Air Canada Horror Story From Toronto to Boston

We recently went to the Bahamas to Atlantis which I will be writing about soon but first I want to share our horrendous experience on Air Canada returning to Boston. There is no short story to this so bear with me. (Note this is not a sponsored post)

Image credit @AlicePond3

It all started when we got off the plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport. They have a bizarre system that herds people in a room to scan boarding passes and then you wait for your initials to display on a video screen. It is like hitting the lottery when you see your name as our family cheered and we continued on to the next screening. Once we got past this, we thought we were good to go. We were so wrong.

This is what transpired:

• We arrived at the gate at 6:00 which is the time that boarding was supposed to start for a 6:30 pm flight. When we arrived, it was empty at the desk, but we could see the plane at the gate.
• We continued to sit there waiting for a gate agent for two and a half hours with no updates, no one at the gate, and no food options open (even the vending machines were out of order). When approaching another gate agent, I was told I have no information for you and you have to go to Customer Service which was quite a walk. My husband went to Customer Service to be yelled at why are you here, we have no information!
• We watched the monitors continue to update our flight time moving it at 1/2 hour increments to eventually taking it off the display and then reappearing back.
• Finally, a gate agent appeared and told us that she would start boarding us soon. She went on to the plane and then came back about a 1/2 hour later and was on both a phone a walkie-talkie. She then announced she had bad news that our flight crew had timed out and that our flight was canceled. She went on to say don't approach me I can't help you. Everyone needs to go to Customer Service. She ducked out so quick it was like watching a cartoon seeing a character run away with a puff of smoke.
• The whole plane worth of people headed to Customer Service where low and behold no one was there. We all stood there for god knows how long waiting, I was tweeting along with others. Some were trying to call Air Canada. We could see two Air Canada employees above us through the glass just looking down at us not helping.
• Finally, a baggage person from Air Canada showed up and we all gathered around to hear the announcement. We had been rebooked on a flight the next day at 2 pm and we could go to a hotel. They sent him as the sacrificial lamb as he couldn't do anything and really didn't know all the rules of the airport.
• We were then sent up to Customs and put into a line to exit the airport, but the fun doesn't stop there. An announcement was then made by a scary Customs person saying if you flew from Bahamas or Athens to come to the side and we would not be allowed entry into Canada and would need to remain in the airport!!!!
• At that point, we were taken upstairs to a holding area. Luckily a really nice lady who worked at the airport (and we found out wasn't even supposed to be working that day but came in) and told us if we had a US passport and were vaccinated she was working on getting us entry. She was a savior and came back and walked us down to two Customs agents that checked our documentation and allowed us out of the airport. We were lucky to get a nice Customs agent who scanned our Covid tests and let us through. Another family was taken to another room as we all had just done the rapid Antigen Covid test as we were just passing through Canada and the US requires the quick test. Canada requires the PCR test. Luckily after a bit of them talking they let them leave.
• We hopped on a shuttle and went to the hotel I booked while all this was going on. We finally settled in our room by 12:30 am. We returned the next day and the vibe was hilarious. It was like a reunion of stranded travelers and we all bonded and talked over our experience. We also had a lawyer on the plane that took all of our names and information and we are now part of a Facebook Group to discuss.
• Our gate was moved twice, and it really wasn't looking promising but eventually an hour late we did take off.
• Our concerns over our luggage were soon realized as we arrived in Boston and only 2 bags came out on the carousel. One of ours happened to be 1 of those 2 bags. But 99% of the plane was missing bags. We also found out that people saw them putting bags of sand on the plane to weigh it down due to the lack of luggage. Also, at the gate, we waited in Toronto as they said they were counting bags. I guess counting to 2 takes a while. When looking online it says they are still trying to locate the luggage.
• What we later found out is this hell had been going on with Air Canada and the Toronto Pearson Airport. See the article here and here. We also found out that they were holding people on other planes for 2-3 hours saying there were backups at Customs (though Customs said they always blame us, we didn't have backups) therefore the gate agent took too long to come to our gate and by then the flight crew had timed out and could not continue to work.

The lack of communication was crazy!

Due to the Canadian Transportation Agency, we should be entitled to compensation which is why we formed a group for power in numbers to fight.

Also, multiple laws were broken by them with no communication.

I will post any updates on this craziness as I have it.

Update: We have been credited our baggage fee and are receiving a check for our hotel and food. As for the flight disruption claim they said we are not entitled to the $1000 for our flight delay of over 9 hours as it was related to Covid. I am continuing to fight this.