Canadian couple paid $5K for new flight home when Air Canada wouldn't answer calls

A Metro Vancouver couple is sharing the harrowing and costly tale of how they got home early in the pandemic when Air Canada wouldn’t answer their calls, and say they’re still out nearly $5,000 three years later.

Marlayne Metzker had planned a dream trip to Jordan and Egypt in March 2020 for her husband Richard’s 50th birthday. They left on March 8, and were concerned about the pandemic situation, but said the government alert level wasn’t yet high enough for them to cancel the trip and get reimbursed.

The fifth day of their trip was when Canada issued its travel advisory against all non-essential travel.

“We started trying to call. We tried calling Aeroplan to make our changes and we couldn’t get through. We tried Air Canada. We tried our travel insurance. And the circuits were just all overloaded,” Marlayne told Daily Hive.

The lines to Air Canada were so busy that they weren’t even being put in a queue — they were just told to go online to make changes. But when she tried, the website informed her she couldn’t make changes because she was in the middle of her trip. She said the webpage told her to phone the call centre.

They tried for several hours to get through, to no avail. They decided to go on their planned excursion to Petra and try again in the evening.

But when they got to the iconic attraction, they were informed the gates were closed indefinitely due to the pandemic.

On the three-hour drive back to the city, the couple got on their phones again.

“I was not able to get through to anyone. So we just went to the airport. And we just started going from one ticket office to the next, trying to find a ticket out,” Marlayne said. “Jordan was closing all their borders.”

By that time, Jordan’s land border with Israel and its marine border with Egypt had already closed. The Metzkers could still get to Syria or Iraq by car, but figured options out would be even worse there.

Air travel cutoff was imminent too — and the couple decided to buy the first ticket to any major world airport and try and book a flight home from there. And it was good they did. After Jordan closed its borders that week, international flights didn’t resume until six months later.

The couple bought a ticket to Turkey.

They had to pay for a Turkish entry visa just to go to the departures side of the airport, where there were ticket agents that could sell them the next leg of their journey. They couldn’t get to Canada — but found a ticket to London, England.

In the British capital, they stood in line for six hours to speak to an Air Canada agent.

“They were like, you know, we can’t do anything about the flights that you’re going to miss, because our flight back wasn’t until the 29th of March, and this was on like the 16th of March,” Marlayne said. “They’re like, ‘Because you didn’t take the first part of that flight, you know, you lose all of it.'”

The couple decided to pay for the first available flight home to get back to their kids and their parents.

In total, the out-of-pocket flight, hotel stay in London, and Turkish entry visas cost them $4,800.

Once they got back and dealt with the hassle of isolating, the adrenaline rush wore off and they tried to get reimbursed for their expenses.

They assumed travel insurance through their TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite credit card would cover it, but were surprised when their submitted claim was denied. Allianz Global Assistance, the provider through TD, said it was invalid and that it didn’t cover new expenses.

The couple had booked their initial flights on Aeroplan points, which made it even more challenging to get reimbursed as Aeroplan wouldn’t give them a monetary value for the points that could be weighed against reimbursements in cash.

They went back and forth with Air Canada and the insurance provider for over a year and a half and even filed a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency. All they got back was $285 in taxes and fees on their original booking, plus 80,000 Aeroplan points — half the amount they used to pay for their flights.

“Trip interruption benefit provides reimbursement only for the portion of any unused prepaid land arrangements,” a letter from TD Insurance Customer Care dated April 20, 2021, told the couple after they appealed the decision.

“As the expenses submitted for the meals, accommodations, parking, and visas are not prepaid unused land arrangements, but additional new expenses paid after your departure, they are not eligible for reimbursement.”

The Metzkers felt defeated.

“It was really frustrating. We did everything right,” Marlayne said. “We just got screwed.”

Rule 85 of Air Canada’s international tariff, the contract between customer and carrier, says the airline will change the flight at the passenger’s request subject to the payment of applicable fees.

Air Canada didn’t answer Daily Hive’s questions about why it didn’t fulfill its obligations with regard to accommodating changes. A spokesperson only confirmed the refund of the Aeroplan points.

“This took place more than two years ago in March 2020, which was during an extremely busy period of time when Covid was declared as a worldwide pandemic,” an unnamed person within Air Canada’s media relations department said.

The only option left for the Metzkers is small claims court, but they’re worried about paying the court fees just to be told the same thing.

“In the end, you just throw your hands in the air, I guess,” Marlayne said.