Plumber

thanks to OP for the clarifications.

The short of it is that you had a misconnect and that flight to Fort DubFrance only flies 247 (ie Tues, Thurs and Sun)... your misconnect was a Thursday so the next flight on AC was Sunday.

personally I would have worked with AC to put me on another carrier earlier... maybe from Miami. Instead they booked you on their next available flight.

i empathize with you— and yes there is a lot of smoke and mirrors in their descriptions of why a flight is late, mostly leading them to avoid compensation under the new rules.

i have seen a flight arrive 16 minutes late, and then the next flight on then same aircraft depart >2 hours late. The reason given by AC?? “late arrival of the incoming aircraft”. ( usually explained away by weather at the initial airport) Yes I agree the late aircraft is the cause of a potential initial delay, but certainly not the cause of the 2 hour delay.

If you have proof, I would present the proof, less the emotional stuff, to AC and take it to small claims court if need be. Sounds like you could have good reason.

LondonElite

Look, at a human level, I feel sorry for you. I can understand that, when things don't go as planned, we can become legitimately upset. But there is far too much drama and emotion in your story for this to be an effective message to AC.

First of all, weather can mean a lot of different things. Just because planes are taking off left and right of you, doesn't mean that your flight can't be delayed because of weather. Maybe there's weather at the destination or en-route, maybe crew got delayed somewhere. Throwing out the word 'lie' is like a red rag to a bull.

Second, it is well-known that Canada, in the winter, is cold. -28 in Montreal is not really uncommon. The fact that you didn't pack appropriate clothing or have it accessible to you is not Air Canada's fault or problem. It is yours alone. I remember many years ago my wife and I were flying London-New York-Barbados in February, with JFK purely as a connection. The night before we left, friends of ours in Manhattan convinced us to stay overnight as we hadn't seen them in a long time. We landed in a near blizzard in JFK, with snow banks outside the terminal and taxis skidding on the approach road. Of course we didn't pack parkas and snow pants because we really were not expecting to need them. So we froze our asses off (we were with our 6-month old baby, wrapped in several wooden blankets) waiting in the taxi line. Lesson learned.

There are taxis to take you from Dorval to downtown or somewhere else where there is a hotel, and all shops that sell winter clothing are indoors, many of them accessible from underground, as you say. I'm sure AC or your travel insurance will cover a reasonable outlay for food, shelter, and clothing during your unwanted delay. Write to them but keep it simple, concise, and without a bunch of drama and accusations, as these play against you. It makes people not want to find a resolution.

Lesson for next time? Be proactive in finding a different connection that doesn't leave you stranded somewhere where there are limited flights to where you really want to go.

torontoniann

Hahahaha this is brilliant!

Shareholder

If inbound planes were coming from the prairies this week, it is possible weather becomes mechanical as some aircraft are affected by -40C/F temperatures.

Adam Smith

Did you read the subsequent posts before replying to mine? OP has since explained that it was YYZ-YUL-FDF with misconnect in YUL.

eyeball1

A 1 hour 10 minute domestic to international connection in YUL, with the strong possibility of winter weather delays, would have had me pretty nervous about missing your last segment to Europe. Especially in the context of there being limited flights a week to your final destination.

canopus27

I agree, but ... apparently AC sold this combination as a single ticket.

Yes, we're all responsible for our own actions, but it's not unreasonable for someone who doesn't fly that frequently to assume that AC wouldn't sell a ticket with a crazy right connection time.

Bottom line, I think an earlier flight from YYZ would have been prudent in the circumstances, but I do have sympathy for the OP.

Stranger

MCT is or used to be 45 minutes. Many flights into YUL are dealt with as "priority."

Bottom line, it's seldom an issue at YUL. I have gone through this a number of times coming from YYC, once through YVR, and I never missed a connection.

Of course if for some reason getting at destination without (much) delay is crucial, then (1) it's good to identify potential alternate routings if delayed, and if there is not much choice (2) go for a longer connection. However especially now after the Max disaster, I find earlier flights into YUL either inexistent or rather inconvenient. If on a single ticket I normally just take the risk. Last Dec. I had an 80 minutes connection at YUL followed by 90 minutes at BRU. Second ended up much more critical, although we made both.

HerpaYvr

I am not being disrespectful to the OP, but in the past few years as a society, we appear to lack the ability to be proactive in both business transactions or in our personal lives. We do not want to be accountable for how we do things and want to blame others or other events and not accept accountability or responsibilities for these actions. Folks who wear flip flops and shorts on planes and then they find themselves deplaned without a bridge, outside because they flew on a dash or they could not use a bridge and are outside during winter for example.

When flying stuff happens and one should be prepared, not to the level of real frequent flyers, but utilize some due diligence would be nice. How do you buy and pay for your ticket, travel agent, rules are there for that, credit card, benefits are available depending on which card. We have to accept some responsibility and simply not rely on any system to be 100% correct and look after you 100% as stuff does happen as this is life.

eigenvector

AC2415 is currently delayed due to "weather affecting the inbound aircraft", when the inbound arrived on time but sat on the tarmac for an hour because AC didn't have a gate available. So yes, they do lie. Every single day.

SparseFlyer

Planes taking off left and right is definitely not an indicator of if there's weather or not.

There can even be "invisible" things like wind that will make Pearson start metering departure/arrival slots, which means AC will have to pick a flight and cancel/delay it.

It's also not difficult to imagine a situation where there's a flight delay for 30-45m due to a mechanical issue that gets solved, and then a decision is made to cancel that flight to departure slots getting canned due to weather. One doesn't have to be exclusive to the other.

I'm just Kakarot.

Plumber

Herein lies the issue... I am sure AC would argue that due to some weather event, there was no ground crew available.

Is it a lie? Very possibly.

The new rules should not let them get away with this kind of stuff. But they will use it to their advantage as long as they can.

Yhztraveller

As another data point, I had a flight in November that was over 1 hr late departing, solely because there was no ground crew available to load the luggage and push us back. The "official" reason for the delay was listed as "weather".

I have no doubt that AC is, in fact, not being entirely truthful. I expect that other airlines are exactly the same!

RangerNS

If you play "5 why?s" it well could be "weather". People work slower in cold, snow and rain.

But then, if you play "6 whys" you get to "Air Canada did not plan for weather yet offered a flight in that time and place".

Fiordland

Make copies of all the receipts you have and send a letter to AC claiming compensation. Write something like: