The whole point isn’t that someone bought a cheap ticket and should now suffer the risk that they got the flu. It’s that one person bought a cheap ticket and because the airline won’t bend their rules, everyone else on the plane is at risk. If I paid full fare, and get sick because of somebody next to me, shouldn’t the airline reimburse me my ticket and my medical expenses?

First, I manage a service organization so I know a thing or two about difficult customers. The most difficult of difficult end up speaking with me.. some have valid issues and others are just rude and possibly mentally challenged. I certainly will not excuse rude behaviour but it is part of working with the public and usually those customers will get the least amount of latitude. However, as a company we don’t get to charge people for this ‘inconvenience’. ANY people who work with the public have this challenge – not only airline workers.

I am one of those people who did not take the travel insurance. If I felt that I might be contagious I would just not go on the trip and take responsibility for my earlier decision. However, if I took insurance and then still had to pay out to get back, YES I would feel cheated UNLESS it was very clearly stated in the insurance coverage information. At this stage though I’m lucky that I haven’t left yet – I would definitely be held hostage if I was trying to GET home from somewhere.

Policies can be re-examined and changed if an equitable solution is found for both the carrier and the consumer. I am not an expert in the airline industry, but it certainly seems that the policy makers could consider the feedback and take a look at current practices to see if there was a way to change things even if any qualified, potential ‘loss’ would be charged back to the Federal Government. We are talking about public health and safety which can affect any one of us.

Frank, I get the sense that work for the airlines.. would that be an accurate statement?

Are YOU?

The one’s who yell and scream at the agent when the flight is cancelled. Or throw your tickets at the agent when the flight is late?
Bitch because all the overhead space is gone and you have to check your bag? Throw a fit on the jetway. Snap your fingers at the flight attendant with your superior attitude.

All this behavior is directed at HUMAN BEINGS (simply wearing a uniform). Seriously, I’ve watched airline employees treated worse then DOGS. Isnt it any wonder why some simply shut down mentally and emotionally, because of what they’ve endured day in and day out.

Yet, they’re supposed to care about YOU in return when YOU want an exception to the rules. How ironic.

who’s doing the whining? I’m NOT. How many passengers can get a doctor’s note on a whim and make a SHAM of the airline. Is that uncompassionate or simply UNETHICAL now? Yet, EVERYONE thinks they should be an “exception”. And, how are the RULES unfair when you accept them along with the ticket PRICE?

the only reason Southwest can do this is they have LOW LOAD FACTORS. Most of the year, they’ve been operating at a 70ish percent load factor. Lowest among the BIG CARRIERS. And they have high frequency on alot of routes, allowing the changes.

As it is now, if you miss a flight because of traffic, the ticket is usually effectively worthless anyway. You show up, they rebook you on a later flight, credit back the $300 you paid for the original ticket, charge you a $150 change fee, charge you the $800 walk-up fare for the new ticket – you’re still paying a lot more money to recover even a small portion of the ticket’s value. (And the airline could well have had a standby passenger paying walk-up fare for the missed seat get on in your place, so they may come out way ahead).

In any event, nobody’s saying the airlines don’t have the *legal* right to do this – as you whine on and on about “read the rules”. We’re not saying that these aren’t the rules. We’re saying the rules are unfair and uncompassionate. In the interests of not exposing the rest of the plane of passengers to H1N1, Air Canada could have simply transferred her to a later flight. After all, Southwest manages to allow changes with *no* fees whatsoever, so it’s clearly not impossible to do, and it’s obviously possible to be profitable while doing so.

“Just another quick note, Air Canada is now making people pay for extra leg room, you will never guess in what section, the exit rows. They are now discriminating against tall people, my son who is 6′5 is usually fortunate enough to sit in this row, without extra charges”

AC are not the first airline to do this. In fact, they’re not even the first in Canada to implement this charge. Westjet started doing this last year.

I’m getting tired of seeing people say that the airlines have to change tickets without charge. The truth is the consumer bought the cheapest ticket they could. That ticked comes with restrictions. You can’t make the flight? That’s part of the risk you take buying a cheap ticket.

That’s no different than a home owner getting the lowest coverage possible on an insurance policy. You save some on the monthly premiums, in the hope that you never have to make a major claim. If something happens, well….