Air Canada walks back compensation denials after thousands delayed due to tech issue

Air Canada said Friday it made a mistake in rejecting some compensation claims from the thousands of travellers affected by flight delays caused by computer malfunctions in recent weeks. In messages to some customers, the airline initially said the information technology fumble was out of its hands, relieving it of obligations to pay them compensation. “In this instance, the compensation you are requesting does not apply because the disruption was caused by an event outside of our control. This flight is delayed due to an unforeseen technology issue, impacting one of our suppliers, which is impacting our operations,” the airline said Thursday in an email to passenger Douglas Judson. Judson said he arrived more than three hours late after his June 1 flight from Winnipeg to Toronto was delayed due to the IT defect. “I find the dishonesty and disrespect of it the most galling,” he said in a phone interview. “Some really interesting logic puzzles at Air Canada as to when something is actually their fault.” While denying his compensation request, Air Canada offered him a 15% fare discount on any upcoming flight as a “goodwill gesture.” When contacted by The Canadian Press on Friday, the Montreal-based airline said the response stemmed from an error. “Air Canada is offering compensation in line with APPR (Air Passenger Protection Regulations) compensation levels for flights which were affected by the IT outage. Some passengers had received erroneous responses from us, and we are in the process of re-contacting them with the correct responses,” spokeswoman Angela Mah wrote. Judson received an email Friday afternoon offering an apology and $400 in compensation.The country’s largest carrier has struggled with intermittent computer problems over the past few weeks.<br/>