What should you do when your flight is cancelled? When does an airline have to compensate you? Here's a travel guide if you're flying over the holidays

Data from October showed that more than half of Canadian flight delays in 2022 were due to reasons within the airlines' control. And Canadian airlines have a much higher proportion of flight delays than their American peers.

Despite efforts by the federal government to give more teeth to the regulations around passenger compensation, one advocate, Gabor Lukács — president of the website Air Passenger Rights, said the regulations still don't go far enough.

Lukács recommends passengers be dogged in their persistence when it comes to holding airlines accountable for delays, especially when they're owed compensation. He recommends always recording and documenting responses from staff and asking key questions. For example, in the case of a technical malfunction causing a delay, Lukács said passengers should ask: "What was the aircraft identification number? What was the nature of the mechanical problem? When was it discovered? Where was it discovered? When was it repaired?"

"The airlines would love to say that anything and everything is due to weather," Lukács said, as weather delays often free the airline of responsibility for compensation. "That's a nice story, but it may or may not be true."

Here’s what air travellers need to know about their rights and avenues for getting compensation, according to Canadian air passenger rights legislation with some tips from Lukács.

When can I get a refund or compensation?

Compensation and refunds depends on the size of the carrier and whether the flight was domestic or international. Larger airlines, like Air Canada and WestJet, are subject to different compensation regulations than small carrier airlines, like Sunwing and Porter Airlines. Similarly, domestic flights fall under the authority of the Canadian Transportation Agency, while international flights fall under the Montreal Convention, which covers most international flights.

Passengers need to go through their airline first for compensation — even when they have booked through a travel agent or third party. That usually means communicating with the airline over the phone, online or in-person at the airport. If a passenger is denied compensation, they can complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency through the agency's online form or file a claim in court, but not both according to Lukács.

What to do when your flight is cancelled because of the weather

Air Canada had the worst on-time performance among the 10 largest airlines in North America in July, according to a report.

At least 60 departing flights were cancelled on Christmas Day at Toronto’s Pearson International last year due to extreme weather. Many were left stranded with cancelled Christmas dinners, oftentimes the first family gatherings since the COVID-19 pandemic began. When Sunwing left passengers stranded in Cancun during last year's holiday season, with what passengers described as little to no communication, the airline blamed the delays on the weather, leaving many who were trapped in Mexico without any avenue for compensation.

If a flight is delayed at least three hours, the airline is required to rebook the passenger, free of charge, on the next available flight. The newly rebooked flight must leave within 48 hours of the original departure time.

Large airlines are required to rebook the passenger on any airline, even a competitor. For small airlines, the requirement to rebook only extends to airlines they have a commercial agreement with.

If the flight doesn’t depart within 48 hours of the original departure time, or if a refund is requested before a passenger is rebooked, airlines have to provide a refund within 30 days.

Lukács, however, warned against taking airlines’ claims of weather delays at face value and recommends looking out for other departing flights to check if weather is the actual cause of a delay.

What to do when your flight is cancelled because of a strike

Strikes that paralyze airlines are rare, according to Lukács. Recent negotiations by pilots from WestJet avoided a strike at the eleventh hour while Air Canada pilots are in the midst of negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. Experts noted a strike isn’t on the horizon, and most likely won’t affect holiday travel.

Because strikes fall into the category of delays outside of the airline’s control, the same rules for rebooking and refunds as weather delays apply.

What to do when your flight is cancelled because of a system outage

In April of last year, a Sunwing system outage left thousands of travellers in limbo, with stranded passengers sleeping in both Toronto and Cancun’s airports. Similar cases, where the airline is responsible for the delay, including situations where flights are cancelled due to low demand, have broader avenues for compensation. 

Stricter rebooking rules apply for situations where airlines are responsible for the delay. Larger airlines are required to rebook passengers on a flight operated by an airline it has a commercial agreement with departing within nine hours of the original flight. Failing that, passengers have to be rebooked on a flight from any airline within 48 hours.

Smaller airlines have fewer obligations, and do not have to rebook passengers on an airline that they do not have a commercial agreement with.

Passengers can also request a refund, with the condition that the refund does not expire and must refund passengers within 30 days.

For cases within the airlines control, passengers are owed compensation if the flight was cancelled 14 days or less, or if the passenger arrived late to their destination.

Compensation ranges from $400 to $1,000 for delays over three hours on large airlines and from $125 to $500 for similar delays on smaller airlines.

What to do when your flight is cancelled due to a mechanical malfunction

Delays and cancellations for safety reasons don’t require compensation, according to the Canadian Transportation Agency. However, the same rules for flights delayed within the airlines control surrounding rebooking and refunds apply. Airlines are required to provide passengers with snacks and drinks if the plane isn’t in motion. After three hours, unless there is an imminent chance of takeoff, airlines are required to let passengers off the plane.

What to do when your luggage is damaged, lost or delayed

In the aftermath of the holiday travel chaos at Pearson last year, mountains of lost luggage piled at the arrivals area, leaving travellers stranded without clothes, winter gear, and presents.

For any lost or damaged baggage, travellers are owed their baggage fees and up to $2,350 to replace items with the caveat that damage resulted from the quality of the baggage is exempt.

Passengers have to submit a claim to the airline — either over the phone, online or in-person — within seven days and any bags that aren’t returned within three weeks are considered lost.

What to do when you are denied boarding or kicked off your flight

Air Canada apologized last month for kicking two passengers off a flight after they complained that their seats had been smeared with vomit.

Lukács said the case involving Air Canada and the vomit-smeared seats was extraordinary, and more often, passengers will be denied boarding in cases of overbooking or for health and safety reasons.

Otherwise, in cases where passengers are denied boarding, either within or outside of the airline's control, they are obligated, at minimum, to rebook the passengers. Carriers are also required to provide reasons for the denial of boarding. In cases where compensation is owed, depending on the length of the delay, passengers can get between $900 to $2,400 in compensation.