Long line, missing COVID-19 papers, wipe out family vacation to Jamaica

A family of five was left devastated after they missed their flight to their $10,000 vacation to Jamaica due to chaos at the Air Canada check-in desk.

But, just a few days after CityNews shared their story, Air Canada Vacations agreed to fly the Milnes family out to Jamaica next week and honour their resort stay at no extra charge.

The family missed their original flight on October 25 despite arriving at Toronto Pearson Airport three hours before their scheduled departure time as was recommended by the airline.

They say that when they stepped into Terminal One, the Air Canada desk was in “utter chaos” due to several flights leaving all at the same time. They could see only six agents on hand to help out, along with one manager.

“It was mayhem,” Nadene Milnes said. “There were just people everywhere. One person is running this way, and another person is running that way.”

The family waited in line for two hours before someone finally pulled them to the front.

“About an hour before our flight,” Ryan Milnes said. “[Air Canada] finally asked, ‘Who’s going to Montego Bay?’ They brought us straight to the desk to check-in.”

When they could finally check-in, they were told that each family member had to fill out a copy of Jamaica’s mandatory travel authorization form. Ryan had filled out one on behalf of the whole family, similar to a customs form. So close to the time of departure, there wasn’t enough time to fill out four more records.

After being directed to contact Air Canada and later Air Canada Vacations, the Milnes found out their only option would be to get on a flight four days later, missing more than half their trip. They declined the offer, and Milnes said they were told to contact the resolution centre, which is only accessible through an online contact form.

Milnes said he also put a chargeback on his Amex card but was told there was no guarantee he would get his $10,000 back.

“For any family to lose $10,000, for a lot of people, that’s a lot of money,” Ryan said.

In a statement to CityNews, an Air Canada spokesperson said:

“Sunday was busy as we had a number of flights departing around the same time. In order to accommodate these and other customers, we extended our regular flight cut-off time in order to board them. In this particular case, however, the customers, unfortunately, did not have the appropriate travel health documents with them to travel to Jamaica. We do advise customers that meeting the entry requirements of any country they travel to is their responsibility.”

Ryan said they are very excited to actually be actually be able to go on the vacation after all in an interview Friday. “I was already under the assumption that were finished that we were here for the rest of the winter. I wasn’t! I was saying no matter what it takes we’re going to go.”

Air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs said Air Canada should compensate the passengers.

“If a passenger is at the airport in the check-in line, there has to be a way for them to check-in, and the airline has to facilitate that,” he told CityNews.

“What Air Canada should’ve done in this situation is rebook the passengers on another flight on any other airline, such as WestJet. It would take them to the same destination. That would have been the bare minimum.”

Lukacs added after hearing the family’s vacation had been rebooked, that he hoped the same situation would happen to the other people on the flight who also missed it due to the long lines.

“What are they going to do to prevent such situations from happening again?” asked Lukacs.

The Milnes family says they spoke out to ensure that a similar situation doesn’t happen to other travellers. Lukacs notes that if you find yourself in a similar situation, take photos of the lines, timestamp them and make sure that you keep all of your documents.