Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

Well it's certainly looking better than a few days ago, CA website states that they are planning on getting all previously delayed flights out within the 48hrs and flights from friday 23rd are due to be unaffected.

Hope you get home safely rose, i would have happily traded my seat and lost a day's holiday to get people home, that have been delayed days!

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

Canadian Affair are a Trading division of The Airline Seat Company registered in Canada. The EU rulings may not apply...Also, Canadian Affair are the Tour Operator. They hold the rights - not the Airlines they use. i.e. Thomas Cook may offer a full refund but if you booked a TC flight through Canadian Affair then your contract is with them, not Thomas Cook. Canadian Affair advised their flights were indefinitely delayed - not cancelled and are not offering refunds. They will get you to your destination. Unfortunate if you book with them for a particular reason other than a holiday e.g. a wedding which means you will more than likely not want your flights now!!! :frown:

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

Well just dropped off a nephew who was flying back from Vancouver to London Heathrow today via Air Canada. He got lucky as the plane came in from London on time and he boarded and took off about 30 minutes late so all in all very lucky and the airport was strangely not busy. Could have been a different story the previous day. :eek:
One thing i noticed was that the baggage allowance is 1 bag at 23 kilos (always thought 2 bags were norm for long haul) The check in girl said "use the scales to check the weight, if it's over 23 kgs it's $100. :eek:
What happened to the extra rate per kilo on overweight bags? She said it means he could then take up to 32kgs. Not so good if he had 24kgs!

Worst bit of whole trip was getting out of Vancouver back to Kelowna, the traffic was a nightmare. Hwy 99 south jammed solid for miles, hwy 10 jammed solid then a bit of a rest-bite and then Hwy 1 east bumper to bumper for several kilometers. How does anyone live with that during their daily commute?

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

If anyone is still wondering, we are home! :thumbsup:

Canadian Affair called us at the MIL's at 11.30 pm on Tuesday 20th and told us our flight was leaving next day from Gatwick.

Initially we baulked as I'd discovered on Tuesday that I'd left my PR card at home in Canada! We tried to get up to London CHC in time to get a travel doc, but just missed the ludicrously short office opening hours, and had planned to return early Weds morning to sort that out. We told CA we'd call them right back and after a very short discussion decided that we'd risk re-entry with no PR card despite the CHC lady telling me I'd not be let in!!

However, when we tried to call back to confirm that we'd accept the flight we couldn't get through .... we tried most of the night! .... so after a ridiculously small amount of sleep we pitched up at the airport around 7.15 am Weds (check-in opened at 7.45), still not sure if we'd get on.

Anyhoo, there was no problem with that and we got on the plane and flew the long way around (due west) avoiding the usual route over Iceland (I wonder why???) which took about 10 and a half hours!

Then we waited over an hour sitting on the tarmac for our docking slot to be free. The immigration officer accepted my story at passport control ... I was waving my completed visa application form and photos I'd got all ready for my abandoned trip to CHC .... and then the taxi broke down on the way back from the airport!!!!!! :rolleyes: :rofl:

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

BA has changed their baggage allowance to 1 bag too I think (just after my last trip to the states) - makes even less reason to fly with them over CA these days.

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

Maybe you just rang the wrong person at Canadian Affair. They are excellent for us and have offered us a full refund or rescheduled flight if it gets cancelled, we are due to fly begining of May.

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

We were due to fly back from Calgary on 17th April with CA but had a five day delay.

We were given no assistance whatsoever from them at the airport and simply told that "you are all on your own". Their ground staff were not willing to give us any food or accommodation assistance and all we were given was a phone number to call every few hours - not a freephone one either.

We had to find our own hotel and pay for our own food, living costs and telephone calls and any emails sent to them were met with a blanket "we are not responsible" response.

All costs were reasonable - $99 a night hotel and meals were taken at Mall foodcourts.

Of course, they are responsible as a company registered with ABTA in the UK. On returning we sent them all of our receipts, as requested. They then phoned to say they were not paying a penny of them as the plane was not cancelled only delayed etc etc etc. I pointed out the appropriate EU regs and they just did all they could to try and evade the issue.

I have filed a complaint with ABTA and also spoken to the Air Users Transport Council and both say that CA have a legal obligation to recompense us. We are only seeking to recover our additional costs not compensation - as this is excluded under the "extraordinary circumstances" clause.

Come on Canadian Affair - we paid well over £2,600 for our tickets and if the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet can meet their legal obligations why can't they?

If anyone else was similarly affected please feel free to contact me as, should it be necessary to take the matter to Court, I am legally qualified and will take a class action against them.

Sorry to rant on my first post - but have been lurking and reading on here for sometime as we are hoping to emigrate in the future.

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

The cynic in me says that you are a lawyer looking for ammunition for a class action suit.

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

you cynic!! But yeah - odd for a first post!

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

I think you are being too cynical. I am sure a lawyer would never do anything so blatantly self-serving.

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

I agree!!!! How rude!

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

Thanks for the welcome.

I am a lawyer - a Legal Executive - but not a practising one and NOT seeking to make money from people that is not my style and that is NOT the reason I posted on here.

I was offering to help people in a similar situation and apologise that some of you may have misinterpreted my intentions.

I have been looking in for quite some time as we have been looking to re-locate to Canada for many years. Finally things are moving and that is the reason why we were in Calgary over Easter.

Indeed, I booked with Canadian Affair as I had read and heard so many good things about them from this forum. That is why I posted here in the hope that someone else may have had success in getting their out of pocket expenses back.

My post was out of sheer desperation - we have,at present, bills for almost £800 thanks to our enforced stay at Calgary airport and are upset that the company we booked with are evading their duties.

Sorry if my post sounded legal - it's the training! I was not being cynical or rude had no intention to offend or upset. In fact it was the upset that I was feeling as a result of my rude treatment by the reps at CA that prompted me to seek help and assistance.

I will continue to frequent these forums - and hope that any further responses take the above into consideration.

I frequent many forums and have never received such a warm and friendly welcome!!!!

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

The BE reputation grows..

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

Quite a few snake oil salesmen have tried to flog their wares on here. They are usually spotted quite quickly. Your post, your first post, had a whiff of snake. You've now explained, so end-of.

And welcome.

Re: Volcano - anyone booked with canadian affair
 

Thanks Souvy

I promise, nothing to sell, not even snake oil LOL!