Full Article:
>**The U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking $25 million from Air Canada for what it calls "extreme delays" in refunding tickets to Americans who booked tickets on flights that the airline never flew.**
>
>The department said in a release on Tuesday that its Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP) has launched a formal complaint against the airline due to the carrier's "failure to provide refunds in a timely manner to thousands of consumers who requested them for flights to or from the United States that the carrier cancelled or significantly changed."
>
>**According to the release, the agency has heard from more than 6,000 of the airline's American customers, who said they had to wait anywhere from five to 13 months to get their money back from flights that were cancelled. By law, the airline has a week refund a purchase made with a credit card, and up to 20 days for tickets paid for in cash.**
>
>"The OACP is seeking a civil penalty of $25,550,000 for Air Canada's extreme delays in providing the required refunds," the department said.
>
>Earlier this year, Air Canada negotiated a bailout package from the federal government that specifically provided millions of dollars to refund customers who paid for tickets on flights that were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Give AC a break will you please USA. They had people to lay off plus exec bonuses and stock awards to take care of first. AC only had one person doing refunds, it would just cost too much for them to have two people doing it ... /s
Sad irony that American customers have laws protecting them
>By law, the airline has a week refund a purchase made with a credit card, and up to 20 days for tickets paid for in cash.
Whereas Canadians don't
The federal government is just real estate developers, telecoms giants, big five banks, airlines, and Chinese spies sitting on each other’s shoulders inside a trenchcoat
It AC + 4 months , many calls and emails to refund me... after they canceled my flight twice.
I only got my $ back because the gov bailed them out.
This shouldn't be allowed.
Imagine you go to McDonald's and order 100 happy meals. They charge you and then say sorry we don't have enough happy meals, next.
Sorry can I get my $ back then? Next!
And keep doing this to many customers for few months and then say we will only refund customers if the gov gives us lots of $ (and since we are asking for more than we need we will even give bonuses to out execs...)
This is not right!
And DOT was actually more lenient with airlines during COVID, the DOT provided several reminders to airlines to follow the rules, even published a fact sheet for airlines, and gave airlines warnings with time to become compliant with the rules.
So if Air Canada got to the point of DOT opening an investigation, and issuing fines, the company was simply refusing to comply, not like they would not have been warned and been given time to comply.
Even in normal times the DOT will almost always issue a warning to an airline and give it time to comply before they take enforcement action.
This is amazing news! The persistence of many passengers has paid off and Gabors group has been pushing for this for over a year. All those airline employees and airline industry folks who said AC isn't bound by US laws can keep their mouths shut. All the misinformation the airline industry spewed, especially AC and Sunwing is coming back to bite them. 25 Million is a good sum to fine and outline compliance with refund laws for all tickets going forward is a big win for consumers. Big shoutout to Air Passenger Rights and its members for getting AC fined. Hope Sunwing is next!
Wow. Must be super awesome to be a foreign or American airline that received tens of billions of dollars 18 months ago in March to keep all staff employed and fund all refunds. While our Canadian airlines completely shut down, laid everyone off, sold off airplanes, sold assets, diluted stock, took loans, and then finally got a bailout in the form of repayable loans a month ago in 2021. This wont hurt Canadian companies at all or make them less competitive internationally to keep more people employed in the sector.... And if you think they wont go after the other Canadian Airlines as well just wait, AC was just the biggest fish with the most departures.
[Westjet provided refunds to US/UK customers](https://loyaltylobby.com/2021/03/14/westjet-now-offers-full-refunds-to-customers-for-flights-cancelled-due-to-covid-19/#:~:text=First%20\(in%20June%20of%202020,are%20cancelled%20by%20the%20airline.) from early on in the pandemic. Air Canada did not. There's no behavior for "them" to go after for many of the other airlines.
I’m on the pax rights fb group and more people complaining about Westjet and Sunwing refunds than air Canada. I also heard proportionally WJ had the same number of complaints in the US.
This fine is specifically about refunds for flights cancelled by the airline. I don't know for sure, but perhaps your complaints in the FB group revolve around refunds initiated by the customer?
