Final Day in Tokyo - Not!

Another cold, rainy day in Tokyo. This was supposed to be our final full day in Tokyo before our flight to Canada tomorrow. However, the day did not unfold as planned.

We woke to an email from WestJet about getting ready for our upcoming flight on June 1st. The details showed that we were in Premium Economy! Oh, God, no! We booked Business Class for the lie flat pods. This is all about comfort for the 10 hour overnight flight across the Pacific.

In mid-May we had received notification from WestJet that due to swapping out one plane for another, we had been downgraded to Economy because the replacement plane was all Economy, but if we didn't like that we could change to another date with no penalty via their Live Chat.

We did that right away, and our flight moved from June 2nd to June 1st. No big deal. During that Live Chat, I confirmed over and over again that we were still in Business with lie flat pods. Keeping that class was the only reason for changing dates. I got repeated assurances that our new seats were in Business Class with lie flat pods. We thought everything was fine until this new last-minute email saying Premium Economy. What a nightmare!

I was back online with Live Chat for 1 hour and 45 minutes, trying to get this fixed. I got nowhere. The agent just kept repeating that everything was OK, we were confirmed in Premium, all was well, etc., etc. Finally, she admitted that she was unable to solve the problem, and my only recourse was to phone the call centre in Calgary.

We were beyond distressed. We were so distraught that we could barely face the day we had planned. We had already postponed our start time with Akiko to go on a daytrip to Shibamata Temple and Shotengai. We decided to go ahead with our plans and try to stop worrying for a few hours.

Details of that trip in next footprint.

Back at the hotel in late afternoon, still wildly upset, we made the phone call to WestJet's Calgary Call Centre. We got an amazing agent who listened to the problem, understood it, looked for a solution, and found it! She searched for various options, routings, availabilities, and dates. What we ended up with is a new flight day - June 3rd, the same flight from Narita to Calgary. The connecting flight from there to Victoria is 2 hours later than the original, but we can cope with that.

So we have two more days in Tokyo. Ultimately, this is only one day later than our original booking, so in the grand scheme of things, it isn't so bad. We have absolutely got the Business Class seats we need. We even had a choice of seats on the new flight. Suddenly, we can breathe again. Thank goodness.

After dinner, we booked 2 more nights at the hotel we are in, so we don't have the hassle of moving. We are letting the stress wash off now.Read more