For those of you with kids, I’m sure you can conjure up pretty specific images about boarding a plane with a child : you get dirty looks, there are heavy sighs, and everyone immediately thinks their flight is going to be ruined. I don’t have kids but I can’t imagine what that feels like…and all before the flight even takes off! However, at least you know you can sit next to your child and try and help them through the flight. Can you imagine buying a ticket and not sitting next to your toddler? Unthinkable. Right? Maybe not.
Caley and Matt Hartney recently discovered, after booking return flights from Vancouver to Toronto for themselves and their two-year-old daughter, Charlotte, that Air Canada only guarantees a child between the ages of two and eight will be seated in the same cabin as a parent or guardian- not an adjacent seat- or even the same row. WHAT?
Unless of course, someone wants to pay the $40 fee to reserve a specific seat.
When the online ticketing system didn’t make sense (I mean who would assume they wouldn’t be guaranteed to sit next to their toddler), Caley Hartney called Air Canada customer service. Once she got to talk to an agent, they confirmed the required fee and referred her to the company’s conditions of service on their website.
According to Air Canada rules, it is only required that a parent of a child aged two to eight is seated in the same cabin as their child.
Ms. Hartney asked to speak to someone else and was told her only route of protesting the fee was to write to Air Canada’s president. And so they did (they are still waiting to hear something). But, in the meantime, they have refused to add the $40 charge to their daughter’s already full price fare, arguing that the current system makes no sense.
From the article:
“My wife refused,” Matt Hartney, an accountant from Burnaby, told CBC News Thursday. “[She explained] that she’s comfortable paying for both adults, but that a child should not have a reserved seat fee, given that a two-year-old should have to sit next to a parent.
You can’t book a two-year-old a seat on their own — the system won’t allow it. You have to add the child to the adult’s ticket,” he added.
If it is the policy of Air Canada, that every time a child flies, to ensure they sit next to a parent they have to pay a $40 charge, then it’s not optional. And if it’s not optional, it should be disclosed up front and included in the fare when you reserve the flight.”
Can you imagine YOUR toddler sitting next to a stranger, trying to figure out what they need- not knowing them AT ALL- for a long flight? Even a short flight?? The very thought is a bit silly.
And what about the family who can barely afford the plane ticket, let alone ANOTHER fee, especially if they have 2 kids, or 3? What about if they have 5? While yes this is all conjecture, the biggest issue is the absurdity of the fee and the fact that it’s not disclosed upfront.
More from the article:
“In an emailed statement, Air Canada said that the seat fees are only an issue on the airline’s Tango fares.
The best way for customers travelling on a Tango fare to guarantee specific seat assignment is to purchase seat selection at time of booking for a nominal fee,” the statement reads.”
To read their entire minor policy, click here.
Source: CBC
