I see. I'm a little surprised, frankly, because I fly this route a lot, and there are, obviously, frequent delays. Most of the passengers connect at EWR and I have always heard the local YQB staff tell passengers about to miss their connections that they will need to make the change at EWR. Similarly, I would be astonished if anyone working for the airport authority of YQB would even have access to Marriott hotel vouchers at EWR.

But let's assume the IDB/VDB did take place at YQB, and I'll assume it was YQB, because CO is the only one who flies YQB-EWR. Anyone who would fly from YUL would almost certainly say Montreal.

In this case, while I am not defending what may have happened (and let's take the women at their word for the moment and assume they were not confused, despite their age) is that the contractors at YQB simply didn't have access to all the CO guidelines, nor sufficient training.

Remember, the people who work the counters at YQB process passengers for 11 carriers, and I am quite sure they don't receive nearly the kind of in-depth training from each one that this kind of IrrOps would require.

I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's an inevitable consequence of this kind of system.

If the reroutes were really done at YQB I believe the women in question could probably receive compensation from WE CARE, since basic CO procedures weren't followed..of course, these women have long since vanished, unless one of them is a long-term lurker here in FT