Note: I have absolutely nothing against WestJet and I generally do not want to be negative about them, as they normally provide good customer service. But there are bound to be exceptional circumstances when the wrong mix of people are managing a situation, similar to other airlines. What I did as a favor to Westjet is send the Senior Internal Audit Manager a copy of this document and it is my understanding they forwarded it onto proper authorities and confidential internal meetings were held to discuss.
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There were bound to be issues this day for my volunteer shift at the airport as a winter dump of snow was hitting Calgary hard, plus a winter blast was working its way through the Eastern seaboard. There were flight delays galore and since Calgary is often used as a stopover point, there was going to be challenges for travelers to get to their connecting flight.
I started my shift being a good citizen in WestJet's wing (Concourse A). It was a perfect storm in that some flights were a few minutes early, some earlier departures were leaving late, some earlier flights from down East were arriving late. Therefore this concourse was very busy with people coming through security to go to their gate, coming from the gate to pick up their luggage, some hopping on the YYC Link bus to go to another concourse to catch the next leg of their flight, some coming from that same bus to get their luggage, while others were going to a gate to catch another flight. I stood in the middle of the crowd with everyone going in different directions around me. I tried not to get dizzy!
I have trained myself despite my normal quiet state to blurt out “Have a nice flight”, or “Welcome to Calgary”. I was originally uncomfortable doing this repeat, but am now used to it so that it's second nature. I must use my louder voice; otherwise I get no response. It is always easier to wave to the children to start with for a family so they can get used to this stranger in red and white, and I always get a warm smile from the parents this way. I only recall making one mistake with my greeting when I told a WestJet agent to have a nice flight, when in fact she was heading to an airport hotel with her luggage, as her shift was over! I might add I just want to talk some people because they look like the friendly type, and I would break away from my normal greeting to jazz up my dialogue with them.
I did my greeting whenever there was no question to be answered. I always knew when someone needed direction because they had a confused expression on their face (kind of like "duh'") often holding a boarding pass in their hand. Some were almost panicking because they had a connecting flight now boarding and they needed to get there like now and so I quickly hustled them along to show the way which was often to catch that bus. Some of them were not panicking when they should have been as they had no clue of the urgency of the matter. You would think that WestJet's domestic flights would all leave from the same Concourse, but some of the domestic flights have to leave on the edge of the international terminal and therefore causing some confusion.
Quite typical of the airport is that a concourse is busy until it is not, and when all flights have arrived or left, the place becomes very empty and quiet. I knew this was going to happen and so after that hour of interaction, the time had come to move on to another area of the airport where the next bottleneck of activity was occurring. I decided to head off to see if certain travelers had indeed boarded those WestJet flights on the edge of the international terminal. I get there and this area was empty of people, well almost.
I noticed one gate (C71) had WestJet's flight to Toronto still on the screen, leaving at 7:15 PM with the time currently 6:55, but with no agent at the gate. There was a model young family with an infant at that gate looking quite confused. They were also very tired, having flown all the way from Delhi, India via Heathrow and they just wanted to catch that flight to Toronto. For whatever reason (probably weather related), they had to fly to Calgary, then backtrack to Toronto, their final destination. They showed me on their cell phone that the flight was to leave late, not until 7:45 PM, and it showed the flight leaving from C71. Hmmm, rather strange I thought as there was no Westjet agent at the gate, their boarding pass showed the same flight to leave from C71. They were panicking as they wanted on so they could go home. They were told that they needed to get to the gate right away, but now were doubting they came to the right spot. I also knew that C71 could be at any of six different counters. So I said let's go over to the big screen 50 yards away to confirm the location. Stranger things have happened as the plane could have been somewhere else, although I did see a plane at the gate.
We did just that, reconfirmed via billboard, with the plane leaving at 7:45 at gate C71. We went back to C71 and still no agent, but now there were a handful of people also with boarding passes for that flight, also wanting on as time was of the essence! No agent! Then I saw more coming! So I told them that I would go look for a WestJet agent as they are really recognizable with their coloring and scarf. I tracked one down coming our way, pushing a wheel chair along. I showed her the crowd of people wanting on that flight looking at us. Her feet went pigeon toed as she froze in her tracks with her mouth slightly ajar, then she said “ooohhh gaaawwwddd!”. She was not moving any further forward! She wanted nothing to do with those customers! Not her problem anyway as not her responsibility!
She whipped out her walkie talkie from its holster and called Customer Care on channel 10:
“We need a WestJet ticket agent at gate C71 now! We have some irate customers here wanting to get on that flight to Toronto!”
I did not think they were that irate, but she had them nicely labelled. All we heard from the walkie talkie was background noise, but no one affirming action to be taken. She repeated the message, then again, but only background noise. I noticed more people at the gate. She tried channel 15 and repeated the message. By this time, two other Westjet agents had arrived wondering what was up and again keeping their distance from the crowd.
I talked to one traveler coming over that we were paging WestJet to assist, and so this satisfied him since someone was actually "doing something." I could tell the others were getting frustrated just standing around, and so I followed up with the WestJet personnel, a fourth one now present, if anyone was coming. They said:
“Yes, the manager is coming!”
