N.L. couple forced to pay nearly $1,700 for a night in a Montreal hotel after Air Canada delay
An eastern Newfoundland couple who were charged nearly $1,700 for one night in a Laval, Que. motel say Air Canada refused to give them hotel vouchers after their flight was delayed leaving the pair to pay the hefty bill out of their own pocket.
Craig Sharpe of Bay Roberts told CBC News he and his husband were travel‐ ling back from Newark Lib‐ erty International Airport on Saturday when their flight to Montreal was delayed due to the aircraft experiencing an earlier delay.
Sharpe says an Air Cana‐ da employee in Newark reas‐ sured the couple that their now 50-minute layover would be enough to clear customs and board their flight to St. John's.
It wasn't.
Sharpe recalled thinking, "Surely we misses the flight," noting an additional delay on the runway at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Air‐ port.
Sharpe says Air Canada didn't have any hotel rooms for passengers who missed their St. John's connection and who were now stranded in Montreal overnight, forced to wait nearly 12 hours for the next eastbound flight.
Sharpe says the couple called a hotel that had 30 rooms set aside for Air Cana‐ da passengers carrying vouchers, but the employee handling their delay said she didn't have any vouchers to give them.
"She was like, 'There's no hotel, all the hotels are gone,'" Sharpe said.
"She said ... 'You need to just look for a room, and then when you get a room [Air Canada] will reimburse you.'"
Air Canada said the flight from Newark to Montreal was delayed because of "a maintenance issue" with the original aircraft, forcing them to switch planes.
"We do provide rooms to customers we determine are eligible at the time in certain circumstances, however we also invite customers to sub‐ mit a claim and we will evalu‐ ate it, which is what we have done here," the airline said in an email to CBC News.
City had had flooding Montreal had just had a one-day hotel strike two days earlier, and the region expe‐ rienced severe flooding over the weekend.
The hotel crunch meant the only room the couple could find was in Laval - and it cost them $1,455.63 for one night, plus a $200 de‐ posit, which Sharpe says has‐ n't been returned yet.
They paid for the room out of pocket and are now gathering evidence to send in a claim to Air Canada.
"You've got to write a bunch of different claims … just to even see if you can get compensation for the 12hour delay. They say it takes three days for them to come to a decision if you can get it," he said.
Rooms listed on Olux Ho‐ tel Motel and Suites's website were priced between $104.30 and $250 when checked Tuesday afternoon.
CBC News has also asked for comment from Olux Hotels and Quebec's Office of Consumer Protection about the hotel pricing surge.
Air passenger protection law requires airlines to pro‐ vide passengers with hotel accommodation when the delay is within their control and passengers are delayed overnight.
Sharpe says he would normally have slept at the airport before paying that much for a hotel room, but his husband put his foot down, arguing Sharpe had to work the next day and could‐ n't afford to stay up all night.
Sharpe says Air Canada told him it could take two months to see reimburse‐ ment.
"It was a horrible, horrible situation," he said. "It's just so careless, for a big com‐ pany to be like that. It's in‐ sane."
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