The U.S. Ranked Air Canada As The Foreign Airline With The Most Refund Complaints
Trying to fly anywhere this year has not exactly been that easy. Trying to get a refund on a cancelled trip also hasn't been so simple. Air Canada has even made a U.S. list as the worst foreign airline for refund complaints.
According to its Air Travel Consumer Report for August 2020, the United States Department of Transportation received 1,028 complaints about Air Canada regarding refunds in June.
In terms of non-American companies, it was clearly the front runner. TAP Air Portugal came in second with 906.
However, it still fared better than United Airlines. The American company racked up 1,467 refund complaints in one month.
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Air Canada also received eight complaints about reservations, tickets, and boarding, six in regards to fares, and one about its customer service.
The airline, along with other Canadian companies, refused to give people their money back for flights that were cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic.
Both the United States and the European Union forced their air travel companies to refund passengers the cost of their tickets for postponed and cancelled flights. However, this was not a rule in Canada.
In May, Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said that if the airlines were forced to provide refunds, they could end up failing altogether.
"If airlines had to immediately reimburse all cancelled tickets, it would have a devastating effect on the air sector, which has been reeling since the COVID 19 pandemic started," he said during a press conference.
Air Canada, Sunwing, WestJet, and other companies faced a class-action lawsuit over their decision.
WestJet eventually began offering refunds to some of its customers, but only on the condition that their flights included the United States or the U.K. in their routes.
Air Canada also updated its refund policy, but only to offer extended travel vouchers and refundable tickets for newly booked trips.