CBC: Air Canada leaves teen 'trapped' alone overnight at Toronto's Pearson airport
May 13, 2017, 9:15 am
#151
Join Date: May 2012
Location: BKK/SIN/YYZ/YUL
Programs: DL, AC, Bonvoy, Accor, Hilton
Posts: 2,923
Your comments about abandonment are completely valid in the case of an accompanied minor. But this kid wasn't in Air Canada or anybody else's care. He was traveling independently and thus no obligation or duty exists, does it? We can agree that basic levels of human compassion and customer service are expected. If he was abandoned anywhere, it was by his guardian back in Denver. The airline can be crucified for its apparent unwillingness to assist, but I don't subscribe to the abandonment theory.
The duty of care extends beyond what the contract of carriage may limit, because this was a child. One must only consider the facts as they are. Perhaps the boy looked older, perhaps the parents should have taken precautions, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps..... This does not change the fact that once the airline accepted a child for travel it had an obligation to that child. It is a higher burden of duty when one knows it is a vulnerable child.
Society and the law holds that we can not be indifferent to situations where harm may occur. Air Canada had an opportunity to screen the child and could have denied boarding in Denver. It did not. Sure, blame the guardian in Denver, but that does not relieve the airline of its duty of care.
May 13, 2017, 4:42 pm
#152
Join Date: May 2003
Programs: UA Silver
Posts: 1,931
The disorganization in the AC network is staggering, as is the disorganization at YYZ.
It's a real mess. While I can understand that AC was caught by surprise early on by the random nature of the ATC delays and the resulting domino effect on flights, but the company has not risen to the challenge by deploying adequate resources to deal with anticipated problems. I mean: they are comfortable with people waiting in line for hours when service wickets are closed. Yeah I understand that they cannot know when the stuff will hit the fan but they could plan for more agents even if things go well. My impression is they are penny pinching rather than going all out to deal with the situations.
YQT is somewhat special in that there are only flights to YYZ except 1x daily to YWG. What's infuriating is that it's not clear that AC and WJ are combining resources. (Maybe practically it can't be done.) Indeed anecdotal evidence suggests that AC is not collaborating with many airlines to reroute pax away from YYZ when delays occur.
To be fair, I do not know if the same level of disorganization affects other airlines operating at YYZ. WJ certainly seems to have lots of delayed flights also.
It's a real mess. While I can understand that AC was caught by surprise early on by the random nature of the ATC delays and the resulting domino effect on flights, but the company has not risen to the challenge by deploying adequate resources to deal with anticipated problems. I mean: they are comfortable with people waiting in line for hours when service wickets are closed. Yeah I understand that they cannot know when the stuff will hit the fan but they could plan for more agents even if things go well. My impression is they are penny pinching rather than going all out to deal with the situations.
YQT is somewhat special in that there are only flights to YYZ except 1x daily to YWG. What's infuriating is that it's not clear that AC and WJ are combining resources. (Maybe practically it can't be done.) Indeed anecdotal evidence suggests that AC is not collaborating with many airlines to reroute pax away from YYZ when delays occur.
To be fair, I do not know if the same level of disorganization affects other airlines operating at YYZ. WJ certainly seems to have lots of delayed flights also.