After being refused to board a Porter Airlines flight, a Vancouver passenger took matters into her own hands at the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal.
The applicant, DM, told the tribunal that Porter refused to board her and her friend, CS, on a flight from Vancouver to Montreal. DM told the tribunal she had to rebook flights and claimed $1,783.86 for the rebooked flights.
In response, Porter said the reason it refused to board DM and CS was that the booking did not include birth dates as required. Porter said that DM’s travel agent caused the error, so the costs didn’t arise from the airline.
Porter asked the tribunal to dismiss the claim.
DM’s itinerary was Vancouver to Montreal via Porter departing at 8:45 a.m., then Montreal to Madrid via Air Transat departing at 11:40 p.m.
The tribunal was looking to see whether DM’s claim would suffice the test for negligence. To do this, she had to prove that Porter owed her a duty of care, breached that standard of care, and caused DM to suffer a loss.
“Courts and the CRT have previously found that airlines owe a duty of care to passengers. This is due to the close proximity of the relationship between the parties,” the tribunal said.
In contrast to Porter’s claims about the travel agent not including birth dates, DM said that the booking was correct and that the issue was on Porter’s end due to computer issues.
DM provided a printout from the travel agent’s booking. The Passenger Name Record showed that the travel agent included DM and CS’s birth dates.
The tribunal said, “Porter does not address this evidence in their submissions but maintains that the travel agent made the error.”
Porter’s internal emails investigating the error showed that a Porter technology support agent said that Air Transit did not add the birth dates to the booking.
For the tribunal, this was evidence that the travel agent did not make the mistake, but that there was an issue in communication between Air Transat and Porter.
Another email said that a Porter customer service rep didn’t save the birth dates in the system during check-in.
The tribunal also said that DM and CS showed up 150 minutes before the scheduled departure. That was more than the 120 minutes Porter recommended.
Ultimately, the tribunal found that DM and CS couldn’t board “as a direct result of Porter’s failure to follow their own check-in procedure when this type of error arises.”
Porter was ordered to pay $2,030.98 for the rebooked flights and CRT fees.