A couple’s long-dreamt beach vacation dissolved into a nightmare of connecting flights and hours on hold over a three-day period in 2023, but a judge has now awarded them damages to the tune of $10,000, finding Air Canada culpable of breaching its obligations.
In a small claims court in Yukon, plaintiffs Nettassia Southwick and James Dolsen sued Air Canada for several breaches of the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) after their travel plans to visit Cuba never materialized. The couple had saved for three years, booked time off work, and arranged for their kids’ care at home for their long-awaited parents-only beachside getaway.
“Ms. Southwick and Mr. Dolsen became pawns who went through a horrendous experience as a result of the overbooking by Air Canada of a flight to Cuba,” Justice Katherine McLeod wrote in her decision.
Air Canada offered $2,400 per person to compensate for the denial of boarding of their flight to Cuba. But this didn’t cover the out-of-pocket expenses the couple incurred paying for airport hotel rooms, the lost time from their work, or the “enormous stress, waiting in lines for hours to no avail,” McLeod found.
The couple, who first flew from Whitehorse to Edmonton to Calgary to Toronto, arrived in time to board their Air Canada flight from Toronto to Cuba on Feb. 3. When the flight was oversold, an announcement called for “volunteers” to give up their seats for a payment of $2,400 and instead be booked on an American Airlines flight to Miami; they would stay overnight and fly to Cuba the next morning. Induced by this offer, the plaintiffs volunteered.
However, Southwick testified that they received no boarding passes. Nor is there any other evidence they were booked on the promised American Airlines flight, the court documents show; they were unable to board the flight but were not told why. Instead, they were told to fly to Montreal to catch an Air Transat flight to Varadero, Cuba, but the flight to Montreal was delayed due to “frozen engines,” leaving them inadequate time to make their connecting flight once they'd reached Montreal.
Air Canada argued it wasn’t culpable for the series of events because these were caused by weather conditions, the court documents state. However, the airline knew of bad weather in Montreal and that it would cause delays and yet still opted to send the plaintiffs there, according to McLeod. Moreover, it was not weather conditions but the denial of boarding on Feb. 3 that proved the ultimate cause, the judge found.
“It was never communicated by the proffering desk agent that the overbooking was for any other reason than merely overbooking, and the rationale of safety concerns was never uttered,” she wrote. “Thus, the whole genesis of this ‘experience’ is the denial of boarding.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Air Canada for comment but didn’t hear back by press time.
The airline was found guilty of several APPR violations, such as failing to communicate as required, not providing written confirmation of alternative arrangements, and not providing for accommodations.
Ultimately, the couple was flown to Toronto and then Edmonton where, unable to get assistance from Air Canada, they booked a last-minute trip to Cancun on Feb. 5 instead of Cuba. But they had to extend their calendar holiday, cancel appointments, and take additional time off work.
“At all times, the Plaintiffs spent hours waiting in line for customer service, and while in line, used both of their phones to try and get through to a live person at Air Canada but to no avail,” McLeod wrote. “Ms. Southwick described the stress of waiting in lines at Air Canada counters only to be faced with a total lack of assistance.”
The judge factored in damages such as the couple’s stays at airport hotels—which Dolsen paid out of pocket—in Toronto ($695.02), Montreal ($679.38), and Edmonton ($520.78).
The replacement for their vacation amounted to an additional cost of $760.00, while the couple’s lost wages for five days totalled $5,800.
McLeod noted the “ruining of a long dreamt of holiday” and the “enormous stress” the couple endured, and awarded them damages of $3,480.
Days before the trial commenced, Air Canada reimbursed the plaintiffs for their hotel and food to the tune of $1,800.
The sum judgment to the plaintiffs equalled $10,000, though had they claimed all entitlements under the APPR they would have received more, the judge stated.
It was also noted that computers charged with rescheduling itineraries cannot be the only decision-makers. Meanwhile, McLeod found that the airline had no excuse for not offering alternative travel options, of which several were found to be available, and for sending them where known weather conditions were causing marked delays.
She added: “Air Canada has a duty to communicate. It failed completely. It is extraordinary that without this Small Claims Court action, no person-to-person communication would have taken place.”
