At the Edmonton Int’l Airport enroute to Yellowknife, and want to give a quick shoutout to Westjet.
Anyone with pets will understand my anxiety – my 2 goofy, beloved weinerdogs were travelling with me in a crate, plus I had 3 big suitcases, plus 2 carry-on bags. Since Westjet and First Air don’t have an agreement, I would have to collect my luggage then check in again with First Air- with a 4.5 hour wait here between flights. Of the entire move, this little segment was the most anxiety making.
Would the dogs be freaked out? Well treated?
And how was single Nancy going to navigate 4.5 hours, 2 dogs, 5 pieces of luggage and a dog-crate?
Westjet staff were fabulous without me even asking them. My dogs were well-cared for, with an attendant waiting by the crate for me to pick them up. Somehow word had gotten out, and I kid you not, another westjet employee had collected all my baggage and put it on a cart. The employee then accompanied me to First Air (making kind commentary about the cuteness of the weinerdogs, always a good way to win my heart), ensured I got my luggage checked in to First Air even though it was 3 hours early, and warmly wished me a good flight up to Yellowknife.
Is that above-and-beyond, or above-and-beyond?
Westjet, thanks for knocking my socks off!
No matter what they do, Westjet keeps getting good press. No matter what they do, Air Canada keeps getting bad press.
I’ve given this a lot of thought and my theory is this:
Westjet must be primarily doing good things. Air Canada must be primarily doing bad things.
There might be another explanation but I can’t think of one…..
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That is really wonderful. I am so glad for you and your delightful duo – the 4-legged ones. Isn’t it great that you got such good help. I still love WestJet….
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I’m with you on the pro-westjet team…I will often pay extra (if required) to go with WJ over AC. They’ve treated my dog great anytime I’ve made the trek from Halifax to Edmonton!
One tip that will make your pets even more incredibly special to EVERYONE when traveling through airports (in my experience) is to tape a big name tag across the top/front of the kennel. Whenever I travel with my dog (Sadie) I like to put a few pieces of masking tape on the kennel with phrases like “Hi! My name is Sadie. How are you doing?” or “How’s it going! My name is Sadie! Some weather we’re having eh?”
So far it has worked well…she gets treated like a little celebrity!
Alex’s last blog post..I would so take my dog to war with me
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nancyzimmerman Reply:
March 11th, 2009 at 10:53
Alex – what a creative, brilliant idea! And of course weinerdogs would have a lot of commentary to make
Next time, for sure. I can well imagine it would elicit a positive response.
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