Success!
Finally, seven (7) months after Air Canada cancelled flight AC839 out of Frankfurt even though there was no volcanic ash and skies were open on April 21/10 they finally issued cheque 890535/0645 on October 28/10 for $181.00 to cover the cost of our overnight stay at the Inter City Hotel Frankfurt Airport.
It should have been a simple matter for Air Canada to reimburse our expenses yet the confrontational attitude of their customer “service” staffer Kim Shergill in Calgary and their corporate unwillingness to accept responsibility forced me to contact both the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) Fluggastrechte/Passenger Rights 261/264 and the Canadian Transportation Agency, Complaints Investigation, to resolve this matter.
Obviously attacking on two fronts in a pincer motion is better than simply contacting Air Canada and expecting fair treatment. It is unacceptable that AC either does not know the European Union regulations (ya, right) affecting passenger rights or, they choose to ignore them in hopes that stonewalling reimbursement requests will result in stranded passengers giving up in frustration.
Should I ever be unfortunate enough to book an Air Canada flight and be stranded again, I will pursue reimbursement just as vigorously as I was forced to do in this instance. Obviously, one should never give up when haggling with the national carrier.
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