Air Canada has had a really rough week. Air Canada flight attendants went on strike as of Saturday, August 16, 2025, as part of a pay dispute (or technically they were locked out, after issuing a strike notice). That ended up lasting for nearly four days. The government tried to force flight attendants to return to work, but they initially refused, before ultimately agreeing to mediation.
For any of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who were impacted by the strike, Air Canada has at least made a positive announcement with regards to the extent to which the airline will take care of expenses that have been incurred…
In this post:
Air Canada will cover more out-of-pocket expenses
It’s officially taking Air Canada 7-10 days to fully return to a stabilized operation, though today, the carrier’s full fleet is back in the skies. The airline has also updated its goodwill policy, to cover reasonable additional accommodations and out-of-pocket expenses incurred by customers as a result of the labor dispute.
This policy applies to those who were originally due to travel between August 15 and August 23, 2025. With this policy, Air Canada will cover any reasonable expenses incurred, for hotel stays, meals, ground transportation, flights on other airlines (in situations where Air Canada couldn’t rebook passengers in a reasonable timeframe), etc.
Air Canada states that claims must be supported with receipts, and submitted through the carrier’s customer relations portal. Air Canada will address the claims as quickly as possible, but expects it could take up to six weeks to process all claims.
Here’s how Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s EVP and Chief Operations Officer, described this:
“Air Canada’s 40,000 coworkers, with their exceptional commitment and expertise, have allowed us to restore operations ahead of plan. We now expect to be operating very close to our normal schedule tomorrow. We deeply apologize to all customers whose travel plans were disrupted, and we’re committed to making things right for all customers — particularly those who were stranded during their trip. Earlier this week, we put in place a special commitment to reimburse out-of-pocket transportation costs, including on other airlines, rail, ground or ferries. Today, we are taking another step forward, delivering with our policies to make things right. This updated plan includes reimbursement for reasonable accommodation, meals, necessary transportation and other costs.”
This is the level of care consumers should expect
In its announcement, Air Canada explains that it has updated its “goodwill policy for customers to exceptionally include accommodation and out-of-pocket costs.” I mean, I suppose airlines don’t usually want to cover some of these kinds of expenses, but this just seems like the most basic level of care that should be provided when you have a labor dispute that could have been avoided.
This whole strike situation just feels very Lufthansa Group-esque, in terms of how it just should’ve been avoided altogether, and is an embarrassment for the company. I’ll just keep my opinions to myself beyond that so I don’t ruffle too many feathers, but it sure seems that if Air Canada hadn’t lost a certain executive in 2018, these negotiations would’ve gone a bit more smoothly…
Bottom line
Air Canada has improved its commitment to customers following the flight attendant strike, and is now promising to cover out-of-pocket expenses, including accommodation, ground transportation, etc. These are all things you’d expect would be covered, but it’s now official. I can’t imagine all of this will be very cheap for the airline.
What do you make of Air Canada’s customer commitment following the strike?
Its amazing how Air Canada is now willing to fork out the cash, but for its flight attendants it wont pay them properly. With the treat of fines, jail, and the eventual arbitration, the Union caved and got the flight attendants are whole extra hour on small body, and an hour and 10min on wide body. Let's hope there are no delays; oh yah it Air Canada, offering course their will be. The Flight Attendantsare...
Its amazing how Air Canada is now willing to fork out the cash, but for its flight attendants it wont pay them properly. With the treat of fines, jail, and the eventual arbitration, the Union caved and got the flight attendants are whole extra hour on small body, and an hour and 10min on wide body. Let's hope there are no delays; oh yah it Air Canada, offering course their will be. The Flight Attendantsare still going to end up working for free. But now after they screw up everyone's vacation, strand people around the world, they are amending there good will policy to give people a few bucks back. What a joke this airline is. Pay your flight attendants when they are at work. The board of directors should fire all the executives that made these awful decisions and replace with human beings.
The problem is define reasonable. I suspect that the reimbursements will be harder to claim than they suggest.
Never again will I buy an AC ticket. Unfortunately we have tickets from SIN-YUL in December which we bought a while back. So I have two more flights. But we are done after that. Luckily we live in Bali where we have options for long haul and aren’t captive AC customers like people in Canada.
