Dear Tripped Up,
Last September my husband and I left our children with their grandparents and headed to Ireland. Our $2,132 itinerary took us from Minneapolis to Toronto to Dublin on tickets booked with United Airlines through Expedia but ultimately operated by Air Canada, a United partner. We had boarded our connecting flight in Toronto (and I was already dozing in my seat) when the captain announced that a pilot had crashed the jet bridge into the starboard engine. We were given hotel vouchers and told we would be rebooked for the next day. Checkout time came and went without a word, so we went to the airport and were told to call Air Canada customer service. An agent booked a flight for us that evening and we printed out boarding passes at an airport kiosk. But when we wanted to board, we were told that the boarding passes were invalid. Finally, we were offered two options for the next day: fly to Dublin via Newark or return to Minneapolis. We cut our losses and went home after spending the night in a Toronto hotel. But United only refunded us $1,087, barely half of what we paid. While Air Canada reimbursed us for the second hotel and other costs, we believe the airlines not only owe us a full refund, but under Canadian law they also owe us 400 Canadians ($295 per person) each for denied boarding. Both refused. Can you help? Michelle, Edina, Minn.
Dear Michelle,
I found the 58-page dossier you sent along with your story to be quite compelling. (It also convinced me that either you or your husband are a lawyer, which turns out to be true.)
I skipped Expedia since your trip had already begun and reached out to United and Air Canada – since you were flying with an airline partner, it's a codeshare agreement. A United spokeswoman, Erin Jankowski, quickly sent me a statement noting that the refund you received from United was in accordance with Air Canada's instructions and referred all other questions to Air Canada.
Air Canada, on the other hand, took almost two weeks to get back to me and the response was disappointing.
“Our records indicate that these customers were not denied boarding in Toronto,” wrote Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the airline. “Instead, following the cancellation of their original flight to Ireland, they appear to have chosen to return from Toronto to Minneapolis rather than fly to Dublin following the delay. Once we determined this, we rebooked the customers on a return flight to Minneapolis.”
No compensation, no word on the $1,045 still missing from your refund, and no explanation as to why you were turned away at the gate for your second flight and yet “not denied boarding.”
Air Canada has offered you and your husband a C$1,200 loan toward a future flight, Mr. Fitzpatrick wrote to me, “to consider the impact on your travel plans and experience.”
When I asked directly why your boarding passes didn't work on the second night, there was no answer. In fact, it is not even clear from Mr. Fitzpatrick's initial statement that Air Canada believed you even attempted to board, despite the fact that they were attached to the boarding passes you sent to me and the two airlines.
I responded with more targeted questions, thanks to what I had learned after reading up on the Canadian Transportation Agency's airline passenger protection regulations and speaking with Tom Oommen, director general of the CTA's analysis and outreach division.
“We have what I would describe as a very comprehensive holistic consumer protection system for airlines,” he said. For example, if flight disruptions occur for reasons beyond an airline's control and the airline is unable to transport passengers to another of its own flights within nine hours, it must book the passenger with any airline, including competitors with which it operates The United States does not enforce any agreements.
Mr. Oommen also pointed out that if a passenger is stranded in the middle of the trip and is not satisfied with the options for onward travel, the airline must offer to rebook that passenger “on a flight back to their place of origin free of charge and reimburse them for the costs.” “. entire ticket.”
He didn't want to comment specifically on your case, but that's exactly what happened to you. (The only exception to these rules is if the malfunction is beyond the airline's control, Mr. Oommen said, but if a mechanical problem is caused by an airline employee or contractor, “it's difficult to make that argument.”)
There are also many circumstances in which Canada requires airlines to compensate passengers – between $400 and $2,400 – for flight delays, cancellations and denied boarding that are within the airline's control. There is an exception when such issues have safety implications. This could apply to the engine failure on the first night, but not, it seems to me, to the non-working boarding passes on the second night. That sounds a lot like denied boarding.
This time you got a response before me and forwarded me several emails from Air Canada, including one that said the airline had approved a cash payment of $400 per traveler. Then Mr. Fitzpatrick emailed me and told me you would receive a full refund.
So you got what you asked for, but of course you would have preferred to go to Ireland. And what exactly happened when Air Canada refused to board you in Toronto? Mr. Fitzpatrick told me that United canceled your ticket before you even got to the gate.
I found this confusing – there's an Air Canada ticket number on the boarding pass, and you hadn't even spoken to United that day. So I got back in touch with Ms. Jankowski at United, who took a closer look at the situation and found that “United canceled the tickets after sending a message to the operating airline, Air Canada, informing them that the Tickets had not been properly reissued to the new date. “Flight.”
Apparently your Air Canada boarding pass was invalidated somewhere in the interfaces of United's two airlines' systems and neither airline has contacted you. And that's a shame because Mr Fitzpatrick later confirmed that the second flight departed with empty seats.
When you decided to just go home, the Air Canada representative at the airport said you needed to call United. The process of untangling the chaos and booking you a flight back to Minneapolis took hours and six different United customer service representatives and supervisors.
Her experience is a good reason for all of us to avoid codeshares unless they are necessary – such as when an itinerary includes flights operated by different airlines.
This is all because you originally booked Air Canada flights as United codeshares – a selection you found on Expedia. When I recently did a search from Minneapolis to Dublin on Expedia for a week in April, the first two options shown were the same route via Toronto with no fare difference, one booked directly with Air Canada and the other as a codeshare United. Assuming you saw the same thing last year, I bet you would have made it to Ireland if you had booked the Air Canada option, albeit a day late. One more reason to book directly with an airline.
There's one final mystery: Why didn't Air Canada admit it was denied boarding and follow the necessary CTA regulations? Yes, your case doesn't exactly fit the agency's official definition describing overbooking or aircraft changes, but if an airline mistakenly cancels a passenger's ticket after already printing a boarding pass and you are stopped at the gate, what is it?
I presented this to Mr. Oommen from CTA as a theoretical situation
“You describe classic non-boarding,” he said.
This means that for this second incident you could claim an additional $400 each and use it for a new flight to Ireland – for example with Aer Lingus, direct or via Chicago.
If you need advice on an optimal travel plan that went wrong, Email [email protected].