Dear All,

I would like to have your advice on an issue which has been quite frustrating: I am an an Aeroplan Top Tier FF (Elite), and on March 20th I was supposed to fly from Madrid to Santiago de Chile via Frankfurt and Toronto, but my trip was interrupted in Frankfurt due to a 15 hour delay of flight AC877 to Toronto (the flight was scheduled to depart at 5pm on March 20th, and ended up departing at 8am on March 21st). This caused me to miss my connection from Toronto to Santiago de Chile on March 20th on AC92, resulting on a 24 hour delay on arrival to my destination (I was scheduled to arrive on Santiago de Chile at 11.05am on March 21st, and ended up arriving there at 11.05am on March 22nd).

During the delay in Frankfurt Air Canada provided me with a hotel room for the night, with dinner and breakfast, and I was also allowed to make a few phone calls and one hour of internet at no charge. While I appreciate this, it is the minimum care any airline is obliged to provide for delays of four hours or more for flights of over 3500 km outside of the European Union, and, since it is an extremely long delay not caused by extraordinary circumstances (it was of a non-technical, operational nature, per the account of Air Canada ground agents, plane crew and pilot announcement), according to the EU Air Passenger Rights, I should also be entitled to financial compensation of 600 euros, but the airline has repeteadly refused to give me any financial compensation, claiming that the delay was due to "extraordinary circumstances" (which doesn't seem to be the case per agent, crew and pilot reports, as mentioned above), and they have instead just offered a small discount for future travel. We have been discussing for a few months, and they have now declared that their position is final.

Although I had never had trip interruption of this kind with them before, Air Canada's customer service has been good in the past, so I do not understand their treatment this time, since I think that it is a clear case. I mean, I can understand that delays happen, but I would expect them to just compensate me for the trouble, not to instead be sneaky about it.

I have reported the case to the EU Air Passenger Rights authority (the German Air Safety Board, in this case, since the delay occurred in Frankfurt), and I look forward to their veredict, but it will take time and unfortunately it doesn't ensure that I will be compensated, just that the airline will be punished if found at guilt, so I am thinking of suing the airline, since it looks like I have no other means to get proper compensation.

Do you have any advice? Would it be better to sue in the US (point of sale for the ticket), in Germany (where the incident took place) or in Spain (point of origin for the trip, and my permanent residence)? Should I perhaps talk with my credit card issuer (American Express) to try to get my money back? Have you also experienced a worsening in the quality of customer service at AC lately, or does this look like an isolated event (i.e. bad luck) to you? Would anyone perhaps be able to provide me with an "official" account of the causes of the delay, so that I do not need to rely on the testimony of Air Canada employees if needed?

Thank you very much in advance for your advice.

All the best,
Markam

[Edit] Corrected flight numbers (thank you, jlionw)