Proposed Air Canada bumped pass comp isn’t enough: advocate
Posted July 4, 2013 9:44 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MONTREAL (NEWS1130) – A consumer advocate says Air Canada’s proposed compensation for passengers bumped off domestic flights is inadequate and should be rejected by the Canadian Transportation Agency.
Gabor Lukacs, who successfully fought the airline’s current payment policy, urged the agency to instead adopt US rules or the proposal he submitted.
The former University of Manitoba math professor has suggested that passengers should be compensated between $200 and $800 depending on the length of delay. In the United States, twice the airfare up to a maximum of US$650 is paid for delays of one to two hours and four times the fare to a maximum of US$1,300 is paid for delays exceeding two hours.
Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) last week proposed that passengers should be entitled to between $100 and $800 in compensation depending on their airfare and length of delay.
The agency ruled Air Canada’s 12-year-old bumping payout rate of $100 cash or a $200 travel voucher is outdated and doesn’t reflect the current price of airline tickets, accommodation and other incidental expenses.
It asked the airline to submit reasons why it shouldn’t impose Lukacs’s proposal or the scheme used in the US.
In a submission today, Lukacs said the airline failed to meet that burden because its proposal provides lower cash compensation in most cases than the two alternatives.
It would calculate compensation excluding all taxes and airport fees and considers delays between one and six hours causing the same inconvenience and damage.
