Cancelled Flight? Lost Luggage? This Online Guide Can Help You Get a Refund

Travellers at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on March 10, 2023. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Air travel disruptions don’t have to be stressful thanks to a new online guide to help you navigate the rules and discover what compensation you’re owed.

The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) has created the Air Passenger Help Guide to help travellers deal with common issues such as flight delays, lost luggage, or even getting bumped from a flight.

“Travelling can be complex, and the rules protecting air travellers are complicated,” said CAA National vice-president of public affairs Ian Jack, noting that his agency has been pushing the federal government to “simplify the rules to make them easier to use.”

Until that happens, the CAA’s guide tool can be used to help you understand federal air passenger protection regulations as well as your rights as a traveller.

Whether your flight is cancelled or a bag has been lost, the guide can help you discover, “in five clicks or less,” what you should do and if you’ll receive compensation.

How the Guide Works

After clicking on the guide, you will be asked how your travel has been affected. A list of options such as delays or cancellations, denied boarding, lost luggage, and issue with refunds will appear.

If you are trying to learn more about being reimbursed, for instance, you would click on the final option.

Now, it’ll ask you if the airline cancelled or changed your flight or if you wish to cancel your flight. If your flight has been cancelled, you’d click the first option.

Next, the guide will need information about why the airline cancelled your flight.

“Airlines are required to provide the reason for a flight disruption,” the guide says. “This matters because what you are owed changes depending on the reason for the issue.”

Next, you’ll choose from a long list of potential cancellation reasons such as overbooking or security issues. If you were bumped because of an error like a flight being overbooked, the guide says, the airline should offer you alternate travel arrangements or, when that is not a possibility, a refund.

“If you are mid-travel (at a connection point) and no longer at your point of origin, the airline must also provide you, free of charge, with a confirmed reservation back to your point of origin,” the guide says. “Your refund will be for the full cost of the fare as if no part of the trip had been made.”

Refunds, including all additional services purchased and unused such as a checked bag fee, must also be returned to your credit card within 30 days.

The guide will also offer travellers tips based on the situation you’re in as well as help you to file a complaint if you don’t receive satisfaction from the airline.

The CAA says it expects the guide to be a welcome tool for travellers due to the frequency of flight disruptions. A recent survey by the agency found 61 percent Canadians say they or someone they know has experienced a flight disruption within the last two years.