Earlier posts detail my ill-fated attempts to receive compensation for six family members who were delayed over 4 hours on their return trip to Boston from Bordeaux connecting in Montreal. While the BOD-YUL flight was on time, the YUL-BOS segment was subject to the long delay. AC turned down my request curtly and indicated that since that flight was from a non-europeans community nation to another non-community nation that it wasn't subject to EU261.

I decided to make one last attempt and wrote an email directly to Twyla Robinson, General Manager, Customer Relations & Executive Centre. I politely pointed out that I believed the prior denials of compensation were ill-informed and that the entire flight should be viewed as a single flight under the rulings of the European Court of Justice in the Wegener and the České/Etihad cases. I included pdf's of both those rulings in my email. At the end of my email, I said "In light of what seems to be the clear applicability of EU/EC 261, I would appreciate your review of our claim. We are hopeful that Air Canada will do what is right and and responsible. Failing a satisfactory response, it seems that we're left with little choice but to engage a third party to pursue the claim in the appropriate EU court and to file a report with DGAC Air Transport Directorate in Paris."

A week later, I received an email from a customer relations manager at AC stating "In this instance, we remain of the opinion that the compensation requested under EC Regulations does not apply. However, in the interest of concluding this amicably, on a goodwill basis, we will provide the compensation of 600 EUR per person. Converted to US Dollars at the current rate of exchange, the amount each person will receive is $662 USD. The compensation will be paid by bank draft (cheque). "

Naturally, I'm gratified that AC stepped up and did the right thing. I still don't know, and it doesn't really matter at this point, was if the earlier denial was due to an ill-informed agent that thought the EX-YUL flight didn't count, or if it was AC policy to initially refuse in the hope that the claimant would go away, Obviously, by stating this was a "goodwill" gesture instead of compliance with EU261, they want to not set precedent for future claims. We're satisfied that the higher-ups at AC took the claim seriously and examined it on the merits.....and my family members (four who are college students) are delighted to each receive a $662.00 USD check which arrived yesterday, two weeks after the notification from AC.