MRS-YUL 6/20 Flight delayed 10 hours, no food/water, no reimbursement
this past Saturday, I flew Air Transat from Marseille to what was supposed to be Montréal. In Marseille, customs for non EU citizens was extremely delayed, taking 2-5 hours to pass. our flight was scheduled to depart at 12:00 local time, but half the passengers hadn’t boarded. The pilot continued to update us on board, telling us “We are trying to make the best decision, we are communicating with Montréal. We are deciding how long we should wait for people.”
They ended up waiting for all the passengers, which delayed us two hours. Still, not the worst situation in the world. However, the two hour ELECTIVE delay caused us to arrive during a storm, and we were diverted to Ottawa. We were kept on the tarmac for 3 more hours, with no food or water. Eventually, they said buses would be available to drive us to Montréal after we passed customs.
For 250 passengers, there were only 2 buses ready. I personally had to wait an additional 3.5 hours for a bus to come to take me to Montréal, which would add another 2 hours to the transit. Again, during this period, Air Transat offered no food or water, denied reimbursement for hotels, rental cars, and food purchases. They had over 4 hours to get enough buses for people and couldn’t do it. My flight was supposed to arrive in Montréal at 14:15, and I didn’t arrive until 01:15 the next day. So the arrival was delayed 9 hours.
AirTransat said I’m not eligible for any reimbursement and that i am not eligible to file a claim for this flight. I understand the weather situation, but treating us like animals for 7.5 hours when EVERY OTHER AIRLINE was able to accommodate their diverted passengers can’t be okay.
What should I do to get reimbursed? They chose to leave late, which caused us to run into weather, then they didn’t have a plan to get us to the destination, and they didn’t provide us with anything they legally have to. Anyone else that Flew with them have any ideas?