What to do and what you’re entitled to when your flight is cancelled

Windsorite Natasha Spevak was one of a group of fourteen set to escape the winter weather on a trip to Mexico with family and friends.

She says they booked the vacation last spring, when travel restrictions were lifted, with the kids especially excited.

They were waiting for their Sunwing flight at the Windsor Airport Monday, looking at the plane from the gate window, when an YQG staff member – not an employee of the airline – informed them it would not be taking off.

“The kids were super upset,” Spevak says.

“The oldest kids of the group were bawling their eyes out. We’ve been hyping them up for Mexico since June.”

The group, joining thousands across the country in having their vacation plans dashed by scrapped Sunwing flights — and Spevak says no communication around the cancellation has come from the airline itself.

“My Sunwing app still says I’m in Mexico,” she says.

“I have not received an email from them, I have nothing.”

Air Passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs says what we’re seeing unfold in airports across the country this week highlights lax enforcement of regulations — with Sunwing in Spevak’s scenario obligated to rebook the trip, and seemingly not doing so.

“It really underscores the consequences of gross neglect,” he says.

So, what should you do if you find yourself reading the dreaded word “cancelled” when expecting to fly out on vacation?

Lukacs says: document everything.

“If they don’t provide you information, document that you got no information,” he says.

In Canada, when the cancellation of a flight is for a reason deemed to be within the airline’s control (i.e. staffing, plane maintenance, etc.) federal regulations dictate that the operator must:

• communicate key information
• offer alternate travel arrangements or a refund
• compensate travellers for purchased meals or accommodations.

The Canada Transportation Agency says “reasonable amounts of food and drink” must be provided free of charge. As does a hotel room or other comparable accommodation if passengers are left to wait overnight for their flight, were that not necessary for the original flight.

Lukacs says he would personally remain in the airport while the airline irons out reimbursement and rebooking details. Again, documenting what representatives were telling him all the while.

“What I’m finding most unfortunate is that in the past, when you went on vacation you would come home and show your family and friends the pictures and videos you have taken at the vacation site,” he says.

“Now you go home and show the videos you’ve taken of how you’re being mistreated.”

Airlines, Lukacs says, have not been rebooking and reimbursing passengers as efficiently as they are required to be.

The requirement in the case of a cancellation, like what Spevak confronted, is that Sunwing rebook her group on another Sunwing flight within 48 hours or else book them on a flight with another airline.

Instead of waiting for that, though, the group decided to pack their suitcases into their cars and still head south — to Florida instead.

“The kids are excited, we brought them to the beach yesterday and today they’re swimming in the pool,” says Spevak.

She says they booked through a travel agent, who informs them they should expect a refund from Sunwing within 30 days.

Should that not come, or if an airline were to go against any of the federally set expectations, Lucaks says the passenger would have a reasonable case for small claims court.