Air Canada been scolded by a court in Nova Scotia for not following its own rules about how it compensates the passengers it bumps from oversold flights.

The airline has been ordered to pay a passenger $1,050 in compensation. That includes the maximum $800 in compensation for getting bumped, as well as the maximum in $100 for general damages and $150 for court costs.

The case involved Halifax resident Dan Lachance, who flew from Halifax to Whitehorse in February. He had booked the flight several weeks in advance and been told by his travel agent that his flight was fully confirmed.

The trip involved flying from Halifax to Toronto, switching to a flight to Vancouver, and then transferring again from Vancouver to Whitehorse.

Lachance made it to Vancouver and boarded the last leg of his flight, but before the plane could take off, he was ordered to vacate his seat for another passenger with a boarding pass for the same seat.

Lachance was forced to take the next flight but his arrival in Whitehorse was delayed by more than eight hours as a result.

According to the airline's own rules, bumped passengers delayed more than six hours are entitled to compensation.

But Air Canada told Lachance he was not “denied boarding” onto the flight; he was simply “re-booked” in the ordinary course of its operations. When Air Canada refused to compensate him, Lachance took the airline to small claims court.

Air Canada argued that Lachance had taken the wrong flight from Toronto to Vancouver and in so doing, his flight to Whitehorse was no longer “confirmed,” which allowed them to sell his seat on the Vancouver-Whitehorse leg to another passenger. Lachance insisted he was on the correct flight.

In its ruling, the court rebuked Air Canada for “adding insult to injury” by insisting Lachance was "mistaken” about which flight he was on.

It also said while Air Canada has the right to overbook flights “in order to operate at full capacity,” it also has an obligation to follow its own rules about compensating bumped passengers.

“That quid pro quo strikes me as only fair and reasonable. A passenger’s time has value,” the adjudicator wrote.

“He or she has organized that time around the previous commitment made by Air Canada with respect to departure times. If Air Canada decides to change that commitment solely for reasons of maximizing its own profits, why should it not compensate the passenger for the impact of that decision on the passenger’s time?”

Gabor Lukacs, a Halifax air passenger rights advocate who represented Lachance in court, was pleased with the ruling.

"It is a shame that Air Canada would not comply with its own rules without a court order," he said in a statement.