Air Canada bumps boy off flight, apologises to family

Ottawa April 18 (IANS) Canada s largest airline Air Canada has apologised and offered compensation to a family after bumping their 10-year-old son from one of its overbooked flight to Costa Rica.

Shanna and Brett Doyle booked four tickets last August for the family to travel from Charlottetown to Costa Rica National Post reported on Monday.

But when they tried to pick tickets for their seats a day before their March vacation this year they couldn t get a seat for their son Cole.

After hours on the phone with Air Canada Doyle s wife drove to the airport and was told the flight was oversold and their son had been bumped.

The family then drove to Moncton New Brunswick to catch a different flight to Montreal -- only to discover at the airport that the flight had been cancelled.

Air Canada said it has apologised to the Doyle family.

We are currently following up to understand what went wrong and have apologised to Doyle and his family as well as offered a very generous compensation to the family for their inconvenience Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur said.

The family said it only received an apology and the offer of a C$2 500 ($1 870) trip voucher.

--IANS
soni/vt