‘Frustrating and disappointing,’ says passenger after 47-hr travel experience from U.S. to Canada

A Canadian who was travelling from Virginia to Sudbury, Ont., via Toronto alleged that an eight-hour trip turned into 47 hours due to changes and delays.

An international trip that was meant to last eight hours from the airport to the traveller’s destination ended up totalling 47 hours after several “frustrating” flight changes and delays, a Canadian who was flying into Sudbury, Ont., from the U.S. via Toronto told Global News.

In addition, the passenger alleged the airline failed to notify him of one of the flight changes and that he wasn’t given a hotel voucher for one night as a result of the change. He also said he wasn’t provided with any meal vouchers.

“To me, this story really, really stood out in the level of how egregious it is,” said Gábor Lukács, the president of Air Passenger Rights, an advocacy organization.

“Everything that happened here makes zero sense.”

Sean O’Reilly, 34, was originally scheduled to fly from the Dulles International Airport in Virginia to Sudbury, Ont., via Toronto on Sept. 24 with Porter Airlines. Within a week pf booking his flight, he said the airline cancelled it and pushed back its service restart date, giving him the option of a cash refund or credit plus a bonus credit.

O’Reilly took the credit option. He had always had positive experiences with Porter in the past and expected to fly with the airline again. He booked his second flight with the credit for Oct. 10, from Dulles to Sudbury via Toronto. He  said he was notified of a minor time change, though this was far in advance.

“The next email I received was the day before my flight — it was a web check-in,” O’Reilly said. “I followed the web check-in link, put in my reservation number and my name, and it said there’s a problem, call in to find out what the problem is and sort it out.”

O’Reilly said he spoke with a Porter Airlines representative on the phone, who advised that he had been randomly selected for a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) check, which required him to go to the counter at the airport. Otherwise, he said he was told the flight was still scheduled as planned.