A maid of honor flying from Minneapolis to her sister's wedding in Greece this June says Air Canada lost her bridesmaid dress, canceled flights, and turned what was supposed to be a 24 hour trip home into a four day nightmare.
The passenger, Kailey Hagen, made it back to her 17-month-old son two days later than planned after a friend who is a pilot picked her up and flew them home through a storm.
Kailey said that her relief at never having to fly Air Canada again overwhelmed her other feelings.
The couple's story is one of thousands of trips upended by understaffed airlines. Air Canada announced on June 30 that it would be removing 150 flights per day from its summer schedule in order to cut down on passengers.
Air Canada deals directly with their customers and understands how important it is for customers to arrive with their bags and how frustrating and disappointing it is when journeys are interrupted, according to a spokesman for the airline.
All parts of the global air transport system need to work well in order for the journey to be smooth. Both internally and with our partners, we continue to work very hard to improve the air transportation industry.
Kailey said the initial issue of her lost baggage put a lot of stress on her and her sister as they had to look for a replacement dress the day before the wedding.
The chaos began when their flight from Athens to Montreal was delayed and they missed their connecting flight to Minneapolis. Air Canada rearranged their flight and added a second stop in Toronto.
Arrive in Minneapolis at 8 p.m. instead. We were going to get in at about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. She said that an Air Canada employee said their 6.5 hour wait for support was a regular occurrence recently.
We were awake for 30 hours straight when we got to the counter. Kailey said that they were rewarded for their patience with the Air Canada employee. When she heard our story, she was really upset. She gave us food vouchers and transportation. She was unable to find a better flight.
Their last flight to Minneapolis was canceled after they arrived in Toronto the next day. Air Canada rebooking them onto a Wednesday morning flight to Philadelphia with a connection to Minneapolis.
Kailey told Insider that they had been away for over a week and for over 24 hours longer than they should have been. We didn't know how we were going to get home, so we had to scramble to find a place to stay. We decided to take matters into our own hands because we no longer trusted Air Canada.
When they couldn't find a car at the airport, they drove four hours from Toronto toFlint, where their pilot friend picked them up.
She said that they returned to their house in Wisconsin at 10 p.m. on June 28. They made an eight-hour round-trip drive the next day to pick up their car after it was left at the airport. The entire process took four days.
Air Canada's CEO Michael Rousseau apologized for recent delays in an email to customers.
Rousseau wrote that "things are not business as usual in our industry globally and this is affecting our operations and our ability to serve you with our normal standards of care." There are recurring incidents of flight delays and airport congestion due to a complex array of persistent factors.
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