WestJet Refund - Covid

andrewmarcsmith01

Not a flight delay compensation question really, but this seems the closest match and will hopeful put this with the flight experts......

Kind of long story so I'll bullet point the background:

- Flights were booked with WestJet in Dec 2019 for London to Toronto in June 2020 for 2
- Due to COVID the flight was cancelled
- At the time, WestJet added a Travel Bank credit while they were figuring out the COVID response
- Shortly after, they updated their T's and C's to state that all Travel Bank credit that was due to COVID can be refunded via the payment method used
- For some reason (seemingly technical) they refused to do this in my case - something about the booking being made on an older system. 
- I spent many hours emailing and calling and it was a very frustrating and long process
- Eventually, in Dec 2022, they directed me to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to resolve the dispute. This was put in a mighty queue of over 30,000 cases and I was told it could take at least a year and a half
- I eventually got to the top of the queue last week and WestJet have sent me a short response, admitting I am owed a refund and asking me for the best payment method to refund me

My question is, should I accept a straight refund? The money I spent at the time will not get me anywhere near a return flight to Toronto anymore when considering increase in flight prices, inflation, cost of living and £ vs Canadian $ strength. Plus the time and frustration it has cost me.

Is it worth asking for compensation (on my initial complaint to CTA I requested a refund plus compensation) or should I cut my losses and just have my money back, despite it not being the same value as when I bought flight?

Thanks in advance
Andrew

Westin

Take the money.

andrewmarcsmith01

Ha, thank you Westin, I feared as much.

Anyone for a second opinion? Not that I don't trust Westin's advice - it just sticks in the throat a bit that there's no consequences for WestJet's incompetency and my frustrations.

One more "take the money" and I'll make my peace with it

Alan_Bowen

I am afraid I agree with Westin, take the money and run. Canadian airlines treated their customers badly during Covid, I think Transat was the worst and in fact Westjet was the first to offer refunds, I cannot understand why you had to wait for a ruling but a refund is all you are going to get.