All Arun Kumar wants from Air Canada is a frank explanation for the grief the airline caused him when he tried to return to Saudi Arabia recently.


The Ottawa man was not allowed to board a Jan. 22 flight because the agent at the check-in counter insisted that he needed a return ticket to Canada in order to travel to Saudi Arabia, where he works.


The agent — whom Kumar described as rude, perhaps bigoted and in no mood to listen to him because she told him her shift was about to end — was mistaken. Kumar has a worker’s visa to Saudi Arabia, which allows him multiple entries to the Middle East kingdom without requiring a return ticket home.

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Though Kumar later confirmed the agent had erred, he feared he’d face a similar roadblock when he returned to the airport, especially if he had to deal with the same woman. So he bought a return ticket to Canada on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for Feb. 12, through his travel agent in Saudi Arabia.


On Jan. 24, a different Air Canada check-in agent did not ask him for proof of a return ticket, was satisfied with his travel documents and sent him on his way to catch his plane. (His travel agent has since had the KLM ticket refunded.)

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In a number of e-mails between Kumar and the airline’s customer-relations office, Air Canada apologizes repeatedly for the inconvenience, but doesn’t really accept any blame until a third e-mail. In that e-mail, the airline seems to say the check-in agent might have screwed up, but doesn’t go any further in its explanation.


Mary Ann Huggett of customer relations also stresses to Kumar in two e-mails that Air Canada is not liable for any costs he incurred for its refusal to allow him on the Jan. 22 flight. He says he lost two days in wages and had extra cab expenses, though he’s not asking for reimbursement.


Kumar, from his home in Dhahran, says he wants a full explanation of why he was treated by the agent in a rude and high-handed manner. He also wants assurances that Air Canada will make sure all agents are well-versed on travel regulations to avoid similar incidents.


In a second e-mail response to Kumar, Huggett says Air Canada will review his complaint “internally.” She also says Air Canada will not be able “to disclose the results of an internal review,” but that it takes “concerns of this nature very seriously.”

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Huggett says that no airline can be held liable if the carrier “in good faith determines that what it understands to be applicable law, government regulation, demand, order or requirement, requires that it refuse and it does refuse to carry a passenger. … This protects the airlines from fines imposed by the receiving country and the passenger from deportation if they are not holding the proper documents.”


Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick says there is little he can add. He says the airline has “service standards in that all customers should be treated with respect and well-received.”