Air Canada is apologising to a Canadian family after the airline bumped a 10-year-old boy from a flight.
Brett Doyle booked four tickets from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island to Costa Rica for his family last August.
A day before the vacation during March break, Doyle says he checked his family in for the flight online, but could not select a seat for his son, Cole.
After hours on the phone with Air Canada, Doyle’s wife Shanna drove to the airport and was told the flight was oversold and their son had been bumped.
According to Canadian broadcaster CBC, Doyle asked an Air Canada agent if she or another adult could give up their seat for Cole.
Surely @aircanada should have a policy that kids are never bumped from overbooked flights.https://t.co/BbrryZG2vi pic.twitter.com/xb2t3RfmzC
— Kelly Grindrod (@kgrindrod) April 16, 2017
“I was told that while yes, we could give up our seat, there would be no guarantee that the seat would go to my son,” she said.
She was told the seat could be given to a more frequent flyer.
The family drove to New Brunswick to catch a different flight to meet the Costa Rica flight in Montreal, but when that flight was cancelled they were forced to drive to Halifax and stay overnight in a hotel.
The family received a C$2500 ($2652) travel voucher in compensation, which expires in one year, as well as a C$1000 ($1060) cheque to cover their previous travel expenses.
– AP, nzherald.co.nz