N.L. couple forced to pay nearly $1,700 for a night in a Montreal hotel after Air Canada delay

An eastern Newfoundland couple who were charged nearly $1,700 for one night in a Laval, Que. motel say Air Canada refused to give them hotel vouchers after their flight was delayed — leaving the pair to pay the hefty bill out of their own pocket.

Craig Sharpe of Bay Roberts told CBC News he and his husband were travelling back from Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday when their flight to Montreal was delayed due to the aircraft experiencing an earlier delay.

Sharpe says an Air Canada employee in Newark reassured the couple that their now 50-minute layover would be enough to clear customs and board their flight to St. John's. 

It wasn't.

Sharpe recalled thinking, "Surely we misses the flight," noting an additional delay on the runway at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

Sharpe says Air Canada didn't have any hotel rooms for passengers who missed their St. John's connection and who were now stranded in Montreal overnight, forced to wait nearly 12 hours for the next eastbound flight.

Sharpe says the couple called a hotel that had 30 rooms set aside for Air Canada passengers carrying vouchers, but the employee handling their delay said she didn't have any vouchers to give them.

"She was like, 'There's no hotel, all the hotels are gone,'" Sharpe said.

"She said ... 'You need to just look for a room, and then when you get a room [Air Canada] will reimburse you.'"

Air Canada said the flight from Newark to Montreal was delayed because of "a maintenance issue" with the original aircraft, forcing them to switch planes.

"We do provide rooms to customers we determine are eligible at the time in certain circumstances, however we also invite customers to submit a claim and we will evaluate it, which is what we have done here," the airline said in an email to CBC News. 

Montreal had just had a one-day hotel strike two days earlier, and the region experienced severe flooding over the weekend.

The hotel crunch meant the only room the couple could find was in Laval — and it cost them $1,455.63 for one night, plus a $200 deposit, which Sharpe says hasn't been returned yet.

They paid for the room out of pocket and are now gathering evidence to send in a claim to Air Canada.