canadiancow

Well there's the problem. There's no formal definition of this, because it's incredibly stupid. You showed up during boarding (evidenced by the fact that other people boarded while you were there). There were empty seats. You were presumably not sick or intoxicated or screaming at GAs. And they didn't let you board.

That's stupid.

If I were to write a tariff or regulation, why the heck would I put any effort into a paragraph on something stupid that would (should?) never happen?

And that's why I fully encourage going through the courts. You bought a ticket. You adhered to every single aspect of the contract, and they unilaterally decided to not let you board. A contract written by AC will have any ambiguous sections read in your favour by the court during a dispute. I think you'll win.

I don't know positive bag matching rules on domestic Canadian flights, but I think that will be a sticking point in anything you bring up, so as part of disclosure, request the itinerary the bag took. If it flew on the flight you wanted to take, their entire argument is dead. Even if not, those rules generally say the passenger cannot intentionally fly separately from their bags. A passenger taking their booked flight would not satisfy that rule.

Before you even pay a filing fee, it may be possible to get a ton of information about what happened through official channels. If I don't PM you within 24 hours (it takes some effort, so it's a little late for me right now), PM me and I'll help you with that. I can't guarantee there will be anything useful you can get, but you'll get a full dump of the PNR and every action that was taken on your booking from the date you booked it through the date you flew it.

SK AAR

This is not IDB. The OP was rebooked due to late incoming a/c and the system anticipated that the OP wouldn't make the connection. However, the OP did make it to the gate in time, but that doesn't change that he/she no longer was booked on that flight; hence not IDB.

To the OP: I don't think you have a case as the system of auto-rebooking pax is in general a great benefit to pax. You really can't fault AC for facilitating easy and quick rebooking of misconnecting pax. If you decides to proceed your 'angle of attack' would be to question why you were rebooked and secondly why it wasn't reversed /overruled once it was clear that you reached the gate in time for boarding - indeed the checked bag issue may make the latter difficult to pursue. Good luck.

Jagboi

See the small claims case I linked to earlier. The Judge was rather scathing about rebooking based on the possibility of misconnecting, based on projections made hours before, not on actual timings.

WaytoomuchEurope

What a breath of fresh air this thread is.

Welcome to FT and good luck with this.

IluvSQ

In my many years of flying AC, only once was I upset enough to contemplate a law suit. This was when they started flying YYZ-HKG on the A340, and advertised
"lie-flat" seats in J class.This was a big, splashy ad campaign, in print, TV, magazines, lounges, etc. Well, as you may recall, those seats were not lie-flat, they were
the slopey, slide-down seats; and I had 2 of the worst flights in years on those seats. I felt their ad campaign was fraud and mis-representation, and that I certainly
did not get what I had paid for. Complaints through customer service, SE desk, and a letter to the President fell on deaf ears. It took a letter from my lawyer
threatening a law suit that finally brought a 4-figure settlement offer, which I accepted. I would suggest that you do the same. It seems that they treat lawyer's
involvement as a sign of your being serious ( e,g. Drunk Cargo).

LondonElite

I understand that you're angry and feel AC owes you something. And they probably do, maybe a few thousand miles or something. But this isn't IDB (maybe semantics), but I cannot see myself investing a huge amount of time and energy (and stress) taking this to court just because you arrived five hours late. I doubt whether the actual outcome (whether it feels like a moral victory or not) will make it worth your while. Just my opinion.

ChrisA330

This sounds similar:

https://otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/39-c-a-2018

LondonElite

The amount of human energy invested in that, for what amounted to a minor inconvenience fo arriving a little late, is just mind-boggling.

mileageking

Would there be a permanent record of some sort on OP's profile (altitude, aeroplan, etc) regardless if he won/lost the lawsuit? If yes, it's something to consider as OP is a frequent flier (SE few times).

workerparasite

OP, I had an almost identical situation in 2013 on a DTW-YYZ-YVR trip, except I got stuck in YYZ overnight while my bag flew on to YVR. I wrote Air Canada, was offered a 25% off voucher. I took it to Transport Canada, who eventually told me it was not an IDB and that I should appreciate AC's generous offer of a 25% off voucher. YMMV, and I wish you luck if you pursue it, but my experience was frustrating, fruitless endeavour.

Symmetre

I can certainly appreciate the OP's frustration with being bumped to the next flight because of checked baggage, only to find the bags made the original connection.

Having said that, if we cut through all the rhetoric the bottom line is that OP was delayed by approx. three hours (OP wrote .... "I am rerouted home and arrive at my destination approximately 5 hours later" .... Toronto to Moncton is a two-hour flight, so the actual delay was therefore about three hours).

This warrants legal action in small claims court?

Good grief.

canadiancow

You're reading "5 hours later" in a very peculiar way. OP messaged me for some help, and it included the date and flight numbers. I assure you the next flight arrived 5 hours after the originally booked flight.

And you're saying AC should be allowed to decide not to transport you on a whim when you show up on time, even when they have seats available?

This is worse than an overbooking, which would have resulted in $900 cash.

RangerNS

I should find a bookie to pay out 20:1 on "arriving later then 3 hours of when AC said I would".

Better ROI then any of the center bets in craps.

Symmetre

I can only go by what the OP wrote in public, which was "I am rerouted home and arrive at my destination approximately 5 hours later" .... OP's words, not mine. Since the flight takes two hours, those words suggest a delay of three hours.

Whether it's three hours or five hours is irrelevant, the OP is irritated at arriving late and rightly so. But small claims court? Give me a break. We all fly on AC and we've all been delayed -- some times for legitimate reasons, other times for idiotic ones. If I sued AC every time they delayed me I would have more money than the Pope.

Bottom line is that it will be difficult to convince a JP in small claims court that a delayed arrival warrants damages unless the OP can demonstrate that the delay has put them out of pocket or otherwise been more than an inconvenience.

I said no such thing. Why are you making stuff up?

Jagboi

Read this and get back to us about how "difficult" it is.
https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssm/do...2014nssm14.pdf