Refund requests for COVID-19 travel cancellations dismissed by B.C. tribunal
Refund requests for COVID-19 travel cancellations dismissed by B.C. tribunal
Refund requests for COVID-19 travel cancellations dismissed by B.C. tribunal
Travellers wait in line to check-in for a flight at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, July 30, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Multiple travellers seeking refunds for trips cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic recently had their complaints dismissed by a B.C. tribunal.
The decisions, posted Friday by the province's Civil Resolution Tribunal, stemmed from complaints claiming refunds should have been received, but weren't.
In one complaint, two travellers from Prince George booked a week-long trip to the Sunshine Coast costing more than $6,000. The pair was scheduled to leave on May 30, and public health orders preventing travel between designated regions in the province were scheduled to lift on May 25.
Travellers Warner Adam and Sandra Isaac argued they should be entitled to a full refund, but asked for $5,000, which is the tribunal's limit for small claims cases.
Holiday Homes Rental International, which rented out the property through VRBO, "said their cancellation policy clearly addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and said there were no refunds unless a specified exception applied." Those two exceptions were if the property was rebooked during the scheduled stay and if "a government order prevented travel from the Lower Mainland to the Sunshine Coast."
But the health orders in place at the time technically permitted trips between the Sunshine Coast and the Lower Mainland, because they were in the same designated travel area. As a result, the accommodation's exception didn't apply to restrictions prohibiting travel from Prince George to the Sunshine Coast, and tribunal member Shelley Lopez wrote in her decision Adam inquired about and knew the refund policy.
Adam, not knowing the travel restrictions would be extended, signed a contract with Holiday Homes Rental International, acknowledging the refund policy.
"While I accept the applicants could not travel from Prince George given the (public health order), that does not mean HHRI must provide a refund," Lopez wrote.
"Their contract and HHRI’s later offer expressly addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and the limited circumstances under which it would provide a refund."
Their complaint was dismissed.
AIR CANADA REFUND REQUEST DENIED
Another refund request that was recently dismissed by the CRT included return tickets for a flight from Vancouver to Auckland, New Zealand for March 2020. Simon Knight bought the tickets in January of that year, the tribunal heard.
On Feb. 12, Knight cancelled the trip because of the pandemic and ultimately received travel credit. However, Air Canada's COVID-19 refund policy changed on June 10, so he requested a full refund instead.
According to tribunal member Eric Regehr's decision, Air Canada "confirmed in an email the same day that he was entitled to the refund, which would be 'credited to the original form of payment.'"
The problem, Knight claimed, is that Air Canada issued the refund to an expired credit card and he never received the money. As a result, he requested just over $2,800 for the cost of the flight.
"Mr. Knight's primary argument is that he has no way to obtain the refund from his old credit card provider because at the end of every calendar year he shreds 'anything not needed,' including all credit card statements," Regehr wrote in his decision.
"He says he does not know the full card number, has no statements, and has no way of even finding out the credit card provider’s telephone number."
Regehr determined, however, that Air Canada "undisputedly refunded the money to an account to Mr. Knight's credit" and dismissed his claim.
"I am not persuaded that the refund is lost to Mr. Knight simply because he cancelled the credit card. I find it more likely than not that Mr. Knight either remembers or has some way of finding out what institution issued the (credit card)," Regehr wrote.
"I find it would be relatively easy for Mr. Knight to obtain copies of his records (including statements) and determine how to access the refunded funds … I find that with reasonable diligence, he could obtain those records."
Several people have been shot, two suspects have been arrested and police are searching for a possible third suspect after an attempted bank robbery in Saanich, B.C.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a key aide in Donald Trump's White House, told the House committee investigating the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Tuesday that Trump was informed that people rallying on the mall that morning had weapons but he told officials to 'let my people in' and march to the Capitol.
The top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows who is testifying before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot was a young, fast-rising star in the Trump administration.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
A scathing letter from an RCMP communications manager released today says RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki referred to direct pressure from the federal public safety minister to release firearm details in the days after the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
The federal Liberal government has agreed to provide sensitive cabinet documents to the inquiry examining its use of the Emergencies Act during the "Freedom Convoy" protest.
A jury at a coroner's inquest into the deaths of three women murdered by their former partner is recommending that Ontario formally declare intimate partner violence an epidemic and establish an independent commission dedicated to eradicating it.
Several people have been shot, two suspects have been arrested and police are searching for a possible third suspect after an attempted bank robbery in Saanich, B.C.
"Officers initially detained the driver for impaired driving by alcohol, however their focus quickly diverted after noting that he was literally holding in his hands two bricks of suspected cocaine," said Nanaimo RCMP in a release Tuesday.
The premier of British Columbia has announced he won't seek a third term, but will remain on the job until the provincial NDP can hold a leadership convention.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down a law passed by the former Stephen Harper Conservatives that allows a judge to increase parole ineligibility periods for offenders who commit multiple murders. Now there’s fear it could mean sentence “discounts” for other mass murderers.
Ontario's police watchdog is investigating after Ottawa police officers shot and killed a man and injured a woman while responding to the stabbing deaths of two women.
A coroner's report released Tuesday is calling on Quebec to teach new drivers to open their car doors with their right hand in order to prevent dooring incidents with cyclists.
Pembina Valley RCMP charged a 29-year-old woman earlier this month after her 13-year-old daughter and six of her friends were involved in an off-road vehicle (ORV) crash.
A new estimate by Doctors Manitoba shows the backlog of diagnostic tests and surgeries that built up during the pandemic has fallen since last month, but there are still more than 100,000 procedures on the wait list.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a key aide in Donald Trump's White House, told the House committee investigating the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Tuesday that Trump was informed that people rallying on the mall that morning had weapons but he told officials to 'let my people in' and march to the Capitol.
The body of a 19-year-old man who went missing while swimming at the public beach in Buena Vista, Sask. on Last Mountain Lake has been recovered, according to RCMP.
A scathing letter from an RCMP communications manager released today says RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki referred to direct pressure from the federal public safety minister to release firearm details in the days after the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
A high-profile sex scandal involving Prince Andrew is prompting a school in Dartmouth, N.S., to change its name. As of Aug. 1, Prince Andrew High School will be renamed Woodlawn High School, to reflect the name of the street and subdivision where the school is located.
Witnesses said a man used a jack to free a female cyclist trapped underneath a vehicle at the corner of Glengarry Avenue and Fanshawe Park Road East early Tuesday afternoon.
Through the use of MRI technology and spearheaded by researchers at Western University, the cause of long COVID symptoms have been identified for the first time.
A 65-year-old suspect in Timmins has been arrested for disturbing the peace for repeatedly using an "air cannon," or a device that makes extremely loud, air raid-like noises.
Ontario's new natural resources minister, former Bracebridge mayor Graydon Smith, is facing a hearing to determine whether he harmed a threatened turtle species when he was the mayor of the small town.
Being in recovery from a spinal fracture suffered in a car accident one month earlier didn’t stop Katelynn Saengdala, a then 32-year-old manufacturing worker of Kitchener, from saving two people struggling to stay afloat in Lake Erie.
The proposed development at 97 Victoria Street would feature a “campus-style” cluster of common areas, service spaces and housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Travellers wait in line to check-in for a flight at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, July 30, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
