BC family stuck in Saskatoon for three days after Flair Airlines flight was cancelled

Two BC women are searching for answers and have lost hundreds of dollars after their Flair Airlines flight from Saskatoon to Vancouver was cancelled.

Jennifer Langley told Global News her travel nightmare began last Wednesday when she and her family were about to fly home to Victoria after visiting family in Saskatoon.

The flight was canceled just hours before it was scheduled to take off, and she said they were stranded for three days until the next flight.

Langley, who was traveling with her 18-month-old son, four-year-old daughter and mother, said she was put on hold for three hours to get a hotel voucher and ended up having to pay for a second room out of her own pocket.

“The waits were hours to try and even get to an agent,” she said.

On the first night, Flair provided vouchers for a hotel stay and food, but from there, Langley was told to call each morning for more.

The last hotel voucher was not valid and her credit card was charged for both rooms on the third night.

“Even the meal vouchers didn’t arrive until around 6 p.m. that evening. Of course I had to feed my children, so I went to buy them food. My 18 month old didn’t get any food stamps, he didn’t even get anything. It wasn’t even on the hotel list,” she said.

“In fact, I was very fortunate to have a credit card that I could withdraw. But if I hadn’t, I don’t know how I would have fed my children and made sure they had a roof over their heads. It was unacceptable.”

2:15
Okanagan woman stranded at airport for five days loses $10,000

She said she submitted an expense report for approximately $728 and was told by Flair that the claim would take approximately 30 days to process.

As plan B, she plans to file a complaint with the federal passenger protection program.

“If they canceled the flight and gave us the hotel and the vouchers and all that — that would have been one thing,” she said. “You shouldn’t get away with it.”

Krystle McGough was on the same flight and had neither cash nor a credit card to cover the cost of the cancellation.

She told Global News that her parents had to send her money when she was fighting with the airline over vouchers, which also arrived late or didn’t arrive at all.

“It was very humiliating to have to contact Flair every day – multiple times a day – to beg for my apartment and food,” McGough said.

“As someone who has been in this situation before, when I found out I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, I thought I was going to end up on the street.”

2:15
Okanagan woman stranded at airport for five days loses $10,000

In a statement, a spokesman for the airline said it was reviewing flight details and would be contacting its passengers directly.

But according to the non-profit organization Air Passenger Rights, if an airline cancels a flight, it must rebook affected passengers on another within nine hours and compensate them.

If it doesn’t have that capacity, it has to turn to competitors.

“If the airline refuses to pay, you sue the airline in small claims court. My main message to Canadians is that it is not time to go to court,” President Gabor Lukacs said.

It’s a move Langley is seriously considering, and she said it comes down to a matter of principle.

“I’d rather spend the money — I don’t want Flair to have it at this point.”