WestJet strike: Real risk after 99.4% of WestJet flight attendants vote in favor of a strike mandate

And here we go again! You’d think we were in Europe. Another potential strike could upend travel plans for hundreds of thousands of travelers, because 99.4% of WestJet flight attendants just voted in favor of a strike mandate… and the strike would happen very soon, just like we told you back in April. But it’s NOT guaranteed!

But it’s plausible enough for you to need to prepare for it. It’s so sad that so many travelers have no idea about their many rights when an airline cancels their flight. Airlines often try to take advantage of travelers’ lack of knowledge (that’s the reality with pretty much every airline).

Like with everything in life, you need to take responsibility and not rely on others. Flytrippers helps you travel for less with our 3 types of content, namely flight deals, travel rewards, and tips/inspiration/news.

Here are the details of the WestJet strike (the potential strike, at this stage).

What is the (potential) WestJet strike?

The (potential) WestJet strike is the culmination of labor contract negotiations between flight attendants and Canadian airline WestJet (which acquired Sunwing and integrated it in 2025).

Here’s the essential:

• Flight attendants now have a strike mandate
  • 99.4% of them voted in favor (unsurprisingly)
• The strike mandate can’t be used right away
  • But it will be able to be used very soon
• A strike is not a certainty yet
  • A deal could still happen before then
  • The government could even intervene
  • But a strike still seems plausible
• You should act now if you can’t afford to be delayed
  • If your flight is during the dates below
  • It won’t be the time to do this the day before
  • But taking action doesn’t mean changing your flight…
• You should know your rights as a passenger
  • Take responsibility right now
  • Never rely on any airline
  • Not even on major media outlets

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Airlines try really hard to convince uninformed travelers to change their flights and/or accept a refund. Literally the worst things to do!

And sadly, as we saw recently with the Air Canada and Air Transat strikes, a lot of media outlets don’t have much time and often just regurgitate the talking points fom airline PR teams…

So a lot of travelers don’t know their options.

When will we know if the WestJet strike is happening?

We won’t know much in advance if there’s really a strike or lockout at WestJet, unfortunately. They can only give a 72-hour (3-day) strike notice on Thursday, July 30, 2026.

Canadian law only requires 72 hours’ notice to call a strike. It’s unfortunate that this doesn’t give travelers more notice, obviously, but that’s just the nature of strikes like this, given the legal framework.

The strike notice will almost certainly be given on July 30 if a deal hasn’t been reached yet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a strike on August 2.

Negotiations will continue right up until the last hour, and there will be uncertainty right until the very end. It’s a bummer, but that’s how it is.

We know how much people dislike uncertainty, but since handling uncertainty well and living well with uncertainty is one of the best human skills you can have in life, take this as an opportunity to develop it.

When would the WestJet strike take place?

Flights could be affected a few days before, but the WestJet strike can only start as of Sunday, August 2, 2026. That’s right in the middle of the 3-day long weekend (the first Monday of August is a holiday in almost every province).

(Hopefully you don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the union timed getting its right to strike exactly when it can derail travel for the maximum number of people possible…)

Flights could be affected 2 to 3 days before the start, because the airline can’t leave aircraft and crews out of position for when the strike begins (you’d have even more rights in that case).

Flights would then be completely canceled until the conflict ends (impossible to predict how long that will take).

Flights would still be affected for several days after the strike ends, because restarting a network of ≈700 daily flights and ≈150 planes is very complex and takes a long time.

Here’s an infographic that summarizes the current timeline.

Will the WestJet strike happen?

It’s literally impossible to predict whether the WestJet strike will actually happen, unfortunately. But recent labor disputes at airlines don’t leave much room for optimism.

So all savvy travelers should at least stay informed about the situation and, most importantly, about their options and their rights.

Everything could be resolved at the last minute without any flight disruptions at all… or it could be absolute chaos, like with the Air Canada strike in August 2025.

WestJet strangely hasn’t even offered a waiver yet to allow free flight changes, which is either a sign of their high level of confidence or quite simply a very customer-unfriendly idea… Air Canada had done this very early.

The only thing you can do is have a plan that works no matter which scenario materializes.

What are my rights if the WestJet strike happens?

You have many rights as a passenger, but unfortunately, so many travelers simply aren’t aware of them. 

Here’s the infographic that summarizes your rights.

We’ll make an even more detailed guide on this aspect this weekend. So make sure you’re signed up for our free newsletter to get it first.

But I want to specifically highlight the main points right away.

You can always, at a minimum, choose between 2 options if your flight is cancelled:

• Option 1: Complete your trip for free on another airline
  • WestJet has 48 hours to do it, though
  • And it can take longer too, obviously (there aren’t unlimited seats)
  • You’ll get 500 CAD or 1000 CAD for hotels and meals effortlessly
  • If you paid for your flight with a good credit card (as always)
  • Thanks to flight delay insurance (one of the most important travel tips)
  • The airline must also provide you with food and lodging (except for domestic flights)
  • You’ll be entitled to 600 EUR per person if your flight departs from Europe
  • You have additional rights if the flight is cancelled before the strike
  • You have additional rights if the flight is cancelled by a lockout instead of a strike
• Option 2: Get a full refund in cash (not a travel credit)
  • You give up absolutely all your rights and recourse

Warning: Airlines almost always try to make you believe that option #1 doesn’t exist.

Most travelers are unfortunately very poorly informed about their rights (as with many travel topics), and many travelers who are informed don’t want to have to make the effort to “fight” to claim their rights.

Airlines know this and try to make huge savings… refunding you costs them so much less than the other option. To be very clear, this isn’t specific to WestJet (or Air Canada last summer): all airlines worldwide do this.

