Pat Drummond :: life & technology

www.patdrummond.org

June 26, 2018

Westjet "Entertainment" failure

I watched movies on Westjet flights last year using their Android app - successfully. I had given up trying to use instructions for browsers in Windows - it just didn't work. But this year - on two five-hour flights yet - not even the app worked.  On my last flight, an iphone next to me worked fine - I'm wondering if their IT people test anything else? I also tried THREE Windows Flash-enabled browsers - every single one requested I install Flash, which of course was installed, enabled and works fine on all other video sites, thank you very much.  Very few passengers were watching videos, which tells me I'm not the only one who couldn't get Westjet Entertainment to work. 

I complained after the first flight and they offered me a $25 credit to my Westjet Rewards. Great I thought, until I discovered it's only useful on another flight - and expires in September!  The second time I complained via email, they punted it to IT, who have little incentive to admit a problem. They should send it to a senior VP, who might actually care about losing customers.

As a former programmer, systems analyst and a tester for a community network, I feel confident in complaining about technical problems. Most other people just give up. The poor stewardess has no idea how to solve the problem, and certainly wouldn't get brownie points for reporting the problem to management. 

My next long flight will be with another airline. I can accept technical problems, but I can't do business with a company that just doesn't care enough to fix them.