Air Canada ordered to pay family of 5 separated on ‘traumatizing’ flight

Canada's largest airline has been ordered to pay a family of five who were separated on what's being described as a "traumatizing" flight last year.
 

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https://globalnews.ca/news/10630663/air-canada-small-claims-court/
   Last month, the Small Claims Court of Nova Scotia found the family was entitled to $4,199.| 35 in compensation from Air Canada for their extended visit to India. The Halifax family was seeking a full refund, flight delay compensation and damages worth a total of $20,000.
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   In 2023, the family — a man, woman and three young daughters, one of whom was just one year old — had gone on an extended visit to India, and while there booked a flight home to Halifax leaving July 8, 2023, and arriving there a day later. 
 
   They booked on the Air Canada website, leaving from Hyderabad in southern India to New Delhi, New Delhi to Toronto on AC042, and Toronto to Halifax. According to the court ruling, they paid extra for a Latitude fare, which offered them priority boarding, free baggage and fully refundable tickets.
 
 
   "The family arrived at Hyderabad airport having received text and email messages from Air Canada — first that there was a flight delay on the Delhi to Toronto flight, and then that this flight had been cancelled due to mechanical issues.|Several proposed itineraries were communicated," stated the ruling by Adjudicator Eric K. Slone. 
 
   "Ultimately, Air Canada notified the Claimants that they had been booked on an alternate itinerary from Hyderabad to Mumbai, Mumbai to Newark, N. J., and Newark to Halifax. They arrived home in Halifax slightly less than five hours later than originally planned. However, the flight experience was difficult and unpleasant, perhaps even traumatizing. " 
 
   Mechanical issues were 'relatively minor': ruling 
   Slone's ruling stated the family had chosen their itinerary carefully.| By flying through New Delhi to Toronto, they avoided the United States entirely and had preferred boarding in New Delhi as a benefit of their Latitude fare.
 
 
   When they landed in Mumbai, they had to wait two hours in line to get their boarding passes, and ended up separated on the plane. Once they landed in Newark, they had to collect their 12 bags and load them on three trolleys and push them between the terminals that had flights to Canada. Had they been flying through New Delhi, their baggage would have been checked right through to Canada.|
 
 
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   This new itinerary meant they had to contend with U. S. Customs and Immigration. The ruling said the father described howdifficult it was to keep the children in line while moving through the airport. At one point, the family got separated on a train that connected the two terminals.
 
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   "The best that can be said is that they got back safely, though somewhat the worse for wear," the ruling said.
 
 
   "The facts underlying the flight cancellation in Toronto that caused the ripple effect of disrupting their itinerary, would have been mostly unknown to the Claimants at the time they were occurring. " 
 
   According to Slone, the mechanical issues the family were told about was "not the whole story. " 
 
 
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   In his ruling, he stated that issue was "relatively minor" that took an hour to fix.| However, by the time the plane was cleared for service — about three hours after the problem was identified — Air Canada did not have any crew eligible to embark on the lengthy flight because they had already accumulated too many hours under the Canadian Aviation Regulations. 
 
   "In theory, had a crew been available, flight AC042 could have left Toronto for New Delhi less than three hours late and it would not have been necessary to cancel both legs of the flight entirely, including AC043, with the consequence that the Claimants were forced to fly a totally different itinerary," the ruling stated.

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