Couple Had Vacation Ruined When They Volunteered To Be Booted From Overbooked Air Canada Flight Only To Then Be Flown Around Country

A Canadian couple who had saved for years to be able to afford to go on a dream vacation without their children had their trip ruined when Air Canada ended up flying them around the country for several days after they initially volunteered to be booted from an overbooked flight.

The unnamed couple said they had been putting money aside for three years to afford their vacation to Cuba, but when they got to the airport in Toronto to get on the Air Canada flight to the Caribbean, gate agents told the passengers that the flight was oversold.

The airline did, however, tempt passengers to voluntarily offload themselves from the flight with the offer of compensation and a promise to get them to Cuba the same day but on a later flight with a layover in Dallas.

The couple, who had arranged childcare cover for the duration of their nine-day trip to Cuba, jumped at the chance to get back some of their hard-earned savings while still spending a good amount of time in Cuba.

But hours after their original flight had already departed, Air Canada broke the news to them that the flight they had been promised to get them to Cuba was no longer available.

What transpired was a three-day ordeal as the couple were flown to various airports across Canada.

First, Air Canada sent them to Montreal, where a new flight to get them to Cuba had allegedly been booked with Air Transat. But on arrival, they went to the Air Transat ticket desk only to be told that Air Canada hadn’t booked them onto the flight.

They were then sent back to Toronto, where a new plan was hatched to fly them to Edmonton and then onwards towards Cuba, but as the delay dragged on and they started losing hope of ever getting to Cuba, the couple hatched their own plan.

Rather than waiting on Air Canada any longer, the couple ended up booking alternative flights to Cuncun, Mexico, although they were forced to spend a lot more money and take more time off work.

Following the February 2023 fiasco, the couple decided to take Air Canada to small claims court to win compensation against the airline. Earlier this week, the court ruled in favor of the couple, awarding them CA $10,000 for their ordeal.

Air Canada had tried to fight the lawsuit, saying that it had already paid the appropriate amount of compensation under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations for ‘denial of boarding.’

After the couple filed their legal claim, the airline decided to stump up a further $1,800 for additional expenses incurred by the unlucky holidaymakers, including some of the hotel and food costs they incurred.

But after slamming Air Canada for putting the couple through a “horrendous experience” and treating them “shamefully,” Justice Katherine L. McLeod came to the conclusion that Air Canada’s out-of-court settlement didn’t come close to covering all the out-of-pocket expenses.

In its defense, Air Canada told the court that some of the delays faced by the couple were the result of severe weather that was out of its control, although the court found no evidence that the airline had tried to communicate with either Air Transat or American Airlines to confirm that the couple had been correctly booked on alternative flights.

Air Canada utilizes automated rebooking systems to reroute disrupted passengers, but McLeod said in her ruling that these computer systems should be backed up by human review to ensure that rebooked flights are feasible.