Mr. Maclennan writes an open letter to Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada.
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I am writing to you with great disappointment in Air Canada Vacations.
As you know COVID 19 has changed over the last three weeks which has caused our travel party to change our trip to Cuba, to ensure that everyone is safe, especially the one person in our party that has a compromised immune system. Only a brief time ago, the federal government announced that nonessential travel was not encouraged, to which we immediately started to call your call centre to try and postpone our trip.
Due to staff shortage, it was impossible to get through to the call centre.
We called anywhere from 10 to 25 times per day at various times since the federal government made the announcement. Each time we called, a recording told us to call back later or go to the website to address our needs. However, your website does not have the option we were looking for. We did fill out the "please contact me form" with our booking numbers which included the names of the travellers, which again no one responded to due to shortage of staff. It seems it is closed over the holidays, although understandable, it only added to the frustration.
Our booking was the following: January 11 through 18, 2022
When we finally got through on the phone on January 4th, 2022, we were told that we would have to cancel our trip even though that is not what we wanted and we would lose 50% of the fare paid, and only get the other 50% in a travel voucher for future travel. Not only was that the only option but we were also told it was a courtesy offer, otherwise we would get nothing.
Please explain to me, how this is a courtesy offer? All we wanted to do was change the dates in hopes that COVID infections would slow down so that it was safe to travel outside the country again without a huge risk of catching covid.
It is also my understanding according to the supervisor I spoke to yesterday, that many people were complaining, which clearly tells anyone, that what was being done in these times of a pandemic is truly unfair. If we were in control, I would certainly understand that option, but as we are not in control, this is very disturbing. It's not like the flights later are full either, correct?
What really adds salt to this wound, is Air Canada received a government-funded bailout again during the pandemic. You received taxpayer money to stay afloat, keep employees paid, keep planes flying, yet, when your customers are asking to postpone a trip, you are taking advantage of them during a world pandemic.
We only bought the tickets in September, as according to our government, things were improving around the pandemic, which drastically changed only 3 weeks ago.
Please explain how this is the way to treat anyone during the pandemic, especially loyal customers like ourselves?
Here is what we are asking:
We want to change our trip to the fall, or even next year at the same time. If not, then a full refund would be the appropriate thing to do. Of course, a reasonable admin fee would be acceptable. It should not matter if someone purchased your insurance and put more money in your pocket, you should just do what is right.
You made over $3,000 for nothing and get over $3,000 more because of a voucher during the spike of COVID from your customers, for doing nothing except cancelling a trip that no one wanted cancelled. This makes no sense at all. You are basically saying to your customer, too bad, take your chances or we just take your money.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Jason Maclennan,
North Bay
Editor's note: Below is the response from Air Canada.
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Hello Mr. Maclennan,
We understand that the response provided to you regarding your travel to Cuba is not the outcome you were looking for.
Formalities required to travel to and from Canada, as well as health and safety measures as relates to Covid, have been in place for quite some time now.
In Mid-December, the Federal government recommended to avoid non-essential travel, not a travel ban. Therefore, flights continue to operate as scheduled, and hotels remain open for business.
A cancellation of your booking typically would result in 100% cancellation penalties according to our standard cancellation policy.
As a goodwill gesture, we reduced the penalties by 50%, and converted the balance to a future travel credit, which can be redeemed with Air Canada Vacations within the next 2 years.
Our travel protection program (Careflex) does provide more flexibility and would have provided you with a 100% future travel credit , in this particular situation.
We, unfortunately, cannot accede to your request and trust you understand our position in this matter.
Sincerely,
Nino
Nino Montagnese
Vice President
