'Don't be a pushover': What a passenger rights activist says you need to know ahead of possible Air Canada strike

An air passenger rights advocate says that customers shouldn’t be afraid to enforce their own rights as a possible strike between Air Canada and its flight attendants looms ahead of the weekend.

On Wednesday, the airline received notice of a strike from the Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 10,000 flight attendants. The airline then issued lockout notice. A strike could happen on Saturday. The two sides cannot come to an agreement over wages and working conditions.

The potential strike has already led to some changes in travel plans for customers. The airline said this week it was starting to cancel flights with “a complete cessation of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge on August 16.” As Saturday approaches, president of advocacy group Air Passenger Rights Gábor Lukács said travellers should keep track of their interactions with the airline.

“Keep all documents, keep recordings, audio, video,” he told National Post on Friday. “And don’t be a pushover.”

Airlines must ensure “a passenger whose flight has been disrupted completes their journey – either on the original flight or through alternate travel arrangements. The aim must be to get the passenger to the destination indicated on their original ticket as soon as possible,” per the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) .

Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) maintains that an airline is required to rebook a passenger on any carrier, including competitors, if it cannot be booked on the original airline.

Lukács said that passengers should not necessarily take the full refund being offered by the airline.

“If you take a refund, then it can be viewed as you waive your right to alternate transportation,” he said.

There are two kinds of cancellations in this case, said Lukács: preemptive and reactive.

“The preemptive cancelations we are seeing now when the strike has not begun,” he said. “You are going to see the reactive cancelations tomorrow, if there is a strike.”

He said the preemptive cancelations are “business decisions by the airline.”

He continued: “They don’t want to park the aircraft abroad or don’t want to fly it back empty. That’s within the carrier’s control so the airline owes passenger meals, accommodation, lump sum, compensation, up to $1,000 and they owe passengers, most importantly, rebooking, including on competitor airlines.”

The regulations do not prescribe the exact scope of a labour disruption, said the CTA in an emailed statement to National Post. “It is the airline’s responsibility to demonstrate that the specific flight disruption was due to a labour disruption within the meaning of the APPR, and therefore out of the airline’s control,” it said.

Lukács said that some customers have received cancellations from the airline without getting rebooked on another flight.

Passengers were sent emails from Air Canada “telling them that there are no flights available on other airlines for their destination. Air Canada claims that it did a search but was unable to rebook the passengers,” he wrote in a post on Facebook on Friday. “In the cases that I have seen, alternate flights were actually available, although for a higher price.”

Passengers should go out and buy a ticket on a competitor airline and send Air Canada the bill, said Lukács. “If you really don’t have money, I would still not take the refund,” he added.

Air Canada did not immediately respond to National Post’s request for comment.

For travellers with an itinerary that includes at least one international route, for example from Vancouver to Toronto to Paris, the “airline may be liable for the passengers’ meals, accommodation, lost wages, and all sort of expenses caused by the delay.”

If there is a strike, which is deemed beyond Air Canada’s control, the airline still owes passengers alternate transportation.

In a statement to National Post, the CTA said it would “closely monitor the situation and take appropriate actions, as required.” It recommends that travellers who have trips that may be affected by a labour disruption should contact the airline to confirm travel dates and ask what to do to prepare. It also says to consult the airline’s website regularly and to verify if travel insurance or credit card insurance covers their refunds for flight disruptions caused by labour disruptions.

“If your travel dates are flexible, you may wish to consider contacting the airline to ask if it will reschedule your trip,” per CTA. “Although airlines are not obligated to do so, sometimes, in advance of potential labour disruptions, they will waive fees related to rebooking or cancellation.”

• Air Canada shuts down conference 20 minutes in after flight attendants disrupt proceedings
• Air Canada says it will start cancelling flights as flight attendants give strike notice

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