Airport delays: Canadians share journey horror tales

After years aside, Elizabeth Taliana says she booked a flight for her daughter to fly out from Toronto to Vancouver.

Her daughter solely will get one week of trip from work throughout the summer time.

Though she made the reservation greater than two months in the past, Taliana says she solely realized just lately that her daughter’s flight had been cancelled, a development Canadians have gotten all too aware of.

“I’ve not seen my daughter in virtually six years, so that is very distressing,” Taliana instructed CTVNews.ca in an e-mail.

Her story is just like many shared with CTVNews.ca in latest days as cancelled flights, delays and misplaced baggage throw a wrench in Canadians’ summer time journey plans, due partly to staffing shortages at Canadian airports.

Some report sleeping at airports on account of cancellations and delays. One particular person, flying from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, mentioned it took two cancelled flights and an additional day to get residence, whereas his baggage — crammed with 70 frozen lobsters — took two days to reach.

The responses had been emailed to CTVNews.ca and haven’t all been independently verified.

Samantha Van Noy says she misplaced three items of baggage that, on the time she wrote to CTVNews.ca, hadn’t arrived in additional than eight days.

Flying to Chicago for a tradeshow, Van Noy says her sales space supplies had been in her baggage and the sum of money misplaced on account of her airline’s “incompetence is incalculable.”

“I inform everybody do not fly except you completely must proper now,” she mentioned.

Kimberly Horton, a Canadian dwelling in Austin, Texas, mentioned she purchased three tickets in February for herself, her husband and their son to fly to Toronto to go to her household, whom she hasn’t seen in three years on account of COVID-19.

“What was imagined to be a joyous celebration became heartbreak and disappointment,” Horton mentioned.

She says the airline positioned her husband on standby as a result of the flight was overbooked.

After calling customer support twice, and being on maintain for an hour and 40 minutes, she says she was instructed there was nothing that could possibly be completed.

“My husband was denied boarding and my son was crying as we left,” she mentioned.

After being requested to test her carry-on baggage on account of a scarcity of overhead compartment area, Horton says her bag by no means confirmed up.

“It had all of my valuables, drugs, contact lenses, my son’s retainers, my Invisalign, and many others. Belongings you want and may’t substitute on trip,” she mentioned.

She acquired her bag three days later. In the meantime, her husband was in a position to get on one other flight, solely to have it evacuated on account of a gasoline spill.

“That was the ultimate breaking level for my husband. He was exhausted of every little thing and requested for his baggage again. They returned his luggage reeking of jet gasoline and he headed residence cancelling his trip with us,” Horton mentioned.

‘PEARSON AIRPORT BRINGS THE WORST OUT OF PEOPLE NOW’

Oksana Klausmann had booked a visit from Toronto to New York Metropolis for late June and says after a prolonged check-in course of, she and her daughter went via customs solely to find that they weren’t on the flight manifest, regardless of having their boarding passes.

From there, she says they had been taken to a small room full of different households, kids, and seniors, amongst others.

She described the room as not having sufficient seats for everybody, forcing some to take a seat on the ground, and one small washroom with no cleaning soap, rest room paper or paper towels. Klausmann says there have been no cups for the water fountain.

A number of hours later, they obtained an e-mail saying their flight was cancelled. An agent then arrived with a pair of cops confirming the scenario.

“What occurred subsequent ought to by no means occur to my daughter and me. Riot, indignant folks, screaming, yelling, pushing, and much more,” she mentioned. “It was unsafe, scary, violent, and hostile. I took my daughter and we tried to depart the room crammed with greater than 200 or 300 indignant folks.”

Having already booked a resort and exhibits in New York, Klausmann says cancelling the journey wasn’t an choice.

They discovered a flight with one other airline that price almost as a lot as your entire journey. They went via one other prolonged check-in course of, however ultimately made it to New York.

As soon as again at Toronto Pearson, following an extended delay on their return flight, Klausmann says solely 15 passengers had been allowed to depart the aircraft at a time on account of congestion at customs.

“Imagine me that individuals weren’t completely happy about it and a few of them began to come back forcefully from the again of the aircraft to be on the entrance to get off the aircraft,” Klausmann mentioned.

Frustrations solely continued as folks began ready for his or her baggage.

“Pearson Airport brings the worst out of individuals now, not everybody can keep calm in these circumstances and so they put different folks at nice danger,” she mentioned.

