Air Canada apologises for bumping youth off oversold flight: father

Air Canada has apologized and offered compensation for bumping a 10-year-old off a flight, the boy's father said on Monday, after the Canadian family's story sparked headlines following a high-profile incident involving overbooking by US carrier United Airlines. Brett Doyle said his family, who first tried unsuccessfully to check in his older son online, was told at the airport there was no seat available for the boy on an oversold flight from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to Montreal, where they were connecting to a flight to a Costa Rica vacation last month. The entrepreneur from Prince Edward Island said the family of four then drove to Moncton, New Brunswick, to catch a different flight to Montreal only to discover at the airport that it had been cancelled. "I thought it was a joke, that there were hidden cameras or something," he recalled by phone from Charlottetown. Doyle said the family contacted Air Canada in March, but only received an apology and the offer of a C$2,500 trip voucher after the story was published by a Canadian newspaper on Saturday. An airline spokeswoman said: “We are currently following up to understand what went wrong and have apologized to Mr. Doyle and his family as well as offered a very generous compensation to the family for their inconvenience.”<br/>