Chalking it to Experience!

'Chalk it to experience' is what I have usually heard after talking about an unpleasant experience. Like a good pupil, I have always followed this advice, and I am still doing that. The difference is that before the audience for my stories were my family members and close friends. Thanks to technology, I now have a wider audience to share my experiences with. The idea behind 'chalking' my experiences on the Internet is to give my blog readers the information needed to make informed decisions when faced with similar situations. The hope is to reduce the number of times people have to hear the phrase 'chalk it to experience'.

Air Canada vs WestJet

Air travel has become the most convenient and the fastest way of transportation for most people. Making flight reservations earlier makes it possible to get one of the lower fare seats on Air Canada as well as WestJet. The problem with this is, to get the lower fare one needs to be certain of the departure date, and hope that nothing would happen from the time of the booking until the departure date to prevent one from taking that flight. If life would be that predictable, there would be no problem. Since it is not the case, checking out the cancellation policies of available airlines makes sense. I recently had the opportunity to see the difference between the cancellation policies of Air Canada and WestJet.

Competition in the marketplace helps to regulate price and business practices. Unfortunately in some sectors, lack of adequate competition has made it possible for certain businesses to set their own unfair rules.

One such business is Air Canada. The fares it charges on certain routes are kept in check due to WestJet, but its cancellation policy for Tango is nowhere close to WestJet’s cancellation policy. They both credit the fare paid for the flight minus cancellation charges ($42.40 for Air Canada and $40.00 for WestJet), but Air Canada is much more restrictive when it comes to applying that credit to your next flight. The following are worth noting:

• Your credit with Air Canada is not transferable, while WestJet's credit can be transferred to someone else.
• You have one year to use up your credit with Air Canada. If, for some reason, you can not fly within one year, you end up losing your credit as you can not transfer it to anyone else. With WestJet, you have to purchase the ticket within one year, but you do not have to fly within that year. Plus you have the option to transfer it to someone else if you wish.
• With Air Canada, you must use the entire credit at one time regardless of the amount of fare for your next flight . If the fare is higher, you must pay the difference, but if the fare is lower, you lose the remaining amount of your credit anyway. With WestJet, you pay the difference if the fare is higher, but you also keep the remaining credit if the fair for the next flight is lower, which can then be applied to your next flight.

Air Canada's cancellation policy is not illegal, but it tilts heavily in its own favour showing complete disregard for passenger convenience. Unforeseen circumstances sometimes make it necessary to cancel a flight. If one is certain about taking the flight on the scheduled day when making reservations then I guess it wouldn't matter. If not, then WestJet's cancellation policy seems much more balanced than Air Canada's.