Air Canada has had major system crash today with total black out. I had my daughter routed from Montreal YUL to ORD on AC, then United rest of way ORD to SFO to AKL to WLG. All ticked on United.

AC managed to miss the first connection which ran on time and my daughter missed by 2 minutes specifically because AC eventually ticketed manually, had long lines at AC check in and made no effort to get passengers on soon to leave flights. My daughter was at checkout 2.5 hours before departure.

Long story short. Instead of rerouting her via other United connections which would have allowed her to pick up United's SFO-Auckland flight, AC routed her through Vancouver to Sydney to Wellington via AC metal. End result is she was delayed at destination by 9.5 hours. Crappy seats and older, less comfortable planes.

From what I've read, it being AC's fault and not an act of god, I should be eligible for compensation. No where along the line was any food coupons offered even though over 3 hours first delay.

It would have been much better if she'd been allowed to come home and take a delayed flight tomorrow instead of stretching 20 hour flight into 30.

Do I go through 1k channels or direct to AC for compensation.