Flair cancels flight and refuses to rebook BC student on competitor
A student from Abbotsford, BC, had a rough time flying home for reading break this weekend when Flair cancelled her flight at the last minute and refused to rebook her on a competitor’s route leaving the same day.
Jessica Quiring told Daily Hive she arrived at the Calgary airport around 12:30 pm Sunday but didn’t see her flight on the board. She went to the Flair counter to ask what gate she should proceed to and saw a crowd of customers.
“They’re telling us that our flight is cancelled. That it’s not coming. And we’re confused because we haven’t gotten any communication — any email about it,” she said.
The person at the counter wasn’t a Flair employee. Quiring thought they worked for the airport. But, according to Quiring, they told customers Flair would likely put together a rescue flight for later Sunday or early Monday morning.
Then, about half an hour before the flight was supposed to take off, Quiring finally got Flair’s cancellation email. But the next available flight wasn’t until Tuesday — and she was supposed to be home Sunday.
After an hour on hold with Flair, a telephone agent told Quiring there was nothing the airline could do. That was despite Quiring reading out Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations stating large carriers are obligated to rebook customers on the next available flight with which it has a commercial agreement.
Jessica Quiring pulled up Air Passenger Protection Regulations while on the phone with Flair. (Submitted)
“I was feeling really stranded, and really left alone,” she said.
Quiring walked over to the WestJet counter, where flights that day were going between $600 and $700. At the last minute, she checked Lynx’s website and bought a ticket for a same-day flight for $300.
Once on the plane, she recognized someone who had been at the Flair counter. He told her the Flair agent he spoke with booked him the Lynx ticket at no charge.
“They booked his Lynx ticket. They did all the work, they issued his refund. He didn’t have to pay out of pocket, whereas now there’s a $300 plane ticket on my Visa card,” Quiring said.
Some Flair customers stayed even longer in Calgary, she learned by joining a WhatsApp group chat of people from the cancelled flight.
Submitted
Quiring landed safely in Vancouver, and her parents were able to pick her up — even though it involved three hours of driving from the Fraser Valley. She received a refund of about $100 for the cancelled leg of her Flair trip but wants compensation for the Lynx ticket she had to pay for out of pocket. She ended up spending $200 more than her original itinerary.
She’s usually a frequent Flair flyer, using the relatively cheap flights to go home to visit family in Abbotsford on weekends while she studies in Calgary. But now, she’s thinking of cutting back on her trips home.
“Some say you book cheap, you get cheap. But I don’t think that’s an excuse to be stranded or for this lack of communication.”
She shared part of the journey on TikTok, and it quickly generated a flurry of attention.
@evermorejomarch @flair airlines get it together #travel #flairairlines #budgettravel #storytime #airport ♬ original sound – jessica
Air passenger rights advocate Gábor Lukács told Daily Hive he wants to see the federal government step up enforcement so airlines stop mistreating customers.
“The laws are there, but enforcement is virtually non-existent,” he said. “This one is really a no-brainer. It’s so obvious that what’s happening here is wrong.”
He added Flair isn’t the only one to disregard rules about re-booking passengers after a delay or cancellation, saying other Canadian airlines are guilty of it too.
“There’s no general appetite to hold airlines to law as written. That’s what I view as the fundamental problem.”
He advised customers whose flights are cancelled to document the airline’s refusal to rebook on a competitor, buy a ticket with another airline, and sue for the expenses incurred.
Flair’s media relations team told Daily Hive it’s looking into what happened.
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