Air Canada ticket name change.

mjky73

Hi, my friend and I are supposed to be travelling on Air Canada Flex tickets later this year but now my friend has a health issue and GP will confirm if needed.  

My friend was acting as my ‘carer’ and we’re booked as me needing special assistance (I know it’s the airports that arrange the special assistance on the ground) I can’t stand or walk for long periods and seat choice is nearer the toilets and can’t carry cases.
As soon as I found out I contacted Air Canada, tickets were booked early December last year so well after the 24 hour criteria, unknown to me my friend had also contacted them to ask their advice.  I booked the flights and they are not part of a package deal etc.
The issue we have is that we’ve been told two very different things.

I was told we can’t change the name with the choices being;
 
1) Cancel both tickets and get a refunded to the Air Canada Wallet (AC Wallet) and pay £110 per person cancellation fee.

2) Cancel both as above but get the money refunded to a Credit Card for £180 charge per person.

3) Split my ticket off from her ticket and I fly but, her ticket is cancelled as above re the AC Wallet or Credit Card.

4) If I keep my ticket, not sure that’s even possible health wise, and find another person to travel with me I was told the two tickets need to be separated as above, with ticket refunded as per the AC Wallet or Credit Card.  If the ticket goes to the AC Wallet the balance is available within 5 minutes and Credit Card can be days.

5) To get a ticket for the new person I have to hope there are still seats on the original booking and that they’ve not gone up in price too much.  I know that technically there is a seat as I’ve just cancelled one but, I was told as soon as that seat shows as cancelled it can be allocated to someone else before Air Canada get a chance to rebook it, even straight after the cancellation. 

My friend was told all the information I was told is wrong and wondered who I’d spoken with. 

They said of course they will change the name for a fee of up to §100 and that “they do it all the time”.

Can anyone offer advice on my situation please? 

SiliconChip

The Air Canada FAQs suggest that name changes can be made by calling them within 24 hours of making the booking, which in turns suggests that after that time name changes can't be made. So it's possible that what both you and your friend have been told is correct, just for different times post-booking.

https://www.aircanada.com/it/en/aco/home/book/manage-bookings/faq-manage-my-booking.html#/