Air Canada is working to win back customers after an anticipated pilot strike was averted, offering travellers flight discounts, free re-booking, and bonus Aeroplan points.
“The reason we are making these offers available is that we realize the negotiations were attended by a degree of uncertainty for customers, some of whom may have deferred booking in recent weeks,” an Air Canada spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a Sept. 16 email. “The sale is our way of thanking customers for their patience and understanding.”
Disruption
The potential strike had raised concerns among travellers about the reliability of upcoming flights, causing uncertainty and anxiety as customers reconsidered their travel plans.Reena Walia from Toronto said she lost sleep when the potential strike threatened to disrupt her annual vacation with her husband.
Walia said her brother-in-law was scheduled to travel from France to care for her 93-year-old mother-in-law during their absence. The plan was at risk if his Air Canada flight from Paris to Toronto, scheduled for Sept. 20, was affected.
“We are in a conundrum now; we cannot travel unless he is able to travel here. We have no family here, so we are unable to make alternate arrangements for my mother-in-law unless we spend a lot of money to leave her in a retirement home,” she told The Epoch Times on Sept. 13.
Walia expressed understanding for the pilots but also found their wage expectations “a little unfair,” asking, “Do doctors, engineers, and other professionals make as much as their U.S. counterparts?”