I thought to myself how come nobody wants to manage anyone anymore? As the manager was not there yet, the crowd was stirring, and so I chose to talk to the travelers myself since everyone from Westjet was hesitating. I did so with some lack of confidence since based on my experience no one had confirmed with me on the walkie talkie. I went over and told the crowd of 41:
“The WestJet manager is coming and should be arriving, just as soon as they get their act together.”
Did I actually say that? Some thought my comment was rather funny, and this helped to keep any responsibility squarely on WestJet's shoulders, I suppose. This settled the crowd down and they became more patient with waiting.
I noticed three police arriving, two looking like robots with their helmets, and driving their two wheeled self balancing battery devices, cruising along the walkway silently, with their bodies stiff and straight. Then a bona fide ticketing agent from Air Canada showed up at the gate and hollered out to the crowd:
“Hey, you have missed this flight! The gates are closed!”
What?! Then a loud wave of protest from the crowd:
“But we were told we could get on this flight, we came to this gate to board, we have our boarding passes and ...”
The Air Canada agent waved her arms in the air and yelled out:
“Hey, hold it, hold it! I am Air Canada, not WestJet! I am just relaying a message! You missed the flight!”
A groan in perfect harmony was returned from the crowd. But where was Westjet? Everyone looked befuddled and frustrated.
Also, what was with the police, I thought, since the crowd was not that irate, and they could be managed if only WestJet took charge! Well, apparently while I had taken that same young family to check out the big screen, another traveler had arrived at the gate, saw no agent, looked at his boarding pass, saw that the door behind the counter was still open, and so strolled down the walkway to the gate! When arriving at the plane with the passenger door still open, the WestJet stewardess said:
“What are you doing here?! How did you get through the gate?!"
He showed his boarding pass.
“You cannot get on this plane as we are closed off! You need to go back to the counter and talk to the ticket agent!"
So apparently, he got a "little ticked" hearing this information and having been told he broke security by walking down to the plane, I am sure he said something to the stewardess that was probably not repeatable, then he obeyed and walked back to the counter. Meanwhile the stewardess phoned the police to "control the crowd!" Give me a break...this crowd is not hostile! They just need to be managed!
Meanwhile, back to the crowd of 41, no WestJet manager, I go back to the four Westjet agents who did not move any closer, although one did briefly come over to talk to the crowd giving reassurance. Finally, coming down the ramp from the airport bus, a young missy who was the "manager." All eyes were on us and so I pointed to the crowd to suggest that here she comes and she was going to take good care of them. I walked with her back to the crowd and this is what she said in the loudest of voice for such a little body:
“So, you are the crowd of 41 who did not make it on this WestJet flight?”
The crowd nodded in agreement:
“Yeh, yeh, right, yeah, uhuh...”
“This flight had to be closed for security reasons. You will all be issued boarding passes to go on the next flight to Toronto (no apology) ...but we cannot take care of you here at this gate. You need to go to the WestJet Customer Care Centre (where she came from at completely the other end of the airport) ...and you will be issued new boarding passes there for the next flight which leaves at 12:30 in the morning (five and a half hours later)!"
I thought the first groan from the crowd was really good, but I have never heard anything like the moan that came next, such perfect harmony! So now they all wanted to know how do they get to the Customer Care Centre, and so I helped give them directions and escorted them over to the bus to take them back to the WestJet wing, the manager of which was already enroute with a few travelers who were able to keep up with her. At least five buses were needed to take them all and you might had to wait two minutes for each bus to come, but fortunately three were already waiting. The odd thing about having to go all the way to the Customer Care Centre to get new boarding passes was that the plane was again going to fly out of Gate C71 where they were coming from at the other end of the airport!
Looking back, it is obvious to me what happened. For security reasons, luggage needs to go with the traveler. The pilot did not want to be late for his flight and it was his decision to not allow 41 people to load onto the plane, because then they would be later yet getting all of their luggage loaded, but meanwhile everyone else with WestJet were hustling their travelers along to get to the gate for customer satisfaction! Even though they posted a half hour delay with leaving, the pilot arbitrarily decided to fly off without any connecting passengers so he could get to his destination on time!
Having received instructions to 'close the gate', the ticket agent knew a whole mob of people were coming to get on that plane, the fear of their reaction got to her, and so she 'high tailed it' out of there and abandoned her post! She left so fast, she forgot to make sure the security door was closed behind her, and she probably should have reset the screen on the counter erasing the flight detail! My guess is that she ran! The good news in all of this is that everyone received food vouchers so they could at least have some 'bar food' while waiting for the next flight.
I told this story to my 99 year old Aunt and she shook her head in disgust. During her heyday, managing City Hall administration, she would have been all over this and given the travelers top priority and the type of service they deserved. My observations are based on my own perception for what happened and may not be quite 100% correct since there could be more background story to help explain. This does not matter at all, because nothing else was communicated to the crowd and what I saw was what the 41 travelers saw, and they would have reached the same conclusion, completely destroying the caring image of WestJet and its complete mismanagement of the situation.