Rob Eedson of Ottawa figured he’d spring for a small upgrade when he purchased Air Canada tickets for a week-long family trip to San Diego in October.
He bought the tickets online and paid extra for three “economy flex” fares — for himself, his wife and four-year-old son — because they included one checked bag per passenger on the outbound and return flights.
“It’s pretty hard to pack light with a young one,” said Eedson. “He wants a lot of toys and everything, so we each needed to check a bag.”
The tickets were on a “codeshare” flight — meaning an airline is selling seats operated by a different carrier. In this case, Air Canada sold the tickets but the Eedsons were travelling on United Airlines.
When they showed up at the United check-in counter, an agent insisted on charging for luggage — again — $40 per bag, despite Eedson showing him an Air Canada receipt for three checked bags.
“He just kind of stuck to the line that I was getting on a United plane and we hadn’t paid United for baggage,” said Eedson. “Very frustrating.”
It’s against Canadian Transportation Agency rules to charge passengers twice for baggage on a ‘codeshare’ with another airline, but passengers tell Go Public it’s happening anyway.
On their return flights, a United agent charged the family for baggage again.
Flights on one booking involving more than one airline have become increasingly common but can be fraught with problems, says John Gradek, an aviation analyst and lecturer at McGill University in Montreal.
On the upside, they expand the number of destinations to which an airline can sell tickets and allow passengers to fly farther on a single itinerary. The downside, according to Gradek, is that passengers can end up getting overcharged for various services when the airlines involved in one itinerary aren’t on the same page.
“It’s a mess,” said Gradek. “Air Canada needs to get its act together if it’s teaming up with another carrier.”
Eedson and his family flew from Ottawa to Chicago and then on to San Diego, taking the same route to get home.
No reimbursement
Even before flying home, Eedson submitted a claim to Air Canada to be reimbursed for the extra luggage costs, but it was denied.
“When a customer’s itinerary includes other airlines, fees may be required by the other airline depending on the itinerary,” wrote an Air Canada representative in an email to Eedson.
But that response violates baggage rules, laid down by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), for flights to and from Canada when passengers have a ticket that involves more than one airline.
The CTA says all carriers must “apply a single set of baggage rules” to the entire itinerary.
The airline that sets the baggage rules is the one whose code appears on the first flight segment of the customer’s ticket.
In Eedson’s case, the code for the entire itinerary was AC, for Air Canada.
“There has to be one set of rules, not two,” said Gradek. “[Otherwise] that’s a major headache for passengers. And that’s not what the rules say should happen.”
An Air Canada spokesperson declined to answer most of Go Public’s questions about Eedson’s case, but wrote that the airline’s policy is “to abide by all applicable laws and regulations.”
However, when Air Canada sold Eedson the tickets, the itinerary included a link for passengers to click, to determine whether charges for additional baggage on a carrier other than Air Canada might apply.
That shouldn’t have happened either, said Gradek.
“It’s totally misleading of Air Canada to sell a ticket on another carrier and tell passengers there ‘may be other rules’ with the other carrier,” he said.
Eedson complained again, to no avail.
“For them to just … stonewall and say ‘no’ is really disappointing,” said Eedson.
But after Go Public contacted Air Canada, Eedson did receive an unexpected refund — from United, which he had never contacted. Air Canada wouldn’t say whether it had been in touch with its codeshare partner about Eedson’s case.
More passengers dinged
Go Public has heard from a handful of other travellers who say they, too, were told they had to pay baggage fees to another airline, after booking with Air Canada.
When Amir Tanoli flew back to Calgary from Karachi, Pakistan, last January with his wife and 20-month-daughter, he says their tickets included one complimentary bag each but they were told they couldn’t take any additional bags unless they anted up $345 to Emirates for each additional bag. That’s despite the itinerary from Air Canada that said each additional bag would cost $100. After disputing the higher charges, Air Canada offered Tanoli a 15 per cent discount off a future booking up to four passengers “as a gesture of goodwill.”
Fatma Maged says when she was returning to Ottawa from Cairo, last April, she was told she owed $567 to Egyptair for two checked bags instead of Air Canada’s rate of $175.
When Esperanza Morales flew home from Bucaramanga, Colombia, to Calgary on a codeshare flight in August, she says she was told she would have to pay $256 to Avianca for a checked bag instead of Air Canada’s fee of $75.
Morales says she felt “extorted,” so she sent an email to Air Canada, the CTA, the minister of transport and her MP.
The airline “deliberately and systematically violates the existing regulations,” she wrote. “It is … very important that regulators apply harsh administrative monetary penalties.”
Ultimately, Air Canada refunded Morales for the excess charge and gave her a $100 travel credit.
In an email to Go Public, Air Canada acknowledged that the three passengers were “charged in error.” A spokesperson would not say whether Tanoli and Maged would also receive refunds.
The CTA does not keep track of how many complaints it has received about extra baggage fees on codeshare flights, according to a spokesperson.
In terms of enforcement, said the spokesperson, the CTA uses a “graduated approach” when an airline is violating regulations, claiming the public is best served “when regulated entities undertake and comply voluntarily” with legal obligations.
The CTA told Go Public that in the past seven years, it has only issued two baggage fee fines — neither involving codeshare flights.
‘A form of hidden pricing’
Charging more than advertised for baggage could also violate the Competition Act, says Eddie Ning, assistant professor of marketing and behavioural sciences at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
“You can argue that this is a form of hidden pricing,” said Ning.
He says there has to be transparency before consumers make a purchase, so people know the full price of what they’re buying.
If two airlines aren’t following the rules and passengers get charged more, says Ning, “that information doesn’t match their expectations. This constitutes … false advertising and deceptive marketing.”
Making sure passengers don’t get dinged twice for baggage is solely the responsibility of the airline that marketed the ticket, says Ning — in Eedson’s case, that’s Air Canada.
“It does not fall with the other carrier because the consumer never had direct communication with the other carrier prior to boarding the plane.”
Eedson says he’s glad he got his money back, but doesn’t want other people who buy codeshare tickets to have to fight like he did.
“I think that this happens to a lot of people,” he said, adding that in future, he’s going to make sure that flights he books are sold and operated by the same airline.
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