According to Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, airlines must ensure customers affected by cancellations or significant delays arrive at their destination as soon as possible – within certain parameters.jeremietardieu / 500px/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Air passengers could learn a useful lesson from an Edmonton resident who challenged a carrier’s rebooking of a cancelled flight after he discovered that a much earlier departure had room in business class.
When Zachary Penner’s flight to Toronto was cancelled just half an hour before it was supposed to take off in mid-July, Air Canada automatically sent him a new ticket in economy class, the same fare he had purchased, for a flight leaving a day later. But a quick web search revealed that a business-class seat remained up for grabs on a similar flight departing just six hours after the cancelled one.
While Air Canada initially refused to upgrade Mr. Penner to the pricier spot, it eventually re-accommodated him on the earlier flight, saying an economy seat had suddenly become available, he said.
The case highlights how checking for and inquiring about rebooking in a higher class of service can help stranded passengers secure better flight alternatives than the ones airlines might otherwise offer by default.
According to Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, or APPR, airlines must ensure that customers affected by cancellations, denials of boarding or significant delays arrive at their destination as soon as possible – within certain parameters that depend on the reason for the flight disruption and size of the carrier. The rules also state that airlines can’t charge passengers extra if the alternate arrangements entail travelling on a higher-class ticket than the one originally purchased.
Some consumer advocates argue the rules mean passengers have a right to a rebooking in a higher-class seat at no charge, if that’s the only option on the next available flight that will allow them to complete their journey within the criteria outlined by the APPR.
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“The regulations say it has to be the next available flight,” said Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights, a consumer advocacy group. “If there are no same-class seats on the next available flight, and no lower-class seats, then common sense is, it has to be a higher-class seat, and they cannot charge extra.”
But when asked about the matter by the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Transportation Agency, a quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator that handles disputes between airlines and customers, stopped short of saying that disrupted travellers are entitled to a free upgrade if no other seats are available on the next departing flight.
“Generally speaking, airlines must always ensure that passengers complete their itinerary as soon as possible,” CTA spokesperson Jadrino Huot said in an e-mail statement.
Passengers who believe airlines haven’t satisfied their obligations under the APPR can submit their complaint directly to the carriers and later ask that their case be assessed by the CTA, if they aren’t satisfied by the companies’ response. They can also pursue their claim in court.
But the APPR don’t specify how an airline should ensure a customer completes their journey, Mr. Huot also said.
One option, aside from upgrading the disrupted traveller, is for a carrier to offer them a same-class seat by giving the bump-up to a different passenger who is already booked on the flight. That’s what Mr. Penner suspects eventually happened in his case – and what Air Canada spokesperson Christophe Hennebelle confirmed as a possibility.
“In cases where an economy customer needs to be rebooked, and the flight has only business class seats available, our policy is to open an economy seat by upgrading a customer. We select individuals for upgrading who have submitted upgrade requests, such as through our eUpgrade program,” Mr. Hennebelle said in an e-mail.
But Mr. Penner said Air Canada staff initially denied his request for a rebooking on the earlier flight citing company policy. It wasn’t until Mr. Penner, a college teacher and law student, started quoting the text of the APPR that he said the airline employee he was dealing with advised him that a seat had freed up in economy class.
“I don’t think it’s an accident that the minute I brought the regulations up and showed them to her, magically, I had a seat on that earlier flight,” he said.
“That didn’t feel right.”