My mom travelled from Halifax-Toronto-Winnipeg this week on Air Canada on June 30th.
Her early morning flight from Halifax to Toronto was delayed several times before leaving about 3-4 hours late. The reasons for the delays kept changing. Passengers were assured "they would be rebooked on new connecting flights in the air" lol @ that!
When she arrived in Toronto, flight attendants told everyone there would be a group of Air Canada employees waiting to assist them with rebooking missed connections just off the deplaning area. When the passengers got to those employees they were told "not our job, we cant help you".
Everyone then got herded to an Air Canada customer service line that was over 200 people deep. This was at about noon. She estimates that it probably would have taken her until the evening to get to the front of the line.
After waiting in that line for a while, my mom's friend told her about a different Air Canada customer service counter tucked away in an obscure part of the airport no one knew about.
She went to it and got lucky. it was true. It existed and there was no line. She was placed on the 8pm flight (she was originally due in Winnipeg at 11:30 am) and she was also put on standby for two earlier flights including one at 4pm.
Her friend she was with could not be placed on standby because she had checked luggage (don't check luggage because you WILL lose it, and you can't get on standby in case of cancellations!) My mom was smart enough to only bring carry on.
She shows up at the gate for the 4pm flight. On the App she is #9 on the standby list. The flight is delayed by an about 60-90 mins. She manages to get on the flight with about 15 others on standby. The gate agent told her most people on standby will get seats because so many on each flight are missing their connections.
My mom gets really lucky and makes it to Winnipeg at 8pm. If she was stuck in that other lineup, she would have been waiting until the next day, if she was lucky.
There are no hotel vacancies near the airport at all. Airline staff mostly aren't even giving out hotel vouchers, not that would help with no vacancies.
My mom said it was like hunger games in the airport. Overwhelmed families with kids having breakdowns, elderly people bewildered etc, people crying and freaking out.
She was glad she brought a wireless travel charger for her cell phone with her so she didnt run out of battery.
Calling Air Canada or Westjet won't help as it's usually impossible to reach an agent, and if you do, it's probably a minimum of 5 hours on hold now at least.
Do not count on reaching your destination this summer without big delays. Do not check luggage. If it's a short weekend getaway, don't bother.
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