Minor denied hotel room by Air Canada after flight delayed, mother says

A mother from Smithers has launched a complaint with Air Canada after she claims her young daughter was denied a hotel room and forced to stay overnight in the Vancouver airport.

Lynn Mackenzie tells CityNews her 16-year-old daughter’s flight was turned around on Saturday due to bad weather and Air Canada provided hotels for everyone onboard — except her daughter.

Mackenzie says since her daughter is a minor and not old enough to check in to a hotel, the airline suggested she could sleep on a bench in the airport and await her rescheduled flight to take her home to Smithers. Mackenzie’s daughter had been visiting friends in Ontario and her flight from Vancouver to Smithers was the last leg of her journey home.

Mackenzie says she received many text messages from her daughter during the ordeal saying how “scared she was.” Mackenzie says she tried to contact Air Canada to see what was going on but adds they were “not helpful.”

She says she was told by the airline that she could not leave a message for her daughter at the gate, and could not get a hold of airport staff directly.

Concerned for her daughter’s safety, Mackenzie ended up paying $500 for a hotel room instead. She adds she could afford this cost, but what would happen to children if their parents could not pay the additional fee?

“Now that I am saying this to other people, they are going yeah, this has happened to me and my child this many years ago… so Air Canada has been aware of these issues for decades and has done nothing to correct the situation,” she said.

She says she launched a complaint with the airline to make sure this doesn’t happen to other parents but has yet to hear back. On Monday, she adds she checked the progress of her complaint and they could not even find her file number.

Air Canada told CityNews in a statement Tuesday that for safety reasons, “the vast majority of hotels will not accept a minor to check-in and stay unaccompanied.”

“We have looked into this particular situation, and we have reminded our airport customer service team to contact the caretaker organization in order to arrange and permit hotel accommodation for minors as per our policy.”

Mackenzie says she understands there are logistics around minors, but there should be a spot in the airport lounge or a list of hotels that do accept minors because this “happens on the regular.”

“Flights get delayed and kids travel alone all the time, especially with these blended families that are all over the world and they just expected her to sleep in the lobby unsupervised.”

John Gradek, aviation expert at McGill University, says that this is not an unusual situation.

“It does happen occasionally and the airline does have processes in place to make sure accommodation is provided for minors … in this case, it seems to have been neglected.”

He says that the passenger and parents should be claiming compensation for the airline’s lack of responsibility.

“Unaccompanied minors are individuals that the airline should be using kid gloves for, these are situations where the parent has entrusted the minor in the hands of the airline and the airline has accepted that responsibility.”

Mackenzie is asking for a policy change to ensure the protection of unaccompanied minors going forward.

“My story is not unique.. and that makes my heart hurt for all those parents out there that might not have the ability or the option to make sure their children are safe overnight,” she said.

-With files from Kate Walker