Woman Vows To Boycott WestJet After They Wouldn’t Let Her On The Flight 15 Minutes Before Departure: ‘I’m Afraid WestJet Isn’t The Problem’

A beauty influencer with close to 1 million followers is vowing never to fly WestJet again after the Canadian carrier closed the gate on her 15 minutes before departure.

According to Sarah Lauren (@sarahlauren71), the airline charged her for a rebooking she says she never received, and then bounced her between employees who couldn’t agree on the rules for reorganizing her travel.

In the video’s comment section, however, viewers including people who said they’re flight attendants told her that WestJet was just doing what any other airline would have.

Lauren recently posted the two-minute, 51-second video. It has since drawn more than 31,900 views. “I’m still confused like no one had the same answer & I’m still out thousands of dollars,” she wrote in the caption, tagged #westjetfail.

‘I Was There. I Was Checked In.’

Lauren says she had checked in and her bag was already on the flight when she reached the gate at 11:45 for a noon departure. “I was there. I was checked in. My bag was on the flight. I was literally there,” she says.

But when she arrived, she says the door was closed. She asked the agent why it couldn’t be opened. “It’s still not 12. Our flight leaves at 12. 11:45,” she recalled saying. Lauren says the flight attendant replied, “‘No, we have to close it at 11:45.’ I go, ‘Is that protocol?‘ She said ‘yes.’”

From there, she says, the situation spiralled out of control. A kiosk agent purportedly told her she had to pay $169 for a “same-day change fee,” took the money, and then handed her off to a colleague who said no such fee existed. “Well, what the [expletive]’s this on my account,” Lauren says, “literally taken out of my account and I was charged for it. And I still don’t have another flight.”

Because she had booked through a third party, she says WestJet staff told her they couldn’t rebook her and that she had to buy a whole new ticket. “I’m having this same conversation with literally 10 employees that don’t have the same answer,” she says. “Is there a same-day change fee? Because four people said it but four other people said that it wasn’t.”

She admits the missed flight itself is on her. “I understand that it’s my [expletive] responsibility. I didn’t clearly know that they closed it 15 minutes before. I thought that it was fine if I got there right at 11:45 before 12,” she says. Her anger, she says, is mostly at the rudeness and the runaround, not the missed departure.

What WestJet’s Rules Actually Say

On the initial issue, WestJet’s check-in and boarding page unambiguously sets a “boarding cut-off” of “15 minutes before departure” and states plainly that “guests must arrive at the gate before boarding cut-off to travel on their flight.”

A 12:00 departure, in other words, means the door shuts at 11:45, and arriving at 11:45 is arriving after the cut-off. Flight attendants in the comments, including one who reportedly works for WestJet and another who flies for United Air Lines, said the same rule applies across North American carriers.

Where She Actually Has A Point

The $169 figure is where Lauren may have a point. WestJet’s fees schedule lists same-day change fees of “100-118 CAD” within Canada and “150-177 CAD” for all other destinations, with the fee waived only for top-tier rewards members. A fee of $169 lands in the upper band. The problem is what she got for it: the second agent’s claim that “there is no such thing” left Lauren paying for a change she says produced no new flight.

The third-party wrinkle is also grounded in WestJet’s own rules. The carrier’s change and cancellation policy directs customers who “booked through a travel agent… third-party like Expedia or Airmiles… or another airline” to “contact them directly,” and warns that anyone who doesn’t board is “considered a no-show” whose missed flight “will be lost and cannot be refunded or applied as a travel credit.” That is the wall Lauren hit at the counter.

Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations entitle travellers to rebooking, refunds and compensation when a flight is delayed or cancelled for reasons within the airline’s control. A passenger who misses the boarding cut-off, though, falls outside that provision, which is why several commenters steered Lauren away from the airline and toward her credit card issuer.

“Former bank worker here—file a dispute with your credit card company,” wrote avecd1. “They made you pay for something that didn’t provide a service.” Camille.lavigueur agreed: “You better call your credit card company for a refund. They are not going to refund you.”

That is the most promising route for the $169. If the charge was for a same-day change that produced no new flight, a chargeback on the basis of a service not rendered is exactly the remedy the commenters are describing, and one that doesn’t depend on WestJet’s goodwill or the APPR.

Some commenters had only tough love for Lauren, however. “I’m afraid WestJet isn’t the problem,” wrote ceoofsidequests.

BoardingArea reached out to Sarah Lauren via TikTok direct message and to WestJet via email for additional comment. We’ll be sure to update this if either responds.

@sarahlauren71 i’m still confused like no one had the same answer & i’m still out thousands of dollars:) #westjetfail ♬ original sound – Sarah Lauren