Many passengers on board an Air Canada plane scheduled to take off from Toronto on Friday said the flight was delayed for hours before being canceled and re-booked the next day, without vouchers for food or hotel accommodation. offered by the airline.
Dorar Abuzaid, one of the passengers, said she was late for her wedding in Phoenix on Saturday.
“It was a 24-hour test for a four-hour flight,” Abuzaid told CTV News Toronto.
On Friday, she said she boarded the flight and sat on the runway for three hours before the flight was canceled.
Abuzaid said that after boarding the plane, a crew member announced that one of the flight attendants was in emergency room.
She said that after the paramedics evaluated the flight attendants and judged them safe to fly, the pilot announced that the management of Air Canada had made an executive decision that it was still dangerous.
“It was 12:30 at night,” Abuzaid said.
Initially, their flight was scheduled to take off at 8 pm, but at that point it was too late for the new flight attendant to clear customs and the flight was canceled, Abuzaid said.
“Then it got exponentially worse,” she said. “There are no food vouchers, no hotel, nothing. We finally slept at the airport. ”
An Air Canada spokesman confirmed to CTV News Toronto that the flight was delayed for 2 hours and 15 minutes before being canceled due to a medical problem with a crew member and that all customers had been booked again and left the next morning at 11:32 .
However, the airline spokesman did not answer why food vouchers and hotel reservations were not offered by the airline.
Under Air Canada regulations, the airline will provide food and beverages in reasonable quantities to passengers who have been informed of a delay or cancellation less than 12 hours before departure and have waited two hours after departure.
The guidelines state that the airline must also provide a hotel or comparable accommodation for late night stays for passengers outside the city, subject to availability.
Another passenger, Lara Forchuk, told CTV News Toronto that the airline said passengers would have to book and pay for hotels themselves, but that they would be reimbursed if they found accommodation.
Abuzaid said that when she finally arrived in Phoenix for her wedding, 14 hours after it was due, she was deprived of sleep. “I’m the bride and I was the last to arrive in Arizona,” Abuzaid said.
“We fainted at the dinner table,” she added.
Samantha, who asked for her last name to be omitted, told CTV News Toronto that she was also looking to arrive in Arizona in time for her cousin’s bachelorette party in Scottsdale.
“I still haven’t heard a word from Air Canada,” she said. “It was almost a 24-hour test without communication from the airline.
As a Toronto resident, Samantha said she was lucky to at least sleep at home after the flight was canceled, but the experience was “painful” nonetheless.
Forchuk said she slept in a chair at the airport while waiting for the booked flight on Saturday morning.
The Glendale resident was flying home to Arizona after visiting her parents in Brantford, Ont. Like Abuzaid, she said no vouchers were offered for food or hotel accommodation booked by the airline.
“It was canceled without any explanation,” she said.
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