In June, Machette and her husband finally traveled to the land of saints and scholars for their 27th anniversary. But when they arrived in Dublin after a delayed and rescheduled flight, their checked bags were nowhere to be found. This led to hours spent on customer service lines, waiting on the phone and filling out online claim forms and emails. Her luggage has now been missing for almost seven weeks. “We just had radio silence from WestJet,” she said from her home in Port Coquitlam, BC, about 17 miles east of Vancouver. “Get it together. That’s not how you run a company.” Erin Machette and her husband finally traveled to Ireland for their 27th anniversary. But when they arrived in Dublin, after a delayed and rescheduled flight, their checked bags did not arrive. (Submitted by Erin Machette) Machette estimates they have lost $6,000 — including their luggage and contents, some of which are irreplaceable, and the expenses they incurred while in Ireland without their belongings. He is one of thousands of air passengers in Canada who have been frustrated by airlines because of flight cancellations, delays and lost luggage.
Airline Industry Disruptions Behind Baggage Delays
It’s been a tumultuous return to air travel in Canada as airlines ramp up service following the pandemic. Many, like Machette, say they’ve lost faith in Canadian airlines either because they feel misled about the reasons for cancellations, rejected compensation claims or lowball offers for delayed baggage. In the case of delayed and lost bags, WestJet admits in a statement that it faced challenges as a result of a number of circumstances including flight delays and cancellations, resource constraints and ground operations. The Vancouver Airport Authority says YVR currently has a 99% success rate for outbound baggage delivery, but said in a statement “due to delays and disruptions in the global air network, we are seeing delays with baggage arriving at YVR.” Both WestJet and the Vancouver Airport Authority say they are working to improve baggage handling.
“Hold the airline’s feet to the fire”
From January to July, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has received 1,176 complaints about baggage. Fortunately, air passengers are protected by the Airplane Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR). In Canada, airlines are required to cover costs incurred when checked baggage is delayed. In case of lost luggage, the airlines must cover the cost of the luggage, its contents and the expenses incurred when you travel without it. Passengers must submit a claim to the airline within 21 days if their luggage is lost, says air passenger rights expert Gábor Lukács. Passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs is calling on Transport Canada to impose more fines on airlines for breaching air passenger protection regulations. (CBC) “The knee-jerk answers for airlines in many cases will be ‘no’. Your job as a passenger is to challenge that and hold the airline’s feet to the fire,” he said. If the airline denies the request, Lukács says passengers can file a claim in small claims court or file a complaint with the CTA.
Pending 15,000 complaints
“Certainly, there has been an increase in complaints,” said Tom Oommen, the CTA’s general manager, although the agency is unable to make a direct comparison to previous years because the APPR only came into force in 2019 – just before the COVID -19 air travel ground pandemic. If the complaint is simple, Oommen says it won’t take more than three weeks to resolve once it’s in the hands of an agent. But the CTA currently faces a year-long backlog of 15,000 complaints, he says. “It takes a while to get to this case in the first place.” The CTA also has the power to impose fines on airlines that violate regulations through administrative policies. In the 2021-2022 travel year, the CTA found 831 airline violations, but only 11 monetary penalties were imposed. Lukacs says the agency needs to take a firmer stance, adding that fining airlines will encourage them to follow regulations. “They’re not doing their job,” Lukacs said. “Transport Canada is receiving millions of dollars of taxpayer money to protect the public. “It confuses me because there is no proper enforcement.” However, most complaints are not black and white, Oommen says, and require interpretation by a panel through the complaint process – while monetary enforcement penalties are preferred when there is an express, clear requirement that is not being met.
