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Canada’s major airlines have been hit with another class action lawsuit, this time, against the Quebec-based company, Air Transat as well as Air Canada and their subsidiaries. Echoing previous Canadian airline class action lawsuits, this class action concerns Air Transat’s refusal to refund travellers for flights cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In light of the COVID-19 travel restrictions, Air Transat and Air Canada cancelled most flights scheduled throughout April. Instead of refunding passengers, as per the usual policy, the Canadian airlines named in the class action lawsuit offered passengers airline vouchers, to be used within 24 months.
Last June, the lead plaintiff, Alain Lachaine, purchased a travel package and flight with Air Transat to Florida, worth over $13,000. Alain’s vacation was to extend from April 3 to 17, 2020. However, like many other Air Transat customers, Alain’s flight was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
When he found out about the cancellations, Alain tried to get a refund for his cancelled flights and vacation package. However, to the plaintiff’s surprise, Air Transat no longer offered refunds, and he was offered vouchers, as announced on Air Transat’s website:
“Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are temporarily suspending our flights until June 30, 2020. If you were unable to travel due to the cancellation of your flight, you will receive a credit for future travel to be used within 24 months of your original return dates. You do not need to contact us to obtain this credit, it will be automatically applied to your account.”
The airline’s refusal to refund the cost paid by Alain, in spite of the cancellations, caused him “trouble and inconvenience,” according to the Air Transat Class Action proposal. The class action proposal claims that “the defendants, Air Transat and Vacances Transat, were nevertheless under an obligation to offer a full refund of the price paid by the plaintiff.”
The Air Transat Class Action proposal highlights the fact that Alain is now prevented from recovering money “which he needs to deal with the current crisis.”
Sudden Policy Change
Perrier Avocats and Donati Maisonneuve, the Class Members’ representing law firms called the flight refund refusals a “unilateral change in the cancellation policy,” and are asking the Superior Court of Québec to order the defendants to refund customers whose flights were cancelled due to COVID-19, as well as to pay passengers an additional $250 for trouble and inconvenience.
According to one of the Class lawyers, Réjean Paul Forget of Perrier Avocats, Sunwing Airlines initially offered refunds to customers who found themselves in the same situation as Air Transat Class Members, before changing its cancellation policy mid-March. The Toronto-based airline, continued Forget, could be added to the Air Transat Class Action Lawsuit in the future.
If successful, the Canadian class action could allow thousands of travellers to recover millions of dollars’ worth of cancelled flight tickets. The proposed class action lawsuit covers anyone who purchased an airline ticket or travel package with Air Transat, Transat Tours Canada Inc., Air Canada or Société en commandite Touram that was subsequently cancelled as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and was unable to be refunded.
Class Actions Against Canadian Airlines Pile Up
The Air Transat Class Action Lawsuit is but an addition to a long line of similar Canadian airline class actions. Among the leading Canadian airlines hit with class actions are, Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, Swoop– and now Air Transat.
One of the Canadian airline class action lawsuits named the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) in its class action proposal, claiming the CTA inappropriately sided with the airlines offering vouchers instead of refunds to passengers of cancelled flights. In March, the CTA announced in an online statement that airlines were not obliged to refund passengers for flights cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis or for other reasons outside an airline’s control.
For its part, the CTA responded that its online statement regarding vouchers should not be interpreted as legally binding. According to the agency, the statement should only be taken as an aid to “provide guidance in a situation without precedent.”
Have you been offered a voucher rather than a refund for air travel you had to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Tell us your story in the comment section below!
The plaintiffs are represented by Perrier Avocats and Donati Maisonneuve.
The Air Transat Class Action Lawsuit is Alain Lachaine v. Transat A.T. Inc. et al., Case No. 500-06-001052-204, in the Superior Court of Québec in Montreal, Canada.
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109 thoughts onAir Transat Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Vouchers
My 16 year old daughter was participating in a student exchange to Ireland this summer. Her flights to Ireland were booked with Air Transat through the student exchange program. Air Transat has offered a non-transferrable credit, which is absolutely ridiculous given she is a minor and will not be traveling on her own with a charter airline for the foreseeable future.
