‘It’s heartbreaking’: Air Canada strike forces Ontario couple to cancel destination wedding

Juan and Becca Lopez were married in a small ceremony in Innisfil in June of this year. (Supplied)

A group of family and friends are currently in Cancun, Mexico, waiting to celebrate a wedding.

However, the bride and groom won’t be there after their flight was cancelled as a result of the Air Canada flight attendants strike.

Juan and Becca Lopez, from Barrie, Ont., were supposed to leave for Cancun at 6:15 a.m. on Monday, but were informed on Sunday afternoon that their flight being operated by Air Canada Rouge was cancelled.

“It was less than 24 hours before our flight when we were notified,” Becca told CTV News Toronto in an interview. “Before any cancellation happened, they were offering us a $500 credit, which, at the time, I think everybody knew wasn’t going to get us anywhere.”

The Lopezes had 27 wedding guests flying to Cancun on the same flight with them. They had all been booked under their reservation as part of an Air Canada Vacations package.

“The flights were about $1,500 and we couldn’t ask our 27 guests to accept just a $500 credit,” Becca said.

• READ MORE: Can you get reimbursed for extra expenses due to the Air Canada strike? This expert answers your questions

The couple explained that they were told they couldn’t get a full refund until their flight was officially cancelled, which left them waiting in limbo and without any explanations for their guests-some of whom had flights booked on airlines other than Air Canada that had already taken off.

“We were thinking ‘if the strike is gonna happen, we’re looking for a refund,’” said Juan. “They (Air Canada) said, ‘you’re not entitled to a refund until the flight is actually cancelled.’ Once that actually happened, we were looking at rebooking options and what alternatives there were.”

“So, we were kind of hedging our bets a little bit, but we’re responsible for a lot of other guests as well. We have other family that aren’t in Canada that are flying over, that still had to go through with their trips because they didn’t book with Air Canada and refunding wasn’t an option for them at that point.”

Juan and Becca met in 2010 and were engaged in 2023.

They had a small, intimate ceremony with their immediate family and friends in June of this year in Innisfil, but decided to plan a destination wedding for a larger group after attending one themselves.

“We had close friends of ours who actually did a destination wedding, and it was our first time going through that experience,” said Juan. “We had such a great time that we really wanted to replicate that for us and our guests as well.”

The couple said they had sold off things like funds and stocks in order to pay for the trip and wedding, and were shocked how quickly things fell apart.

“We’ve spent months and years going through this process,” said Juan. “It’s not just a matter of putting it back in the box. There are some things that our family and friends have done to be there that you can’t really take back, and now, all of a sudden, it’s taken away from them through no fault of their own.”

Juan and Becca said upon hearing of their flight cancellation Sunday afternoon, they were still hopeful they could get on a flight sometime this week, as they were told by both their travel agent and Air Canada Vacations’ website that rebooking was an option.

However, an email sent to them just one hour after the initial notice that their flight had been officially cancelled said otherwise.

“Our system looks for flight options on more than 120 carriers, for up to three days after your cancelled flight. Unfortunately, we have not found any available options suitable for your itinerary,” read an email sent by Air Canada to Juan.

“It’s put on their site, very clearly, that they can book us on another airline, but they’re telling us that they can’t,” said Becca.

“Obviously they’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of people, and we understand that. But when we’re giving you options like, ‘hey, we’re willing to go on another airline, we’re willing to do this,’ and you’re not really giving us an answer at this point, we can’t make a decision on whether or not our wedding can go through and it’s heartbreaking,” she added through tears.

CTV News Toronto reached out to Air Canada about Juan and Becca’s situation but have not heard back.

“We are deeply apologetic to our customers and right now we’re focused on making it right and getting them on their way,” Air Canada executive vice-president and chief operations officer Mark Nasr told The Canadian Press in an interview Tuesday morning.

He added that 5,000 employees are working to help customers with cancelled flights navigate their options, which includes a full refund or credit for future travel. Air Canada said it will also offer to rebook customers on up to 120 airlines, including competitors, where possible.

Nasr also said more flexibility would be added to other customer policies including allowing passengers to rebook with other airlines through Air Canada’s website or mobile app for up to seven days, compared with its usual policy of three days.

“In terms of prioritization, I mean, everybody’s important. Everybody needs to get to where we promised we would take them,” he said.

Despite a tentative deal being reached nearly 24 hours after their flights to Cancun were cancelled, Juan and Becca told CTV News Toronto on Tuesday afternoon that a lack of answers from Air Canada and their travel agent left them with “no choice but to accept a full refund.”

“We spent most of the day yesterday just crying our eyes out with each other because we don’t know what else to do,” said Juan.

With files from The Canadian Press