We've heard from a lot of Westjet passengers
who've had their flights cancelled.
They've arrived hours, sometimes days later,
but were denied compensation.
So we did some digging
and found what looks like some tricky maneuvering by the airline.
The beaches were empty a lot of the time.
Brad Vanderwilk enjoyed his recent vacation in Los Angeles,
Mexico, until the last night
when he and his girlfriend got an email from Westjet during dinner
canceling their flight home.
We stopped eating cause we're like,
how are we gonna get home?
We've got our kids at home.
We've got both have to work and into a bit of a tizzy.
We had to try and get through to Westjet.
He arrived home about 16 hours late.
So Vanderbilt filed for compensation.
Under Canada's passenger rights rules,
he could get $1,000. Westjet denied his claim,
citing unplanned aircraft maintenance required for safety,
a category where they don't have to pay for a delay.
But flight records we reviewed
show Westjet swapped in a different aircraft,
one that hadn't flown for two days,
and then cancelled the flight the very same minute.
The original plane, it was used for a different flight.
They're lied, they're sneaky.
They're just trying to do what they can to not pay anybody anything.
Recently, Go Public reported two similar cases.
Now more passengers have come forward.
We checked flight data
and found 34 cases where passengers were denied compensation
after Westjet swapped in planes that needed maintenance.
Then Cancelled the flights,
sometimes within minutes. In every case,
Westjet claimed safety related maintenance.
When you make business decisions,
the passengers should be made whole for
the inconvenience caused to them.
An air passenger advocate says
the flight records show a disturbing pattern,
swapping planes to avoid paying compensation.
That's fraudulent. He estimates
Westjet is saving tens of thousands of dollars per cancelled flight
by denying compensation,
about 200,000 when delays stretch beyond nine hours.
It is not a one off situation.
The masterminds behind this fraud need to face accountability.
Go public asked Westjet
why planes were being swapped just before cancellations.
The airline declined an interview and wouldn't address our questions,
but said
planes are sometimes reassigned to minimize the effect of disruptions.
Meantime, Canada's airline regulator has confirmed it's investigating
and Brad van der Wille, he's taking Westjet to small claims court.
If you've got a story you want investigated,
send an email to go public at CBC dot c a.