Air Canada over-booking

cardomon

This has happened to a lot of people over this weekend. We were 3 amongst a group of 11 who were turned back at the gate Saturday evening and that was only that flight. Air Canada were happy to admit they had over booked all their flights from Toronto to London this weekend.
We have been promised a cheque for CD 800 each for this and got in 14 hours later than we should have done so although it was a pain when it happened by Tuesday we'll be ok about it.
My question is how easy is it to bank a cheque for CD800. I'm going to say I always thought Air Canada were a decent airline but the whole experience with them, snotty staff, untrained customer service, poor food plus of course the bumping has left me feeling less than well disposed towards them. One customer service advisor even suggested we should expect to be bumped because we booked it cheap on Expedia !!!

PeacefulWaters

A foreign cheque into a UK bank account will usually take around 21-28 days to clear.

There will be a fee as well.

duchy

Actually as there was no obligation under EC regs to pay anything apart from hotel and basic food £450 pp is quite a result.

I'd check with any banks you have accounts with and find out whose will be the lowest fee. I've paid between £5 and £15 in the past. Not all banks are the same.

glentoran99

duchy wrote: »

Actually as there was no obligation under EC regs to pay anything apart from hotel and basic food £450 pp is quite a result.

I'd check with any banks you have accounts with and find out whose will be the lowest fee. I've paid between £5 and £15 in the past. Not all banks are the same.

Of course there is an obligation the denied boarding regulations apply

callum9999

glentoran99 wrote: »

Of course there is an obligation the denied boarding regulations apply

No they don't. They were neither in the EU nor on an EU carrier, ergo the EU law doesn't apply.

InsideInsurance

These things are normally up for negotiation.

I cannot recall the airline in question but when I was flying out the other day they were basically auctioning off for volunteers to come off the flight. Started with £500 plus hotel inc meal/drinks and flight the next morning. They finally got takers at £1,000 plus hotel in meals/ drinks and flight next morning in business class.

CAD$800 isnt a bad result, depending on what issues it caused at the other end but as others have said, your bank is likely to take a slice.

cardomon

Thanks for the replies. I think CD800 is some kind of standard payment they make for denying boarding at the gate. Annoying as it was at the time we still arrived on Sunday at 8pm instead of 6am so we scored for over half the cost of our holiday for a 14 hour delay. Went to my bank and they said it will take 10 days and cost £7 to change the cheque, so it will pay for next years holiday. So I can't say I'm too unhappy today.

ttoli

Most if not all scheduled carriers overbook their flights , relying on the odd few cancelling or missing departure , Turkish Airlines and Cyprus airways to name two.

DTDfanBoy

callum9999 wrote: »

No they don't. They were neither in the EU nor on an EU carrier, ergo the EU law doesn't apply.

No EU rules, but Canadian Transportation Agency rules apply, and unlike the CAA the CTA will actually enforce breaches instead of palming off the problem to local courts

You can thank Dr. Rima Azar for your 800CAD :beer:

https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/442-c-a-2013

mad_rich

Overbooking (as you've discovered) is a generally speaking a good thing. Most airlines do it, with Ryanair being a notable exception. There are so many people who don't turn up for a flight they're booked on (they have a flexible ticket and changed it, they miss a connection, they get stuck in traffic, they die...) that it makes sense to overbook. Otherwise planes would fly with more empty seats and fares would be higher.

They're usually very good with the dark art of predictions and the level of overbooking varies according to route, season, time of day, connected bookings, weather, even big football matches. Most of the time, the airlines get it right. When they don't they usually send someone home very happy with a big cheque in the back pocket and 14 hour delay.

glentoran99

callum9999 wrote: »

No they don't. They were neither in the EU nor on an EU carrier, ergo the EU law doesn't apply.

There's other regulations outside of the eu