More than 17,000 refund claims remain unresolved nearly 90 days after a three-day strike by Air Canada customer-service agents disrupted the peak summer travel season. A CityNews investigation found that passengers continue to wait for reimbursement of rebooking, hotel and meal expenses despite the carrier’s public pledge to clear the backlog by early November.
Air Canada’s internal ‘Commitment to Recovery’ dashboard shows it is processing about 1,400 claims per day, but ‘complex’ files—often involving multi-segment international itineraries—are taking far longer. Business travellers hit hardest include consultants who self-funded last-minute flights to meet client deadlines and expatriates whose home-leave trips were cancelled.
![Three months on, thousands still await refunds from August Air Canada strike]()
Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), airlines must compensate travellers for reasonable expenses caused by labour disruptions within their control. However, claimants report multiple rounds of document requests and a lack of clarity on acceptable receipts. Several affected passengers have filed complaints with the Canadian Transportation Agency, which already faces an 18-month case backlog.
Corporate travel managers are advised to track open claims actively and escalate files exceeding 60 days via Air Canada’s dedicated corporate desk. For future disruptions, experts suggest negotiating service-level agreements with preferred carriers that include expedited refund timelines or travel vouchers to limit out-of-pocket exposure for employees on assignment.
Air Canada’s internal ‘Commitment to Recovery’ dashboard shows it is processing about 1,400 claims per day, but ‘complex’ files—often involving multi-segment international itineraries—are taking far longer. Business travellers hit hardest include consultants who self-funded last-minute flights to meet client deadlines and expatriates whose home-leave trips were cancelled.
Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), airlines must compensate travellers for reasonable expenses caused by labour disruptions within their control. However, claimants report multiple rounds of document requests and a lack of clarity on acceptable receipts. Several affected passengers have filed complaints with the Canadian Transportation Agency, which already faces an 18-month case backlog.
Corporate travel managers are advised to track open claims actively and escalate files exceeding 60 days via Air Canada’s dedicated corporate desk. For future disruptions, experts suggest negotiating service-level agreements with preferred carriers that include expedited refund timelines or travel vouchers to limit out-of-pocket exposure for employees on assignment.
