Dale Kuhn knew there was some risk involved when he booked a trip from Prince George to Tucson on Flair Airlines.
With only one weekly flight offered by the discount airline he knew it was possible his winter escape to the warmth of Arizona in early February could mean trouble if anything happened to that jet and it was unable to make the return trip back to Canada.
Kuhn’s worst fears were confirmed on Feb. 10 when he arrived at Tucson Airport expecting to board that plane. He and his wife were informed ahead of time the fight was delayed and they got to the airport about 10 a.m. that day. By 10 p.m. when the terminal closed, the problem still wasn’t fixed and they would have to spend the rest of the night in a hotel room.
“We got talking to the local people who work in the airport and that Flair plane had been sitting on the tarmac since Tuesday, not operational, and this was Friday, and of course they don’t tell you that,” said Kuhn. “A maintenance guy came in and said they were working on the plane and finally when the airport closed they said the flight’s cancelled and you have to go. We’d been there for 12 hours.”
The Flair staff in Tucson were unable to determine when the next flight would happen and forwarded a phone number for Kuhn to call. He did that and the agent apologized but offered no solution other than to offer to book him and his wife on the next available flight. He said Flair provided no guarantee that flight would be the following Friday, the next scheduled flight back to Prince George.
The airline offered a list of hotels they could stay in and meal vouchers, but passengers were required to check out of their rooms each day at 11 a.m. and could not return until after they received another hotel voucher early that afternoon, and not necessarily in the same hotel.
What maddened Kuhn was Flair failed to send another plane to pick up either the Prince George-bound passengers or those hoping to get back on the weekly flight to Fort McMurray that Sunday. He and his wife inquired about boarding a Flair flight from Tucson to Edmonton but were put on hold and got nowhere with that option and ultimately booked an Air Canada flight back to Prince George later that Sunday, which cost them $2,000.
“We were travelling with a bunch of people we knew and this young couple with two kids had to both be at work Monday morning in Dawson Creek and they could not afford to spend $4,000 to fly home, so they rented a car,” said Kuhn. “Tucson is near the Mexican border and this was at 10 o’clock Friday night and they were going to drive all the way to Dawson Creek."
Kuhn said he never received any meal vouchers after sending Flair his receipts but after initially refusing to refund any of their flight costs Kuhn said Flair agreed to give him back the $280 cost for each of their return flights. Flair travelers are eligible for $500 refunds due to a cancellation unless it is due to a maintenance/safety issue, which Kuhn says gets them off the hook.
“According to the maintenance staff, the it was toilet that wasn’t working,” said Kuhn. “We all promised to go to the bathroom before we got on but that wasn’t helping.”
The Citizen is awaiting comment from a Flair Airlines spokesperson.