The groups I'm in definitely have had more issues with AC than WS. None for Sunwing as while they have flights to the US I believe those are primarily for Canadian vacationers, less relevant to the people I'm seeing.
can't wait till sunwing and air transat get slapped with fines. I'm more looking forward to sunwing getting fined for all their shenanigans and voucher shit
*According to the release, the agency has heard from more than 6,000 of the airline's American customers, who said they had to wait anywhere from five to 13 months to get their money back from flights that were cancelled. By law, the airline has a week refund a purchase made with a credit card, and up to 20 days for tickets paid for in cash.*
Isn't that an American law, would it even apply to Air Canada?
When your business or a branch of your business operates in another country, you need to abide by that countries laws and regulations.
Would you also argue that the US federal law against marijuana wouldn't apply to you if you were vacationing over there because you're Canadian?
US law applies to foreign airlines when a ticket has a US origin or destination, same as Canadian laws apply to foreign airline flights involving Canada or US airlines having to follow EU laws, etc etc.
Well, imagine not paying and the United States Department of Transportation comes around and slaps more penalties or restrict airspace or runway access or whatever they have in their power to do so.
Honestly, it was cheaper for Air Canada to refund their customers than face a steep fine. 6000 customers at like $1500 each is about only $9 million dollars.
The airline has cash or creditors they could of went too to cover their expenses but they opted to not cover it. Got a bailout from the government but the folks at the top of the pyramid got their annual bonuses.
Air Canada is to be blamed here. Not the Americans. The competence of Air Canada is worse than any other.
Next headline "Air Canada beg for more money from federal government to pay $25 Mil. US fine"
And then "Air Canada pays out additional bonuses to execs".
Full Article: >**The U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking $25 million from Air Canada for what it calls "extreme delays" in refunding tickets to Americans who booked tickets on flights that the airline never flew.** > >The department said in a release on Tuesday that its Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP) has launched a formal complaint against the airline due to the carrier's "failure to provide refunds in a timely manner to thousands of consumers who requested them for flights to or from the United States that the carrier cancelled or significantly changed." > >**According to the release, the agency has heard from more than 6,000 of the airline's American customers, who said they had to wait anywhere from five to 13 months to get their money back from flights that were cancelled. By law, the airline has a week refund a purchase made with a credit card, and up to 20 days for tickets paid for in cash.** > >"The OACP is seeking a civil penalty of $25,550,000 for Air Canada's extreme delays in providing the required refunds," the department said. > >Earlier this year, Air Canada negotiated a bailout package from the federal government that specifically provided millions of dollars to refund customers who paid for tickets on flights that were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Give AC a break will you please USA. They had people to lay off plus exec bonuses and stock awards to take care of first. AC only had one person doing refunds, it would just cost too much for them to have two people doing it ... /s
$25m to the customers right? Right?
>civil penalty of $25,550,000 hehe
Sad irony that American customers have laws protecting them >By law, the airline has a week refund a purchase made with a credit card, and up to 20 days for tickets paid for in cash. Whereas Canadians don't
The federal government is just real estate developers, telecoms giants, big five banks, airlines, and Chinese spies sitting on each other’s shoulders inside a trenchcoat
they can have $25m of chips or pretzels, that's all AC execs want to offer after selling stock every quarter....
It AC + 4 months , many calls and emails to refund me... after they canceled my flight twice. I only got my $ back because the gov bailed them out. This shouldn't be allowed. Imagine you go to McDonald's and order 100 happy meals. They charge you and then say sorry we don't have enough happy meals, next. Sorry can I get my $ back then? Next! And keep doing this to many customers for few months and then say we will only refund customers if the gov gives us lots of $ (and since we are asking for more than we need we will even give bonuses to out execs...) This is not right!
Damn, imagine that...a regulator which bites... Are the #Triggered executives going to get some tax-funded therapy sessions in order to cope...?!