We have recently been offered vouchers for our family of five for ticket cut purchased in January. We need a refund as we have a child who is autoimmune suppressed. Our health is our priority and we do not want to travel in the next two years. We want a refund, as well as the freedom to book a flight when we choose. We also incurred a lot of money for which two years of it in our bank gaining interest is what we are entitled to, as it is our money and not that of the airline that did not provide the service regardless of reason. Governments have provided much support for companies, airlines should turn to government and not the pockets of customers, unless they provide a service.
Hi
We booked a flight with Air Transat May 8 2020 to Barcelona for a cruise. The flight was cancelled and we received a voucher. This was our one and only expensive trip before my wife had to go on dialysis Now her kidney disease has progressed to the point that she is almost ready to go on dialysis so any trips are out of the question. We cannot use the voucher by the end of 2021 and probably nevercan. We also had an insurance on the flight which has not been refunded.
My husband to be and I had a connecting flight booked with Air Transat from Calgary to Toronto. They changed the flight date and will not offer a refund. I explained I can not accept that travel date, and they do not have any other flights that would get us to Iceland in time for our own wedding, and they just don’t care. They asked me to talk to my credit card company for a refund, but we used vouchers from the previous cancelled flights plus the fare difference.
I have no use for any Air Transat vouchers anymore as I do not intend to fly with them any time soon.
This is incredibly frustrating and anxiety-inducing. I simply can’t afford to splash hundreds and hundreds of dollars on different flights just because they are so inflexible.
My wife and I needed to get back home to Canada after our work contract in Suriname ended. We bought Air transat tickets from Amsterdam to Vancouver. We ended up buying different tickets to get home so we have no more need for Air Transat tickets. Yet Air Transat feels that they can keep our money and give us vouchers. We’re heading to Papua New Guinea for our next 4 year work contract so there is no way on earth that we can buy any tickets with Air Transat to use up vouchers. How can any business feel justified to keep our money for a service they never provided?
A group of 8 of us had booked a package with Marlin Travel a year ago April. Included was a Caribbean cruise with MSC Lines. However as March approached it was obvious that things were unlikely to proceed.
MSC finally cancelled everything and immediately offered a full refund. However since we had booked through Marlin(Transat) we were denied this option. Very bitter pill to swallow to say the least.
I booked a Flight from Montreal to Paris on Jan 11 2020. The Flight was on May 12., by then AirTransat cancelled the Flight.
I was offered a Voucher for 12 Months.
Of course it is uncertain, if not totally unlikely to travel anywhere by then.
No change of mind at AirTransat!
Purchased two Club Class tickets with Air Transat flying into Amsterdam and out of Gatwick.
I have made multiple attempts to get a refund via phone and email.
They advise that the pandemic is a ” force majeure” and that they will only issue vouchers. I advised them that the CTA iterated that the voucher scenario was purely a suggestion and that I had a legal right to a refund per statute.
Still nothing.
I purchased a ticket with Air Transat in February to Orlando, to visit my sister. My flight was cancelled due to the situation. They offered me a voucher, to be used before December 2020. Till this day, I’ve been calling, maybe 6 or 7 different numbers, to get in touch with and agent, with no success! I sent an email to customer relations and that’s what they had to say to me: no refund will be processed, voucher valid for 24 months.. really?! No thank you! Everyone is going through a rough patch right now, we don’t need more stress, running after OUR money like that. It’s frustrating and irritating. We have things to pay, families to feed, we have needs and so on and so on!
Bought my ticket end of February to visit my boyfriend of 2.5years early May and like all others cancelled. Their original t&c did NOT have a policy that states ONLY vouchers would be issued. They won’t even allow the voucher to be used by my partner if he can come later as I will not be able to. In addition I’m planning on moving to UK so I will have no need to use a return ticket and certainly not with them treated this way. They cannot make the rules up as they go along.