Air Canada Cancels Flights Amid Strike, Your Refund Rights Explained

Air Canada strike grounds flights, strands 130,000 passengers daily

Air Canada flight attendants go on strike over stagnant wages, grounding most flights and stranding about 130,000 passengers daily.

• Air Canada flight attendants initiated a strike, leading to widespread flight cancellations and limited rebooking options.
• Affected passengers are eligible for full refunds but not additional compensation, as strikes are considered outside the airline's control under Canadian and U.S. regulations.
• Travelers are advised to consider alternative itineraries, focusing on stable routes and refundable connections, and to maintain thorough records of expenses and communication with the airline.

If you're one of the thousands of U.S. airline passengers affected by the Air Canada strike, unfortunately, you don't have a lot of options.

Air Canada's flight attendants went on strike Saturday after their union's negotiators reached an impasse with airline management over wages and compensation in their next contract.

As a result, the airline had to cancel most of its scheduled flights, and it warned about limited rebooking options in a statement.

"Customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and they will be eligible for a full refund, which can be obtained online at www.aircanada.com or through the Air Canada mobile app. The company has made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to provide customers alternative travel options to the extent possible," the statement said. "Customers will be notified of alternative travel options that are identified for them. However, given other carriers are already very full due to the summer travel peak, securing such capacity will take time and, in many cases, will not be immediately possible."

Air Canada is offering a waiver to allow passengers booked to travel between Aug. 15 and Aug. 18 the option to change their flights without paying a fee or fare difference.

The waiver allows passengers with bookings made before Aug. 14 to move their trip to a date between Aug. 21 and Sept. 12.

More details about the waiver are available on Air Canada's website.

According to AirAdvisor, a consumer airline refund website, as many as 27,000 U.S. passengers per day could be affected while the strike goes on. There's no set end date for the action, and if your flight is canceled, you're not entitled to any additional compensation.

"Under Canada’s (Air Passenger Protection Regulation) rules, strikes are ‘outside airline control,’ so no cash compensation is owed," AirAdvisor said in a statement. "Airlines must still provide refunds for unused tickets within 30 days and rebook on partners where possible."

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over Air Canada flights that depart from the U.S., has similar regulations.

"If your flight departs from the U.S., U.S. DOT rules require prompt refunds for cancellations but no mandatory compensation for delays, making travel insurance crucial," a statement from AirAdvisor said.

If you have a flight booked on Air Canada in the near future, it may be worth reconsidering your itinerary.

"For U.S. travellers, the key now is to think strategically. Don’t just look for the fastest alternative route; look for the most stable one. This may mean flying via smaller, less congested hubs like Detroit or Minneapolis, where rerouting is easier, or securing refundable one-stop connections through partner airlines before seats vanish," Anton Radchenko, AirAdvisor's founder, said in a statement. "Keep all receipts, track your communications with the airline, and, if possible, pay with a credit card that includes trip interruption coverage. Above all, treat this strike as a high-impact event that demands proactive planning, not reactive scrambling.”

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.