I boarded the flight from Barcelona to Calgary and when settling in I was noticed the couple in from to me brought in a cat in a case and put it on the floor in front of me. I call the attendant and stated that I was very allergic to cats and needed to be moved. She came back and said I had 2 options 1- be moved to another seat or 2 leave the flight and catch a different one. Since I have work scheduled at home I asked to please be moved and she came back very quickly and said I was out of luck no one would move. I complained and she talked to her super who stated the same. I had no choice but to stay on this flight and boy did I suffer. I spent half of the trip with watering itchy eyes, sneezing, sniffling, scratching and coughing and the other half standing at the back of the plane outside the toilets trying to get relief from allergy induced conditions. They never offered me an antihistamine or anything for that matter. I cannot believe that WJ arbitrarily allow pets into the main cabin, period, but even harder to believe without area restrictions or at least some allocations for people with allergies to move to. OUTRAGEOUS! and very inconsiderate on their part. I literally suffered for the full 10 hours I was on the plane and felt totally ignored. I contacted [protected]@westjet.com; [protected]@westjet.com and [protected]@westjet.com with my complaints and only got form letters and explanations (from cust. service) of what they are doing to keep this from happening - NO REAL EMPATHY AT ALL for my situation and my suffering. I am so surprised as the old WJ would never have tolerated such poor customer service and lack of concern for one with allergies as such.
Claimed loss: I did ask for some compensation but was basically told "SUCK IT UP OR GET OFF THE PLANE" the same as the people on the plane gave me. New owners and new attitudes I guess
Desired outcome: Some way to let me know when I am booking my flight that this is happening so I can change my seat pro actively to prevent this suffering for me and future customers who get into this UNCOMFORTABLE AND POTENTIALLY UNSAFE SITUATION.