[tanyaC]

This is what I sent to the president to Air Transat as well as anyone else I could find in management:
Dear Mr Austache,

I am well aware that you are a busy man therefore I will get right to the point. I am writing you in regards to an issue our family is having with one of your tour agents, at the your Pointe Claire office in Montreal Quebec.

In December 2017 we booked a trip to Negril leaving Montreal March 4th 2018 for 7 days. We requested insurance but we had a hard time understanding the agent and the request was obviously lost in translation. We also admit that we did not validate the invoice and I only noticed it once I received the E ticket, in February 2018.

I then inquired if we could still purchase cancellation insurance. We knew my father in law was ill and wanted some compensation for my husband’s ticket if he was required to cancel to be with his family. The agent advised us that we could purchase insurance with ManuLife for “Any Reason” cancellation as long as we cancelled 14 days before departure and we would only be refunded 50% of the ticket. We agreed that it would be better than nothing. We purchased the insurance February 10th 2018.

In the end my spouse did have to cancel and we cancelled 14 days before departure as we were advised.

I put through the claim to ManuLife and was told that our claim was refused because we would have had to purchase the insurance within 72 hrs from the date we booked the trip. The agent led us to believe that the only condition we had to meet was to cancel 14 day before departure. He took our money and we felt confident that we were covered for 50% of my husband’s trip only to find out he omitted to mention that purchasing the insurance in February 2018 for a package that was bought in December 2017 was useless. We lost the $2100.00 of my husband’s trip plus $182.00 for the insurance.

I called and requested that Mrs. Johanne Cote, responsible for the Pointe Claire, Qc office call me. I explained to her that her agent gave us false information and that I felt that Transat should compensate us 50% of my husband’s trip plus the amount of the useless insurance. I also request that the agent Thai Pham be at the very least reprimanded. Neither his English or French is adequate enough to be dealing with the public and furthermore he obviously needs educating on the products he is selling to the Transat customers.

This evening Mrs Cote replied to me with a less than favorable answer, she indicates in her email that her agent informed us by email that “We could cancel for ANY REASON with PROOF”. The issue at hand is, regardless if we had provided proof, even a doctor’s note saying my husband was sick, the plan was null and void from the start because we would have had to purchase it within 72 hrs of booking our trip in December 2018 and not in February 2018 as the agent led us to believe. Basically, in the end, she reaffirms her agent was at fault but there was nothing she could do. She then goes on in her email to advise us to try again with Manulife by providing my father in laws death certificate ( he passed February 28th 2018) which is totally fraudulent since we purchased the plan knowing he was sick, hence the reason for opting for “Cancellation for Any Reason”. Attached you will find the email and all the supporting documents.

It’s important to mention that we travel minimum 4 times a year and have given a substantial amount of our hard earned money to Transat and have never once had an issue and I am terribly disappointed in the agent at Pointe Claire office. I understand that the money we spend with Air Transat is probably minimal considering the amount of people traveling through the world however to us the amount is substantial especially when we were led to believe that a portion would come back to us.

As indicated to Mrs. Cote, I do not want to take legal action however if this matter cannot be resolved I will have no other option.

Thank you.