walkertalk322

Hello,

Hoping for some advice on a recent flight with Air Canada. Two months ago, my sister in law was traveling from Fuzhou, China (FOC) to Chicago, IL (ORD) via 2 connections (FOC->PEK on Air China, PEK->YVR on Air Canada, and YVR->ORD on United Airlines). Ticket was confirmed by each of the airlines (they called and confirmed seats with each airline in advance of the flight).

When she arrived in Beijing to check in for her Air Canada flight, the Air Canada desk refused to allow her to check in or board the flight. The excuse they gave was that they could not find the ticket in their system, even though she was able to 1) show them email receipt of the ticket / flights, 2) given it was a Star Alliance flight, call the United desk (her husband is Global Services) to also confirm that the Air Canada flight was ticketed in the system with a confirmed seat, and 3) seeing the flight details show up on her phone app. Despite this, the agents at the Air Canada desk still refused to check her in and nonchalantly told her there was nothing they could do. The flight ended up departing and she had to book a different ticket on another airline to eventually make her way back to Chicago.

She has reached out to Air Canada but they refuse to take responsibility and blame the issue on the ticket. Is there any protection for her under Air Passenger Rights?

Adam Smith

This isn't really what APPR is about. But compensation still may be due for the airlines botching this and not honouring her ticket.

Do you know what the issue was with the ticket? And did she try to have the UA agent talk to the AC agent? And with AC refusing to help, why not have the UA GS desk arrange re-booking rather than booking an entirely different ticket? Also, do you know anything about why CA didn't check her in at FOC? Or was PEK a stopover rather than just a connection?

The more information you can gather about what happened, the better it will be to figure out what went wrong and who owes compensation.

Stranger

What does AC say the issue with the ticket was?

If it were the AC folks in PEK who made a mistake, I would expect AC to acknowlege it. Seems there is more to the issue here. OP ought to provide more detail.

Stranger

Also, this is not a case of "denied boarding." Actually, denied transportation.

The Lev

Sorry to hear this. Assuming this was a connecting flight (no stopovers), Air china should have issued her with three boarding passes. The fact that they didn't probably should have been her first indication that something was amiss. Here is a list of information that would be helpful in order for us to provide guidance:

1. What airline issued the ticket - Air Canada, Air China or United? (if you are not sure, what were the first four digits of her ticket number - that will tell us)
2. Was the entire itinerary on one ticket or more than one?
3. Was PEK a stop-over or a connection. i.e.was she in PEK for more than 24 hours?
4. When she called United, did she have the United people speak to the AC people at the airport?
5. After being denied carriage by AC, did she call United back and try to get United to issue her a new ticket?
6. Did she have to buy a new ticket or did United issue her a new one at no cost?

This could either be an AC problem or a problem with the ticket - i.e. issuing carrier problem.

CanuckMoose

From what I could find on PEK's website, it seems AC and CA both use terminal 3, and since it is a Star Alliance flight booked on what I assume is the same itinerary, shouldn't you be able to just go to your new gate without re-checking in?

Please correct me if I am wrong but from the information provided, I am kind of puzzled as to why she had to check in.

s0ssos

It is actually very difficult to get American-based airlines to talk to other airlines. But I would say that is necessary.

Adam Smith

If CA didn't check her in at FOC, she would have had to check in with AC. Even if she stayed airside and didn't have checked baggage to worry about, she would have had to go to the gate or transfer desk go get a boarding pass.
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Are you talking about now or while this was going on? I've not had any problems getting agents at the US3 to talk to AC when I'm at a check-in desk or on the phone with reservations dealing with IRROPs and there's some hiccup between the two airlines.

irishguy28

That might be true if "denied boarding" was reserved for use only in cases where transport was provided on an alternate service....but it's not!

Adam Smith

Under Canadian regulations, "denied boarding" has a specific meaning, and relates specifically to oversold flights.

This does not appear to be such a case. AC is saying that the ticket was, for some reason or other, not valid. That's not the same as there being an oversell. And denied boarding compensation requires a valid ticket first and foremost.

