Originally Posted by
Ahmad Almudallal
Hi everyone,
Hi, welcome to FT
Two years ago I have bought flight tickets from Air Canada and paid for a bassinet in the plane for my infant. In the departure flight there are 2 stops and in the return flight there are two stops, means my family and I will be in 6 planes. The bassinet was provided in only two planes, but I am supposed to get a bassinet in 4 planes. I was very disappointed because travelling with babies is not easy.
What do you mean by "supposed to get a bassinet in 4 planes"? AC's
page on travelling with children very clearly states "you may request a bassinet in advance of travel by contacting Air Canada Reservations. However,
we are unable to confirm availability until the time of your flight's departure." (Emphasis AC's). They also state "Bassinets are assigned on a first come, first served basis, subject to availability at time of flight departure."
So I'm not sure why you think you were "supposed to get a bassinet". Either someone else got it first, or they swapped aircraft from one that had a bassinet to one that didn't. But you were never guaranteed to get a bassinet. Did someone at AC tell you that you
were guaranteed one?
I compliant to Air Canada and to apologize for this mistake they offered me a promotion code of 30% for up to four people.
In my view, that's pretty generous compensation for you not getting something that was (likely) never promised. A 30% off code can easily be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars if used to book business class and/or last-minute tickets. I saved over $2,500 using a 30% off code a few months back, and that wasn't even the most valuable use I could have found for it, by a long shot.
I was told in the email when it was given to me that "Your travel must commence by April 4, 2020."
Is that what it actually says? I've received a number of promo codes from AC over the last couple of years and they all say "This discount offer is valid for one year from today. This means you must complete the booking and travel within one year." This has been true of both codes that were auto-generated due to a delay as well as those sent by a customer service agent in response to an e-mail. Furthermore, although the codes say they're only good for one year, in practice they have worked for flights up to 18 months out.
I tried to use the code for a flight commencing March 30th but the online system said the code expires in April 4 and my return flight should be before April 4. That does not make any sense because customer service said in the email the flight must commence by April 4, 2020. I called an Air Canada agent and they told me to book my flight with them on the phone and send in a request for a reimbursement in an email.
So, what did the e-mail with the promo code actually say? If it said what my e-mails have said, I don't see what you're complaining about, because that would mean the code was issued in October 2018 and should have expired in October 2019, according to its terms.
I am thinking to go to small claims court but I need to hear from you first about this case. Any advise?
What case do you think you have here? Pending further information from you, it looks to me like:
- Even though you weren't guaranteed a bassinet, you thought you were going to get a bassinet on four flights and only got it on two.
- You complained to AC about getting a bassinet on fewer flights than you expected
- AC gave you a discount code as a goodwill gesture
- You failed to use the discount code within the time allotted
If the e-mail from AC said what you say it said, and not what all of my promo codes said, I suggest you write back to AC, attach a copy of the original e-mail, and point out that you expected the code to be good for any booking where travel commenced prior to April 4, 2020, since that's what the promo code's terms stated. If it said what my e-mails said, then you should (a) adjust your travel plans to take advantage of the code, (b) give it away to a friend of relative who could make good use of it and who might show might give you something for it, or even (c) find some nice person on FlyerTalk who might exchange you a longer-dated code for it either out of the goodness of their hearts, or for a lower % off code (for instance, I have a 20% off code good to June 2021 that I might be willing to trade you for your 30% off code).
But small claims court?
Please. Unless something is very weird about your case, you didn't get something that you were never promised and didn't pay anything for, got a goodwill gesture as compensation, and then failed to take advantage of that compensation. I don't see how any court could find in your favour.