.S. cities, including Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle, some of which stretch overnight and push arrival into Cancun well into the following day.

One of the offered flight itineraries for Sproat’s family, which includes flights from United Airlines and is more than 24 hours of travel. (Dionne Sproat/Submitted)

A different family member was offered this set of flights, with more than 24 hours of travel. Some flights are provided from Alaska Airlines. (Dionne Sproat/Submitted)

Sproat said one family, travelling with a six-month-old and a four-year-old, faced particularly long and impractical travel times.

“It just didn’t make sense,” she said. “We were all booked together, and suddenly we were scattered everywhere.”

Sproat also raised concerns about uneven support following the cancellation.

She said her family members with the flights through Alaska Airlines were offered vouchers from WestJet. Her mother-in-law and father-in-law, who were rerouted several days after the initial flight, were also given vouchers. Sproat was also offered a food voucher.

But other family members were offered nothing.

While Sproat said the vouchers don’t change the outcome of the trip, she appreciates the gesture.

“At least there’s something coming this way,” she said.

Sproat said the vouchers came after 980 CJME’s media inquiries were made.

Since then, Sproat hasn’t heard any update from WestJet, other than an email saying that the proposed flight WestJet had offered her was delayed.

Family books completely new trip

Sproat said extending the original vacation was not an option. Resort availability, contract timelines and pre-paid arrangements made partial stays impractical, especially for a group of their size.

Instead, she said the family made the difficult decision to book an entirely new holiday, putting tens of thousands of dollars onto a credit card just days before Christmas.

The new booking came with compromises. Sproat said the family downgraded to a lower-tier resort within the same complex and still risked losing the money already paid for the original stay.

The expenses did not stop there.

Sproat said the family absorbed what she described as another $1,200 in baggage-related costs, along with hundreds more to arrange private transportation from the airport in Mexico. She said the group could not safely manage a multi-hour bus route that drops off other passengers first, given the number of people and young children travelling.

“That transfer was something we planned and paid for back in the summer,” she said. “Now we’re paying for it again.”

Meanwhile, she said the family has yet to be reimbursed for meals and a hotel stay in Regina on the night of the cancellation, when the weather worsened, and highways around the city began to close.

Sproat said WestJet’s email cited weather as the reason for the cancellation, something she disputes based on what she said relatives later heard and observed.

Larger issue at hand

Beyond the financial strain, she said the experience highlighted a larger issue.

“How many families can afford to book two trips at once?” she said. “If we didn’t have the means, we would be going nowhere with no plan for Christmas. This isn’t just about us, it’s about everyone on that flight.

“There were so many people on that plane, and I just feel bad for everybody involved.”

Sproat’s family’s new journey starts on Christmas Eve, but the stress and uncertainty has already overshadowed what was meant to be a celebration.

“People save for years for something like this,” she said. “This shouldn’t happen.”

WestJet responds

In an emailed statement from WestJet, it said the Sproat’s family trip experienced an “irregular operation” (IROP) due to weather in Regina.

“The guests were offered re-accommodation, though they declined as the option did not suit their needs and they ultimately cancelled,” it said.

WestJet said it refunded the value of the unused flights, however noted that the land components of the package are forfeited when cancelled in similar situations.

“The guests were directed to travel insurance to claim for these costs and any other out of pocket expenses incurred during the IROP,” it said.

— with files from 980 CJME’s Nicole Garn