Nancy Tennyson and her husband Paul arrived at the Vancouver airport hours ahead of their scheduled departure in May hoping to catch an earlier flight home to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.
WestJet confirmed it had room for them but no premium seats.
“We declined,” said Tennyson, a fitness YouTuber in her sixties known as Mama Tenny. “I have been dealing with a back issue, and we purposely booked premium for the wider, more comfortable seats.”
But what the Tennysons got when they boarded their regularly scheduled flight four hours later, was a laminated placard on the back of an economy seat titled: “Aircraft reconfiguration coming soon.”
WestJet’s notice told passengers, who’d forked out hundreds of dollars more for wider, premium seats, that “we recognize …Ìýthat your journey with us today does not reflect the interior cabin experience you expect” and thanked them for their “patience and loyalty” as the airline worked to reconfigure its planes.
The Problem: Why would WestJet sell premium seats when it knew some of its planes had none?
“I was gobsmacked,” Tennyson said. “They knew right from the get-go they weren’t going to give me what I paid for.”
The flight attendant, Tennyson said, carried on as if nothing was amiss, offering sparkling wine to the first couple of rows.
Other passengers seemed equally confused, so Tennyson gently pressed the attendant for details. Why would WestJet have sold premium seats on a flight it knew had only rows upon rows of three small seats scrunched together?
“She said that soon this aircraft would have a premium cabin with premium seats,” Tennyson said. “I said that currently this was ‘an economy seat with a glass of cheap wine,’ and she nodded in agreement.”Ìý
The Tennysons reached out to WestJet to formally complain about what they described as a “premeditated fraud.”
The company initially offered each of them a $50 travel credit, which incensed Nancy even more.Ìý
“I want them to admit what they did was wrong.”Ìý
The Star Steps In: Scores of other passengers warn of ‘premium scam’
The Tennysons were not the only ones complaining.Ìý
Scores of other air passengers have shared similar stories on TripAdvisor, Reddit and Facebook, warning consumers to not fall for WestJet’s “premium scam.”Ìý
The airline’s unorthodox sales tactic “has definitely generated a lot of public backlash,” said Alia Hussain, president ofÌýCUPEÌýlocal 8125, representing WestJet and Sunwing cabin personnel. “Our crew members felt the weight of this disappointment.”
WestJet confirmed to the Star by email that between Nov. 4, 2024 and May 15, 2025, the airline sold premium and extended comfort products, “onÌýa subset of our Boeing 737 aircraft that are currently configured exclusively with 3x3 economy-only seating.”
The airline told the Star it’s sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.
“We recognized that this experience did not meet out guests’ exceptions,” said Julia Kaiser, a WestJet media relations adviser, “which is why we made the decision to roll the product back.”Ìý
When a customer service rep from the airline called the Tennysons at 8:30 p.m. last week to ask about their experience, the 32-minute conversation did not go well, Tennyson said. WestJet told the Star it was “under the impression that a resolution had been found.”
The agent, Tennyson said, insisted the couple knew they were getting a “modified premium” fare. But the email the airline sent them 72 hours ahead of their flight made no obvious mention of the word modified.
The conversation continued in circles, Tennyson said.
Passengers, he told her, “were made aware that some amenities might be different.”
Like the seat?? Tennyson replied.
“You make it sound like we were trying to hoodwink you,” the agent told Tennyson, whose husband Paul was in the background on speaker.
“You absolutely did,” she said.
Tennyson said she felt the agent’s questions suggested she was complaining over nothing.Ìý
“Did you have anybody between you?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “But I couldn’t lift up the armrest.”
“Did you not get priority boarding? A cold meal? a drink?”Ìý
“Those things meant nothing to me,” she said.
Tennyson said the agent told her not everyone who books a premium experience wants a wider seat.
“He’s trying to suggest people are delighted to pay extra to board early, get a cold meal, cheap wine and free Pringles.Ìý
“Do you think if I knew that I was signing up for bogus premium economy —Ìýthis hack —Ìýthat I would be complaining now? Absolutely not.”
The Resolution: WestJet says it has stopped selling premium seats that don’t existÌý— but where’s the refund?
WestJet told the Star that “feedback from guests” prompted the airline to stop selling premium and extended comfort tickets on planes that have only smaller seats in groups of three.Ìý
“We are actively working to reconfigure these economy seating only aircraft to include the seat options that are available on the rest of our fleet for consistency,” Kaiser told the Star by email. “In the interim, these aircraft remain in service with economy fare bundles only. Having these aircraft remain in service makes it possible to fulfil our schedule and meet the travel needs of all our guests.”
Hussain said the union’s intervention “is what led to the network changes made to sell only economy fares in economy-configured cabins.”
The Union, Hussain said, asked for a several meetings with the company “and communicated our concerns on behalf of our guests and our members, emphasizing the need for better management of guest experience and support for our cabin crew —Ìýwhich is what led to the network changes made to sell only economy fares in economy-configured cabins.”
WestJet has since provided each of the Tennysons with a $150 credit for future travel but the experience has soured them on booking another flight.
“I don’t think I’ll ever use that,” she said.
Jamie Thornback, a partner at CFM Lawyers in Vancouver, which represents victims in aviation accidents and consumers in class actions, said the Tennysons and other airline passengers “could sue WestJet using normal consumer protection legislation,” like Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act orÌýthe British Columbia Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, “which generally prohibit companies from engaging in deceptive practices with consumers.”
Depending on the number of passengers impacted, a class-action lawsuit could be in the cards.
“Whether they would be successful would depend on what WestJet disclosed when they bought the tickets,” Thornback said. “Given the number of people who seem to have complained, it’s likely that WestJet did not effectively communicate that these were not actually premium seats.”
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