Caroline Hacikyaner at Place Ville-Marie in Montreal on Aug. 14. Ms. Hacikyaner planned a 10-day trip to Seoul with her husband for eight years with thousands of dollars worth of excursions and expenses in addition to flights.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
More than 100,000 passengers a day are expected to see their travel plans disrupted unless Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants come to an agreement ahead of a Saturday strike deadline.
The impasse, which came to a head Wednesday when the union issued a 72-hour strike notice, hasn’t just upended flight bookings. It has also put thousands of Canadians on the hook for hotels, cruises, sightseeing tours and excursions that many say took years to save for.
In total, a complete shutdown of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations could affect about 130,000 passengers’ travel plans daily, Air Canada officials said in a release dated Wednesday. The airline has already begun pre-emptively cancelling flights.
From first baby trips, to family reunions, to non-refundable excursions and patriotic getaways across Canada, travellers are watching long-awaited summer plans unravel. Others are stranded in cities and airports across the globe, scrambling to find ways to get home as other flight prices soar.
Many face a catch-22: wait for Air Canada to cancel and qualify for a refund, or book another flight now and risk paying for two trips.
Caroline Hacikyaner spent eight years dreaming of a trip to Seoul with her husband. With two small children, it was never the right time.
After a difficult year and an illness in the family, relatives offered to watch the kids so they could finally take the trip together.
“I’ve been spending weeks planning this almost to the hour, booking excursions, restaurants, hotels, other flights,” she said.
Flight attendants interrupt Air Canada news conference as contract talks stall
One of the biggest highlights she fears she’ll have to forfeit is a flight from Seoul to Jeju Island with a separate airline.
She wants a refund from Air Canada but can’t cancel first without the risk of forfeiting her right to get her money back.
Canada’s air passenger protection rules require Air Canada to reimburse the ticket with cash, not in credit, said Yahia Belhaddad, a lawyer at Lambert Avocats in Montreal who specializes in aviation law.
“The only circumstance under which Air Canada can issue a credit is if the passenger agrees to receive a credit instead of a refund,” he said in an e-mail.
But the airline hasn’t cancelled many of the flights yet as the deadline looms, leaving many passengers waiting till the last moment to get their money back as alternative tickets soar in price or disappear entirely. It has said more flights will be cancelled Friday, with a complete suspension on Saturday if a deal is not reached by then.
“They’re going to give us a refund, but they’re going to do it at the last minute,” Ms. Hacikyaner said.
The costs for rebooking her flight on her own dime are astronomical – about $5,000 more than what they paid originally, she said. But if they abandon their travel plans, they also stand to lose more than $1,000 in hotel and excursion costs.
Air Canada to start cancelling trips after flight attendants’ union issues strike notice
For Mathew Kirouac, what was supposed to be a speedy five-hour flight from Winnipeg to St. John’s for his sister’s wedding on Tuesday has quickly become a four-day cross-country sprint to beat the clock on four wheels.
“I would just make it if the ferry works,” he said. Describing his journey, which is set to begin early Friday, he said he “would have to drive for three days, about 12 hours a day, to make it to the ferry, then drive eight hours or so to get to my sister’s wedding after that point.”
Two days ago, Mr. Kirouac said there were alternative options available with Porter, but Air Canada hadn’t said it would be cancelling yet or promise any refunds.
“There’s barely anything available at this point, and [tickets] are way more expensive,” he said. “Air Canada refuses to offer a refund or give me an explanation on what to expect.”
Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail on Thursday evening that if the airline cancels a flight, customers are offered the option of a full refund.
“At this point we have not cancelled any flights beyond tomorrow,” he said, “due to the fluidity of the situation.”
He said that to “give customers options in light of the uncertainty caused by CUPE’s strike notice,” the airline has put in place a “goodwill policy” allowing customers who purchased a non-refundable fare to cancel their itinerary and receive a travel credit.
Air Canada labour talks break down hours before strike notice deadline
James Peters’s Aug. 28 flight to Toronto from Regina hasn’t been cancelled yet, but he doesn’t want to find out too late. That same date, Mr. Peters, a Second World War history buff, has a connecting Scandinavian Airlines flight to Warsaw from Toronto for a non-refundable nine-day tour of Poland that he’s been looking forward to for weeks.
“The only way that I can get there is if I can get to Toronto,” he said. “Regina is very isolated when it comes to public transportation services.”
He said that with only Air Canada and WestJet serving the city, he paid for a seat on VIA Rail from Melville, Sask., to Toronto – about a two-day journey.
“I will need to start my journey four days prior,” he said, given a limited train schedule that requires him to arrive in Toronto on Aug. 26. And boarding in Melville requires driving 150 kilometres from Regina.
Some passengers feel punished for their efforts to save and get savvy with points.
For Erin Ash, a trip to Ireland to visit family was years in the making: “I’ve been saving Aeroplan points since 2017,” she said.
It also required coordinating work schedules, kids and the needs of her 18-year-old son with special needs.
How to know if a flight is a better deal through points or with cash
Ms. Ash and relatives were due to leave on Saturday from Toronto, but they don’t see that happening now. Instead, she risks losing between $2,500 to $3,000 in Airbnb bookings and other accommodations.
Because she booked with points, Aeroplan has offered to move the dates, but she cannot switch to another airline without doing so on her own dime, something that feels impossible as flights double and triple in price as demand soars.
“Once in a blue moon, it’s like the stars aligned for us to actually get there,” she said. “Then just to have it all not work out.”
Rebecca Biason wanted to support her country amid Canada’s continuing trade war with the U.S. by taking her son to Vancouver instead of California or New York for his first trip.
“He’s five years old, he’s a COVID baby born in 2020 – this was our first flight,” she said. “He’s very excited, and I didn’t want to cancel the trip for him.”
Instead, Ms. Biason spent $2,700 after booking a new one-way flight through Porter at the last moment.
“I don’t want to book another flight home until I know if I’m actually getting a refund or not,” she said. “The flights with Air Canada, when we booked them in March, were about $600 – so I’ve already spent more than my whole trip just on the departure.”
The biggest losses for most were not financial.
For Ms. Hacikyaner, a 14-hour flight with multiple layovers and two small children feels impossible, even if they find the means financially. If her and her husband can’t travel during the current window, “I don’t know when we’ll ever be able to go.”