tcook052

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...teen-1.4280173

An Edmonton mother is upset after Air Canada staff sent her 14-year-old son on an hour-long taxi ride across the Canada-U.S. border to catch a connecting flight.

"This really isn't acceptable," said Kylie Degeling, the mother of Jordan Degeling.

vernonc

Oh god, these new stories are one a day. The more this goes on the more stringent the passenger bill of rights will be.
How can the airline think sending a 14 yr old in a cab across the border is OK ? CBSA probably let him in as he is Canadian (assumption) and he seems mature. What would happen if he was stuck at the border ?

ffsim

Asking seriously: can an airline unilaterally change the departure airport without a passenger's consent?

I'm likely to appreciate the agent's effort in getting me to Windsor so I'm as inconvenienced as possibly by the delay in Detroit. But if I don't want to go (for whatever reason), can they really twist my arm and be like, "too bad, so sad -- your flight now leaves from Windsor, not here." ??

The Lev

Surely you're not suggesting CBC has an agenda?

Maybe i'm missing something here, but the mother trusted her 14 year old to navigate through customs at the airport. I'm sure she has also entrusted him to taxis before. I'm not understanding what is so traumatic about crossing the border at a land crossing vs. at the airport. Equal likelihood (virtually zero) of being denied entry at either point.

Worst case scenario he is denied entry and takes a taxi back to the airport for AC to find a plan B..

Would the mother have been happier if her son were put up in a hotel in Detroit or YYZ overnight (or left wandering the airport if there was no hotel that would accept a minor) because there was no other available connection?

james dean

...just waiting for Gabor Lukacs to chime in with "Air Canada has reached a new low"

jlisi984

OK, so the fact that AC delayed the flight - not cool. But that happens.

The fact that he's 14? Well. If his mother thinks he's not able to take a taxi alone, then he shouldn't fly alone. Also, AC didn't force him onto the taxi. It was the best option, and he got to YEG the same night. I'm sure he could have chosen to stay with the other family member in DTW and flown the next morning, or flown through YYZ and overnighted there.

For context, when I was 14, I flew 81K. 15 - 192K. Most of it was with family, but I also travelled alone, and I would have done fine in a situation like this. Part of growing up! Or else - don't do it.

yyznomad

We should just have a master CBC sticky and wiki or post it with all CBC threads.

canadiancow

For the record, I have never had a voucher from AC that did NOT say "controllable". Even when it's weather. Or ATC. Or anything else.

And of course, the article doesn't mention what the actual cause was.

One day, someone complains that AC won't taxi you to a nearby airport for a flight. The next day, they complain that they had to take a taxi to a nearby airport for a flight.

So like... what do you want? To get home as soon as possible? Or to wait for the delayed flight that would result in a misconnect in YYZ, and another CBC article that a 14 year old was left in an airport?

zwkchong

So somebody at Air Canada made an effort to get the kid home on time and this is what happens? Seriously???

pewpew

I can't articulate/figure out why, but I'm less okay with this than, say, an LGA-JFK cab. Also, I wonder how the taxi driver crossed the border. I doubt they regularly carry proof of citizenship?

That said, there's a difference between me saying "hey, there's a flight out of YYZ, give me a cab and rebook me" and an agent saying "hey, there's a flight out of YYZ, we've rebooked you onto it, here's a cab"

yyznomad

Maybe others read it differently, but the article seems to allude to the son knowingly and willingly hailing a cab without letting the mother finish finding other "options"... so I see the gripe from the mother more about the expectation that her son be prevented from hailing a cab with the voucher in hand...? Or more of don't give my son a taxi voucher because he'll just go and hail a cab and I don't want that...? Was there constant communication between mother and son during this time?

YYC009

DTW-YYZ is delayed, enough that the connecting passengers would misconnect.
Agents are proactive and know there is space out of Windsor.
Passengers checkin and are advised that is their best option, and are provided a taxi voucher.
Passenger accepts taxi voucher and travels to Windsor to fly to YYZ to make the same original flight from YYZ-YEG.
Passenger arrives safely in YEG.

This is a news story?


If there was so much concern, why didn't the parent that dropped off the child drive behind the taxi, or at least go in the taxi to the border? Obviously it seems that everyone was okay with the approach and then looked to complain afterwards.

And going back to question in post #3 , no, the airline cannot force you to accept a reroute out of another airport. You can choose to sit and wait at DTW for however long it takes for a flight to take off.

ffsim

I agree that it was the best option, and likely the one I would've opted for. But the wording in the article suggests it wasn't really a choice: "Jordan was told his flight was delayed and he would have to fly out of Windsor instead."

There's a difference between "he would have to" and "he has the option to"

Only if airlines can suddenly change your point of departure -- without your consent -- because they're being "proactive" or making "an effort".

Exactly ^

YYC009

"he would have to fly out of Windsor instead"... if he wanted to get home to YEG that night.

I think the words are being loosely used and the wordplay is irrelevant. Do you ever make a mistake with the English language that someone could have interpreted differently? Maybe the parent misunderstood the agent too!

He doesn't "have to do" anything... he doesn't have to go to Windsor, he doesn't have to go to Toronto, he doesn't have to listen to the agent... he could have just walked away to McDonald's. Grow up.

yyznomad

I did not glean this from the article, but was there at any point in time in which the mother directed her son over the phone (assuming they communicated in some fashion during that time) not to hop into a cab even if AC gave him a voucher and told him to hop into a cab?