rarocnroll

I am now sitting in the Crowne Plaza Toronto Marriot hotel trying to figure out how this happened and whether my experience is consistent with Canadian consumer protection, Air Canada policies, and how I can best lodge a complaint.

I was flying from Toronto to Las Vegas for work. I live in New York and fly a lot for work (Delta Diamond, US Air Platinum) but have only recently started to fly on Air Canada (no status) because I am working in Toronto. I flew in to Toronto for a day and had to fly to Vegas for work, and bought the ticket a day or two ahead. The ticket was extremely expensive -- 1,000 one way. For some reason my travel agent included my United frequent flyer number (no status) instead of Us Air. When I got to the airport (I never think to check in online because this is never an issue), I wasn't given a seat -- the boarding pass said Gate check in.

When I got to the gate, they didn't ask for volunteers before boarding and then told me I was bumped. When I told them that most airlines ask for volunteers and get people on board they told me that everyone was likely flying with bags and they didn't do that. They gave me a $200 Air Canada voucher (really not that useful) and a middle seat in coach tomorrow.

I am now sitting in an airport bar, writing this email, trying to figure out what to do. Is this really Air Canada practice and consistent with Canadian consumer regulation? Any thoughts?

a7800

Are you in the Marriott or the bar?

rarocnroll

Actually it is the crowne plaza (a generic airport hotel in my sub-conscious seems always to be the marriot), and yes, am at the bar. A final injustice is that the voucher isn't good for alchohol.

YQMer

This has happened to me too in my early days of flying. In your post, you mention something key: "they didn't ask for volunteers". I believe this is policy, so that turned out to be an important element when I complained in my situation. You could write in, but since they've given you an MCO already, they may not offer anything else up.

lcohen999

your TA should have grabbed a seat (assuming one was available) when she booked the ticket and as a general rule always good to do OLCI.

Which of course isn't the answer you want to hear. As far as I know it is a part of the T&C that this 'can' happen. You were probably gated (no seat assignment) and were bumped for that reason. Problem with a place like Vegas is it is probably close to 98% tourists who would not give up their hotel room and its cost so you probably would have been out of luck (just an assumption).

Even if you were *G on the file, if there was no seat assigned to you you would have been stuck (maybe stuck higher on the list though).

yul36

Well AC GA's tend not the be the most cooperative at times. However I would call AC have them put your US FF number on your PNR. At the same time I would ask them to change your seat. If they can't ask them to uncheck you from the flight, and check in on-line using your PNR to access the booking under on line check in and then change your seat. The other thing you might have done, and I've done but they hate it, is to get them to release the hold on the funds to UA. Then fly the friendly skies. Not sure if they will release the funds to US where you have status.

One more thing if you bought the ticket in the US of A you might be able to take them to small claims court in the state the ticket was bought. They have a contractual obligation to carry you and they did'nt. It might also be worth a line to cust service that you are not happy with the 200 voucher , remind them that you have status with US. Also in a bumping situation the last time I was bumped I was offered Cash or a voucher.

ChrisA330

This is why you should always checkin online early. Not asking for volunteers seems odd, but if they cant get enough volunteers, they bump by checkin time - last to checkin gets bumped first.

Check their tariffs here: http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...s_section6.pdf

Rule 245AC clearly lays out their obligation. If they in fact didnt solicit volunteers they are in violation of their own tariff.

global happy traveller

The fact that the check in computer writes "CHECK IN AT GATE" tells me the possibility that your travel agent issued the ticket before the seat/flight was confirmed. (ie. at the time of ticketing your itinerary status is "WAITLISTED" instead of "CONFIRMED"

can u verify if that is the case on your issued ticket?

that happened to my grandma once on CX HKG/YYZ and they found out it wasnt CX's fault, instead our ticket agency issued the ticket before flight status was confirmed. Luckily they upgraded her to J.

rarocnroll

In retrospect not checking in online is a mistake, but am really not used to this being a problem. Is it just me though or did Air Canada approach this in the least consumer friendly way humanly possible.

global happy traveller

if i understand after they asked for volunteers then involuntary board starts by IC fares (staff, travel agents etc) followed by the lowest fare class and upwards. Full fare and status passengers shall remain the last last last ones to be asked.

rarocnroll

I can check tomorrow but am not sure why this should matter, if they sold me a ticket, and knew they were not going to have a seat that is even worse.

global happy traveller

you could still buy seats when they are waitlisted (most airlines oversell their seats). But not being confirmed means they have no legal obligation to put you on board if overbooked flight.

if it was confirmed, then the other question is whether you check in at least 1 hour ahead of departure. because the new rumor i am hearing on FT is people with less than 1 hour they start declining boarding (or remove them off flights be it transit or check in)

rarocnroll

I don't think my travel agent would have bought a ticket if it wasn't confirmed, but I can check with them (I need to find out why they didn't get me a seat.) I got there plenty early, almost 2 hours.

arf04

My sense is that some gate agents read the phrase "confirmed reserved space" in the tariff to suggest that if you don't hold a boarding pass with a seat assignment you do not have a confirmed space and thus you can be denied boarding without volunteers being asked for. I've seen this happen before, and I've also seen where they work through the rules as stipulated in the tariff.

Based on what I see in the tariff you may have a case and I suggest that you have a look at the CTA (Canadian Transportation Agency) complaint process. You might have a case in regard to the way things transpired and also to the compensation offered. I know from reading about past rulings that the CTA takes tariff breaches very seriously (I couldn't find the reference, but about a year back I recall reading about someone who got $10k in a settlement through the complaint process for being involunarily denied boarding as there was a clear tariff breach).

I'm glad that Chris A330 posted the link as it has been awhile since I have looked at it. I had forgotten that one has the right to be accommodated on another carrier if the AC option is not acceptable. Those pages are ones that one should probably copy and carry around when traveling as it is easier to argue with a GA when armed with the details.

arf04

I believe this happens when all seats have been assigned but does not necessarily mean that one's ticket is unconfirmed.

The boarding pass should have a check-in number on it (it'll be beside "airline use only" and begins with a 00). It would be intersting to know what that number is.