A group of attendees from the Plast Canada National Jamboree prepare to board a bus at Easter Seals Camp Squamish in Brackendale, B.C., on Monday.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Near the Easter Seals Camp in Squamish, B.C., dozens of children from as far away as Toronto and Montreal passed the time on Monday kicking a soccer ball around a field and singing Ukrainian songs around a fire. These are some of the summer activities the camp’s staff were using to distract the young campers – a group that includes Ukrainian refugees – from the fact that they couldn’t return home.
About 150 scouts are stuck at the camp owing to the strike by flight attendants at Air Canada, which has grounded the airline’s flights and disrupted travel for an estimated 130,000 passengers a day.
The children, part of a larger group mostly aged 12 to 17, were in the region for a national camping jamboree organized by Plast Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada. The 10-day-long event at Camp Byng on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast was supposed to end Sunday. Instead, as they prepared to leave, they learned that the flights meant to bring more than half of them home to their families had been cancelled.
Marianna MacMillan, a 15-year-old from Toronto attending the jamboree, said she comforted other campers, some of whom she considers her younger siblings, when they were told the news.
“They didn’t expect to be trapped this far.”
About 700 flights a day have been grounded since Saturday when flight attendants walked off the job. Ottawa directed a federal tribunal to order about 10,000 Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flight attendants, represented by the Air Canada Component of CUPE, back to work, but the union has defied the order and it’s not clear when flights will resume.
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Julia Metelitsa, co-director for the Plast Canada National Jamboree, said about one-third of the scouts at the jamboree are Ukrainian newcomers to Canada who fled from the Russia-Ukraine war.
The remaining scouts and dozens of adult volunteers are tenting at the Squamish campground for now. She said camp directors will have to find a way to care for the preteens and teenagers as they search for flights home ahead of an expected departure on Saturday.
Ms. Metelitsa said the scouts are being given mixed signals from Air Canada, worsened by their group size, which is leading to further delays. She first believed they would leave within 48 hours of the cancellation but now expects the group will depart on Saturday.
“It’s sad, scary, people want to be back to their families, they want to know what’s going on,” she said.
In an e-mail, Air Canada said it has been in contact with the tour leader about alternate plans for the group. About 40 scouts from Winnipeg opted to take a chartered bus home, according to camp directors.
About 500,000 passengers will have their travel plans disrupted as of late Monday afternoon, with stories emerging from across Canada and around the world from people who’ve had their plans upended and, in some cases, have been stranded abroad with what they say is inadequate help from the airline.
After a week-long camping trip in Yoho National Park in British Columbia, Andrew Lim and his family returned to cell service on Friday. A notification lit up his phone screen: Air Canada had cancelled their flights back home to Toronto from Calgary.
The Lim family from the side of Mount Odaray, looking toward Lake MacArthur, in Yoho National Park.Courtesy of family
Mr. Lim, his wife and two children – aged 13 and 8 – spent the night in Calgary and then much of the next morning on hold with Air Canada. No one answered.
He said it became obvious they wouldn’t be quickly rebooked and travelling back on other airlines or by train would have been “outrageously expensive.”
So, the family decided to rent a car and drive roughly 3,400 kilometres through four different provinces. Speaking over the phone near Sault Ste. Marie on Monday, Mr. Lim said he was hopeful they would pull into their driveway later that evening.
“We fully accept that we’ll probably not be reimbursed for any of our expenses on the trip. I mean Air Canada is not going to pay for a car and our hotels and all that stuff for sure, but it was just a matter of getting back in time,” Mr. Lim said, adding that his family will be out a “couple of thousands” but that driving was still the cheapest and fastest option they had.
In a statement to The Globe and Mail, a spokesperson for Air Canada said it is “deeply disappointed by CUPE’s unlawful actions” and its impact on customers.
“We are working hard to assist our customers and have offered options including full refunds.”
The union has, in turn, blamed Air Canada for failing to adequately respond to the flight attendants’ concerns, with CUPE’s national president Mark Hancock saying he was prepared to go to jail if necessary.
While some affected passengers within Canada have turned to cars and buses to get where they need to, others don’t have that option. A trip to Iceland has left Frank Richter and his daughter stranded in one of Europe’s most expensive countries, paying for hotels and meals out of pocket.
