Abuse of monopoly market position: Air Canada
 

I recently had an extremely bad flight with Air Canada. However, the most disturbing aspect is the response of AC to my complaints, which exhibited corrupt business practices.

Please see below for the organization with whom one should make formal complaints with the government of canada.

My Story:

My flight was slightly delayed by weather but after entering the linup for takeoff it developed a mechanical problem which required that we be TOWED to a gate, undergo repairs, return to the de-icing lineup, be boarded by the repairmen for the logbook entry. We arrived at our destination five hours late.


The airline was completely unprepared to deal with us and there was total chaos with no support from AC other than a slip of paper with two telephone numbers.



Eventually I managed to return home and made a complaint to AC with a request to have my expenses in toronto (one hotel, 2 meals) reimbursed. AC has now turned this down because they are claiming that it was due to the weather.

No reasonable business would blatantly lie to hundreds of their customers when the customers cannot possibly believe them. This sort of behavior is a classic example of a company abusing a monopolistic market position.

Recommendations:

This response by AC is absolutely dishonest and I've now made a formal complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). If you have similar problems, I recommend you go to the CTA website and make a formal complaint. There is a tool on their website which makes this very easy to do.

I suspect that AC will somehow avoid taking responsibility for their actions, but I hope to force them to pay attention to my situation and to raise awareness about a corrupt organization who is taking advantage of their monopoly position in the market.

Did u get a response back from CTA? I filed a complaint today on EVA and AC due to a cancellation flight. But I haven't got back from a CTA repersentative yet.

Regards,
Vivian

Unfortunately even though your initial weather delay turned into a mechanical, the plane still had to be de-iced once the repairs were made so obviously the weather was still an issue when your plane ultimately took off. Although inconvenient this was hardly an "Abuse of monopoly market position." Sorry but you shouldn't expect any reimbursement or compensation.

Why do you say that Phx. If the delay was mechanical, then AC is totally on the hook. This would be compounded if AC has lied. It will be interesting to see what the authorities come up with... as I suspect AC are not the only airline to lie to customers about the causes of delays. I have been lied to by Delta and Ryanair. I hope you will post the outcome.

Oh come now Jim. The OP stated the initial reason for the delay was weather. After the mechanical issues were dealt with, the plane still needed de-icing. Are you to tell me that in the interim there was a tropical heat wave that blew past the airport allowing other aircraft to take off without going through the de-icing regimen? I'm calling for a reality check here.

Guys.....the new member, yinman2, is commenting on a post that is over 2 1/2 years old. The OP'er hasn't even logged on to this site since they posted their one and only post. No use going crazy on this one.

LOL... I didn't notice that at all... but just to make the point...

Phx, going through de-icing is a normal part of winter operations.. to describe that as a "weather" delay is ridiculous. It is like saying taking on extra fuel to allow for a wider diversion margin in winter, is a "weather" delay caused by extra refueling. Ridiculous.

You make it sound like de-icing is an every day thing. It is not. Only when the combination of temperature and humidity (dew point) is likely to cause ice do they de-ice. It most certainly is a weather related issue. Otherwise every flight from late November through early March would have to be de-iced.

i am siding with jim on this one, yes originally there was a weather delay, but than it turned into a mechanical delay, so even though they were delayed from the weather they were still waiting to take off but than had to go back and get checked out, which added extra time, this delay prob wasn't due to the weather so it should be treated more of a mechanical issue than a weather one

de-icing takes time and it has to happen, but it was still a mech problem which elongated the delay and there should be compensation to that

My point is, de-icing is a normal operational matter. The fact that there was a short weather related delay initially doesn't give the airline a free pass to delay the flight as long as they want and chalk it up to the weather. That would create a loophole that you could drive a coach and horses through.