Frederik van der Veen was confident he’d be compensated for his cancelled WestJet flight, which caused a 12-hour delay when flying home to Montreal from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in July.
After all, his wife and travel partner, Irma De La Luz Perez, had already applied for and received $1,000 compensation for the same flight. But, much to his surprise, WestJet rejected van der Veen’s claim, stating the flight disruption was “due to an operational issue” outside the airline’s control.
“[I’m] disappointed and kind of bewildered,” he said. “Why would they pay one and not the other if we’re on the same flight?”
CBC News interviewed three WestJet and two Air Canada passengers who, when they applied for compensation, were flatly denied — even though their travel partner received $1,000 for the same flight disruption.
“The rules aren’t working,” said Air Canada passenger Dave Marrone.
Following a flight cancellation in August, Marrone’s wife and travel partner, Kielyn, got $1,000 compensation for what resulted in a 19-hour delay in their return trip from London to Sudbury, Ont.
But Air Canada rejected Marrone’s claim for the same flight, telling him the cancellation was either outside the airline’s control or safety-related.
“It does seem like it’s a real grab bag of sort of how it’s applied, how it works and who gets compensated,” said Marrone, who lives just outside Espanola, Ont.
Under federal rules, airlines only have to pay compensation — up to $1,000 — if a flight delay or cancellation is within an airline’s control and not required for safety reasons.
Following this spring and summer’s travel chaos which sparked numerous flight delays and cancellations, many passengers complained to CBC News that they were unjustly denied compensation. Since April, more than 19,000 air passengers have filed complaints with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) related to flight disruptions, according to the agency.
The flood of complaints prompted Transport Minister Omar Alghabra to repeatedly warn carriers to play by the rules.
“Airlines must respect travellers’ rights and compensate travellers who are eligible,” he said during a transport committee hearing in August.
Airlines respond
Both Air Canada and WestJet have repeatedly told CBC News they do abide by the air passenger regulations.
About two hours after CBC News inquired about Marrone’s case, Air Canada informed him it had re-evaluated his claim and that he would receive $1,000 compensation.
In another case, Air Canada compensated passenger Bob Hays last week — four months after he complained about being denied compensation even though his fiance got $1,000 for the same 24-hour flight delay in June.
“It was frustrating,” said Hays, who lives in Prince Rupert, B.C. “It’s almost comical, but it’s not comical that two people can be on the same flight and get different decisions.”
In an email, Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick blamed both mismatches on “a processing error.”