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BREAKING Celine Dion stages comeback with performance at Paris Olympics opening ceremony
Celine Dion staged the comeback of her career during the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Air Canada has temporarily walked back its decision to charge a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares.
Under the old policy, customers with fares that didn't offer free seat selection prior to check-in would be randomly assigned a seat at the time of check-in, with the option to change that seat to another available seat for free.
However, some Air Canada customers received notices earlier this month stating the airline would soon charge passengers with standard or basic fares to change their automatically assigned seats during check-in.
A Facebook account belonging to Ontario-based travel agent Kerry Berlinquette shared an image of a notice she received on April 18.
"We're introducing a new seating assignment process for Standard or Basic Fares," the notice reads.
"When customers enter the check-in flow, our system will automatically assign a seat free of charge for those who have not purchased a seat in advance … If they wish to change their automatically assigned seat, they can easily do so for a fee."
The notice, which stated the change would take effect April 24, triggered a wave of complaints by angry consumers on Facebook, X and Reddit.
"That stinks. It was bad enough you had to fight for a seat 24 hours before flight. Just another money grabber," one Facebook user wrote in a comment on Berlinquette's post.
"It's frustrating when traditional airlines behave like budget airlines," a Reddit user wrote on April 24. "They have eliminated free checked baggage and now they have also removed the option of selecting seats for free during check-in. What will be next?"
Following some of the backlash, Air Canada issued a statement to airline industry news website Pax News clarifying the policy change.
"What has changed, and is consistent with our branded fares, is that after seats are assigned at check-in for no fee, customers who now wish to change to a different seat from the one we assigned them will have to pay the same fee they would have paid prior to check-in," the airline wrote to Pax News, which reported the airline would continue to assign seats to ensure families on the same booking are seated together for no fee, as per Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations.
"This is the practice at other airlines, including some in Canada."
However, by April 26, Air Canada had paused the new fee. The flag carrier would not confirm whether consumer backlash had influenced the decision and declined to answer questions by CTVNews.ca about why it had introduced the fee and how long the pause would last.
"We paused the implementation for operational reasons to ensure a smooth rollout for our customers and employees," a spokesperson, who did not provide a name, wrote in an email to CTVNews.ca on Monday.
"We will communicate next steps at the appropriate time."
Air Canada would not be the first Canadian carrier to charge a fee for seat selection after check-in. However, the airlines that charge a seat selection fee, such as Flair and Porter, tend to be low-cost carriers that offer more affordable base fares than Canada's flag carrier.
One exception is WestJet, Canada's second largest carrier after Air Canada, which also charges a fee for seat selection.
Celine Dion staged the comeback of her career during the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Celebrating its reputation as a cradle of revolution, Paris kicked off its first Summer Olympics in a century on Friday with a rain-soaked, rule-breaking opening ceremony studded with stars and fantasy along the Seine River.
Premier Danielle Smith said Friday afternoon in Hinton while weather conditions are cooler, the Jasper fire is still considered out of control and that Jasper residents can expect to be away from their homes "for several weeks."
Health Canada is warning some take-home naloxone kits come with bad instructions that should be ignored in favour of the correct guidance.
Police in Mississauga are conducting a full-scale search of the city’s biggest park for a non-verbal toddler who went missing Thursday evening. Sgt. Jennifer Trimble told reporters Friday morning that there has been no trace of three-year-old Zaid Abdullah since 6:20 p.m., when he was last seen with his parents in Erindale Park, near Dundas Street West and Mississauga Road.
Orillia OPP arrested and charged a driver with impaired driving after flashing their high beams.
An Irish museum will withdraw a waxwork of singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor just one day after installing it, following a backlash from her family and the public, it told CNN in a statement on Friday.
A Winnipeg senior is getting soaked with a six figure water bill.
Canada soccer great Christine Sinclair said on Friday national team players were never shown drone footage during the more than two decades she was on the team, following a spying scandal that cast a shadow over the Canadians at the Paris Games.
As fire threatened people in Jasper National Park, Colleen Knull sprung into action.
Video posted to social media on Thursday morning appears to show the charred remains of a Jasper, Alta., neighbourhood.
A Saskatchewan-born veteran of the Second World War was recently presented with France's highest national order.
A local First Nations elder and veteran is helping to bring the Ojibwe language to a well-known film for the first time.
A cat who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago has been reunited with her family after being found in Ottawa.
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.