I got back from Las Vegas early Thursday morning. We had an excellent time in the town itself, which merits another post. For now I'd like to get the bad time I had out of the way.
Our flights were both a major pain in the ass. It had nothing to do with the TSA, CATSA or any security aspect of the flight. It also didn't have anything to do with the flight itself. Check-in at Westjet was a total piece of shit.
The standard rule these days is to arrive at the check-in desk three hours before your flight. Shitty weather drilled us down to 2.5 hours beforehand in Edmonton, which in theory should still leave us bored behind security for a chunk of time - instead we had to run through the terminal to reach our flight with half a dozen other people. Westjet screwed up and queued us behind another full flight leaving for LA shortly after ours.
In Las Vegas, we made sure we had plenty of time, arriving 3 hours 45 minutes before our flight. This time the Westjet check-in employee allowed people on the earlier flights to jump the queue, which is fine...but then, after they were all through, he made us and about 20 other people stand in line for 15 more minutes until exactly three hours to the minute before our flight. When we asked the employee to check us in, he said we should all just go away and come back at the three hour mark. Having already stood on a tile floor for half an hour, no one was going anywhere.
Don't bother with computer check-in either - it didn't shave a second off the painful time in the terminal. You still have to wait in line to have your baggage tags printed. They also started taking customers from the back of the queue on our flight for some unknown reason.
Westjet's check-in desk is grossly understaffed, too. There was one employee when three were needed, and two when five were necessary. One guy answering a ringing phone and checking in several full flights of customers is not acceptable, and makes him surly in the meantime. I looked around and saw dozens of angry Westjet customers on both days. When I looked at the other airlines' check-in desks, I didn't see such problems. Fortunately the other terminal and airline staff were doing their jobs adequately that day or I might still be there.
And to top it all off, they lost our luggage - on a non-connecting 3 hour flight. When we got it back my $150 Sonicare toothbrush, one toothbrush head, my husband's comb and deodorant were all missing. Congratulations to the fresh-smelling Westjet luggage inspector for such a find.
To sum up, Westjet, a company that was known for great customer service, has turned into a real third-rate airline. The sad thing is that we won't fly any American airlines either, because they overbook their planes. Maybe I'll start driving to my vacations.
