Saskatoon woman has travel plans derailed due to cold

A Saskatoon woman’s travel plans were put on ice, not just from the cold weather but from frequent flight delays.

Ashley Olynick was hoping to treat her family with a couple of Christmas gifts — tickets to an NHL and NFL game.

They were supposed to fly with WestJet to Toronto and then drive to Buffalo where they’d get to see the Buffalo Sabres square off against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, followed by watching a playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.

The Bills-Steelers game has since been postponed to Monday due to weather concerns.

But what was supposed to be a six-hour travel day ended up being a lot more complicated according to Olynick.

“It was almost like a one thing after another after another,” she said.

“If anything could have gone wrong, it went wrong.”

It began on Friday morning while they were getting ready for a 6:30 a.m. flight. Olynick said she received an email that their flight to Toronto was moved to Kitchener due to crew unavailability.

Shortly afterwards, their 6:30 a.m. flight was delayed as well.

“I think we didn’t actually board our plane till noon that day,” she said . “We were told by the flight attendants because at this point, we’re thinking, ‘Well we’re not probably going to make our next flight.’

“We’re a little bit kind of hesitant in even leaving Saskatoon but the agent there said ‘No, get on the flight. Get there if we can get there’ because obviously  the extreme cold — that’s why it was delayed.”

After getting on and off the plane several times, Olynick said she and her family flew to Calgary at the urging of the WestJet agent who told them they’d have more options for their connecting flights.

Olynick said they also had to wait an hour on the plane when they finally arrived in Calgary on Friday afternoon because the plane couldn’t find a way to connect to a gate.

After getting off the plane, Olynick said they were told to go to guest services to figure out the next steps.

“We were in the guest services line for six hours as well as being on the phone with WestJet and we were on the line hoping that between the two of them, we could get through to talking to somebody or actual agents through guest services,” she said.

“… By the time we got to the front of the line the WestJet agent said ‘Unless you have a connecting flight, we’re not able to help you. You’ll have to get on the phone and connect with somebody or try and rebook or plan your flights’.”

After speaking with another agent over the phone, Olynick said they had no luck in trying to find another flight to Toronto.

She also said they weren’t given any hotel voucher or rental car.

Olynick and her family decided to cut their losses and go back to Saskatoon on Saturday with a car they rented on their own.

“It kind of turned into a whole day of flying to just end up back in square one – coming back to Saskatoon,” she said.

“NHL tickets’ out, NFL tickets’ out, hotel out and no compensation really on any of this.”

Olynick said she was very disappointed with the experience.

“It took so long just to get some sort of answers and there really wasn’t any answers we could get through WestJet and we still don’t have any answers through WestJet,” she said.

Olynick said she understands the complications that can arise from the extreme cold, but in hindsight wishes that WestJet didn’t advise her to get on the initial plane to Calgary.

“We sincerely apologize to all guests who have been impacted by cancellations and extended delays resulting from ongoing extreme cold temperatures affecting Canada’s prairie region,” WestJet said in an emailed statement to CJME.

“To learn more about the impact to our operations and for timely updates on the evolving situation and how WestJet is managing our network, please visit our Newsroom.”