Vivian Paguio and her family are desperate to get to Toronto for a funeral.
However, the Air Canada strike has thrown a wrench in their travel plans.
“The amount for five of us is $11,000,” Paguio told Global News as they tried to find another airline on Sunday to take them.
When they returned to the airport on Monday, it was $10,000 for them to fly. “Which is $1,000 cheaper, but it’s still astronomical,” she said.
“We don’t have any information on if we’re going to get a refund for that because they said there’s a specific calculation on how much you can be reimbursed, so for a family of five with special needs and we also have to go to a funeral, it’s really very stressful and distressing.”
Paguio said they have tried to book on WestJet, Porter and others, but with no success.
“They’re gouging, obviously. It’s a business but there’s no humanity right now,” she added.
Passengers who were booked on Air Canada flights are finding that prices for booking on other airlines are more expensive than expected.
Averie Dela Cruz is travelling from the Philippines to Toronto via Vancouver.
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Global News spoke with her at Vancouver International Airport.
“I tried to look for other flights for other airlines, aside from Air Canada, which is like WestJet, Flair, Porter and then the price, for a one-way ticket, is like $1,500 so it’s not possible,” she said.
Air Canada has rebooked them on a flight to Toronto on Saturday, but she doesn’t even know where they can wait or if that flight will even happen.
“It was kind of absurd,” Dela Cruz added.
“Like I was thinking, like, are they taking advantage of what was happening?”
Travel expert Claire Newall told Global News that she is seeing passengers paying up to five times the amount they originally paid, just to get on a flight.
She said it isn’t considered price gouging, however, as it is how the computer systems are set up.
“So dynamic pricing means that as we get closer to the departure date and as the flights fill up, it gets more and more and more expensive,” Newell said.
John Gradek, a faculty lecturer in supply networks and aviation management at McGill University in Montreal, agreed with Newell that it’s not price gouging, but the issue is that Canada does not have any governance or oversight about pricing.
“Airlines can charge whatever they feel like for pricing and it’s really a function of supply and demand,” he said.
“In these situations that we’re in living today, and supply is in short, you know, there’s a shortage of supply, but Air Canada not flying, you know, demand is still there. And the prices are going to shoot through the roof for airfares across the Canadian airspace.”
Gradek said that he saw an airline offering a seat from Vancouver to Toronto for $999 last week. When he looked at the same option on Monday, that ticket was now $1,999.
“I only got one seat left on the aeroplane and I can charge $10,000. And if somebody wants to pay it, be my guest, that’s the last seat on the aeroplane. And that’s revenue management.”
Air Canada says its flight attendants need to return to work before the airline can push on with negotiations, even as the union says it won’t end its now unlawful strike until a deal is reached at the bargaining table.
“We’re available and ready to work on an industry-leading deal for our flight attendants, making them the best-compensated in Canada, but we can’t do that while the planes are grounded,” said Air Canada chief operating officer Mark Nasr in an interview Monday evening.
Air Canada earlier Monday extended a cancellation of all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights through 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday.
Nasr said the Canadian Union of Public Employees needs to direct flight attendants back to work because the Canada Industrial Relations Board has ruled the strike unlawful.
Earlier Monday, CUPE national president Mark Hancock said union leaders were all in on pushing for a negotiated deal.
“If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it. We’re looking for a solution here, our members want a solution here. But that solution has to be found at a bargaining table.”
On Monday evening, the union confirmed it is currently in meetings with Air Canada, with the assistance of mediator William Kaplan, in Toronto.
–with files from The Canadian Press
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