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Air Transat dispute Parvathy Radhakrishnan Nair and Midhun Haridas pose for a picture while on vacation. (Image provided by Midhun Haridas) <\/p>\nAdrian Ghobrial has more on an Ontario couple\u2019s cautionary tale for travellers after being denied boarding by Air Transat on their return flight to Toronto. <\/p>\n
An Ontario couple\u2019s decision to record video of their negative interaction with an Air Transat attendant has been applauded in a recent, scathing decision by an Ontario judge.<\/p>\n
On March 31, 2024, husband and wife Midhun Haridas and Parvathy Radhakrishnan Nair arrived at the Dominican Republic\u2019s Punta Cana International Airport, on time, to check-in for their direct flight home to Toronto.<\/p>\n
The couple were wrapping up their first vacation away as husband and wife. \u201cIt was so fun, except the last day, that was not so fun,\u201d recalls Radhakrishnan Nair.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because, when they arrived at the airport on the final day of their vacation, they say they were spoken down to by an Air Transat agent who refused to check them in for their flight unless the couple erased video they had taken of their poor customer service experience.<\/p>\n
At the time, Radhakrishnan Nair was travelling with only an Indian passport and a Canadian work permit. She says her husband asked an Air Transat agent if there was a specific line he and his wife should stand in since she was returning to Canada without a Canadian passport.<\/p>\n
The family says they were told to move aside to a separate line and then abruptly instructed to stand behind a red line. A short while later, they say they were told they were standing in the family check-in line and directed to another line, so they moved. Haridas then says an Air Transat Supervisor began raising his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he didn\u2019t stop yelling at my wife, I intervened and said, \u2018we need to stop shouting.\u2019 He didn\u2019t like that. Immediately, he said, \u2018I\u2019m not going to allow you to check-in.\u2019 He then instructed his staff to not allow us to check-in,\u201d says Haridas.<\/p>\n
At that moment, a crucial decision was made: \u201cWhen he didn\u2019t allow us to check-in, and he allowed everyone else to check-in, that\u2019s when I began taking videos,\u201d notes Haridas.<\/p>\n
Air Transat pays couple for customer service breakdown An Ont. couple\u2019s decision to record video of their interaction with an Air Transat attendant has been applauded in a court decision <\/p>\n
\u2018Delete all pictures\u2019<\/p>\n
In the video, you can hear Haridas speaking to a female Air Transat attendant at the check-in counter. <\/p>\n
\u201cHere are our passports. Can you tell us why we\u2019re not being allowed to board?\u201d The airline employee looks on and doesn\u2019t say a word.<\/p>\n
In a separate video, a male Air Transat employee who Haridas had identified as the check-in manager asks the couple for their passports. The agent then says, \u201cI need you to delete all pictures and all video (to be allowed) for check-in.\u201d When Haridas refuses, the agent hands the passports back.<\/p>\n
When Radhakrishnan Nair tries to plead her case, the Air Transat agent in the video points at her and quickly tells her to be quiet. \u201cDelete all information with me in your cellphone,\u201d demands the agent.<\/p>\n
The couple continue to try and plead their case in the video saying, \u201cWe just want to go home. We have a ticket we were denied boarding for no reason. You were rude to my wife,\u201d replies Haridas.<\/p>\n
Air Transat pays couple for customer service breakdown An Ont. couple\u2019s decision to record video of their interaction with an Air Transat attendant has been applauded in a court decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a form of extorsion or blackmail essentially. An airline employee had no right to tell the passenger that, \u2018I\u2019m only going to check you in if you erase the video.\u2019 That is absolutely unacceptable and has no basis in law,\u201d says Air Passenger Rights President Gabor Lukacs.<\/p>\n
The couple were never allowed to check-in for their flight; they had to walk over to an Air Canada agent and purchase an expensive last minute ticket home to Toronto with a layover in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Haridas and Radhakrishnan Nair decided to take their case to small claims court. In a court decision handed down in June, Justice Marcel Mongeon found Air Transat\u2019s conduct to be \u201ceffectively egregious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge issues scathing ruling<\/p>\n
In his written ruling, Justice Mongeon wrote, \u201cThank goodness\u201d Haridas took video, \u201cso that I can actually see how terrible the customer service that he received at the hands of the defendant corporation was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAudio and video recordings when you have a dispute with an airline, or any other powerful large corporation, are essential to establish to the court that it is not simply your word that you were wronged, but that the judge can actually see with their own eyes what you had to experience as a customer,\u201d says Lukacs.<\/p>\n
In its defence, Air Transat claimed the couple were a safety concern. The judge didn\u2019t buy the airlines argument. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf safety was a concern, legitimately, then why when the (check-in) manager says, \u2018Delete the videos from your camera and we\u2019ll let you board the flight,\u2019 they were no longer a concern? <\/p>\n
\u201cSimilarly, if Mr. Haridas and Ms. Radhakrishnan Nair were such safety concerns, why did Air Canada quietly check them in for a flight to Ottawa a few hours later?\u201d wrote Justice Mongeon.<\/p>\n
Air Transat dispute Parvathy Radhakrishnan Nair and Midhun Haridas pose for a picture while on vacation. (Image provided by Midhun Haridas) <\/p>\n
The couple believe their story is an important one for Canadian consumers. \u201cAs a passenger, you should know your rights,\u201d says Radhakrishnan Nair.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn any kind of conflict, we need to have proof of what took place,\u201d notes Haridas, who goes onto share that, \u201cWhen airlines deny a passenger compensation and deny you of your rights, most people don\u2019t know they can fight this out in small claims court, which in my experience is better than going to the Canadian Transportation Agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling found that the passengers \u201cwere denied the ability to check-in for the flight. At no time were they given a reason for that,\u201d wrote Justice Mongeon who awarded the couple $7,000 in damages.<\/p>\n
Air Transat has paid the couple. In the airline\u2019s final email to the couple, an Air Transat representative congratulated them on their \u201cvictory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lukacs believe this ruling is a big victory for consumers. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s long overdue,\u201d says Lukacs who adds that \u201cyou have a right as a consumer to document evidence and take video in a public place like an airport to ensure that when you are being wronged, you will have evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
CTV News reached out to Air Transat requesting their reaction to the small claims court ruling. In an email an Air Transat spokesperson wrote \u201cwe acknowledge that a judgment has been rendered in this matter and we confirm that we have complied. We will not be commenting any further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Ghobrial has more on an Ontario couple\u2019s cautionary tale for travellers after being denied boarding by Air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-279934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}