Passengers left stranded in Abbotsford after cancelled Flair Airlines flight

When Ari Isensee, 34, tried to fly to Winnipeg to see his ailing grandmother, he hit a snag.

The flight he'd booked with Flair Airlines no longer existed, and there was no airline staff at the ticketing counter.

Flair Air is blaming the third party website he used to book his tickets for not telling him about the cancellation. 

"When we found out passengers weren't notified, we tried to make accommodations for every single passenger that had booked," said Flair Airlines spokesperson Julie Rempel.

But Isensee says he wasn't notified.

He says his experience raises questions about the reliability of booking discount air travel through third-party providers. When it comes to cancellations, it's actually not clear which party is ultimately responsible for notifying passengers — in some cases each party waives liability, apparently leaving the consumer on their own. 

Chasing a refund

At 8:30 p.m., the night before his scheduled travel, Isensee says he checked Flair's website, picked a seat and printed off his boarding pass. He says there was no indication at that time there was any issue with the flight, nor was there any in the morning.  Flair cannot confirm whether the flight was showing on the website as taking off.

After arriving at Abbotsford International Airport and seeing other annoyed passengers, the Vancouver man says he spent more than an hour on hold with the airline. He says he never got through.

Isensee says he had no ride back to Vancouver, so he walked 3.5 kilometres and then took a two-hour bus ride to get home, ultimately never seeing his sick grandmother.

For Isensee, the task of chasing his refund has been just as frustrating.

"I just keep getting form emails back, saying we're sorry for the inconvenience."

The third party website has told him they will request a refund from Flair, but the success of that depends on the airline's response.

"I'm at a loss what to do."

'F' rating with the BBB

Flair Airlines has only answered two of six complaints with the Better Business Bureau and now merits an "F" rating. 

"The nature of the complaints come down to people who have purchased tickets and didn't get an itinerary. They didn't get a flight [or] they didn't get their money back," said Evan Kelly with the BBB.

Flair Airlines admits it does, on occasion, consolidate flights.

"Being a young and new airline, we have stuff in the schedule that we have to make changes to," said Rempel.

She says the company notifies all passengers who book directly on the airline's website.

"It's quite difficult at times to fill the planes to capacity in January, February and a little bit into March, so instead of flying a plane that's half full, out of Abbotsford, we might ask to consolidate them into one full plane."

Flair is asking customers to be patient.

"We absolutely acknowledge we have customer service issues. We are trying to make good on any and every mistake on the customer service side of things," said Rempel.