Musicians: Don't Fly WestJet!

Well, it's been an interesting time the last week, that's for sure. I guess I'll start the recap with the results from the concerto competition final round. There were 12 musicians in the final round, from all performance departments of the music school. The process was a little different than I expected it to be, but not in any sort of bad way. As I mentioned earlier, they take 4 people to perform one big concerto concert. This is different from the norm, where you would perform a concerto per concert, with a variety of works over the course of the year. Because of this, the process of choosing who will play becomes more of an issue of programming the music (not to say that how you play doesn't affect it either!). What they are generally looking for is two larger works, about 20 mins. in length, and two smaller works, about 10 mins., also trying to co-ordinate an appropriate program of style within that time frame. I didn't realize this at the time, but this placed me in the catagory for the larger works, as the concerto I performed is over 20 minutes in length, placing me in competition with the pianists that made it into the final round.

In any event, I think that I played rather well, and I was extremely happy with the way it went that night. In the end, however, I lost out to a pianist who just happened to be performing the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto, No. 3, which is something like 40 minutes long. So not only did she play it very well and got into the concert, the length of time of her work actually eliminated one of the spots on the concert! However, we did get a brass player into the show; the trumpet player from my brass quintet got in with a shorter piece, along with a flutist that I've never met, but plays very well. That's how the show worked out in the end. Like I said, I'm very happy for how I played, and I think the piece was well received by the professors. Also, losing to someone who played that piano concerto that well doesn't really hurt my feelings; she sounded awesome!

Anyways, that's the good news. The bad news is that NO MUSICIANS SHOULD EVER FLY WESTJET! Ever. Period.

Apparentely, on the loading of my instrument in Victoria, my heavy duty, and fragile marked (repeatedly) trombone case was dropped 8 - 10 feet off of a belt loader, making a crash landing on the bell. Not only did this destroy the bell compartment of the case, but it also put one hell of a bell wrinkle into my trombone. This is the first time I've flown with WestJet. I am not amused.

On the left... very traumatic

I've gotten the bell damage taken care of here in town. Leister's did an awesome job on my baby. I would recommend them for repairs anytime. The case, however, is irreparable, and I am in the process of looking for a new one. Got something on the line from Argentina, made from Kevlar and Fiberglass.

Now, WestJet is being very difficult about this. I know for certain that my horn didn't get into the case like that, and if you know me at all, you know I sure as hell didn't do that myself! First of all, they wanted me to drive back up to Calgary to show them the damage in person. I told them that wasn't going to happen, as I had to perform right away, and I was not planning to do so with a damaged horn. We decided that photos would be the best course of action. However, they do not want to pay for the repair, but instead to give me credit on WestJet for another flight. ... ... ... blink... You dropped a 50 pound fragile musical instrument 10 feet, and you want me to come back and fly with you again? And you're not going to fix the problem? Not only that, but the credit won't even cover my return flight back to Victoria in the first place!

So, I'm in the middle of a fight now to get some cash out of these guys for my repairs, because I can't afford these extra expenses. We'll see what happens, but I've got the number for a higher up person in the corporation, so I might start getting some answers there. The point is, I am not the first person to have these sorts of problems with WestJet. As soon as I mentioned it to other people, they had similar comments about the WestJet regard for their instruments as well, or their baggage in general. We'll see how they handle this situation, and decide whether or not their talk about customer service is as true as they say.

So don't be taking your instrument on a WestJet, and if you must, you better make sure it fits in the overhead compartment!