Many flights canceled or delayed by Sunwing in recent days highlight a problem that is not new: passengers are unable to obtain compensation as provided by law.
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“We realize that people are told anything by the carriers and that the Canadian Transportation Agency is unfortunately not there to enforce the law,” says Jacob Charbonneau, of the law firm Vol en delay.
Following a computer failure last Saturday, many passengers on Sunwing, a carrier purchased by WestJet last March, saw their flights delayed or canceled altogether.
And when they demand compensation from the Alberta company, they are offered a resounding no.
“We have to stop taking travelers hostage,” laments Christiane Ouellette, a Quebecer who had to wait another day in Cuba last weekend because of a canceled flight by Sunwing.
She laments the company’s lack of communication and empathy, like dozens of others who wrote to the Log since the publication, on Sunday, of our report on the outage.
Sunwing did pay for her extra night at the hotel, but the Magog resident was denied compensation for the cancellation of her flight.
Barely 10% win
Yet that is what the law provides, under the passenger bill of rights.
Jacob Charbonneau, who founded the company Late Flight precisely to handle such claims, finds that only 10% of passengers end up receiving the $400 to $1,000 required by law.
“The airlines always say no, because they know very well that there are 12, 18 or even 24 months of waiting for the treatment of a complaint”, he decries.
When a passenger is told no by the carrier, they must turn to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).
“The long delays in processing complaints leave the field free for carriers to say anything to passengers,” he criticizes.
Supplier pointed out
Sunwing says last weekend’s outage was due to technical difficulties at its supplier Jeppesen, a Boeing subsidiary that suffered a cyberattack.
“The flight is delayed due to an unforeseen operational restriction affecting our flight operations and it was beyond the carrier’s control. Your flight is not eligible for compensation,” the company wrote to fellow passenger Christian Moore.
He was supposed to leave with his partner on November 3 at 6 a.m. for Mexico, but did not finally leave until 6:30 p.m., a 12-hour wait that caused him to lose a day of vacation.
He is indeed entitled to compensation of $ 1,000, according to Jacob Charbonneau.
“They are responsible for their supplier, that’s obvious,” he says.
Mr. Moore will therefore have to file a complaint with the OTC and be patient. Perhaps he will then be in the 10% of passengers who go through with the process.
No one at the CTO was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.
The compensation to which you have the right
Since 2019, the passenger charter requires Canadian airlines to offer $400 to $1000 to each passenger for a delay of more than 3 hours or a flight cancellation.
To get this money, the delay or cancellation must be the responsibility of the carrier and must not be related to security issues. But few people know that.
Jacob Charbonneau calculates that in Canada, the United States and Europe, $13 billion which are due to passengers are not claimed each year.