We’re still fresh into a new year, which makes this an excellent time to join us here in the 21st century. Welcome to it, Air Canada!
In a speedy reversal after a very public episode of Twitter shaming, the airline hinted this week it would now amend its policy on allowing spouses to transfer travel vouchers to each other. Going forward, even married people who don’t share a last name might be able to get in on the voucher transfer. Even them. The enlightenment stems from what happened when Calgary author Chris Turner had a ticket voucher for a flight to New York that he wanted to give to his wife, photographer Ashley Bristowe. He politely tweeted, “Hey @AirCanada — your (very helpful) phone rep tells me I can’t transfer a voucher to my wife pre-flight BECAUSE SHE KEPT HER NAME. Really?” The airline responded, “Hi Chris, vouchers can only be transferred to another family member before travel if they have the same family name” and explained, “This is to prevent fraudulent activity while using vouchers.”
Wanting to prevent fraud is understandable, and Air Canada did note that “Our travel vouchers are transferable, but when cust. wishes to exchange with someone who has a different last name the request is handled post travel with our refund department due to past cases of fraud.” In other words, Turner could transfer his ticket; he’d just have to purchase a $400 ticket for his wife first, and then apply for a refund.
Having a selectively inconvenient system at the expense of one type of family isn’t the brightest institutional policy. It especially doesn’t even make sense for a Canadian business – as Twitter users pointed out, under Quebec law, both men and women keep their birth names after marriage, and they have since 1981. Further highlighting the absurdity of the policy, Turner’s wife observed that “Turner can transfer the voucher to our NEIGHBOUR Kelly who has the same last name, but not his WIFE. Gotcha.” Meanwhile, as other Twitter onlookers added, married same-sex couples who don’t share a same last name would also be excluded by the airline’s “anti fraud” measures.
Air Canada continue to upset passengers.