Originally Posted by
Stranger
I still don't understand. First you said that there was a three hours delay on the PIT-YYZ flight. Why did she not take it, or why was she not allowed to board it?
There was a 1 hour delay on the PIT-YYZ leg that turned into 3 hours. As the delay got longer she talked to the ticketing agents about potentially switching to another flight once she got to YYZ because she thought she would misconnect (two hour layover in YYZ). The ticketing agent wasn't very helpful and didn't offer any better options so she left the ticketing agent and decided to try her luck taking the PIT-YYZ leg in the hopes that she could make the original flight because the YYZ-CDG leg was also delayed an additional hour. Additionally, if she missed that leg, there were some other options she could take from YYZ that would also get her to Paris the next day.
When she tried to board the flight during the normal boarding time (PIT-YYZ) the gate agent told her the ticket had been cancelled and they would not reinstate it to get her on the flight. They then offloaded her bags and she had to pick them up and come home for the night.
Ok so if this isn't denied boarding, what's the recourse, they can't just cancel the ticket and pretend like nothing happened after making her miss a day of her vacation?
Originally Posted by
canadiancow
The lack of knowledge of an oversell is important, but...
I don't think the lack of a confirmed reservation is relevant in cases like this. Otherwise, AC would never have to pay DB compensation, because they could just cancel your ticket.
In my 1000+ flights on AC, I have had exactly one time where an agent cancelled a booking I didn't want them to. And worse, it was a concierge, via email, where my instructions were quite clear. I cannot even fathom what would have to happen for an airport agent to cancel a booking without pax consent. I've even said things like "if this delay gets any longer I might just cancel the trip", but even that wasn't enough for them to cancel anything.
Agree with your last point, that's why I'm asking about recourse, because that should never have been the outcome. I was shocked when she told me they had cancelled the ticket and offered no alternative except to leave the airport and come home (i.e. leaving the airport without even an alternate option for travel the next day).