“We, two Canadians, a daughter and a mother, occurring a visit to have enjoyable and luxuriate in time collectively, ought to by no means have such an expertise. We paid for somebody’s errors and lack of ability to supply service with our personal cash that could possibly be used for various functions.”

Folks sleep on a bench as they wait at Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport, in Montreal, June 29, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

‘DEFEATED AND DISCOURAGED’

Lori Veltkamp had deliberate a three-week journey to Greece along with her two daughters. She purchased her tickets in January and was scheduled to fly direct from Toronto to Athens in late June.

In anticipation of a busy scene at Pearson, she says she and her daughters arrived greater than 5 hours earlier than their departure time, however had been positioned on standby and instructed to attend for his or her seat assignments on the gate.

Veltkamp says the flight encountered additional delays because of the aircraft’s meals arriving late.

Later, she mentioned she was “devastated” to be taught that they might not get on the aircraft as a result of they booked their flights via a 3rd celebration and “had been principally put on the backside of the listing to get off of standby.”

“They rushed us off to a gate that was boarding heading to Venice, however it might have an eight-hour layover in Venice earlier than we’d fly to Athens,” she mentioned.

They managed to catch the flight with the layover in Venice. However 5 days into their journey, Veltkamp says they nonetheless have not obtained their three suitcases.

“We’re three folks with principally no garments and have needed to buy new issues. We’re hopeful that we’ll obtain our baggage quickly however are feeling very defeated and discouraged by this complete expertise,” she mentioned.

CANCELLED FLIGHTS AND CALLS FOR CHANGE

After his flight from Prince George, B.C., to Toronto for July was cancelled, Harmolk Brar mentioned he was given an choice of cancelling the flight on-line for a refund.

Choosing this, he says the airline wished to cost him $150 plus tax in penalties.

“A cancellation penalty for flights that they’ve already cancelled,” he mentioned. “That is essentially the most preposterous factor I’ve heard of.”

Jamie Boulter and her husband had plans to fly from Moncton, N.B., to Hamilton, Ont., in July for just a few days.

She obtained an e-mail saying their flight had been cancelled and that they might obtain a follow-up explaining how you can get a refund or rebook, doubtlessly flying to Toronto via the airline’s sister firm as a substitute, which she says would have created extra issues since they booked a rental automotive in Hamilton.

Boulter mentioned her solely choices had been to rebook with the identical airline for July 4, the day she was imagined to fly again to New Brunswick, or cancel.

She selected to cancel and was instructed her refund could be lower than half of what she initially paid. Boulter mentioned she has tried unsuccessfully to achieve somebody from the airline by cellphone, a web based contact kind and social media.

“I had paid for 3 nights at a resort and it was non-refundable by the purpose I realized my flight was cancelled. I additionally paid for live performance tickets to 2 exhibits, which had been non-refundable,” she mentioned.

“The live performance was a two-night efficiency of my favorite band, taking part in their first album in its entirety on the twentieth anniversary of that album, of their hometown. This expertise was going to be large for me. I am so soured by this expertise.”

Whereas Pearson has seen a few of the worst journey experiences to date this 12 months, Richard Vanderlubbe, an Affiliation of Canadian Journey Companies director and president of tripcentral.ca, says delays at bigger airports can cascade to smaller ones.

“It is a kind of issues that is like a tightly tuned drumhead. There’s not a lot slack within the system,” he instructed CTV Information Channel on Saturday.

“In case you have a pilot or a crew that calls in sick, and individuals are nonetheless getting sick, the airline has to scramble to discover a certified pilot for that plane. And by the point they come up with someone, it’s a matter of fixing the pilots on completely different routes in an effort to make this occur and to have much less affect on the connections.”

In the end, he says it is not a lot enjoyable for the airways both, who need to bear the price of delivering misplaced baggage by courier to folks’s houses.

In response to “customer support shortfalls,” Air Canada final month introduced it might cut back flights in July and August.

A spokesperson for the corporate mentioned it might cut back its schedule by 154 flights per day on common for these two months, with essentially the most affected routes anticipated to be to and from Toronto and Montreal.

Previous to that, Air Canada operated roughly 1,000 flights per day.

Vanderlubbe mentioned whereas affordable, the Air Canada reductions will have an effect on folks’s future journey plans, with fares probably going up because of this.

“I am hopeful that as that unfolds, we will see much less of this and by the point we hit additional into the summer time and maybe Labour Day, it is hopefully gone,” he mentioned.

With information from CTV Information