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As airline ticket refund class action lawsuits pile up across Canada, Air Passenger Rights, a consumer advocacy group, is seeking answers from the Supreme Court of Canada.
The passenger advocacy group has sought leave to appeal a May 2020 decision of the Federal Court of Appeal, which rejected the group’s attempt to obtain a mandatory interlocutory injunction requiring the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to remove a statement on refunds posted on its website.
Air Passenger Rights filed the ticket refund lawsuit against the CTA in April, over an online statement that condoned vouchers over cash refunds. According to the statement, “an appropriate approach in the current context could be for airlines to provide affected passengers with vouchers or credits for future travel, as long as these vouchers or credits do not expire in an unreasonably short period of time.”
The agency later clarified that the online statement regarding ticket refunds was not legally binding.
Nevertheless, Air Passenger Rights founder, Gabor Lukács, claims that the CTA’s statement misleads the public about its right to be reimbursed and contradicts previous decisions of the quasi-judicial body.
Ticket Refund Class Action Lawsuits Contest Vouchers
Another case that took issue with the CTA was one of the first ticket refund class action lawsuit’s to raise the controversial statement. The class action lawsuit Canada was filed on March 27, and targets five Canadian airlines over ticket refund refusals for flights cancelled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Two days before the ticket refund class action lawsuit Canada was filed, the CTA posted its infamous “Statement on Vouchers” on its website.
More legal action followed the March 27 airline ticket refund class action lawsuit, including a Quebec class action lawsuit targeting Air Transat for the same reason.
In addition to the handful of proposed airline ticket refund class action lawsuits filed by disgruntled passengers, three petitions calling for customer refunds have collected over 109,000 signatures.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Air Canada was the subject of 1,705 of the 10,415 refund complaints filed in May against non-U.S. airlines, placing Air Canada ahead of 80 other foreign carriers in this category.
United Airlines topped Air Canada’s devastating ticket refund complaint toll with a whopping 3,215 complaints.
The U.S. Department of Transportation issued an enforcement notice in April reminding airlines that if the airline cancelled a flight, customers are entitled to a full ticket refund. Similar action, however, was not taken in Canada.
Air Passenger Rights took the CTA’s March statement to mean that the federal government “sided with airlines” and left Canadians to foot the bill to keep planes flying post-pandemic.
Legal Options for Passengers Seeking Ticket Refunds
According to a Global News report, passengers can file a ticket refund complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation to push for regulatory action against airlines.
For more serious issues that require legal action, passengers can file a formal complaint. This, however, may require the help of a lawyer to submit.
Gabor Lukács was reportedly approached by a team of University of Ottawa law students who were completing a course in legal technology. As part of their studies, they had to automate a solution to a legal issue.
A law student at uOttawa, told reporters that she and her classmates saw the obstacles passengers faced when seeking refunds for COVID-19 travel disruptions and set out to streamline the complaint submission process.
She and her classmates created Formidable Solutions, an app based on the Documate platform that can draw up a formal legal complaint for submission to the U.S. Department of Transportation by inputting documents such as flight confirmations and cancellation notices.
Additionally, the CTA’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations impose minimum obligations on airlines regarding, among other things, what to do in the case of flight cancellations. As per the Regulations, airline operators must ensure that passengers complete their itinerary in the event of flight cancellations or disruptions. This entails an obligation to provide “alternate travel arrangements or a refund.”
Where cancellations result from events outside of the airline’s control, such as government-mandated travel restrictions, carriers are only required to ensure that passengers eventually arrive at their destination. This means that, strictly speaking, Canadian regulations on flight cancellations do not require airlines to provide passengers with cash refunds.
However, whether this is true for individual passengers hinges on the wording of the contract or airline refund policy. Additionally, contract law and relevant legislations will determine whether a voucher is, indeed, legal. Where an airline provides that passengers will be refunded for flight cancellations, the airline will typically be bound by the contract.
Have you purchased a ticket for a flight that was subsequently cancelled due to COVID-19? Have you been refunded for the flight? Share your experiences with us in the comments below!
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19 thoughts onAirline Ticket Refund Class Action Lawsuits Reach Supreme Court of Canada
Air Canada has over $10,000 that they have only given us credit for! We are seniors on fixed income and saved for years for a trip to Europe in April 2020 We now have underlying health issues that will discourage us from air travel until the Covid is mostly eradicated. Every one says it was “out of our control” and I understand that, but why is it the “little people” that are incurring a personal loss? How do we get our money back, when legally they don’t have to. $10,000 is not much to a corporation, but represents a HUGE chunk of our retirement savings!
I’ve given Air Transat three opportunities to complete my vacation booking. Starting in June 2019 i booked a holiday from Vancouver to Puerto Vallarta to be taken in April 2020 for three people. A credit was issued 3/19/2020. Checked the A.T website and found they were taking reservations to PVR for our dates April 2021. Reserved. Again in July this trip was cancelled because the route was cancelled. This time they offered a refund. I checked their website again and gave them one more with a reservation from YVR to Punta Cana in Aug. to fly in April 2021 and in September it was cancelled. Total refund due is $2310.00.
