WATCH: Woman speaks with Air Transat customer service after flight was cancelled

CP24's Beatrice Vaisman speaks to an Air Transat customer who is on the phone with the company's customer service line about her cancelled flight.

Gilda Aloia says Air Transat refunded her ticket, unprompted, after the airline cancelled her Tuesday night flight to Manchester due to a potential pilot strike

“They just automatically refunded me, and I said that wasn’t my request. They said, ‘No,’ it’s just the system or the way that it was handed to them, and basically, there was no information,” Aloia told CP24 at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Aloia’s flight was one of the dozen flights cancelled on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday morning’s strike deadline.

On Tuesday night, the airline announced that it had reached a tentative agreement with the union representing its pilots, averting a strike.

“We would have greatly preferred to avoid the threat of a strike, which forced us to modify our operations,” Annick Guérard, president and CEO of Transat, said in a statement.

“We are aware that this period has created significant uncertainty, and we extend our sincerest apologies to our customers whose flights were disrupted in recent days. Our priority now is to quickly restore our operations and deliver on our commitment to provide service that meets our standards.”

• READ MORE: Air Transat ramps up flight cancellations as strike deadline looms

When CP24 caught up with Aloia, she was in the middle of a call with an Air Transat customer representative. That’s when she learned she’d received a refund, despite not requesting one.

“I need to be in Manchester…I have a hotel paid for, which basically, that’s a loss if I wasn’t going. But I am going, and you must put me on a flight within nine hours,” a frustrated Aloia told the customer representative.

According to Air Passenger Rights founder Gabor Lukacs, if an airline cancels before a job action, it must rebook passengers, including on competitor airlines, among other things.

For flights that will be cancelled on or before Dec. 12, Air Transat said on its website that customers would be notified by email and refunded according to the payment method on file.

During her call with the customer representative, Aloia repeated her request to be put on another flight to Manchester. When she asked whether she would be compensated if she made the booking, the customer representative told Aloia she was not sure, as that would be dealt with by another department.

In the end, Aloia was unable to get answers from the customer representative, leaving her more frustrated.

In a subsequent interview with CP24, Aloia said she needed to be in Manchester for a special occasion and that the flight had been booked for months.

She noted that Air Transat staff at the airport were also not helpful.

“They did not know how to answer any of our questions,” Aloia said.

“Basically, they’ve abandoned their customers without fulfilling their part, which should be honoured,” she added. “It’s on them. It has nothing to do with us. We didn’t call to cancel. We didn’t want to go on another flight.”

‘A lot of wrong information being given’

Fred Dixon was supposed to fly to Lisbon, Portugal, but his flight was also cancelled by Air Transat. He said he is annoyed with how the airline has been handling the situation.

“I think there’s a lot of wrong information being given, because, as far as I’m aware, the strike hasn’t started yet. So, therefore, if Transat are cancelling flights, they’re doing it because they want to,” Dixon told CP24 on Tuesday afternoon.

He echoed Aloia, saying he is concerned about the lack of high-ranking Air Transat representatives at the airport who can provide customers with accurate information.

“And I really would like to see a consumer rights person here to help the people who it’s directly affecting,” Dixon said.

He shared that he was on the phone with customer relations for more than half an hour, but it ended without a resolution.

Dixon said he and his wife will try to look for another flight.

“The very annoying part is that they’re cancelling flights today. The strike doesn’t start until tomorrow. And if someone makes a wonderful agreement tonight, there won’t be a strike. So why cancel?”

With files from Beatrice Vaisman and The Canadian Press