Industry Reacts to WestJet Refund News

WestJet's announcement last week they would refund for flights cancelled due to COVID was met with criticism within the industry, as travel agents and tour operators scrambled to make sense of the logistics of it. To further complicate matters, most of them heard the news first from TravelPulse Canada and a consumer notification was made in advance of a trade notification.

The announcement came before a CBC News report that said the Canadian Transportation Agency has failed to settle a single complaint from Canadians demanding refunds for cancelled flights since the onset of the pandemic - a number tallied close to 10,000. The agency confirmed it's still processing complaints it received before March 11; it has yet to deal with any cases filed during the public health crisis.

For months, Canada's Transport Minister has told Canadians if they are unsatisfied with refunds, the course of action is to file complaints with the tribunal.

So news that WestJet was providing refunds after all should be welcomed right? It's not quite that cut and dry.

"As a leisure agency, we are going through round 7 of "I want my money back", now for WestJet Vacations customers that are not applicable to this policy," says Richard Vanderlubbe, President, tripcentral.ca.

"We had a round of explanation when only certain countries received refunds but not Canadians. The cost that travel agencies have endured in explaining, defending, re-explaining, re-defending remains, and ultimately to find that a refund is finally offered is more than frustrating. The hit would have been bad back in March to face recall commissions, but at least we would have saved 7 months of pain and suffering; working and re-working files multiple times, having long conversations, email threads, social media posts and building systems and process to track credits…only to have a refund after all."

Flemming Friisdahl, President, The Travel Agent Next Door, echoes those statements.

"Will WestJet allow the travel professionals to retain their commission for all the endless hours of work they have put into the files the first time or will they ask the agents to refund the commission?" he asks.

"I would hope WestJet would understand that the travel professionals have worked very hard and would be hit hard if asked to pay back money they may have received 6 months ago. They're now trying to make ends meet on less than the $500 a week benefit. I look forward to hearing what position WestJet will take on commissions. I very much believe asking the agents to refund the commission will put struggling agents over the edge."

"WestJet's decision to refund travellers for flights cancelled due to COVID19 is consistent with airline refund policies around the world," says Brian Robertson, President, Vision Travel.

"That said, unfortunately this revised policy creates confusion and chaos for the travel agency community in Canada. We facilitate corporate travel management programs for thousands of clients including their unused travel credits and this will be a nightmare to reconcile unless we are included in the process."

The logistics of how the refunds will be given is a big concern in the industry.

"The concern is that some clients may already have received a refund from one of the travel insurance companies or their Credit Card Company," explains Friisdahl. "This would leave the clients with double the funds."

Vanderlubbe says they've had to employ a team solely to answer questions on existing files and credits since the start of the pandemic and while he's happy for the company's customers who are getting their money back, if there is a force recall on commissions on distribution partners after all of this, he will be "very disappointed."

"All of us have endured historic losses, and while none of us want to give up our IATA appointments, send back our airline plates, disconnect our bank accounts from the commission recall, I expect there will be more than a few that do this. It's hard to get blood from a stone."