I'd say it's a combination of losing a certain executive in 2018, and a certain CEO retiring in 2021 and being replaced by a less than impressive CFO.
This whole situation was so badly misread by AC and the Canadian Government alike, and I'm pleased Canadians broadly responded as they did, which was to largely side with the FAs. AC has taken a big and unnecessary image hit from this (especially since it sparked negative international attention), and the Liberal government also has, according to polling, taken it on the chin for their anti-union stance.
"or you were offered alternative flight options that depart more than 5 days from your original departure"
so if so you were due to travel on Aug 17th, and AC offered a flight on Aug 21st, you wouldn't be refunded if you booked an alternative flight for yourself on the 18th or 19th?
Not very generous
AC really had to cover this....they were already on the hook for ex-UK/EU flights anyway. If they tried to differentiate between Canadians and Europeans....then they would get even more bad press.....So they can make a PR win here and they did.
AC and the Canadian government learned thier lessons here. The embarrassment on the part of the Canadian government is amazing to see given thier last 10 years in power.
2018....i think it was a Ben you are missing?
when companies have dominant positions in markets, customers expect them to deliver. AC is doing what it has to do to win back its customer base but it wiped out the rest of the year's profits and a chunk of what they already earned.
The lesson that should be learned is that labor can and will stand up for what it believes is right and that trying to get the government to put its finger...
when companies have dominant positions in markets, customers expect them to deliver. AC is doing what it has to do to win back its customer base but it wiped out the rest of the year's profits and a chunk of what they already earned.
The lesson that should be learned is that labor can and will stand up for what it believes is right and that trying to get the government to put its finger on the scales will backfire.
and given that UA's FAs are still without a contract, it is likely they learned a lesson or two from AC's FAs.
Everyone knows you idolize that executive you’re hinting at, but you’ve got it wrong. Flight attendants and union reps didn’t respect him. They distrusted him, and many outright despised him. The infamous 10 year deal was widely seen as collusion between him and the union president, and it only squeaked through by about 40 votes. There was never going to be trust with him at the table, so pretending he would’ve smoothed this over is pure fantasy.
The FAs didn't get much out of this, so expect the same scenario in 4-5 years. It's really amazing how poorly they are paid.
Yet they stick at it for ten, twenty, maybe even fifty years...
The loser FA’s should pay for this. AC wanted to maintain ops.
Why though? When FA's concerns are not being heard, their only option is to protest like this (thanks to union support), or quit. The FAs could mass quit and AC's operations would be downed in a matter of weeks. I'm not sure if you saw the paystub that was widely circulated but $34k CAD as an annual salary when you're working effectively full time in one of the most demanding jobs (with safety, travel, inability...
Why though? When FA's concerns are not being heard, their only option is to protest like this (thanks to union support), or quit. The FAs could mass quit and AC's operations would be downed in a matter of weeks. I'm not sure if you saw the paystub that was widely circulated but $34k CAD as an annual salary when you're working effectively full time in one of the most demanding jobs (with safety, travel, inability to see family) is outrageous. What the FAs were asking for is certainly reasonable, and I honestly think that policy of getting paid during boarding should be in place for all US airlines too.
Yeah the vast majority of people are not unionized, and they seek other employment all the time (and they’re just fine). It’s incentive to grow or move. Being an FA is a dead end job with no promotion available. There’s nothing noble about ruining other people’s vacation plans, honeymoons, or ability to attend a wedding or funeral, etc.
Imagine a free market for FA’s. The best paying airlines would attract the best talent. Senior at...
Yeah the vast majority of people are not unionized, and they seek other employment all the time (and they’re just fine). It’s incentive to grow or move. Being an FA is a dead end job with no promotion available. There’s nothing noble about ruining other people’s vacation plans, honeymoons, or ability to attend a wedding or funeral, etc.
Imagine a free market for FA’s. The best paying airlines would attract the best talent. Senior at AA but want to work for DL? Too bad because your seniority won’t transfer. This system would be best for consumers, successful airlines, and good FA’s. It would only be bad for bad FA’s. Your meaningless and misguided empathy don’t make you a good person.