With WestJet and the union which represents 4,400 flight attendants reaching a tentative agreement on Monday, many Maritimers stuck abroad are still wondering exactly how they’ll get home. The airline reached the tentative deal to resume work following a brief work stoppage which cancelled many flights, leaving travelers stranded. A group of 52 scouts and leaders from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were among those stranded in Copenhagen, Denmark. The group was supposed to fly out Sunday, but due to the strike, it was cancelled. “At first, we weren’t given any information, and then we were randomly reassigned and rescheduled to different flights, just randomly flying through with different airlines. Some with different airlines,” said Kevin Gleeton, a contact scouter from Rothesay, N.B. Gleeton says his ticket was among 13 in his group which were cancelled and not rebooked, which has caused worries about how the group will get everybody home together. “I have no ticket, I have no way to get home or no understanding of how I’m supposed to get home, and there’s no way to contact WestJet. We’ve tried, parents have tried, there’s just no way to get through,” he said. “There’s a lot of unaccompanied minors, minors who have no parents, I have six youth in my group alone out of 19.” Gleeson says the group was told to use their credit cards and they would be reimbursed, so one of the scouters had to book a block of 19 rooms on her card to ensure the kids would have proper accommodation. “We couldn’t wait, we can’t leave our youth stranded, we can’t camp in Copenhagen airport, we can’t take the risk for Scouts Canada point of view, so one of our scouters just took the risk to put a block of 19 rooms on her credit card.” He adds there’s been some relief since, as a hotel was booked for the group of 52 which is being billed directly to WestJet, as well as meals provided for the kids, but he still estimates around $2,500 was spent out of his own pocket for food for the group. “There seems to be an understanding that WestJet is taking care of us or was taking care of us, when in reality the stress of the situation before we knew we had secured rooms and it was all on our dime we were just trying to do it as cheaply as possible, stuffing four, five adult scouters into one room to save money because we don’t know how much we’re going to be on the hook for on interest at the end of the day,” he said. Darren Bell of St. Stephens, N.B., is also among those stranded. He was supposed to fly our of Calgary with his daughter with complex needs on Sunday, but the strike led to their flight being among those cancelled. Following the cancellation, Bell says they were booked on separate flights two days apart. “We were rescheduled to this morning then they decided that we would be getting out of here between the 5th and the 7th. So, I’m flying out on the 5th and my daughter’s flying out on the 7th,” he said. “We need to be together just because of her complex needs; I can’t have her fly alone.” Bell says the cancellations have also had a large financial impact. “With the holiday, we weren’t expecting to be here this long, so we’ve been kind of depending on family and friends at the moment because the bank is trying to get access to savings with the holiday, it’s just not going to happen as quickly as I want, so I’ve just been depending on family and friends to get us by these extra hotel nights until we get there,” he said. “My hope is to get home as quickly as possible with my daughter with me, even if that means between now and the 7th, I just want to be together.” For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
