AllTheNines

Thank you, I will look at downloading either of those.

Transpacificflyer

The unfortunate reality is that your spouse received reasonable compensation by Canadian standards. As as far as the Canadian airline industry is concerned, Canadians neither need consumer protection laws, nor merit them since the Canadian airline industry "takes care" of its passengers. Not one political party has adopted a position which supports rights similar to what one sees in the EU or the USA. The day Canada adopts such protections is the day that most of its smaller airlines will be forced to close their operations and the day Air Canada starts bleeding money as its operational strategy is predicated on overbooking, and flight delays.

The SOP of Air Canada when there is a need to rebook multiple pax is to tell the pax to call the AC reservation line. Little effort is made to assist pax at the airport, particularly at those airports where there is inadequate personnel to process the large volume of pax. The logic is to focus the personnel on securing the food and lodging vouchers and arranging lodging, and attending to special needs pax first, rather than to use the scare resource of personnel to rebook customers. On paper it works fine. When put to the test of a major disruption, it has been an abject failure. Air Canada was supposed to have rolled out a new approach to these types of events because of some very public failures. As I have significantly curtailed my use of AC, I have not had an opportunity to compare the new approach to the incompetence of previous flight disruptions that I have experienced, so I don't know if the new strategy is better.

In any case, welcome to Canada, where the airlines benefit from toothless regulation.

CZAMFlyer

Thanks Admiral, for voicing my thoughts exactly. The chief reason I departed this forum - and return only sporadically - is mainly due to the combative nature of several members, and their eagerness to argue, discount or criticize the experiences and opinions of others. There are a couple of remarkably unfriendly replies to the OP, and a few people have chimed in with irrelevant responses to what they wanted to read rather than what was actually written.

AllTheNines, sorry to hear your sig other's travel delay was compounded by the persistent inability of most AC ground staff to accommodate their customers. You'd think the concept of an airplane stranding its load of passengers is an utterly new one, and while the airline may not be on the hook for compensating passengers, the very least they could do is ensure the disruption is made as smooth as possible. How they don't have polished contingency plans in place is beyond me.

Best of luck receiving a meaningful outcome, and I'm sure this experience will remind you there are plenty of alternative options before booking your next flight to or from Canada.

Jumper Jack

You know, if its any consolation,at least she didn't sleep on the ground and ate plain white bread like other poor Y peasants at NRT...

expert7700

You lost the sympathy of this thread early into your post. Most who fly AC in Y would be pinching themselves in disbelief if they got a) a free hotel b) $22 in food -- lots and lots of Timbits and c) proactive flight cancellation without having to sit for hours on the plane before it was cancelled.

if you want what 'not everyone will get' prize you NEED to be aware of the routing you want. You don't just ask the airline employee 'any other way to get her there'. I am sure this is a VERY GOOD thing for folks who can take the initiative... If they offered a diffent airline etc too easily, statistically space STILL would have run out long before they got to your wife in line or on the phone queue.

It sounds like, up to a point in time, a simple check on google flights would have gotten you a cheap price on another carrier. That plus a refund of your cancelled AC flight may have been a wash overall financially.

If I am ever stuck overnight I insist that I spend the night back at the carrier's 'hub' city. As I have told Souhwest (in the US), I would rather be in your hub city, on standby, where they have 9 nonstops a day to my destination than where I am, waiting 24hrs for a once a day flight. (Someone always sleeps in too long and misses the earliest flights, or has a delay and can't make their connection). As a bonus, if I do this I always receive a MUCH nicer hotel.... Because agents have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for hotel rooms for 200-200 people in a smaller city.

drvannostren

Travel insurance?

Doc Savage

Interesting legal case. I disagree with the judge's "reasoning," as it seems he was just being cute, at least to me. It's hard to see how an airline could be held liable for a random occurrence of nature. Next thing you know, some judge will say a plane damaged by lightning and thus delayed leads to the airline being held liable for delay. But all this is a bit off topic, so I'll end here.

expert7700

Doc, things are different in Europe! Lightning strike absolutely would get you EU compensation because the airline could potentially have alternate equipment at or near that location, standby flight crews to avoid timing out, etc. Rare mechanical failure of widget #1730 on the plane?? Airline pays EU comp (because, well, the airline COULD have proactively replaced this and every other part on the airplane before it showed even a single symptom!).

In Sweden, if the train is more than a few minutes late arriving you get your next roundtrip train ticket free. If it is something like 20+ minutes late arriving you are reimbursed something crazy like $1,500.00 for any Airline rebooking incurred.

Stranger

Bottom line, you are wrong and the EU rules are quite clear. Airlines were trying to weasel out of what the intent of the law had been in the first place.

I wish there would be similar rules in North America, but there aren't. So it's the race to the bottom. Tariffs only require them to get you there, period. When, how, does not matter.

Transpacificflyer

Folks, the gentleman was citing a case in St John's NL wasn't he? The question was whether or not he received compensation in line with what is accorded under Canadian regulations. It's wonderful that the EU has laws that protect its citizens. It's fantastic that the USA does too. Unfortunately, none of that was germane. We are screwed in Canada because the airline sector has blocked any and all attempts to extend protections to consumers. He should count his blessings and not waste anymore time on the issue as AC isn't going to give anything else, except one of its crappy discounts that really are not much of a discount.

As was pointed out, his spouse did better than most Canadians. One need only consider the plight of the thousands of Sun Wing customers every year who are delayed, or subject to cancellation and get a microwaved pizza slice and a discount coupon for another Sun Wing "vacation" (apparently some people like the abuse) to see that AC is somewhat more generous. Hectoring the poor chap isn't helping matters. He can't rescind his purchase.

YZF_Elite

It is rough to have to tough it out for 24 hours off track, but really is a part of flying. If they refused a hotel or re-booking to another route you asked for then I think you'd have further grounds for argument, but not sure there's much else they could do. When delays hit, my view is the costs should be largely offset by the airline, but not a fan of big compensation when it's really a crappy situation for both the airline and passengers. It's not like an airline tries to hit a bird, go mechanical, run into weather issues, etc.

A great opportunity to go see some of YYT is another way to look at it.

Shareholder

I agree a $22 voucher is not much. But on short notice, I'd also suggest that the YYT staff were faced with a major cancellation and had to scramble to know what central ops was planning. In such circumstances, the local station cannot respond to rebooking requests until or if ops advises. That's what ops is there for. It is their responsibility to handle rebookings and they have a staff to do that. The local station would have been scrambling to find enough hotel rooms for 125+ passengers in a relatively small city like St. John's. In my experiences with AC and cancelled flights in such circumstances, those hotel arrangements include meals and if possible, transport to the hotel. This is to keep track on passengers and be able to marshal them for the rescheduled flight.

The overriding thing to learn is always buy your ticket with a credit card that offers trip interruption insurance (to cover costs airlines don't, or won't) or the insurance offered at time of booking. Otherwise, your only protection is what the airline offers and/or local consumer coverage. I personally think the EU has been over-generous, but certainly feel in the minority around here.