Turns out Air Canada doesn’t treat couples who don’t share the same last name too favourably when it comes to sharing vouchers.
On Monday, Calgary author Chris Turner tried to transfer an Air Canada voucher to his wife, but was stonewalled by the carrier for security reasons. He then took to Twitter to share his frustration.
Others quickly jumped in to Turner's defence.
But the airliner stuck to its guns.
Some even went as far as to suggest sexism.
Then the airliner issued a response that created more confusion than clarity over its criteria for "direct family members."
Recognizing an opportunity to take advantage of some Air Canada PR grief, WestJet jumped in.
Despite the Twitter tirade, Turner says he'll be able to redeem his voucher but only after jumping through a few hoops first.
But to Air Canada's credit, at least the service reps were understanding.
UPDATE: In an email to the Huffington Post Canada Travel, Air Canada maintains their travel vouchers are fully transferable and applicable to anyone's flights. Where things get complicated is if the person doesn't share the same name with the original holder, passengers have to then apply for a refund post flight -- much like what Turner had to go through. The airlines says past cases of fraud are the reason for this but adds it's scrapping the voucher system and moving towards a system of crediting passengers with transferable gift cards.
Until then, have you ever run into any issues with redeeming airline vouchers? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @HPCaTravel.
With files from Brian Vinh Tien Trinh
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