halifaxtraveler

Hi,

I’m wondering if someone can answer my question as I can’t find any information online about it.

So my flight from Calgary to Toronto this morning got delayed due to a issue with the fuel gauge on the aircraft, because of this Air Canada decided to move my connnecting flight to Halifax to a later flight without even asking me if I was ok with it first, We make up some lost time on our way to Toronto and was able to get to the gate in Toronto before the gate had closed for my flight to Halifax.

I was told at the gate both my and my wife seats had been given away to someone else and we not could board the flight due to it being full.

We was told even if the flight was not full we would not be able to broad as we was travelling with checked luggage, is this true? as this is the first time I been told this, I have traveled many times before and never had no issues traveling without my checked luggage, I even had airlines drop it off for me if the checked baggage did not make the connecting flight.

Thansk

Often1

AC requires that you be at the departure gate no later than T-15. Thus, if you were on the 10:15 (AC 606), you needed to be at the gate no later than 10:00. It does not matter whether the flight had closed when you arrived at the gate.

So, the very specific question to OP is at what time did he arrive at the xYYZ departure gate?

The auto-rebooking is solely a convenience and to assure that OP has an onward flight. He is free to have rejected the onwards reroute and to have cancelled and asked to be return to his origin.

canadiancow

If you were at the gate at T-15, and had been offloaded, and there were no seats left, I'd fight them for IDB compensation due to overbooking.

You met all the requirements (specifically arriving by T-15).

If you didn't arrive by T-15, then they had every right to rebook you to a later flight.

halifaxtraveler

I was on AC136 and we got to gate D22 YYZ at 2:12PM

pewpew

AC614 is scheduled to depart at 2:35--it left early at 2:30, today. So since you were there before 2:20, enjoy fighting AC for IDB comp

eigenvector

You held a confirmed reservation on AC614.

AC denied you boarding on AC614 despite having checked in and presented yourself at the gate on time.

If this happened as a result of overbooking, AC owes you compensation.

The trouble is proving that the flight was overbooked. For example, the people who got your seats might not have originally been confirmed on the flight. They could have been on standby.
​​

canadiancow

614 has scheduled departure time 1435. If you were there at 1416, I would submit an IDB claim to AC, then when they refuse to pay, to the CTA.

You just need to be very specific in your wording. You had a confirmed reservation for 614, including a boarding pass (meaning you made the check-in cutoff). You were at the gate 19 minutes before departure (is it cynical that in these situations, I would take a photo of the gate board, with time?). You were denied boarding, and told that other people were in your seats.

Short, sweet, and covers all the bases. Just make sure you read https://www.aircanada.com/content/da..._tariff_en.pdf Rule 90, and explicitly make it clear that you met the check-in/boarding deadlines, etc.

It looks like you were delayed to YHZ by 2-6 hours, which would mean a payment of a $400 cheque, per person.

These "auto rebookings" come up way too often, and they're unacceptable.

canadiancow

If it wasn't overbooked, the OP would have been put on the flight. The fact that there was no space for the OP+1, who held a confirmed reservation, means it was overbooked.

That overbooking may have been created when they processed standby, but that's irrelevant. OP met all requirements outlined in the tariff to qualify for IDB compensation.

If the flight departed with empty seats, then this is a much more egregious issue.

eigenvector

Oh, I agree with your reasoning. But I don't think it prevents AC from trying to weasel its way out of compensation. I think we know the argument AC might employ here: OP was offloaded before new pax were confirmed, therefore there were never more pax holding confirmed reservations than the number of seats available because AC unconfirmed OP's reservation, therefore Rule 90 doesn't apply. This is of course a rubbish argument since as the CTA has confirmed an airline can't just unilaterally unconfirm someone's reservation at its own convenience, but that doesn't stop AC from using it anyway.

canadiancow

Hence my "I would submit an IDB claim to AC, then when they refuse to pay, to the CTA."

I'm still waiting for this to happen to me. I would fight it.

The Lev

What AC should be doing is waiting until T-15 before offloading passengers with iffy connections. Still gives them time to load the relatively small number of standby passengers for an on-time departure.

canadiancow

To expand on this, they should immediately protect you on the next flight. At T-15, the GA can manually offload the passenger. You don't want it to be automatic, because there could still be a line of people waiting to board.

This way, if they make it, they make it. And if they don't, they have a confirmed seat on a later flight.

Sunny Day

When you come off a flight, there is usually an agent at the gate. It should be SOP for AC that if a passenger says I have a tight connection and I am heading to gate XX for my flight, that agent should make a phone call to the new gate and advise them that passenger YY is on their way. This will eliminate a lot of these situations. It cost nothing to AC but sure reduces a lot of frustrations for passengers in these situations.

canadiancow

I don't think that would help, but more importantly, I don't think it's relevant in this case. They got off the plane at T-23, and arrived at the next gate at T-19. Doing anything other than "running" would have potentially delayed them past T-15.

If you know AC's rules (T-15), you know you have 8 minutes. The last thing I'm doing in that situation is stopping to chat.

SOP should be to not offload you until you've actually no-showed. And it's impossible to no-show at T-23.

Though I'd give the system a little discretion if you have a 1 hour connection and your inbound is showing an estimated 3 hour late arrival. I think they just have it tuned too tightly right now. If ETA breaks MCT, they seem to rebook you. MCT is great for my mom. She's older, slower, doesn't know the layout of the airport, and doesn't have NEXUS (in cases that would matter). I've done INTL to DOM (gate to gate) in 20 minutes at YVR. I think MCT is around 70. Right now, their system would assume at T-70 that I'll misconnect, even though I'm on the ground in YVR, and boarding won't begin for another 25 minutes.

halifaxtraveler