Originally Posted by canadiancow

Wow, that was honestly a lot more information than I expected. In future, I recommend starting with it, because it makes it much easier to respond. You may find another front-page thread that has devolved into guessing what itinerary A-B-C was, because people were annoyed at the OP (which is definitely not the case here).

That being said, you are not entitled to IDB compensation if your flight departed with empty seats, which it sounds like it did, given that others without checked bags were allowed to travel.

Your gate arrival was 28 minutes before your scheduled gate departure. Do you know what time you got to the departure gate? If it was at least 15 minutes before scheduled departure, that may help.

Anyway, it's not IDB. I think you SHOULD have a strong case, but this is not something AC will help you with, and I doubt it's something the CTA will help you with. AC delayed you, but you still showed up on time to your connection, then they denied you boarding, while allowing others in the same situation to board, on an obviously false premise (the bags).

I don't know how much money you're looking to get out of this, but I have seen small claims courts award full refunds plus lawyer costs for things as equally "trivial" (and I don't mean that in a bad way). You paid for something. You did everything you could to ensure you got what you paid for. AC could have provided it (by letting you board) but chose not to. Courts don't like that.

Good luck.