Australian couple stranded on Vancouver Island after Air Canada refuses to provide refund

Australian couple Jarrah Duckett and Em Jackson came to Canada a year ago with plans to travel around North America.

“We obviously didn’t plan on a pandemic,” said Duckett.

They moved to Victoria in March, and have been here ever since — working and saving — planning their eventual trip home.

“In June, my grandma was diagnosed with cancer, quite suddenly and she passed away in July. At that time we weren’t able to go back, there were no flights at the time,” said Duckett.

Since then, they’ve been trying to get back to their families but tickets to Australia are not only rare but expensive — especially since Duckett and Jackson are only working minimum-wage jobs while abroad.

So when a sweet deal popped up from Air Canada to fly them back in September, they jumped on the opportunity.

“All the stars had finally aligned. We were so excited and so we gave them nearly $3,500 which was what we saved. It was all of our savings from the year. It took us a lot of time to save up that money, but I was happy to hand it over to see my family at Christmas,” said Jackson.

They were cleared by the Australian government to come home on Dec. 2. They gave up their Victoria rental, quit their jobs, and told their family they’d be home for Christmas.

“It seemed too good to be true, and it was,” said Jackson.

The couple had a feeling something might be wrong after Jackson mentioned their travel plans to a customer at her work who just happened to be an Air Canada employee.

“The customer said, ‘Hold on, I work for Air Canada. We’re only running cargo flights to Australia. You might want to ring the airline and check that,'” said Duckett.

So they did call and found out their flight had been cancelled — leaving them stranded in Canada.

Duckett and Jackson said their Dec. 2 flight never took off and without that customer’s advice, they say they never would have known.

They claim they never received an e-mail, phone call or any communication from the airline informing them the flight was cancelled but instead got an e-mail three days before their flight was due to leave informing them of the weather in Australia.

What’s even worse, the couple was told they would not be given a refund, but that they could apply for a “transferable voucher” once the date of the planned flight had passed.

“The vouchers are useless for us if they aren’t flying to Australia,” said Duckett.

The whole ordeal has left both Duckett and Jackson heartbroken.

“First, you’re not going to be home for Christmas, and second of all, you’ll be in Christmas in Canada, with no money,” said Jackson.

In a statement to CHEK News, Air Canada said it has been providing refunds to customers holding “refundable” tickets.

“Since the beginning of the year, we have refunded approximately $1.2 billion in refundable tickets,” the company said in an e-mailed statement.

Customers holding non-refundable tickets, Air Canada said, are given the option of taking a travel credit with no expiry date that is “fully transferable” or converting their booking into Aeroplan points for an additional “65 per cent” bonus.

“Our policy is in accordance with direction given by the Canadian Transportation Agency,” the company said, adding that their policy is actually better than what the CTA recommends.

Not all airlines are allowed to fly to Australia

Australia, which has less than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, has strict border control measures in place.

Everyone coming in has a mandatory two-week quarantine at a designated hotels. With limited hotel space, only a number of airlines are allowed to fly in from North America.

When the pair bought their tickets, only one airline — United Airlines was on the Australian government’s list of allowable airlines from North America.

The couple says they didn’t know about that and is questioning why Air Canada sold tickets to Australia when they were never allowed to land there in the first place.

“I feel like I’ve been taking advantage of,” said Jackson. “Air Canada knew that people were wanting to get home especially at this time of year and to deliberately post these flights at such an affordable and nice fee, they knew people would be snatching up those flights.”

Duckett questioned whether Air Canada would have even sold the flights if they were required by law to provide refunds to customers.

“I have to wonder, if Air Canada was required by law to refund customers, would they have sold the tickets? I don’t know,” said Duckett.

Since the pandemic started, Canadian airlines have been handed $1.4 billion to help with layoffs and other expenses. The federal government says they’ll give more funds, but only if all customers are refunded for any cancellations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Air Canada said they can’t afford to give refunds without the bailout, but the government says they won’t provide money unless customers are refunded. Where does that leave us?” questioned Duckett, frustrated at the apparent “Catch 22”.

Even though they’re in an unfortunate position, they are calling themselves lucky because they can still work in Canada, which is not the case for hundreds of other stranded Australians.

“Some Australians, their visas had run out. They were required to switch over to a tourist visa, so they couldn’t work. They have no money, no way to get a job and their money is tied up with Air Canada on a flight that doesn’t exist,” said Duckett, who’s part of multiple Facebook groups containing Australians from across Canada and the world, who can’t seem to get home.

For now, the couple will be in Victoria and are extremely appreciative of Victorians, who have welcomed them with open arms.

“We’re both very grateful to be in Victoria at this time, such a beautiful city, and the community is just awesome. We’ve made close friends here. We’re lucky to have extra time on our visas, lucky to have each other,” said Duckett.

They have no choice but to start the saving process all over again, so they can eventually go home.

READ MORE: Air Canada reports $685M third-quarter loss, ridership down 88% compared to 2019

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