What should I do to prepare for the WestJet strike?

You must inform yourself in advance, because it obviously won’t be the time to do that on the day itself if your flight is canceled. Good preparation is 1 of the 6 most important tricks to make your travels more affordable, but also to make them more enjoyable.

You’re already doing it by reading this, so I sincerely congratulate you. Most travelers put in no effort, and then they perpetuate the very false myths that traveling is expensive and/or that traveling is “stressful”… Of course it is if you don’t prepare! Just like anything in life seems complex if you don’t know anything about it!

So concretely, here’s what you need to do according to your situation.

There are 3 scenarios:

• If you want to cancel your trip completely or postpone it until later
• If you want to keep your trip and you’re comfortable with potentially being delayed a bit
• If you want to keep your trip and you absolutely don’t want to be delayed at all

Here’s what to do if you want to cancel your trip completely or postpone it until later:

• If you booked a fare class that has cancellation/modification fees
  • WAIT before doing anything!!!
  • There’s no point in cancelling in advance (as always; such a common mistake)
  • If your flight is cancelled, you’ll be able to get a full refund in cash
  • If it’s not, the cancellation/modification fees won’t change
  • Just check the deadline for cancellation/modification
  • WestJet will likely also at least waive these fees by August 2 (let’s hope)
• If you booked a fare class that doesn’t have cancellation/modification fees
  • Consider not doing that next time, it’s rarely worth it
  • For this rare strike, it allows you to cancel/modify right away without waiting

Here’s what to do if you want to keep your trip and you’re comfortable with potentially being delayed a bit:

• Wait and hope that your flight isn’t cancelled
  • That’s a real possibility
• Know your rights above (and this weekend) in case your flight is cancelled
  • Check if the card you paid with has flight delay insurance
  • All the good ones have it, so if yours doesn’t… get a better one
  • Check that strikes are covered (almost always the case)
  • By Googling “(card name) certificate of insurance”
  • Find other flight options in advance and note the flight numbers
  • So you can be ready to request them from WestJet very fast
  • As always, it’s easier when you take responsibility

Here’s what to do if you want to keep your trip, and you absolutely don’t want to be delayed at all

• Book a backup flight
  • On another airline obviously
  • Either a fully refundable flight (more expensive)
  • Or a regular flight (less expensive)
  • Compare prices (it varies; as always for flights)
  • Taking into account cancellation/modification fees
• If you book a fully refundable backup flight (more expensive)
  • If you end up not needing it, you can refund it for free
  • If you end up needing it, you’ll get refunded for your initial flight
• If you book a regular backup flight (less expensive)
  • You can decide to simply fly this one in all cases
  • Or to get it refunded if you end up not needing it
  • Compare the cancellation fees with those of your initial flight to choose
  • If you decide to cancel your initial flight, WAIT (see the 1^st scenario)

Always paying for all your flights with a good credit card is truly one of the most important travel tips. It gives you lots of free protections without having to depend on the airline. Here’s yet another great example of that!!!

How could the WestJet strike end?

Here is what can end the strike if there is one:

• A deal between both parties
• An agreement to go to arbitration
• An intervention by the federal government

WestJet probably has hope that the last option materializes, given that the Carney Government got involved extremely quickly in the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike last summer, which scandalized the union and many people.

It’s a complex and nuanced topic, but what is certain and objective is that it makes no sense to elect a government that wants to get involved in everything and then be surprised that this government wants to get involved in everything! 😅

We will obviously follow all this very closely for you and keep you updated.

What flights may be affected by the WestJet strike? 

Only flights operated by WestJet can be affected. Flights operated by any other airline are not affected, even if you booked with WestJet and even if the flight has an WestJet flight number… 

Understanding the difference between the airline that markets a flight and the airline that operates a flight is really one of the most basic things possible, but it doesn’t seem clear for many, like the whole concept of airline partnerships in fact. 

All that matters is the airline that operates your flight. WestJet flight attendants don’t work on Delta planes, so a WestJet flight attendants’ strike doesn’t affect flights operated by Delta.

What happens with vacation packages during the WestJet strike? 

We launched Flytrippers with the mission of helping Canadians travel for less, but we honestly insist on encouraging only independent travel. 

We’re experts in real travel and we don’t know much about packages (other than the fact that they’re clearly inferior to real travel😉). 

We always like to share tips and advice only on things we know extremely well, so we’ll continue to do that. 

These tips are therefore for flights affected by the WestJet strike, and we absolutely don’t know as much about the impact on packages. 

The flight portion is simple. The hotel portion gets complicated because it’s not regulated. The protections are much better for flights.

It’s also one of the many good reasons to book independent trips, because having a package somewhat invalidates the protections on flights, as it’s not easy to get compensation for lost nights if you choose to complete your trip on another airline.

And another good reason is that almost all hotels are refundable (or at least modifiable) completely free until very close to the stay when you book them independently. That’s very convenient for when plans change, no matter the reason.

And another reason is that you can be self-reliant, and if you want something done right you have to do it yourself, especially in the world of travel. With a package, you’re entirely at the mercy of the tour operator because you’ve already given them all your money. They’ll surely do everything to make you choose the refund option, which is much cheaper for them!

No clear protection exists for lost nights… the only easy thing is to just cancel everything. Traveling this way, therefore, gives you fewer options in situations of disrupted flights, no matter the reason. Having more options is always better than not having options!

So concretely, you would therefore have to insist on either a refund for the missing nights, or a free extension of the stay to compensate… and this frankly won’t be easy to get.

Because once again, the protections for flights are well-regulated and clear. This just isn’t the case for packages.

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