Strike at Air Canada: travelers stuck abroad are in full blur

As a result of Air Canada’s labor conflict, travelers find themselves blocked all over the planet, plunged into uncertainty, and they deplore the lack of clear information from the airline. Many fall back on social networks hoping to glean useful information.

Since Martinique, Julie Therrien has shared her dismay. On vacation with her family, she was to return to Quebec today, but learned the cancellation of her flight by email last night. We suspected it, but we still kept a little hopeshe says.

She first received a message that proposed a refund and indicated that the company was looking for other flights, before receiving, two hours later, another very generic message that annoyed many travelers. Air Canada tells us having explored the options with 120 carriers and that there is nothing for us for three daysreports Ms. Therrien.

A little later, she managed to speak to an agent who offered her a return flight for August 20, but with four stops, and the difference in the price to pay for her pocket, Air Canada only covering the equivalent of the price of the initial flight.

For the moment, she has not made a decision. She did her own research and spotted a flight that would take them to Miami and then in Boston, with an 18 -hour stop at Trinidad Tobago. However, this alternative would cost him very expensive. What is difficult is that we do not know if we can have a flight in three days, four days, a weekshe deplores. And then there is this uncertainty: if it spends thousands of dollars for a return flight, will Air Canada reimburse it?

We do not know if we have to manage for accommodation, food, car rental, we do not know what can be reimbursed.

However, she recognizes it: she is not in danger. There is no war, we are not in a country in difficulty, but what is hard is not to know anythingshe testifies, the voice strangled by emotion.

The most scary, for her, is the situation of her two daughters. One returned to Cégep on Monday, the other at the Faculty of Medicine. The big one cannot afford to miss a week of lessons in a program of this scaleshe worries.

The announcement of a restoration of the situation within five to ten days therefore does not reassure it at all.

Julie Therrien is far from being the only one to live this anxiety. In Vietnam, Julie Gauthier is also plunged into uncertainty, even if her return flight is planned in two days and that she is first part of the trip, to Los Angeles, with another airline. Teacher, she resumes work on Friday, but for the moment, she does not know which decision to take because her flight is not yet officially canceled.

If I have to wait at Los Angeles airport, will my hotel be paid?she wonders. Reading the testimonies of other travelers, Julie Gauthier has the impression of not being able to count on Air Canada to have answers.

The only information I have managed to have is via social networks and passenger law groups.

The cancellation of flights leads to ubiquitous situations, as Keelin Pringnitz, from Ottawa, tells, CBC. Back from a trip to Norway and the Faroe Islands, she is stuck with her family at Heathrow Airport in London. Air Canada offered passengers of its canceled flight to board another plane to the United States, but stating that no assistance will be offered to them after landing.

No one was really interested. Everyone seemed a little amused by this suggestion, or exasperated, because it is ridiculous to offer passengers trapped somewhere to take them to another country where they will find themselves stuck againrelate-t-elle

The vagueness therefore reigns for all the travelers concerned and does not seem ready to dissipate.

Despite the drawbacks, Julie Gauthier supports the on -board staff strike, whose bad working conditions she regrets. I find it absurd that in 2025, they had unpaid hours. Julie Therrien, for her part, does not know if she will still trust the Canadian carrier for a next trip.

With the information of Louis-Philippe Trozzo and Racy Rafis, of CBC