Travel agency Bordessa Holidays has had to cancel a client’s £15,000 cruise-and-stay holiday at the last minute because of continuing Air Canada cabin crew strikes.
The airline had planned to restart a limited flight schedule on Sunday (17 August), but striking crew defied a back-to-work order by the Canadian Government, meaning around 240 flights that had been scheduled to operate from Sunday afternoon were cancelled.
Bordessa Managing Director Mair Jones found out at 8.35pm on Sunday that today’s 2pm Air Canada Heathrow-Vancouver flight her clients were due to be on was cancelled.
The clients had booked a 12-night holiday, packaged by Bordessa, including seven nights on an Alaska cruise with Princess Cruises and a Rocky Mountaineer trip.
Mair told Travel Gossip she was up until 1am this morning trying to source alternative flights but had to give up as there was nothing suitable.
It would have cost £4,000 to change to an alternative flight, and the only flights she could source were indirect for Tuesday and would arrive too late for the clients to join the cruise.
Mair said: “The worst thing is these things always happens either when I’m on holiday or about to go on holiday. I was meant to be leaving for Southampton at 5am this morning for a Disney cruise. We were an hour late leaving.
“It’s all protected, but the clients were gutted and they’d already made the four-hour journey to stay at a hotel in Heathrow, ready to go today. They have been great though, and Stephen, our Aftersales Manager, will now take over and sort everything out for me while I’m away.”
Air Canada started cancelling flights on Thursday last week ahead of a planned strike over the weekend by 10,000 cabin crew. On Friday, it cancelled 500 flights and stopped all services on Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge on Saturday.
The Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) ordered the striking crew back to work, but the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents the strikers, refused.
Air Canada said it hoped to restart some flights tonight (Monday), but currently, there is no information on which flights will be operating.
All Canadian-bound flights from London Heathrow today are showing as cancelled. This includes flights to Montreal, Calgary, Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa, and Vancouver.
The airline said it would take a week to fully resume its operations following the strikes.
Customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and are advised not to go to the airport unless they have confirmed flights on other airlines.
