My flight from YYZ to Grand Rapids, MI was canceled due to mechanical. I flew out the next morning, but missed half a day of work, not to mention the cost of taxis to and from Pearson and a prepaid hotel room (booked through Expedia). Because I live in downtown Toronto, AC refused to even provide airport transportation, a cost of $60 each way.

What is reasonable compensation to request (and what might I actually expect from AC - probably two different things)? Should I send in my receipts at this point? BTW, I am Elite.

Not sure about compensation, but in my experience, a prepaid hotel room is never a good thing. I did that once when I lived in Sudbury, had a job interview in Toronto with someone who happened to be passing through, and Mrs. Kelapstick went into labour the day before I was supposed to drive down (5.5 weeks early). Needless to say I didn't make my way down to Toronto. The savings for a prepaid room tends not to be worth the risk of not getting to use it, and flying adds to the chances of not getting to use it.

Good luck with the compensation. As you were canceled at your origin, AC is unlikely to do much for you. See if your CC has travel insurance for the hotel. One question - as it was mechanical, why didn't you ask them to re-book with another airline that night? Both CO and AA had later flights. You could also do DTW on DL and drive (it's only 2hrs).

Prepaid hotel room and missing half a day of work is meaningless to AC:
Transportation reimbursement on the other hand is not unreasonable. Write to AC with proper documentation and see what transpires. More than likely a discount code or less likely a voucher for future travel should be the outcome.

I recently experienced a 30 hour delay with AC while I was in Lima, Peru.

AC gave us $250 in compensation, and covered our expenses (hotel + meals) while we were "stuck" there. I understood this to be generous on AC's part. We also lost 2 days of work.

The worst part about it was the voucher is only good for claiming after the travel has been completed.

If you want to read about it, it's in my trip report link in my signature block.

Agreed.. I generally don't take advantage of prepaid rooms.. but I do like the rates..

I'll often contact the hotel, and ask the front desk, to see if they can honor the rate, and being member of their loyalty program, I'm likely to use the room I book anyways without cancellation..

So have generally successful in booking a good rate that is flexible..

Also, using a cc with trip cancellation insurance would help cover a prepaid room.. but I've never experienced such a predicament..

pm...tried to delete but couldn't.

Mostly likely won't get any compensation.

Last year we had a trip to Las Vegas. Before leaving our place, checking the status everything was good. On the way to airport, we went to our sister-in-law's place. We still had lots of time, but I went online to check status, and was surprised to find the outbound flight cancelled.

I spent 2 hours on the phone to eventually get booked to the next day. There was no explanation from AC. Weather was good Toronto and LV. We had booked a prepaid hotel in LV, which included show tickets.

No compensation at all for our lost time, extra driving, and the lost hotel/show booking in LV.

AC should have provided a hotel room at Pearson. The fact that you live in YYZ shouldn't really have mattered.

I've never heard of an airline compensating passengers for "lost work" or the like. Realistically, imagine if they were responsible for these kinds of things. "Hey, I had a date with the hottest girl in the world, but my flight was delayed and she blew me off, and I want a million dollars compensation."

It sounds like you were not experienced enough to know that once someone utters the magic word "Mechanical" that you should immediately ask to be moved to another airline. I was at YYZ a couple years ago, flying to RDU on a 6:30AM connection on AA, which was delayed, and delayed again, and I was going to miss the connection and miss a whole day of work. And as soon as they said "Mechnical" I just said "There's an 8:45 nonstop on Air Canada, can you put me on it?"

Your opportunity was there at the airport, to ask for a hotel room and maybe a dinner voucher.

As a mechanical, you were due a reprotect on an alternate carrier, and you should have demanded a voucher at that point, point of origin or not.
A strongly-worded letter to General Counsel (not Customer Relations) is in order. If no response within 14-days, off to Small Claims Court you go to file. The Court will advise AC of the pending court date, at which time Counsel will arrange to settle with you...if they don't, it is extremely rare for any large company to show their faces in Small Claims, so you win be default...and have the fun then of executing the judgment.

Sorry, what does "reprotect" mean?

So you're advising the complaint to go to General Counsel, not Customer Services. What would be reasonable to ask for in that case?

Reprotect = place you on another carrier that is operating, i.e. DL via DTW or UA via ORD

Since the failure to reprotect or to provide meal/accommodations can be listed as "negligence" on the part of an employee...and use the word negligence as it captures the attention of their lawyer..."in accordance with generally-accepted operational procedures and considerations within comparable situations in the aviation industry"...calculate the cost of the transportation sector, your meals, r/t ground transfers, and the value of an airport hotel room...keep it in the $1000-$1500 range since if it goes to court, even though nobody from corporate will show, you still have to show it as being reasonable to the judge.

This would be a reasonable step.. after exhausting the customer service route

I would approach AC first and see what they would do.. if proper compensation isn't provided, then go to small claims court.. if economics make sense..

Here in Alberta, it used to be $100 to go to small claims court.. but now, I've heard it costs $400.. plus if you use counsel, you may not get client-solicitor costs back, even if you win..

So weighing the costs, and the opportunity cost/inconvenience.. learning a lesson for next time, not to book non-cancellable unless insured.. are factors to consider..