shorne

Since WestJet seems to be functioning, I'm thinking of cancelling my other flight for a full refund right after checking in. I'm not pleased with WestJet right now, but really flying in general has become a damnable nuisance. I can't be the only one who has come to regard flying as nothing more than a necessary evil, and the airlines have themselves to thank for that negative impression.

Amazon sells those loops of wire in batches of a few dozen. I have a whole package of them here; I'd happily give you one if I could.

WestJet hasn't sent me any e-mail, despite knowing how to reach me. I'm glad that the strike seems to have been averted, but are we out of the woods yet? WestJet cancelled more than 200 flights yesterday and today. Probably everything will be in order in time for my flight a few days from now, but for the moment I am not going to cancel my refundable ticket on another airline.

One thing that I shall say as a lawyer who is familiar with the relevant legislation: the «offer» to let the customer cancel the ticket without charge isn't much of an «offer» at all. That's the least that WestJet must do. If you ask them to cancel your ticket, however, you may let them off the hook for greater obligations. Cancelling the ticket would be a favour to them, rarely one to you.

People almost invariably underestimate my age by 15 years or more: I just look quite young (even though I have my suits made in the style of the 1930s). One fine day, however, the clerk at a Rexall asked me whether I qualified for the senior discount. I asked about the qualifying age and reported with regret that I fell just a couple of years short. I was astonished, however, to have aged more than 15 years in a single day.

You may need to compromise, either by accepting a fixed table by yourself or by accepting any space at a table for multiple people that happens to be available. Perhaps it is too much to ask that several people whom you don't know commit to dining with you at the same time and at the same table every evening for two weeks straight. I'd sooner eat by myself than with a lot of strangers. They might not like my company and I might not like theirs. But since meeting other people and hearing their stories at dinner is important to you, you may wish to be more flexible about the arrangements.

Thank you for the link. Right now the offer to cancel flights without penalty is good only for flights being taken up to 21 May. Mine is a few days later… I shall hold out for now, in hope of taking the flight on WestJet and cancelling the other one for a full refund. I'm not happy with WestJet, but its flight will be more convenient if it takes place on schedule.

The union has given notice of the intention to go on strike on 19 May 2023 at 3:00 Eastern Time. WestJet has responded by locking the pilots out. Just now I booked a fully refundable ticket on a different airline. I cannot accept the risk of a cancellation rooted in WestJet's administrative problems/failures. I wish that I hadn't used WestJet in the first place. Tomorrow I intend to call Westjet and request a refund for the outbound flight.

After all, Gewürztraminer grows splendidly in Brownsville.

When garments begin to wear out, I save them for travel: I wear them a few times and then throw them away. That saves space and weight in my bags for the rest of the trip.

Someone just mentioned that sending four suitcases would have cost US$3000. Unbelievable.

In Canada, the Currency Act, RSC 1985, c C-52, s 8, defines how payments may be legally made. (Among other things, payments in coins are restricted so as not to create a burden, as happened long ago when someone in the US deliberately sought to pay hundreds of dollars' worth of parking tickets in pennies.) In practice, yes, it may be difficult in the short term to compel a store to accept a legal payment in Canadian currency. But refusal of the payment is illegal.

Meaning what? That there are unannounced advantages that one has to track down somehow?

Every purchase that you make entitles the vendor to call you endlessly about further purchases? My, my.

Very few of us maintain a telephone for the purpose of receiving commercial solicitations. I suggest that this person find a more dignified way to make a living than by intruding upon people's privacy.

Princess's loyalty programme doesn't make much sense. The red level, for instance, offers nothing of value beyond the level below it.

Conversely, solo travellers don't get extra credit for the length of the cruise. I'm going to take a 33-day cruise by myself; it counts as 2 cruises but only 33, not 66, days. (It's really two cruises sold as one, but I understand that it is being treated as one for this purpose.) If that creates an incentive for people to take short cruises, Princess has only itself to blame.

