You were planning to catch a flight and the dreaded text pops up on your phone: your flight has been cancelled.
Now what?
More than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants are off the job after a strike deadline passed Saturday without a deal. The airline had already cancelled 500 flights on Friday in anticipation of the full stoppage and all flights will be halted during the work stoppage.
Air Canada has said that, in the event of a strike, it would try and book customers on another flight, including those operated by other carriers.
“However, available capacity on our airline and on other carriers is limited due to the summer travel peak, meaning the possibility of rebooking you within an acceptable time frame is low,” Air Canada said in an online notice Friday.
“If your travel is disrupted, you can always choose a refund.”
Before the stoppage, Air Canada had offered free flight changes to customers booked between Aug. 15 and 18 and travel credits for any unused non-refundable fares.
Personal finance and travel expert Barry Choi had planned to travel home from Europe next week on Air Canada.
He said he’s confident a deal will be worked out before his return trip on Aug. 22, but he came up with a contingency plan anyway.
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“I personally booked a backup flight just in case, in the worst, worst case scenario,” he said from Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Choi said he did so because he had the luxury of ample loyalty rewards to afford a transatlantic flight much pricier than the one he initially booked. Getting back was also time sensitive — his wife has tickets to an Oasis concert back home two days after their scheduled arrival. If not for that, they may have stayed longer.
“I know not everyone has that luxury, but just having a backup plan is good to know, even if you don’t want to book that flight right away,” said Choi.
Doing some research and finding three or four backup flight options with Air Canada partners is a good idea when you’re finally able to get on the line with an agent.
“The more information you can provide the agents when you get hold of them, the better your odds. So always just be prepared,” said Choi, advising anyone with travel booked further out into September to just sit tight for now.
He adds that travellers should look into the details of their credit card travel insurance “inside out” right away to find out what expenses are covered, and what aren’t, if it takes a few days to line up a flight home.
Choi recalls being taken aback a few years ago when he booked a hotel stay to cover a flight delay only to find out after he made the claim that his insurance only covered $100 a night.
It’s also worth looking into whether a policy will cover travel to an alternative airport — taking a train to fly out of Edinburgh, Scotland, back to Canada instead of London Heathrow, for example.
“Just knowing what you’re entitled to, keeping those receipts and making a submission in time will greatly help you reduce your costs overall.”
Lesley Keyter, founder and CEO of Calgary travel agency The Travel Lady, said insurance may cover disruptions due to labour action, provided it wasn’t a “known event” when the policy was purchased.
“If you’re thinking now, ‘Oh, next week I want to go somewhere and I’ll just take out travel insurance and that will cover me,’ that won’t happen,” she said.
Keyter also cautions that any reimbursements for extended stays won’t arrive quickly.
“It’s going to take a while for that to go through the whole machinery, so you have to have that cash on you to be able to afford those extra costs in-destination.”
For those with flights connecting to a cruise or tour, it could get tricky.
It’s fairly straightforward if the airfare was booked through a cruise line. Not so when they’re booked separately.
“If you just booked an air ticket yourself with Air Canada flying across to Rome and then maybe you’re jumping on a cruise ship, that’s two completely separate tickets and the cruise line does not care about Air Canada having the strike,” said Keyter.
“If you’re going on a cruise or a tour or there’s an occasion, a date that has to be stuck to, get there a day or so earlier so it gives you a little bit of wiggle room in case things like this happen.”
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