MONTREAL — Passengers and advocates say Air Canada is giving them information about refunds, compensation and reasons given for flight delays and cancellations — including a case of bad weather highlighted nearly two weeks in advance.
Despite thousands of canceled flights and delayed arrivals, customers are struggling to make successful complaints and navigate the nuances of complex regulations amid a huge surge in summer travel.
The country’s largest carrier informed some passengers that their flight to Lisbon would be delayed due to “bad weather”, 12 days before it was scheduled to leave Montreal on July 17.
Another passenger recently received a $60 “eCoupon” due to a one-day baggage delay, rather than the direct baggage fee refund she is entitled to under both federal rules and Air Canada’s passenger carrier contract.
“It would be great if I could get that money back instead of a coupon. Especially since I’m still without my bag and have transit costs,” said Air Canada Rouge passenger Lianna Durdle.
On Tuesday, the airline canceled a flight from Nashville to Toronto, citing a “technical issue.” But data from the tracking service Flightradar24 shows that the same plane that was supposed to fly to Nashville for the trip instead took off for Boston an hour after its original departure time, despite the mechanical problem it cited.
Liam Walsh, a paralegal who advocates for consumer protection, called the reasons given “dubious” and “suspicious”. Technical or mechanical malfunctions are not considered to be within the carrier’s control and thus exempt it from having to compensate customers, he noted.
“I was quite shocked by what I saw,” he said.
“How could they say it’s maintenance, and an hour later the plane is flying to Boston instead? Why didn’t they just delay the Nashville flight a bit?”
Walsh said that, taken together, the countless cases of “technical” or “maintenance” problems, along with travel vouchers instead of refunds, gave the impression that the airline was trying to avoid a “payout”.
The story continues
“People file claims and they get denied,” he said. “You’re going to see all kinds of people saying there are inconsistent reasons.”
Air Canada said in an email that the explanation for the Lisbon flight times was an “incorrect notification” that has since been revised.
“Air Canada fully appreciates the frustration and inconvenience caused by schedule changes to customers and is doing everything possible to mitigate these inconveniences,” the airline said in a statement.
It notes that passengers can request a refund in the original payment method at any time and says it will pay additional compensation where it is due under the passenger charter.
The airline has struggled to cope with a tidal wave of passengers amid staff shortages in recent months, with positions ranging from pilots to baggage handlers as well as security and customs agents remaining vacant.
The result is long waiting times at the airport, constant delays and mazes of delayed baggage, along with increasing complaints and claims for compensation.
The airline said its wages were at 93 percent of 2019 levels, despite cutting more than 15 percent of summer flights. Announced last week, the move cuts its flight schedule to well below 80 percent of the pre-pandemic numbers it had been operating on since late spring.
Meanwhile, the federal government says nearly 1,200 screening officers have been hired since April – although not all are authorized to operate the scanners – and more than 700 student border guards have taken up positions at checkpoints.
Still, travel turbulence continues, with Air Canada racking up a higher share of flight delays — about two-thirds — than any other major airline in the world for four straight days starting Saturday. Other carriers and airports are also experiencing excessive congestion, from London’s Heathrow to China’s Guangzhou.
Gabor Lukacs, president of the air passenger rights advocacy group, says passenger frustration highlights the complexity — and loopholes — of Canada’s three-year-old Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR).
For example, passengers have no ready way to refute an airline’s claim that mechanical problems are behind the delay and that no cash is owed.
“These are not easily understood, easily enforced rights. It’s a scam,” Lukacs said, pointing to a July 2021 small claims court ruling in Nova Scotia.
“Where consumer protection is the intended result of a regulatory regime, it must be assumed that the regime will be in plain language, easy to understand and support a simple claims process,” the ruling said.
“The APPR, which was intended to achieve improved passenger rights, achieves none of these. The language is complex and legalistic; one needs detailed or specific knowledge to refer to the claims system; and the redress process, once invoked, does not lend itself to quick resolution.”
Under the regulations, passengers are owed alternative travel arrangements or a refund – at the passenger’s option – if they have been informed more than two weeks in advance that their flight has been canceled or delayed by three hours or more for reasons within the carrier’s control.
If the trip is canceled within 14 days or less, passengers are owed $1,000 for a cancellation or delay of nine hours or more, and between $400 and $700 for a delay of three to nine hours.
No matter how long the notice, a passenger who chooses to decline a rebooking must receive $400 in compensation, in addition to a refund.
An airline must endeavor to rebook passengers on a flight on its network that departs within nine hours of the original departure time. If it can’t, it must offer to book them on another airline’s network “as soon as possible,” free of charge, according to the passenger rights charter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 7, 2022.
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Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
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