B.C. couple cancels trip due to airline troubles

Wendy Williams and Ellen Balka were to attend Come Home Queer

“We realized there was no way. It certainly wasn’t going to be a holiday if we didn’t have any way home.”

Wendy Williams and Ellen Balka aren’t Coming Home Queer.

That’s because of a situation with a portion of their trip cancelled by Air Canada and the process to rebook so convoluted and expensive, they made the call to abandon their plans.

“We are devastated,” said Balka.

By the time Air Canada gave them options, they’d already cancelled accommodations and a vehicle rental.

Soon after Come Home Queer — a weekend LGBTQPLUS festival planned for July 15-17 in Small Point-broad Cove-blackhead-adam’s Cove — was announced, the Vancouer, B.C., couple booked their tickets on points, on May 11. They were going to be joined on the trip by Balka’s aunt, who was coming from another city.

Becauses she is in her 80s and needs assistance, they feared that because of Air Canada’s changes she would arrive without them, and that added to their ultimate decision to cancel the trip.

The emails from Air Canada started last week and concerned their flights back to Vancouver.

“As only N.l.ers know, it’s pretty hard to get out of N.L.,” Balka said.

They looked at trying to get a ferry from Argentia and then taking a train across Canada, but could get no berths.

“We made the difficult decision to cancel the trip,” Balka said. “We realized there was no way. It certainly wasn’t going to be a holiday if we didn’t have any way home.”

They tried calling Air Canada to rebook, but got a message saying the call volumes were so high they couldn’t even be put on hold.

At one point they saw seats online, but for more than $2,000 each.

“The real insult to injury part of it is the day after we decided we weren’t going to go we got another email from Air Canada saying that our itinerary had changed, putting us back on the same flight (previously cancelled),” Williams said of the St. John’s-totoronto leg being back on.

But by then they had cancelled everything.

“I found it so stressful. I couldn’t stand the thought of what are we going to do if we lose all this other money (from accommodations and car rental).”

Williams said they had every detail booked down to food and were looking forward to the event.

“It’s just amazing … a marvelous idea and a clever play on words,” she said of the spin on Come Home Year 2022.

Going back to the community had special meaning, as they can remember a time nearly 30 years ago when dozens of lesbians would gather in the rural town at summer homes and were prepared with a cover story if confronted with homophobia.

They were prepared to say they were having a Holy Heart of Mary High School reunion — the St. John’s school at the time was all-girls.

Williams, though not getting to attend, is grateful to the festival’s organizers.

Balka said Air Canada should have been able to figure out modelling to tell it which seats it could sell and deliver on based on labour shortages.

Ellen Balka

“It’s not rocket science,’” she said.

She said she’s annoyed it made work for the people they had made arrangements with, including accommodations and rentals.

The first message from Air Canada showed a flight change of two minutes on one leg of the flight, but no cancellations. The next day it showed the entire route cancelled from St. John’s back to Vancouver.

Sunday after the decision was made, Air Canada emailed to say it had them rebooked part way.

“The rebooking only would get us as far as Toronto, and it’s pretty hard to trust an airline that cancels your flight one day and rebooks you on the same flight two days later,” Balka said.

Balka said they might be out $600 as a result of cancelling the trip.

In response to Saltwire Network’s inquiries, Air Canada forwarded its statement issued recently regarding the resources issues affecting the airline industry.

The media relations department also said customers are notified automatically when flights are cancelled. However, it continues to search for alternatives and will advise them if options are available. Otherwise, customers can request a refund at any time.

Gerry Rogers, co-chair and organizer of Come Home Queer, said fortunately so far only three people have had to cancel due to travel troubles.