Compensation may well be due for AC failing to provide the service that was purchased and paid for, but based on the information available at this time, this is not a "denied boarding" incident.

walkertalk322

Thank you Adam Smith, Stranger, theLev, CanuckMoose, s)ssos, and irishguy28 for your helpful responses.

I showed her the thread and here are answers to your questions:

When she was on the phone with United, she asked if the AC agent could speak directly with the UA agent on the phone, but the AC agent refused. UA said they could see everything confirmed on their end and it’s an issue with AC. She said the general attitude of the AC agent was very frustrating – he made very little effort to try to help and just repeatedly said he couldn’t find the ticket in the system and there’s nothing he can do.

AC said the issue was they could not find the ticket in the system, but she had the AC confirmation number, emailed receipt, and UA said they could also see a confirmed seat in the system. They had called AC 1 month before the trip to select seats and AC had no issues locating the reservation in the system and assigning seats. So this does seem to be an issue with AC rather than the issuing carrier.

UA issued the ticket – the entire itinerary was on 1 ticket.

PEK was a connection (4 hour connection), not stopover.

When she checked in with Air China in FOC, they printed her first ticket and said she would have to check-in / pick up her CA and UA tickets in PEK. This happened on her previous trips along the same route as well (with no issues) so she thought it was standard procedure.

RangerNS

A "boarding pass" is not a "ticket", and without further comment or value judgement from me, I advise teasing apart what happened and using valid language. Also, you have not answered a significant set of questions from above: was it one ticket, multiple tickets, and who issued the ticket? When you talk about AC not able to find the ticket, even giving them the number, what number? The ticket # or the record locator?

FlyerGoldII

The AC check-in agent is not a ticketing or reservations agent - so it is possible that this check in agent could not find this ticket (even if confirmed by AC reservations a month earlier)- esp as it was issued by another airline and involved 3 segments with 3 different airlines. I believe I have been in the reverse situation on at least one occasion - where it was an AC issued ticket - and at least one airline on the itinerary was not AC. The Star Alliance airline (in this case SQ) did not acknowledge that I had a confirmed ticket on their flight - so I went to AC concierge - and they sorted everything out.

When I go on a multi-segment itinerary whereby each segment is flown by a different airline - sometimes the first airline is not able to issue boarding passes of later segments, if flown by a different Star Alliance carrier - so I would not have been concerned by not get a boarding pass by Air China just before boarding the first airline.

I presume your sister-in-law had no status with AC and was not flying in business class. I say that because at least AC SEs and also anybody else flying in international/overseas J class has access to concierges - who can get to the bottom of the problem.

In that scenario - for your sister-in-law - who is at the PEK airport facing this stress - 2 options: a) speak to the AC ticketing agent at the airport and/or b) speak to AC reservations on the phone - and first confirm with these agents that she had a confirmed ticket on that PEK-YVR flight. If yes, then easy enough to go back to the check-in agent to get the boarding pass. If the ticket is not confirmed, then ask the reservations/ticketing agent what may have happened to the confirmed reservation on that AC PEK-YVR flight from the first phone call a month earlier when it was confirmed to now when the reservation was "missing"

Now some time later, your sister-in-law should go to AC customer service and get redress for her experience - incl. reimbursement for the second flight from PEK on a ?different airline or on AC?.


PS-did she have checked baggage - if the answer is yes, was it checked through to USA including that AC flight that she was denied boarding. If so, what happened in PEK with her checked baggage?

.

robsaw

In this era or e-tickets and e-confirmations that CTA has pretty consistently ruled that a passenger with an e-ticket receipt showing confirmed reservations is proof enough that there is a valid "ticket" for regulatory purposes. Technical glitches with the actual ticketing process between airlines hold no sway - the issue is finding the correct party to blame and provide compensation. Easy for us experts to check and double-check, but the CTA has no such requirement on passengers.

Fiordland

I would add the first four digits on the ticket identify the airline the ticket was issue by. That is the airline you have to have the discussion with. Simply tell at your originating city the Star Partner was not able to issue all the boarding passes and at the AC desk in the intermediate airport you advised the ticket was not valid. The reason why all of that happened is irrelevant to the passenger. You should ask to be reimbursed for having to buy a new ticket.