A Montreal-area couple and their friend are calling out Porter Airlines for what they said was a “total nightmare” travel experience that left them with over a thousand dollars of incurred costs.
Alessio Recine, his wife Azzurra Billig, and their friend Marie Lessard and her partner were travelling home to Montreal Trudeau Airport from Fort Lauderdale, FL., in what was supposed to be a short three-hour flight that turned into a nearly seven hour ordeal — stuck on the plane.
The Porter Flight PD572 boarded at 4:30 p.m. on March 30. “The doors close. We think we’re leaving, but instead we stayed on that airplane for more than six hours without leaving the tarmac,” Recine told Global News on Friday.
He reached out to Global weeks after the incident, after waiting for the airline to compensate him and his wife for the ordeal.
“It turned into an over 12-hour ordeal that included: almost no provisions or support provided onboard, no accommodations for the night, no food vouchers, and no guidance beyond ‘call customer service’ — which had a 90+ minute wait time,” Recine wrote in an email to Porter.
He continued, “A sudden cancellation announced over the intercom after hours of vague updates, no staff present at the gate afterward, and no assistance offered to stranded passengers. We were left with no choice but to book a new flight and hotel ourselves, paying out of pocket and facing significant stress and disruption as a result.”
He says he submitted a full compensation claim with receipts totaling nearly $1,700 on April 2 and received no meaningful response. He says when he called to follow up, he was told claims were still being processed from mid-February.
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“They had nothing helpful to tell us when we go off the plane at 11:30 p.m.,” said the couple’s friend and fellow passenger Marie Lessard. “Seven hours stuck on a plane without food. There were parents on the flight with children. It took an upset mother demanding water for the flight staff to finally distribute water to passengers.”
The three passengers say they found out later, via the app, that the flight had been rescheduled for two days later, without any direct communication from the airline.
“What’s not normal is dumping people in an airport in the middle of the night and not telling them what to do. We’re in your care. You know, at least tell us where to go,” Recine said.
“It wasn’t just a delay. It was complete abandonment.”
The couple says they were compensated for the cancelled flight, but they still had to book a new flight on another airline the following day because they couldn’t extend their stay in Florida by two extra days.
They say the added expenses left them paying $1,200 out of pocket that they want to be reimbursed for.
In a response, Porter airlines wrote to Recine that the flight was cancelled due to restrictions regarding air traffic control. For that reason, passengers are not entitled to compensation or expense reimbursement. Instead, Recine is being directed to contact his travel insurance or credit card provider.
In an email to Global News, Porter wrote that rolling thunderstorms, maintenance and other factors required them to cancel the flight.
“A number of compounding issues affected PD572, which is why different information was shared with passengers as the situation unfolded. Gate availability was limited due to congestion on the ground. Once the maintenance issue was resolved, the aircraft waited in queue with all other affected flights for clearance from air traffic control,” the statement reads.
“During this time, the crew’s maximum duty time was exceeded and they were no longer able to operate the flight, forcing the aircraft to return to the gate.”
Passengers were rebooked on the next available flight, which in some cases were two days later, due to full flights, the airline said. Porter says Recine received a response within 30 days, which is within the APPR-related guidelines.
The airline offered Recine a $150 voucher for future travel with the airline shortly after Global News reached out to the company for comment. But the couple says they have no plans to redeem it.
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