
‘I cried’: Air Canada strike costs young Girl Guides member trip of a lifetime
Global News
A 15-year-old Girl Guide's flight from Toronto to London was cancelled because of the strike and lockout at Air Canada, which started the day they were supposed to leave.
One activity planned for this week would’ve been a feather in the cap for 15-year-old Montrealer Mikaela Hosein-Patel after 10 years as a Girl Guide: her first-ever trip to Scotland.
“I was looking forward to the train ride from London to Edinburgh the most, and the (Royal Edinburgh) Military Tattoo,” she told Global News. “I’ve been planning this trip for two years.”
Hosein-Patel and 15 other guides and guide leaders from across the country were to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime trip organized by Girl Guides of Canada to visit parts of the U.K.
They were scheduled to leave Toronto on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 16, for nine days.
When her flight from Montreal to Toronto was cancelled, her dad, Pramit Patel, drove her to Toronto to catch the connecting flight to London’s Heathrow Airport, but when they got there, they got more bad news.
That flight was cancelled, too, because of the strike and lockout at Air Canada, which started the day they were supposed to leave.
“I mean, I was sad and frustrated, just like every other girl that was going to go on this trip,” Hosein-Patel recalled. “Yeah, I cried.”
She had spent the last two years raising funds to help pay for the $5,500 trip. Though the family believes that the airline will refund the fare — about 60 per cent of the cost — the family fears other fees for hotels, event tickets and other transportation might be lost.













