Whether in response to the various measures imposed by government authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic (border closures, recommendations limiting travel to essential journeys), or following decisions taken by airlines (consolidation or cancellation of flights due to low seat occupancy), many passengers were unable to make the journey they had paid for.
However, despite not being able to benefit from any services, most airlines have long refused to refund them. Instead of a refund, many airlines forced passengers to take out a travel credit.
Claiming that refunding passengers would jeopardize their financial situation1 , they arrogated to themselves the right to keep their customers' money. Consumers were then forced to provide interest-free financing to the airlines, with no guarantee of repayment.
In a statement issued on November 8, 2020, Marc Garneau, then Minister of Transport, made it clear that any additional assistance to airlines would be conditional on consumers being reimbursed2. However, it was only
more than a year later, and only after concluding additional financial support agreements with the federal government, that Air Canada, Air Transat and Sunwing agreed to offer refunds to their customers.
The refund programs offered by these carriers are far from a panacea, however. For one thing, the refund programs in place were very limited in duration. Passengers only had between 2 and 4 months in which to apply for a refund. What's more, the process was not automatic; passengers who had already been refused a refund in the past had to reapply. Passengers who had received a partial refund were not eligible for compensation for the part that had not been refunded. But even more shocking: only travel credits were refunded; passengers who had refused these credits were informed that they were not eligible for a refund, as they had no travel credit.
Option consommateurs also received a number of requests from people who were having difficulty claiming refunds from the travel agencies from which they had purchased their trips. Some agencies were difficult to reach, and did not respond to consumers' voicemails or e-mails. Still others charged extra fees to their customers, so that in reality they only received a partial refund.