We live in Michigan, and flying out of Toronto is so much cheaper than out of Detroit. Booked a flight through Orbitz in January, for a flight with Air Transat from Toronto to Athens in June. Family of three, In May I got a call from rep at Orbitz, offering to change our flight to same day following month- as if it were a dentist appointment and there was no other planning involved….. Anyway, I said no, then rep says because I chose to cancel my flight (?) the airline would offer me a 24 month ticket voucher. Of course flights were still cancelled the following month. I did request a refund while I was speaking to her. I would like to know how to move forward with joining a lawsuit/getting refund. It is highly unlikely our family would be able to use the tickets in the future, it was sort of a one time trip of a lifetime deal. Very frustrating that an airline can keep money and not provide service. Also, considering so much of the ticket cost is supposedly various taxes, how the heck is that not refundable?
We purchased 2 tickets Toronto to Gatwick for May 2020 through flight hub on air canada
We had to cancel – apparently we have vouchers but actually received nothing.
These voucher are likely to expire before they can be used but at the time “who would have known”?
Now cannot get a hold of anyone for an answer.
How can this kind of money be taken from so many people and nothing be done when the service paid for is not provided?
I purchased4round trip tickets to Ireland with Air Canada. Like many others it took considerable time to save for this family trip. The trip was canceled due to the shutting down of the E.U., no fault of ours. Canada Air will not refund our money. This is theft by government legislation. Perhaps the Supreme Court of Canada will intervene. I am 76 years old, this will probably never to anyone else!
I purchased a direct flight from NY to Calgary.
The airline changed to flight times more than once and made it a connecting flight. This all happened before the boarder was closed.
I tried many times to get a refund and had my credit card company try as well.
The only refund that was given was for the seat upgrade.
Now I only have a voucher and they have MY money!
My husband and I booked a trip to the Dominican Republic in January for travel March 23rd. Days before our departure date, the Canadian government issued a travel advisory. By the time March 23rd rolled around, travelers were asked to return home at their earliest. Needless to day, we did not go on our trip. Originally Air Transat gave us a voucher good until December 31 2020. This was subsequently changed to March 23 2021. I don’t even know if travel to the DR will even get back to normal by 2021. I feel they should give us a refund or a voucher that doesn’t expire. After all, they have our money. I’m afraid that when travel gets back to somewhat normal, the airlines will hike their prices up by $500 or more.
We purchased tix from Vancouver to kona in Oct 2019 for departure on April 1st – 15 2020. Our flights were all cancelled by Air Canada. We had non refundable tixs and now they won’t refund. Ridiculous. I’m holding out…. What action can I take
how can we join this classaction? we were abandoned in peru with air canada in april and in lockdown since then with afamily of 4 to look after for months so very interested in getting involved
chris boudreault
solartrees@gmail.com
I was refused refunds for tickets that we (my wife and I) purchased, in the beginning of January, for travel on March 31, 2020. Air Canada contacted us and told us that all flights were cancelled due to Covid-19. I requested a refund. I was given case numbers, as they informed me that they were reviewing their policy, and I was subsequently contacted by Stephen Stone of Customer Relations at Air Canada, and I was advised that we may be able to use “the unused portion of our ticket for future booking”, within a certain time frame, (there is no unused portion of the ticket as the flight never took place, due to Covid-19) but as stated in his letter, in this case “we were not entitled to any refund”. This I don’t understand, as the flight was cancelled because of a circumstance beyond my/our control and since the Airline (Air Canada) could not fulfill their obligation (their end of the contract), through no fault of mine, I would have thought that I would be entitled to full compensation. A reimbursement of the money I had to give them months in advance.
If you contract someone to do work for you, as an example: “replace all the windows in your house due to a storm, and you paid this person in advance for work that they were to complete on a certain date, and this company then told you that due to circumstances beyond their control they could not do the work, not even in the near future, but that they would keep “your” money and hopefully within a year or two they might be able to get around to it, providing nothing else goes wrong, or they don’t have any new, more important obligations. Would you not expect them to refund you, in full, so that you could get the work done by someone else, or even do it yourself? This is STUPID and senseless. This is just another way for the Airlines to profit from passengers. I have been in touch with the Minister of Transport, and the Government of Canada, and even they have told me “more or less”, suck it up. “Too bad”. They tell me that it’s unfortunate but they don’t want the airlines to go bankrupt. The Government gave them “millions” to help them out and even then they get to keep our money (Our money has nothing to do with Covid-19 as this money was all paid months in advance before Covid-19 came about). I can only hope that due to all this they have to reimburse people IN FULL.
i arrived at my vacation destination the same day the Canadian government announced international travel advisory, advising all Canadians to return home due to Covid. i paid over $1700 for the first available flight back with Air Canada. i subsequently cancelled the new booking with AirCanada within 24 hours and booked an earlier flight with American Airline. i received a email from Air Canada advising that i will be issued a refund of $1852 after deducting $600 in cancellation fee. i am now told that out of good will- i would only be getting $800 in vouchers that expires in 24 months. What is my recourse now?