An Ontario woman who was accompanying her daughter on a graduate school trip to the Dominican Republic said the group was stranded when Flair Airlines canceled their flight to Toronto due to bad weather.
Deanne Trinka and her husband Jason Butler of Burlington, Ont.; On August 10th, I traveled to Punta Cana to lead a group of four graduates.
According to Trinka, the seven-day trip itself went smoothly. Things took a turn for the worse when they were scheduled to return to Pearson International Airport.
Their flight on a low-cost airline was scheduled to leave Punta Cana just after 7 p.m. on Aug. 17, but was canceled due to storms in Toronto.
At that point, Trinka said, the 123 passengers on the canceled flight were informed that the next available Flare flight to Toronto would depart in two weeks.
“What really concerns me is that we were all initially told we had to wait until August 31st,” Trinka told CTV News Toronto.
Trinka, who worked as a flight attendant for Flair, said other airlines had multiple flights available to Toronto on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but her reservation wasn’t made until Tuesday. Butler and one member of his group had their Air Canada flight rebooked. Trinka, her daughter, and two other group members followed on a WestJet flight later that night.
Flair paid for Trinka’s group’s round-trip replacement airfare, but her group incurred an additional cost of $1,200 to $1,500 for food and lodging during their unscheduled three-day stay in the DR. It is said that it took a while.
She said Flair does not offer meal vouchers of any kind. Mr. Butler also had to pay to check his luggage on the Air Canada flight home, Mr. Trinka said.
“I was very proud when I worked for them. I always vouched for them,” Trinka said. “But seeing the way the airline treats people has completely changed the way I view the airline as a customer.”
Butler said he understands that airlines cannot control weather conditions, but added that Flair customers could have been treated better.
“We would have had better customer service if we had felt covered, safe and cared for as passengers, and we didn’t.”
Flair claims rebooking passengers is not a ‘seamless process’
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, Flair cited record-breaking storms that dumped nearly two months’ worth of rain on the city in just a few hours as the reason for the cancellation.
“Storm YYZ caused massive disruption to all aviation networks, including Flair’s network. For the safety of passengers and crew, the decision to cancel the YYZ landing flight from PUJ was taken out of an abundance of caution. Kim Bowie, Flair’s communications director, said in an email.
Bowie said all 123 passengers on the flight were notified of the cancellation and given the option of reserving a round-trip ticket on Flair or another airline, at Flair’s expense, if they had not already done so. It is said that he was
“While we offer all customers the option to rebook, we have received feedback that we could be more proactive in communicating other options,” Bowie said, adding that after canceling passengers He added that the process of bringing them home “is not a seamless process.”
Passengers may sue airlines: passenger rights experts
Gabor Lukacs, president of the advocacy group Air Passenger Rights, said that although the cancellation appears to be outside Flair’s control due to the weather, affected passengers will receive a refund in addition to a refund for their return ticket. He said he may be entitled to compensation.
He said Flair is considered a “major” airline under the Airline Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), which means that Flair is considered a “major” airline under the Airline Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), which means that passengers are not entitled to any of its flights departing within 48 hours of the original departure time shown on the flight. Alternatively, alternative transportation via affiliated flights must be provided. ticket.
“If Flair was unable to do so, under s. I was asked to make a reservation,” Lukacs said in an email.
According to Trinka, Flair “failed” to honor its obligation to change reservations, so passengers would not only be responsible for the cost of the alternative transportation they had purchased, as Flair allegedly did, but also for the first available time. The cost will also have to be paid by the airline, Lukacs said. A flight back to Toronto and a flight to take them home.
“If Flair refuses to pay, we will take the airlines to small claims court rather than the Canadian Transport Agency, which is known for its friendly relationship with airlines,” he said.
