Originally Posted by CBC

Erica Johnson · CBC News · Posted: Feb 03, 2019 8:00 PM ET

'That's just wrong': Air Canada backtracks on compensation after passenger gives up seat on overcrowded flight
New air passenger protection legislation provides no guaranteed compensation for volunteers

A Toronto man is fighting back after Air Canada failed to honour a deal to compensate him with an $800 voucher for giving up his seat on an overcrowded plane from Vancouver to Toronto — instead, emailing him a promotion code for a 15 per cent discount on a future flight.

Daniel Tsai said he couldn't believe what he was reading when he opened the Air Canada email offering the discount instead of the airline's previous $800 offer.

"It was like reading a Donald Trump tweet," says Tsai. "It didn't make any sense. Just bafflement. And, yes, I was angry."

An air passenger rights advocate says airlines renege on verbal promises, because the airline regulator isn't cracking down when passenger rights are violated, and proposed rules don't address compensation for people who voluntarily give up their seats.

"I generally recommend passengers not volunteer to give up their seats, because we hear too many cases like this one, where passengers have difficulty in getting compensation they were promised," says Gabor Lukacs, founder of Air Passenger Rights...

Originally Posted by WaytoomuchEurope (Post 30737344)

Hard not to entirely believe this story as we all know how fond AC is of giving our that 15% code when the going gets tough. Pretty greasy if indeed true. I doubt anyone would VDB for a discount code.

This story is not going to help AC in dealing with oversold situations which, like most airlines, are not infrequent.

Originally Posted by AtlanticXpat (Post 30737419)

I've never been asked to VDB, but I would have assumed (naively it would seem) that if you volunteer to give up your seat in return for a compensation offer, it is somehow formalised by the GA. Some preprinted form with a dollar amount ( agreed discount) that both the airline representative and passenger sign. In the absence of that, what's one supposed to do? Record the conversation with the GA on your phone? Can't see that going well!

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Originally Posted by AtlanticXpat (Post 30737419)

I've never been asked to VDB, but I would have assumed (naively it would seem) that if you volunteer to give up your seat in return for a compensation offer, it is somehow formalised by the GA. Some preprinted form with a dollar amount ( agreed discount) that both the airline representative and passenger sign. In the absence of that, what's one supposed to do? Record the conversation with the GA on your phone? Can't see that going well!

Originally Posted by codfather (Post 30737462)

I have heard in some cases of compensation being provided immediately, but I am not entirely sure if this is true? Very shocking that they would rescind this offer of $800 compensation. It looks very bad on AC, and definitely affects customer perceptions of the company as a whole.

Originally Posted by WaytoomuchEurope (Post 30737467)

I'm not sure that's naive - suggest the vast majority of us think that. I would also suggest that given that assumption most of us wouldn't agree to VDB without agreed compensation being in explicit writing and signed by GA.

I feel badly for this guy but am confident most people wouldn't find themselves in this situation.

Originally Posted by Symmetre (Post 30737498)

I once did VDB with DL ... received $800 USD and got home a little over two hours later than planned. Was given a confirmation number by the GA, and the cheque arrived within two weeks. Would do it again.

Having read this, would not volunteer for an AC flight under any circumstances.

Originally Posted by Wings100 (Post 30737539)

Originally Posted by CBC

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air...seat-1.4998780
Geist says he's "perplexed" that Air Canada didn't honour a verbal promise, which was noted in Tsai's file.

Originally Posted by yyznomad (Post 30737573)

But in the end, the passenger did receive the $800 "compensation" (after filing a complaint).

Originally Posted by yyznomad (Post 30737690)

In light of DB references, here's a sample of a Denied Boarding Compensation form/card/"receipt":

https://i.ibb.co/9rsrtw7/ACDBComp-Rcpt.png

This is for both VDB and IDB.

Originally Posted by Stranger (Post 30737604)

Originally Posted by yyznomad (Post 30737573)

Data point: When you are truly VDB'd at the gate, you get a VDB card/receipt printed out with all the information from the GA.

Just to be clear, he did not receive the VDB card/receipt at the gate - according to the news article it was a verbal promise.