12 Delays of Christmas with Westjet, Air Canada and NavCan.

On Christmas Eve the airline industry gave to me:

12 boarding passes 

11 emails of flight changes 

10 minute connection

9 hundred dollars to rebook

8 landings per hour capacity

7 seat changes 

6 hour delays 

5 degrees celsius required de -icing. 

4 delayed flights

3 cancellations

2 beers in the lounge 

and a lump of coal for all three.

But a big shout out to the staff at Westjet and Air Canada in Victoria and Vancouver who did everything they could to get me to Halifax.  And the lonely NavCan controller working that night in Vancouver. I felt sorry for that controller working at a capacity of eight landings per hour at Canada's third busiest airport during one of the busiest travel days of the year.  I think Victoria's airport was handling more than that.  NavCan management you blew it! 

I got caught out by Westjet and NaCan staffing shortages. Rebooked with Air Canada routing through Vancouver and Toronto thinking that was the best option if there's any delays. Only to land at YVR at the start of a two hour ground stop, that was extended an additional two hours.  This ground stop held all aircraft on the ground at the originating airports close in to Vancouver, namely any airports within Seattle Centre, Vancouver Centre and Edmonton Centre.  

My rebooked flight from Vancouver to Toronto was held in Calgary, so Air Canada decided to cancel it, meaning no aircraft for my flight.  My rebooked rebooked flight now to Edmonton and then Montreal was then subsequently delayed an additional two hours, causing a missed connection in Edmonton.  My rebooked rebooked rebooked flight from Vancouver to Montreal was via an inbound aircraft from Miami and therefore unaffected by the ground stop.  That was delayed leaving the gate and then had to de ice causing further delay. 

To end the story I made my connection in Montreal only because the Halifax flight was delayed 15 minutes. Even so I got to the 5 minutes before departure and by then the system had rebooked me via Toronto.  The gate staff were wonderful and got me back on the direct flight, with a window seat too. 

Finally arrived Halifax at 1040 am.  Just 3.5 hours later than the cancelled Westjet flight.  Now just hope compensation from Westjet will cover the additional cost of a last minute air Canada ticket.