I read a strange story on CBC about a passenger that volunteered to forgo a flight in London UK and did not get fully re-imbursed.
Chris Johnson, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, was in London, preparing to board an Air Canada flight to Ottawa, where he lives. Then the aircraft broke down, and the airline’s ground staff began scrambling to assign passengers to other flights. They called for volunteers who might be willing to wait a day.
“I was on vacation, not military duty,” Johnson told me the other day, “and there were a lot of people who had to get home right away, and I figured I can hang tight.”
He was told to head to the baggage area and collect his suitcase, and wait for an Air Canada representative who would have hotel and meal vouchers. But that person never showed up, he later stated in an affidavit to the Canadian Transport Agency.
Back at the departure area, the Air Canada staff had disappeared. Johnson then got on the phone to Air Canada’s customer service centre in Montreal. Go find a hotel, he says he was told, and submit a claim later.
Johnson then took a bus (not a taxi, because “I was treating their money as though it was mine”) to the airport Holiday Inn, hardly luxury lodging.
He ate supper at the hotel, and breakfast. The bill for the room, including taxes, was 257 pounds, which, if you know anything about London, is utterly average. He ate a modest Holiday Inn meal, and the grand total charged to his card came to $531.56 Cdn.
When he submitted the claim, though, Air Canada regretfully informed him that “our hotel accommodation policy allows up to $100 reimbursement towards your claim. For meals we allow $7 for breakfast, $10 lunch and $15 for dinner.”
Something doesn’t sound right in this story.
Air Canada has always pre-paid for my expenses – I would never pre-pay the expenses and expect them to re-imburse me.
What would you of done?
Here is a link to the story.
