Frustrated Air Canada Passengers Lose Their Patience Amid Unprecedented Airline Crisis

By now, it is no secret that the popular airline Air Canada is having some serious issues. Due to unprecedented circumstances, the company has had to cancel or delay thousands of flights, leaving a great deal of people stranded in airports across the country. Baggage is being lost with unclear times of retrieval, and needless to say people are losing their patience and are beginning to fight back. 

Many people have reached out via social media to voice their concerns in hopes that something will be done about these absurd conditions as getting in contact with the company is becoming increasingly difficult. 

Many people have begun speaking out, and below are just samples of what people are saying. The topic is getting a lot of attention, even from celebrities, famous sports players, and influencers who are spreading the news across their well-populated pages.  

STRANDED AT PEARSON

Families have been forced to sleep on dirty, uncomfortable airport floors with their young children after learning that their flights have been delayed, and some people are even missing out on their trips all together. 

Air Canada passenger's son, aged 7, sleeps on the floor at Toronto Pearson after flight gets cancelled.
Air Canada passenger's son, aged 7, sleeps on the floor at Toronto Pearson after flight gets cancelled (Neufeld 2022).

FAMILY MISSES THEIR DISNEY CRUISE DUE TO AIR CANADA CANCELLATION

After three days of travelling and sleeping on airport benches under escalators, a couple and their two children missed their Disney cruise altogether because of Air Canada cancelling their flight last minute (Towey, Tabahriti 2022). After numerous delays from their previous connecting flights, their final flight to Vancouver was cancelled entirely (Towey, Tabahriti 2022), crumpling the family's whole plan and making the previous flights all for nothing. 

After months of planning and excitement, the children, and the parents, were devastated, and to top it all off, one of the children tested positive for COVID-19 a few days later (Towey, Tabahriti 2022), likely since they spent their holiday weekend crammed in an airport with thousands of other travellers. 

'AIR CANADA RUINED MY WEDDING'

The Disney family aren't the only one's to have their travel plans ruined. Ontarian Tarick Ali traveling with Air Canada to his destination wedding faced extreme disappointment when he showed up to the venue, but his bags with his suit in it did not thanks to the airline (Lavery, Lord 2022). 

And Ali unfortunately isn't the only person this has happened to. Thousands of people are losing their bags and are in fact not getting them back for weeks, some people saying it's even taken upwards of a month. 

If you were lucky enough to have your bags arrive with you at your destination, you're likely going to face chaos at the baggage claim due to staffing shortages making your travelling even more hectic, though. 

Chaos at baggage claim at Toronto's Pearson Airport (Fox 2022).
Chaos at baggage claim at Toronto's Pearson Airport (Fox 2022).

APPLE AIRTAGS BEING USED TO TRACK BAGGAGE

Many people who have upcoming trips planned for the summer that have not opted to preemptively cancel them are getting anxious about what they might run into at the airport. Apple's AirTag's have recently become a key tool in traveler's lives since baggage has been getting lost. An AirTag is a tracking device that people are putting in their luggage to help them track it in the event it gets lost. 

Apple AirTag
Apple AirTag

The use of these AirTag's have become so increasingly popular that they are almost impossible to find. In fact, over the last 30 days, the search term "air tag luggage" has increased by 300% (Google Trends). The topic "Apple AirTag" has reached peak popularity of 100 in Ontario alone according to Google Trends, with Alberta and British Columbia next in line at 64.

I interviewed traveler Kimberly Carvalho who has a trip to Portugal coming up next week. She said that she went to every single electronic store in Barrie, ON and only one of those stores had one pack of AirTag's left. She bought them as she, too, wants them in case she looses her luggage, but couldn't believe how empty the stores were. 

Kimberly also shared that many of the employees in these electronic stores said that people have been coming in and buying the AirTag's in bulk when the stores receive a shipment so that they can turn around and sell them and make a profit off of them. The employees were not surprised when she walked in asking for the product as that has been their most popular item as of late. 

References 

Fox, C. (2022, June 29). Canada's Transportation minister slams 'unacceptable' baggage chaos at Toronto pearson. Toronto. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/canada-s-transportation-minister-slams-unacceptable-baggage-chaos-at-toronto-pearson-1.5968289

Google Trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%201-m&geo=CA&q=air%20tag

Lavery, I., & Lord, R. (2022, July 10). 'Air Canada will ruin my wedding': Frustrated passengers lash out amid ongoing delays. Global News. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/8974769/travel-delays-cancellations-canada/

Neufeld, A. (2022, June 28). Mother forced to spend night sleeping on Toronto Pearson floor because of Air Canada delays. Toronto. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/mother-forced-to-spend-night-sleeping-on-toronto-pearson-floor-because-of-air-canada-delays-1.5967165

Towey, H., & Tabahriti, S. (2022, July 17). A family of four missed a long-awaited Disney Cruise after Air Canada cancelled their flight, joining hundreds of passengers with vacation plans foiled by Summer Travel chaos. Yahoo! Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/family-four-missed-long-awaited-165112121.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHCtUJ_sdAdn878KzqeQ_H50qwstHz38jKPwlWbI1olH88q-uSveWKYHRuAlrjpl7InaAbvwnGZSouZ62dHumOvMP2u6TWyI2awyhQz4p0OhELqf0f8hc4Erp07vh_l-jUULuO7XRRHEJH_-g8qJGLTo4Bg8TNR0YpUsx2zrmPKn

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