Industry News
Several skiers bought prepaid passes at Whistler Blackcomb for the 2020-21 season but didn’t get to use all of their days. They claim they weren’t able to use them due to British Columbia’s COVID-19 health order to avoid non-essential travel and stay in their own regions. They went forward to ask Whistler Blackcomb for a refund on their unused days.
But the resort wouldn’t give it to them.
One such skier, Maureen Cureton of Vancouver, bought a five-visit prepaid Edge card months before the start of the 2020-21 season, according to the Vancouver Sun. But before that ski season even kicked off, the province recommended non-essential travel, so Cureton tried to get a refund. The Sun reports that she said her emails weren’t returned and that she “gave up trying after waiting once for four hours in a customer online chat queue before being cut off.”
Cureton said she was owed approximately $200 for the two remaining days but would be happy to take credit, the Sun reports. She didn’t get that. Cureton’s story is like several other Edge cardholders claiming that they tried to get refunds from Whistler for their unused visits but that the resort just wouldn’t play ball.
The deadline for applying for a refund, for season passes and Edge cards, was May 31, according to Whistler Blackcomb’s website. But several cardholders said they never received emails about a refund deadline, and only learned of it once it was too late.
According to some of these cardholders, the Sun reports, their inclination to travel to Whistler was affected by Dr. Bonnie Henry’s warnings during a rise in COVID cases. She said in early November that “we are advising in the strongest terms that people need to stay in their local community” and not travel for recreational sports. These cardholders said that this deterred them from using their prepaid days at Whistler last season, and would constitute a refund—one the resort has yet to give them.
Whistler Blackcomb denies prepaid cardholders refund during COVID-19 season https://t.co/pjLC9S1PmV
— The Vancouver Sun (@VancouverSun) June 12, 2021
