Changeup2000

Guess it will be due to weather, although YUL BOS YYZ all seem to be fine now.

if I claim via APPR, probably no chance. Can I claim under Montreal Convention since US is, well, international? Or if there is some other pathway to claim?

I am not very bothered. Concierge line is not available as expected. But I rebooked everything on my own. There may be some hotel cancellation fee, taxi fee and breakfast expenses. It’ll not be the end of the world if I do not get any compensation, but probably good to know my right here.

YQQgirl

Turning to the hive mind for advice:

- A 14 hour trip ended up taking over 34 hours due to missed connections stemming from pilot scheduling
- AC just sent me $400 - instead of the $1000 I'm due for well over 9 hours of delay
- When I landed in YVR, there were no AC staff available so I had to find my own hotel at 1 am

Does anyone have experience pushing back effectively with AC? That is definitely not the appropriate compensation, and I'm owed reimbursement for the hotel last time I checked.

Merci!

Altaflyer

This was pre-COVID but when they sent a $200 voucher instead of $400 cash for a delay due to lack of crew I pushed back and they caved and sent a $400 cheque.

Changeup2000

Overnight layover BOS-YYZ-YVR

BOS-YYZ cancelled due to weather impact on inbound flight, rescheduled first thing next morning, with the second leg intact.

The next morning BOS-YYZ got delayed due to mechanical issues, causing a miss connection for the second leg. Rescheduled and resulted in about 6 hours delayed to the destination.

Submitted a complaint without specifying APPR. Got rejected for compensation because “APPR compensation is based on the first flight affected”.

This does not sound right. If the first flight is due to weather or safety, does that mean AC can be totally off hook if all consequent or rescheduled flights all got delayed for reasons within their control with no repercussions? This does not seem to give AC an incentive to get the pax’ travel back on track as soon as possible.

Will dig more information and ponder my next move.

Bohemian1

I could say this was calculated, but I suspect it's really just laziness on Air Canada's part.

Low Roller

I had a late night flight cancelled in November and was rebooked the next morning. The cancellation email stated that it was because of crew constraints. I applied for compensation and received $1000 by e-transfer this week. The whole process was simple and smooth. It took a bit longer than 30 days, but that's not surprising because of the holidays.

M60_to_LGA

I got back from Canada last week and just this evening got around to finally submitting my compensation request to AC for the cancellation of one of my outbound flights, which resulted in me getting to my destination airport over 4 hours after my initially scheduled arrival time.

The flight was cancelled around 36 hours before scheduled departure, and the email I got from AC gave the reason as "a technical issue from an earlier flight which is causing the aircraft that is scheduled to operate your flight to not be available."

To me, this would seem to be eligible for compensation, no? They would have had ample time to repair or scrounge up a replacement airplane over that day and a half, I would think, given that this was not a remote outstation somewhere but YUL.

Anyway, here goes nothin'.

kangarooflyer88

The excuse provided by AC seems to be that it's entirely within their control as aircraft having maintenance issues is a foreseeable occurrence which is precise why Air Canada has spare aircraft at major hubs like Toronto and Montreal for such occurrences. They also should have put you on another airline's (WestJet) flight if they couldn't get you to your destination in time.

-RooFlyer88

Civet

Had a flight delayed ~7 hours YUL to YEG due to a miscount in physical headcount of passengers and the amount the computer was saying should be on board. They could not figure out who the extra person was, eventually had taxi to a new gate, pilots timed out.

Contacted customer service for compensation. They have refused compensation, and are claiming "The delay that impacted you was due to uncontrollable operations".

Obviously this is absolute BS. How would you proceed?

kangarooflyer88

The process is to start by filing a claim for APPR compensation via Air Canada's website and wait for a response. If they claim it's outside their control and offer you an e-coupon your next step would be to follow up on the email and ask them to explain in further details how this is outside their control. If they don't answer or simply say, too bad, you serve them with papers in small claims court to get APPR compensation. Gabor Lukacs and the folks at Air Passenger Rights have some guides on how to pursue this further.

Civet

Yes, the email reply was as I had quoted above. We went back and forth a few times, they are denying my claim. Serving them is absolutely ridiculous to get a resolution... man. Appreciate the link, though it appears the Canadian/US Flight Delay guides are "a work in progress" and aren't currently published.

Jebby_ca

How long has it been taking for Air Canada to reply after submitting a claim on the online form? I'm seeing various replies in this thread with wait times over 30 days. It's been 34 days since I submitted my claim so far...

Altaflyer

As a 50k submitted Dec 21…..waiting…..

cdnarpn5249

Are there any websites that can facilitate the process? I know I’ve used one that was Europe based in the past, they sent strongly worded letters to the airline and I eventually got my compensation (I think they took a 30% cut). Would make life easier.

Adam1222

I submitted two claims a day apart in mid December. The one submitted December 16 has not been resolved. The one submitted December 17 was denied within a week.