CBC: 'Appalling': Woman bumped from Air Canada flight misses $10,000 Galapagos cruise

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business...agos-1.4077645

I think someone mentioned we should have a wiki for the endless stream of CBC articles...I agree.

i like this quote:

​​​​​​"They could not have cared less," Russell said of the Air Canada staff. "Time did not seem to have any importance to them at all."

Here is CBC's latest story in their crusade against overbooking:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air-...agos-1.4077645

A few of points stand out:

(1) It sounds like she booked her flight through a NY based travel agent/tour provider. Everyone on FT knows that it is too risky to fly in on the day of a cruise. Shouldn't a travel agent know that too and advise against it?

(2) She had a boarding pass but was bumped at the gate. Did she get a seat assignment on her boarding pass?

(3) The gate agent said that she didn't have a "valid ticket." Either the gate agent was lying to get rid of her and send her back to the customer service desk, or she misunderstood the terminology. I would hope that a lawyer would understand the importance of precise terminology, but lawyers are human too.

(4) There was no mention of gate announcements looking for VDB with compensation.

The lack of these details shows the gap between frequent and not so frequent flyers. She likely knows very little about any of it. If she was bumped and given little/conflicting info it's not hard to be frazzled. But more media stories....

She should have had more time but luckily her cruise will rebook. It's too bad you have to go to the media to get satisfaction but not like CBC is complaining!

Also yyz-mia is rouge.

How the hell do you spend $10k on a cruise, then not pick up travel insurance or give yourself sufficient buffer to account for weather/bumping/mech/etc.

Sounds like a weather delay would have also caused her to miss her cruise. Which isn't unusual for April.

Given everything, I'd be blaming the travel agent for piss-poor planning.

Well get used to higher fares coming soon. With all these news articles on bumping, no doubt the stupid government will try to ban overbooking. What we'll get is higher fares and no more flexible/refundable tickets.

Are people not responsible for their poor planning or ignorant mistakes anymore? Flying the day before a once-in-a-lifetime cruise? She was asking for trouble to begin with.

Retired lawyer eh?

One would think that even a modicum of research on any cruise forum would indicate to build in a sufficient buffer for delays, weather issues and the like.

PS-do any of these bumpers check in online when it opens?

The complaints just keep coming...
If she didn't get a seat assignment at check in I wonder if the agent explained the situation or just passed it off to the next "sucker" on staff to deal with.
All of this gives more fodder to our astronaut-Minister and as usual AC is doing it to itself.

This is getting absolutely rediculous with the CBC articles. It's so easy to avoid being bumped! It's as easy as selecting a seat! All Air Canada owes this lady is the IDB compensation which it looks like she recieved.

Spends $10000 on a cruise...

flies rouge...

seriously?

So this is one story where I don't have sympathy for this woman! Boooo hoooo!

Why the assumption she booked through an agent and that it's somehow their fault? The article quite clearly says:

After doing extensive research, she booked a National Geographic tour with New York-based Lindblad Expeditions.

Tough to throw her under the bus for flying Rogue .... if you have to get to Miami, that's basically your only option on AC.

Now, why she didn't pay for a seat assignment, or better yet fly to Miami a day early, those are tougher questions.

Once again though, this is a case in which a VDB auction would surely have paid off. Sounds like a VDB offer could have gone up to the multi-thousands, and she would still have wanted to keep the flight ... but there's no way that everyone on the flight was so time constrained; someone would have happily stepped off for $n,000.

IMHO, Delta saved themselves with their announcement of (almost) unlimited VDB amounts ... I can't understand why AC don't read the tea leaves, announce a similar policy, and get out ahead of this.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

The three previous IDB case discussed around here, involved:

• Someone who didn't even miss their flight
• A couple who were delayed but only by ~12 hours and well compensated for it
• A family who didn't even go to the airport to try and argue their case

From my perspective, this current story elicits the most sympathy of all from me. Other than some poor planning (tight connection, and not buying a seat assignment in advance), it sounds like this woman did most things right, and suffered some significant consequences.

Where is the line drawn for flyers to take responsibility for the choices that they make?

I read these various threads on FlyerTalk about AC and CBC and it comes down to a poster's view on whether or not government should step in or when the flyer/family should take ownership of the decisions that they make.

It really comes down to your viewpoint on these types of issues.

There are a lot of very bad travel agents out there. If they don't travel themselves or just book cheap packages, they have no clue.