Quebec Consumer Rights: Flight Vouchers or Refunds?

If you booked an airline ticket before or during the coronavirus pandemic, and your flight was cancelled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, you may find yourself among the countless travellers who were offered flight vouchers or airline credits instead of ticket refunds.

Numerous arguments for and against flight vouchers have been tossed around throughout the pandemic. However, many Quebeckers are still wondering whether airlines’ decision not to refund passengers is valid in light of the Civil Code of Québec (CCQ). Here, we tackle the “voucher issue” and explain what Quebec consumers’ rights are amid COVID-19 flight cancellations.

Flight Vouchers and Breach of Contract

If you booked a ticket with an airline, the contract you are party to is binding. Both you and the airline are mutually obliged to fulfill the obligations to which you have agreed. In the instance of a consumer contract with an airline, you are bound to pay for a ticket and the airline is bound to provide the services promised in the contract, like a flight. When a flight is cancelled, the airline is effectively liable for breach of contract, which typically requires the airline to reimburse you. In spite of this general rule, many airlines have been offering flight vouchers instead of refunds.

Many airlines have been arguing that they are released from liability, due to COVID-19. This justification relies on coronavirus effects constituting a force majeure or superior force event.

Force Majeure

Force majeure relieves a party from performing its contractual obligations when an unexpected, external event has occurred which prevents it from performing. In the case of COVID-19, which may fall under the umbrella of force majeure or superior force, airlines will likely not be held liable for cancelled flights.

As a result, you no longer have to fulfil your obligation to pay for the cancelled flight. However, purchasing flight tickets raises a unique problem: Tickets are paid for in advance. This means that you fulfilled your contractual obligation, but the airline did not fulfill its end of the bargain. So now what?

Flight Voucher or Refund?

According to the CCQ, you should be returned to your original pre-contract position in the case of a breach of contract, even in a case of a force majeure event. This means that you should be returned all the money you spent on the airline ticket.

This rule, however, should be read in conjunction with article 1700 of the CCQ that states: “Restitution of prestations is made in kind, but, if this is impossible or cannot be done without serious inconvenience, it may be made by equivalence.”

This means that if an airline returns the money you spent on a ticket, they are making a prestation that is a “restitution in kind.” You paid them money and they returned it. Restitution in kind should be the default. However, many airlines have opted for the second choice provided by the CCQ by offering flight vouchers, namely, “restitution by equivalence.” It can be argued that restitution by equivalence is acceptable given the havoc COVID-19 inflicted upon airlines.

Nevertheless, a flight voucher or credit may not necessarily respect the principles of contract law established in the CCQ, given that many airlines have defaulted to offering vouchers instead of refunds as soon as travel restrictions were instituted, and vouchers may not be valid for a long enough duration for consumers to safely use them. Importantly, as the consumer, you can decide whether you will accept the voucher, contest the payment with the airline or your credit card company, or bring the matter before the courts.

Class Action Lawsuits Make Noise Over Flight Vouchers

Recently, Air Passenger Rights, a consumer advocacy group, sought leave to appeal a May 2020 decision of the Federal Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada over the issue of flight vouchers.

If you are upset over airline vouchers, you 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, you can file a formal complaint.

Another option is to join one of the many flight voucher class action lawsuits launched across Canada, among them a Quebec class action lawsuit targeting Air Transat over flight refund refusals. Another class action lawsuit Canada was commenced in Ontario against five Canadian airlines, seeking refunds on behalf of passengers who can no longer use the airline tickets they purchased due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

As more airline class action lawsuits are sprouting across the country, the solution adopted by airlines does not seem to hold up against Quebec law. Nevertheless, only time will tell whether courts decide that airlines’ decision to offer vouchers instead of refunds is legal, although many legal commentators argue that Quebec civil law requires refunds for purchased tickets.

Have you purchased an airline ticket in Quebec? Was your flight cancelled due to coronavirus? Did you receive a refund or a flight voucher? Share your story with us in the comments below!

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