flights have resumed<\/a>, Bellamy says he has received no meaningful communication about rebooking options.<\/p>\n\u201cI feel abandoned by WestJet,\u201d he said. \u201cThey tell me there\u2019s absolutely nothing they can do for me. They just basically say you have to wait until WestJet reaches out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s situation is becoming increasingly urgent. Their resort has allowed them to extend their stay at no extra cost, but only until Friday. Meanwhile, the medications the trio relies on are running out.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my daughters has run out of her medications and my other daughter will be running out on the weekend,\u201d Bellamy said.<\/p>\n
Kiara MacDonald, another Albertan stranded in Puerto Vallarta, is facing similar challenges. She and her daughter are part of a six\u2011person family group whose Monday flight to Calgary was also cancelled. <\/p>\n
After repeated attempts to reach the airline, they were finally offered potential return dates of March 1 and 2, far later than they hoped.<\/p>\n
MacDonald says several members of her group depend on daily medication, adding urgency to their efforts to secure an earlier flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne member of our team, he\u2019s on high blood pressure medication, he\u2019s completely out,\u201d she said. \u201cAnother member is on diabetes medication. That person has until today or tomorrow. Another member is on heart medication.\u201d<\/p>\n
CityNews reached out to WestJet regarding both travellers\u2019 concerns but did not receive a response before deadline.<\/p>\n
Air passenger rights advocates say the airline may be falling short of its legal obligations. Under federal regulations, carriers must rebook passengers on the next available flight and, if none is available with the same airline, arrange travel with a partner or competitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe airline would have to explain to a judge how come they did not rebook a passenger even though there were seats,\u201d said G\u00e1bor Luk\u00e1cs, founder of Air Passenger Rights.<\/p>\n
Luk\u00e1cs says one of the strongest ways for passengers to prove seats were available is to purchase a ticket themselves and present it as evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian travellers caught in the fallout of cartel\u2011related violence in Puerto Vallarta are scrambling to return to Alberta,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-499859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}