A Calgary couple is calling out Canada’s largest airline after they showed up for a flight that, despite receiving confirmation only days earlier, was no longer a route in operation.
Jim and Sharon Sherlock booked a trip with Air Canada‘s Aeroplan points from Calgary to Vancouver to Maui back in March.
On Oct. 12, they said they got a confirmation that the flight was going ahead but when they arrived at the airport there was a surprise.
“We got there and obviously, we’re pretty excited,” said Jim Sherlock. “And the ticket agent went on to tell us – after a while — that there was no flight from Vancouver to Maui. There hadn’t been for some time.”
At least not with Air Canada.
“I was really upset and really frustrated when she basically tried to blow us off and said, ‘You’ll have to deal with Aeroplan on this.'”
The Sherlocks pointed out the two companies are in fact, one. They also pointed to their tickets and the flight confirmation email that they had received just two days prior. But they said the airline would not budge.
The couple said it was forced to book two tickets to Maui with Air Canada competitor WestJet and decided to worry about getting compensation once they got back to Canada. But they were stonewalled and told the airline was not to blame as their itinerary had changed and they had been notified.
“They told us we had been booked on a flight from Calgary to San Francisco to Maui. But we definitely never got anything like that,” Jim said. “They just lied. We never received anything to go through San Francisco. Nothing through United at all.”
Global News reached out to Air Canada regarding the Sherlocks’ complaint.
In a statement, Air Canada said: “During the aftermath of the devastating Maui fires and in consultation with local authorities there, Air Canada cancelled its scheduled flights to Maui for several days while Maui first responders to focus on recovery. Air Canada operated several emergency evacuation flights out of Maui during this time to bring Canadians home.”
“While we were unable to transport Mr. Sherlock to Maui, he was rebooked to get there via another airline over another US city.” Air Canada added since the Sherlocks did not end up using the rebooked tickets to Maui, they were refunded as were the Aeroplan points. The Sherlocks told Global News they have received some money and points back — but it took a lot of time and work, and the refund still isn’t complete.
“The airlines can do whatever they want now,” Jim Sherlock said angrily. “There is no responsibility to the public and they really do not care.”
Air travel complaints continue to soar
There’s a huge backlog of complaints about air travel heading into the end of 2023.
According to the Canadian Transportation Agency (Agency), the backlog currently exceeds 62,200 complaints and some passenger rights advocates don’t expect that number to go down anytime soon.
“The number of complaints continues to soar,” Air Passenger Rights president Gábor Lukács told Global News. “The government is not dealing with the root cause of the problem.”
Lukács said the government needs to crack down on the airlines, something he said, it was given the go-ahead to do earlier this year.
“The government was given additional powers by Parliament in the past few months that would actually allow it to pass on the costs of these complaints to the airlines and to impose much higher fines on airlines,” he said. “But the government dropped the ball. The regulations that Parliament authorized to make have not been made.”
Lukács pointed out that the first consultation hasn’t even taken place on the passing on the cost portion of the scheme.
“So, as it stands, it is actually far more profitable for an airline to just Stonewall passengers in many cases, than to actually pay the compensation owed to passengers.”
Air Passenger Rights has been pushing for consumers to actually take the airlines to small claims court instead of the CTA.
“Small claims court — that’s the solution,” Lukács said. “The Canadian Transportation Agency lacks independence, lacks impartiality. In small claims court, it can still take some time. Fine, but at least you’re going to get an impartial decision maker.”
Airline complaints being addressed
The Agency told Global News it launched on Sept. 30, a new complaints resolution process with simplified steps and clear legislated timelines. In that new process, officials said Complaints Resolution Officers or CROs are Agency employees. They deal with the entire dispute resolution process, which is expected to reduce processing times.
It added it has already hired and trained 50 or so CROs and will double this number in 2024 as well as:
- Designing a new digitalized complaint management system;
- Creating online materials to assist passengers with the new process; and
- Launching a new online portal for industry and passengers to more easily and efficiently manage their complaints.
The Agency told Global News it expects this new process will be much simpler, clearer, faster and more cost effective, ensuring timely complaint resolution and access to justice for Canadians.
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