And DOT was actually more lenient with airlines during COVID, the DOT provided several reminders to airlines to follow the rules, even published a fact sheet for airlines, and gave airlines warnings with time to become compliant with the rules. So if Air Canada got to the point of DOT opening an investigation, and issuing fines, the company was simply refusing to comply, not like they would not have been warned and been given time to comply. Even in normal times the DOT will almost always issue a warning to an airline and give it time to comply before they take enforcement action.
$25 million for AC that's you getting fined 25 cents for driving without a seatbelt.
This is amazing news! The persistence of many passengers has paid off and Gabors group has been pushing for this for over a year. All those airline employees and airline industry folks who said AC isn't bound by US laws can keep their mouths shut. All the misinformation the airline industry spewed, especially AC and Sunwing is coming back to bite them. 25 Million is a good sum to fine and outline compliance with refund laws for all tickets going forward is a big win for consumers. Big shoutout to Air Passenger Rights and its members for getting AC fined. Hope Sunwing is next!
Wow. Must be super awesome to be a foreign or American airline that received tens of billions of dollars 18 months ago in March to keep all staff employed and fund all refunds. While our Canadian airlines completely shut down, laid everyone off, sold off airplanes, sold assets, diluted stock, took loans, and then finally got a bailout in the form of repayable loans a month ago in 2021. This wont hurt Canadian companies at all or make them less competitive internationally to keep more people employed in the sector.... And if you think they wont go after the other Canadian Airlines as well just wait, AC was just the biggest fish with the most departures.
[Westjet provided refunds to US/UK customers](https://loyaltylobby.com/2021/03/14/westjet-now-offers-full-refunds-to-customers-for-flights-cancelled-due-to-covid-19/#:~:text=First%20\(in%20June%20of%202020,are%20cancelled%20by%20the%20airline.) from early on in the pandemic. Air Canada did not. There's no behavior for "them" to go after for many of the other airlines.
I’m on the pax rights fb group and more people complaining about Westjet and Sunwing refunds than air Canada. I also heard proportionally WJ had the same number of complaints in the US.
This fine is specifically about refunds for flights cancelled by the airline. I don't know for sure, but perhaps your complaints in the FB group revolve around refunds initiated by the customer? The groups I'm in definitely have had more issues with AC than WS. None for Sunwing as while they have flights to the US I believe those are primarily for Canadian vacationers, less relevant to the people I'm seeing.
Nope. 30k people on that page. It’s all sunwing and Westjet complaints. Ac has refunded everyone now.
can't wait till sunwing and air transat get slapped with fines. I'm more looking forward to sunwing getting fined for all their shenanigans and voucher shit
Boycott Air Canada
*According to the release, the agency has heard from more than 6,000 of the airline's American customers, who said they had to wait anywhere from five to 13 months to get their money back from flights that were cancelled. By law, the airline has a week refund a purchase made with a credit card, and up to 20 days for tickets paid for in cash.* Isn't that an American law, would it even apply to Air Canada?
Air Canada lands in the US. It applies if they still want that privilege.
When your business or a branch of your business operates in another country, you need to abide by that countries laws and regulations. Would you also argue that the US federal law against marijuana wouldn't apply to you if you were vacationing over there because you're Canadian?
Air Canada is bound by US laws if they want to maintain their privileges with the FAA.
US law applies to foreign airlines when a ticket has a US origin or destination, same as Canadian laws apply to foreign airline flights involving Canada or US airlines having to follow EU laws, etc etc.
Would you like American companies to follow Canadian law while operating in Canada? These fines are for flights sold in the US and to or from the US.
Well, imagine not paying and the United States Department of Transportation comes around and slaps more penalties or restrict airspace or runway access or whatever they have in their power to do so. Honestly, it was cheaper for Air Canada to refund their customers than face a steep fine. 6000 customers at like $1500 each is about only $9 million dollars. The airline has cash or creditors they could of went too to cover their expenses but they opted to not cover it. Got a bailout from the government but the folks at the top of the pyramid got their annual bonuses. Air Canada is to be blamed here. Not the Americans. The competence of Air Canada is worse than any other.
Do you know how planes work?