Air Canada customers attempt to rebook their cancelled flights amid the union strike at Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday.Sarah Espedido/The Globe and Mail
Looking at new flights, Mr. Richter said the cheapest options were $3,000 or more, with some tickets running between $5,000 and $8,000 a person, he said. “They are trying to get away with paying as little to the customers as possible,” Mr. Richter said of Air Canada.
He fears being on the hook for thousands of dollars while also running out of medication in a few days.
“At the end of the day, I’m stuck with the cost of somehow trying to get home,” he said.
Under Canada’s air passenger protection rules, passengers who experience flight cancellations because of a strike are owed a choice between getting a refund or being rebooked free of charge on the next available flight. The new flight can be from the same carrier or a carrier with which Air Canada has a commercial agreement, but it must depart within 48 hours.
If these options aren’t available, a large carrier such as Air Canada must rebook the passenger on the next available flight from any carrier, including a competitor.
But given that he was supposed to fly out of Europe, Mr. Richter plans to file a claim under EU261 (also commonly known as EC261).
In the European Union and Britain, air passenger rights are governed by EC261 and UK261, which are among the strongest consumer protection laws in the world, said Tomasz Pawliszyn, chief executive of AirHelp, an EU-based agency helping passengers navigate the region’s air passenger rights.
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Under EC261, strikes by airline staff are considered within the airline’s control. This means Air Canada is not exempt from paying compensation in this case, Mr. Pawliszyn said.
Passengers are owed a rebooking or a full refund of the unused portion of their ticket.
They’re also owed compensation between €250 and €600, depending on the distance of the flight and the length of delay to their final destination.
While some are exploring their options to return home, others are desperate to leave.
Loretta Masaro has, for many months, been training to run in the Sydney Marathon on Aug. 31 – what would be her seventh and final World Marathon Major, which are the world’s most renowned marathons.
But she said she’s stuck in a “grey zone,” not sure if her flights from Ottawa through Vancouver next week will be cancelled because of the Air Canada strike.
Ms. Masaro said she will be out thousands of dollars if she can’t make it to Australia having already paid for the race, accommodations and non-refundable excursions. She said it would be too expensive to book with another airline for her and her husband.
Missing the race would also take an emotional toll on Ms. Masaro, who survived the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
The union for 10,000 striking Air Canada flight attendants said on Monday they won’t return to work even though the strike, now in its third day, has been declared illegal. The job action at Canada’s largest airline is affecting about 130,000 travelers a day at the peak of the summer travel season.
The Associated Press
She said she made it her goal that day to complete every world major race in honour of the victims.
“We’re losing hope,” she said during a phone interview from Ottawa.
“I was completely for them – I was for the flight attendants. But now they’re defying the law. They think they’re above the law and they’ve lost me now. I no longer care about their cause any more.”
Some fliers, like Steve Glover, learned of the coming strike and looked for alternative plans to avoid the chaos.
Mr. Glover and his family had already invested thousands of dollars in hotels and local flights when he learned that an Air Canada labour dispute could threaten a 50th wedding anniversary trip to Greece. He cancelled their Air Canada flights for Aug. 14 and sought alternatives through FlightHub.
The travel company booked him on Delta, which then booked him onto Air France for the outbound flight. Air France proceeded to reschedule and cancel three times before finally rebooking his family on an Air Canada flight for Aug. 15.
“Then of course you know what happens? Cancelled by Air Canada.”
With no way to leave, the family lost all their prepaid hotels and are out of pocket between $20,000 and $25,000. He said FlightHub told him to deal with the airline directly and did not provide any help beyond links to relevant websites for the airlines.
Mr. Glover has now found himself juggling claims with multiple airlines while the trip itself is lost. “The money is one thing, but it’s the trip of a lifetime. This holiday that we were going to share together is done.”
FlightHub did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
Are you affected by the Air Canada flight attendant strike?
The union representing around 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants has been on strike since Aug. 16 after negotiations between the two sides reached an impasse, and the company has cancelled flights. Our reporters want to hear from passengers that have had their plans affected by the strike. Have you had to switch your flights or change your travel schedule? Share your story in the box below.