Princess sells its cruises on these terms: $X as a flat rate and $14,50 or whatever per day. The flat rate is obligatory; the daily charge can be varied upon request. For a cruise of Y days, the total cost $Z is $(X + 14,50×Y). That's really what Princess is charging; it just takes a more complicated approach than stating a fixed price, probably because many people will think that they are paying only $X. Since the cost is $Z, I pay $Z. I'd prefer to be charged $Z outright, rather than getting the chance to weasel out of paying anything beyond $X. But I don't make the rules, and I know that the discretionary portion goes entirely to the workers and that therefore they would lose out if I underpaid. So I pay $Z. That said, since Princess offers the option of not paying $Z, people cannot be criticised for availing themselves of the option. I would not do it, but some people do, for reasons ranging from stinginess to abiding dissatisfaction with the service provided. Princess could end that practice by charging $Z and disallowing, discouraging, or omitting to encourage tipping. (I used dollars only because the daily charge for «tips» was listed in dollars earlier in this discussion. Substitute pounds, euros, or whatever else may apply.)

One problem with tipping is that it is in the discretion of the person leaving the tip. Recipients are subject to discrimination on grounds such as race, gender, age, and physical attractiveness. In turn, some workers give greater attention to those whom they expect to give a greater tip. Another problem is that it favours people whose work happens to put them in contact with customers. The person who carries the plate to the table gets a tip; the person who chops onions does not. Now, maybe the person chopping onions or doing laundry or sweeping the floor is paid more, or maybe she isn't. Is this really any of our business? The better practice, by far, is to charge full fare and either disallow tips, reduce them to optional trifling sums, or exceptionally allow them for truly stellar service. This is what is done in much of the world. There are even places where a tip is downright insulting.

Unscrupulous people can always be found. Some people avoid tipping just because they are stingy, just as some people engage in shoplifting and other improper practices. The possibility of getting away with something does not justify doing it. But there can be legitimate disagreements on tipping. In North America, I give tips in restaurants but not in hotel rooms. Some people insist that the cleaning staff in a hotel should receive a tip. I don't give them one unless I put them to special trouble, which seldom happens. There's room for reasonable disagreement over that, whereas the practice of giving a tip in North American restaurants is ubiquitous and well understood as an expectation (though not a legal obligation). I see the charge for «tips» on a cruise as part of the cost. I wouldn't take them off the bill. But I don't feel the need to leave additional tips, except for uncommonly good service.

In the US, the federal minimum wage for people in positions that conventionally receive tips (waiters, for instance) is only $2,13 per hour. The employer has to make up any shortfall from the regular minimum wage if tips are not sufficient.

Yes, nowadays one can be hit up for a tip when picking up take-away food. Where the hell is the service that requires a tip? I'm also sick of requests for donations to allegedly charitable causes at the cash register. It is worse than presumptuous to solicit donations from people who are just trying to buy groceries. Small wonder that I avoid retail establishments.

Good analysis. When travelling on my own, I would never give anything like $46 per day in tips. On a cruise, of course, the staff come largely from the Third World and are poorly paid; the so-called tips are just a gimmick to make the cruise look cheaper than it is by hiding part of the cost. Technically they are not part of the cost because one can refuse to pay them; in practice, however, probably most people just pay up. I also fail to see why someone carrying a drink should get a tip when a faceless person doing laundry or chopping vegetables never will get one. Tipping is a bad practice that lately has been taken to an extreme in North America. When paying by credit card, one is now often asked to leave a «tip» at a grocery store or a pharmacy. Recently at a restaurant I was given a range of choices from 18% to 35%, as if that represented the only permissible range of tips (15% has been standard in North America for a hundred years or so). What started as a courtesy has become a veritable shakedown.

As a passenger, I have agreed to the standard practice of paying the amount on the meter. Anyone who had the gall to demand $10 when the meter said $5 would get $5 and no tip. Something tells me that those drivers wouldn't ask for $10 if the meter said $50.

You didn't demand your four or five parti-coloured lollipops?